Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A REFERENCE BOOK ON ARCHITECTURE OF TERRA COTTA TEMPLES

 'Late Medieval Temples of Bengal'  BY David McCutchion



Asiatic Society, Calcutta has opened a Sales Counter in its premises @ Park street. Air-conditioned and equipped with 2 tables /4 chairs for serious buyers to sit down and glance through their publications. Very helpful and courteous sales persons add to the comfort of the buyers.
Yesterday(7/9/11) , I spent  some quality time in this room. I picked up a few books - the most interesting among the lot for members of this Group is a reprint of a book by David McCutchion. Its title is 'Late Medieval Temples of Bengal' ( pl view a photo of the cover below).  Written 1972, 2nd reprint in 2004.
My friends (like Rangan Datta) ,who read and collect books on the technical aspects of temple architecture, will find this book a 'must' for their collection.It has an 'Introduction' by late Amiya Banerji. Asiatic Society deserves 'thanks' from us - would have appreciated better quality of production.



I could find a book on my interest area - Iconology of Vishnu by Dr Pratapaditya Pal.Published in 1970 and reprinted in 1985! Very impressive at 1st glance.Excellent writing !

Both the books have identical problems because of their period of publication. Poor photographs, clubbed at the tail-end of the books. Lost the initial appeal during reprints. Cannot be compared with a newer publication like George Mitchell's 'Hindu Art & Architecture', which is so much easy to read and comprehend the writer's point-of-view as digital editing helps to place text and photos side-by-side.