Agnieszka Staszczyk

Abundance and Fertility (eBook, ePUB)

Representations Associated with Child Protection in the Visual Culture of Ancient India

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

This work is a fascinating attempt to probe deep into the socio-cultural ramifications of the visual artefacts of ancient India, which has a rich heritage of iconographic treasures of varying sizes and styles. The art objects selected for analysis are mainly from the Mathura region of the Kushan era and belong to a period between 50-60 and 300 of the Common Era. This period is perceived as that of 'multicultural environment' enriched with different streams of tradition. According to the author they are directly related to the themes of abundance and fertility, its perceived cause. The author demonstrates how these distant fragments of visual imagery can yield rich insights of the world view of the communities which produced them. The work critically analyses the representation of 'spiritual deities' consisting of Ekanamsha, Hariti, Matrikas, Naigamesha, Shashthi, and Skanda who were associated with the function of child protection. Understandably, they were the products of a belief in supernatural powers which could offer psychological protection to women cutting across different socio-economic classes at the times of great psychological stress like pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium. The artefacts are carved in stone. Sometimes they are projected as isolated individuals and at other times as belonging to multi-character panels. Depending on their size, they had different functions: bigger objects could be fixed at some places and smaller ones carried from place to place.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Jagiellonian University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. Juli 2024
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9788323374480
• Artikelnr.: 69461833

Autorenporträt

Dr. Agnieszka Sylwia Staszczyk is a graduate of Indian Philology and Art History at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her doctoral studies were completed at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. Currently, she works in a research and teaching position at the Jagiellonian University and mostly teaches language classes, or subjects related to cultural phenomena of the Indian subcontinent, primarily in the field of visual culture. The author is also a psychologist and a trainer of cross-cultural competences and conducts workshops preparing for work in multicultural environment. Her research interests include socio-cultural and religious aspects of artistic patronage, resulting in founding sanctuaries or images of deities, as well as in forming beliefs and stories related to supernatural beings. Dr. Staszczyk ran projects in this area and published numerous articles and books presenting their results along with participating in field trips, scholarships, international conferences and workshops. As a member of several organisations associating researchers of Asian art, e.g. European Association for South Asian Archeology and Art, she contributes to the global research on the visual culture of North India.