Description

India and Southeast Asia: Cultural Discourses, Anna L. Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese (Eds.). Mumbai: The K R Cama Oriental Institute, 2017 In January 2015 a seminar entitled ‘Cultural Dialogues between India and Southeast Asia from the 7th to the 16th Centuries’ was held at the K R Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai. The volume entitled India and Southeast Asia: Cultural Discourses is the outcome of that stimulating seminar in which many eminent scholars on Southeast Asia participated. The volume, consisting of twenty-four papers, includes not only the fifteen papers presented at this seminar but also nine others especially commissioned. Their topics focus on various countries of South and South East Asia as well as on a wide range of themes. For the sake of convenience the essays have been arranged into six broad groups: General Themes; Syncretic Traditions and Cross-Cultural Influences; Architecture and Archaeology; Sculpture and Iconography; Non-Indic Literature, Performing Arts and Lifestyle; and Journeys through Cotton and Silk. However, these groupings are not strictly defined and there is much overlap between them. This volume, which contains papers covering a variety of topics relating to a number of countries of this region, is a valuable addition to the corpus of works on South and Southeast Asia. It includes papers by very senior and eminent scholars of Southeast Asian studies as well as by younger researchers. Bringing together as it does a variety of themes highlighting the interface between South and Southeast Asia, this volume would be of much interest both to scholars as well as students of history, art and aesthetics of the region. Contributors of Thematic Essays • General Themes: Pierre-Yves Manguin, Robert L. Brown, John K. Whitmore • Syncretic Traditions and Cross-Cultural Influences: Ang Choulean, Siyonn Sophearith, Hiram Woodward, Ashley Thompson, Philip Friedrich • Architecture and Archaeology: Im Sokrithy, Swapna A. Kothari, Swati Chemburkar, Olivier Cunin • Sculpture and Iconography: Vasudha Narayanan, Nicolas Revire, R. Mahalakshmi, Natasha Reichle, Suchandra Ghosh • Non-Indic Literature, Performing Arts and Lifestyle: Kenneth R. Hall, Jaclyn Wappel, Ilicia J. Sprey, Helen Ibbitson Jessup, Susmita Basu Majumdar • Journeys through Cotton and Silk: Alexandra Green, Radhika Seshan