This volume results from a conference patronized by the Indian and U.S. governments and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. As a part of the 1985 "Festival of India in America," nineteen scholars and patrons of art presented papers subsequently published in this volume discussing the earlier power-broker patrons of the arts of music, poetry, painting, and architecture. Senior scholars gathered to present studies and new perceptions on the topic of patronage, but the work presented was for the most part a recap of work published elsewhere previously.(1)
The first of the four sections is titled "Collective and Personal Patronage in Ancient India." Historian Romila Thapar begins the volume with an overview of patronage, "Patronage and Community." Dana, gift-giving, is a meritorious act. Patronage by the diverse populace (community) is especially an aspect of the early Buddhist period, distinct from the monopoly of later Hindu kings patronizing temples. Ideas in this essay are elaborated by Vidya Dehejia, "Collective and Popular Buddhist Patronage," and Janice Willis, "Female Patronage in Indian Buddhism."
In her essay, ". . . Representations of Gupta Royalty in Coins and Literature," Barbara Stoler Miller compares representations of kings and deities on imperial coins of the Gupta dynasty and their inscriptions to values expressed in poems and dramas of the great Gupta-period poet Kalidasa. This may well figure as Barbara Miller's last published work.
Walter Spink's essay on patronage at Ajanta is an intimate vision of the patronage history of that Buddhist site.
In one of the few illustrated essays, Devangana Desai clearly focuses on the Laksmana temple at Khajuraho and many nuances of artistic expression of the temple.
Neither the introductory overview of the essays by Barbara Miller nor the essays themselves in section two, "Domains of Gods and Kings in the Art of South India," explain why the issues considered here differ from and should be segregated from the same types of issues in the north. The question would be of interest. Given that traditions differ, is the difference in evidence of patronage itself a matter of the better preservation of records in the south and their loss in the north or a true distinction?
David Shulman surveys poets and patrons in Tamil literature from the tenth to the eighteenth century, citing examples of a complex relationship and noting the change in meaning of patronage of brahmins, temples, and poets as a means to assert authority and legitimacy of rule.
Indira Peterson explains how the bhakti tradition changed the traditional roles of king and poet in Tamil Nadu. The saint poets considered themselves "slaves of the lord" in a direct relationship to god that circumvents relation to the king. Cases in point are the saint Cuntaramurtti and composer Tyagaraja.
V. Narayana Rao presents an overview of forms of relationship between poets and patrons in medieval Andhra: poets 'serving kings, bent on self-promotion along with promotion of the king, and temple poets who were securely supported by the temple endowment and considered their fortune the grace of the temple deity.
The late Burton Stein considers the difference between payment for services and gifts of favor that are inherent in binding patronage relationships, the personal element, and the social context in which a work of art, here specifically Vijayanagar temples, existed.
George Michell's essay contrasts Stein's approach by an analysis of how the forms of the royal monuments of Vijayanagar were consciously devised to unify politically the realm through a cosmopolitan style that mixed Islamic elements into the architecture of a Hindu capital. Both are talking about politics.
In section three, "Competing Ideals in Mughal and Hindu Courts," Catherine Asher's well-documented and footnoted essay on Mughal subimperial patronage of Raja Man S
