Read Of The Week (July 30 to Aug 5)

Published in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India by John Guy is a pioneering study of the emergence of Buddhist art in southern India, featuring vibrant photography of rare works, many published here for the first time.

Named for two primary motifs in Buddhist art, the sacred bodhi tree and the protective snake, this is the first publication to foreground devotional works produced in the Deccan from 200 BCE to 400 CE. Unlike traditional narratives, which focus on northern India (where the Buddha was born, taught, and died), this groundbreaking book presents Buddhist art from monastic sites in the south. Long neglected, this is among the earliest surviving bodies of Buddhist art, and among the most sublimely beautiful. An international team of researchers contributes new scholarship on the sculptural and devotional art associated with Buddhism, and masterpieces from recently excavated Buddhist sites are published here for the first time — including Kanaganahalli and Phanigiri, the most important new discoveries in a generation.