Across the South of Asia

All too often, modern scholarship limits its scope according to the boundaries of contemporary nations and current geopolitical borders. Academic expertise frequently ties itself artificially to these pre-defined spaces and in so doing often does a disservice to the past. It is no great revelation to point out that people of the past defined the limits of their political and cultural reach in ways that were very different from those found on modern maps. Ancient rulers, merchants, and priests understood the reach of their influence and defined foreignness in ways that would be deeply unfamiliar to those only knowledgeable of the modern world. Yet, despite the well-recognized truth in these observations, it is still relatively rare for scholars to research in ways that transcend modern boundaries. This collection of essays invites readers to take a broad view of South Asian art and culture by providing a wide geographic and chronological scope.

Author Biography

Robert DeCaroli is Professor of South Asian Art History at George Mason University. He is the author of two books: Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism (2004) and Image Problems: The Origin and Development of the Buddha’s Image in Early South Asia (2015). He is also the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and catalog essays. Paul A. Lavy is Associate Professor of South/Southeast Asian Art History at the University of Hawai‘i at MÀnoa. His research and publications are focused on the history and development of the circa fifth–eighth-century Hindu–Buddhist artistic traditions of pre-Angkorian Khmer civilization, Thailand, and the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, as well as their relationships with the art of South Asia.