This volume is a tribute to Professor Doris Meth Srinivasan's profound scholarship and seminal writings, to which colleagues from various countries have contributed. Their topics, often referencingProf. Srinivasan's works, are presented from different angles of academic perspective and specialisation, namely, South Asian Art History, South Asian Architecture, Classical Indology (or Ancient Indian Philology), Archaeology, Numismatics, Cultural History, etc.
The book is prefaced with two in-depth forewords, by Professors Lokesh Chandra and Gérard Fussman. The former includes a discussion of the contents, while the latter details appreciation of Prof. Srinivasan's work and explores her subject matter and academic achievements. The honorand's complete bibliography is also provided. The chapters set out with studies of early historical periods (including pre- and protohistory). The largest section, “Investigating All Things Kushan”, coincides with Prof. Srinivasan's major field of specialisation, namely, Mathuran and Gandharan art. This rich terrain of cultural history and its vestiges will probably never cease to provide specialists with intriguing questions to be tackled and fresh insights to be distilled from the overall corpus of data that has come upon us. Following are the sections on Gupta-period and Medieval topics, specifically including Numismatics and Architecture. The thematic sections on female protagonists including goddesses, and “Telling Images”, involving particularly painstaking case studies, conclude the volume. In terms of geography, the topics range from the Indo-Iranian region in the west to peninsular Southeast Asia in the east, with India forming the hub.
