Arts of India

This course is designed as an introduction to ways of seeing, understanding, and questioning thevisual arts in India. You will learn how the visual arts (cities,architecture, monuments, statues and painting) have informed usabout the history, culture, and religion of India from the rise ofcivilization to the colonial period. It is important to approach theworks we will study not simply as objects of aesthetic taste, but asmeaningful and functional to those who commissioned, used,created, and experienced them. In addition to studying the socialand political nature of the arts, a large portion of this course looks atworks that served to activate the sacred within and across several religious belief systems, includingBuddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.