About Book
The Painter in Ancient India, Cmaraswamy Memorial Lectures, delivered by C. Sivaramamurti in the Lalit Kala Akademi, is a study of the personality, life, ideals, characteristics, professional equipment, aesthetic outlook and other important factors that characterize and single out the painter as a noble theme of study. The book with its rich documentation and liberal illustrations elucidates in an impressive manner the importance of painting, its antiquity, its techniques, its suggestive power, how it was fostered by the painter, his place in society, his excellence in workmanship, his judgement of the aesthetic of art, and other factors that reveal him as a master in his own field where, like a poet, as described by Anandavardhana, he was also “a unique creator in his own right in the vast ocean of art, the universe transforming itself into whatever form he chose to portray it in.
About Author
After a brilliant academic career C. Sivaramamurti entered the Museum profession as Curator for Archaeology in the Madras Museum. He then joined the Archaeological Survey of India as Superintendent, Archaeological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta, whence he came over to the National Museum as Keeper and rose as Assistant Director and finally became the Director. Closely associated with the International Council of Museums he was in its executive committee and was Chairman of the Indian National Committee of ICOM.
One of the earliest recipients of the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, he worked on the theme ‘Nataraja in Art, Thought and Literature’, now published and acclaimed as a major achievement. His monumental work in French, L’Art en Inde, is available now in German, English and Spanish editions; the Italian edition is expected shortly. Among his other important publications are Amaravati Sculptures in the Madras Museum, Indian Epigraphy and South Indian Scripts, Early Eastern Chalukya Sculpture, Kalugumalai and Early Pandyan Rock-cut Shrines, Sanskrit Literature and Art: Mirrors of Indian Culture, La stupa du Barabudur (in French), South Indian Bronzes, South Indian Paintings, Bhagavatpada Sri Sankaracharya, Some Aspects of Indian Culture, An Album of Indian Sculpture, Birds and Animals in Indian Sculpture, Ganga, Satarudriya: Vibhuti of Siva’s Iconography, Chitrasutra of the Vishnu-Dharmottara. A sculptor and an artist in his own right, he has often illustrated his books with his own sketches.
He has been responsible for popularising epigraphy and numismatics, sculpture and paintings from an approach through literature giving literary parallels. His love for Sanskrit and art, his aesthetic taste and capacity to draw, paint and sculpt helped him to achieve his purpose of such a study of art and literature.
C. Sivaramamurti is the only other living Indian who is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He has traveled widely all over the world and participated in seminars in USA and Europe. He has delivered important endowment lectures at many universities in India. Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchi conferred on him the title of Vichitrachitta. He was awarded the Padma Sri in 1968 and the Padma Bhushan in 1976.