This talk by Emeritus Professor Frederick Asher explores art that functions as a visual document, different from – but as important as – the verbal documents preserved in archives. Using examples from India, a Mughal painting, and works exchanged in the course of Indian Ocean trade, the thesis proffered is that works of art, which invariably represent more than straightforward illustration, can provide historical insight if they are properly probed. Why, for example, did the patron and his advisers select the subject of the Great Descent for the relief at Mamallapuram? Or why, amidst other deities and subject matters, was the image of Varaha chosen for the relief at Udayagiri? The notion of absence will also be explored through comparative analyses of other empires: for instance, why is there an abundance of Tang dynasty ceramics as close to India as Sri Lanka but none at all in India? And why are stone-carved inscriptions across Southeast Asia, even those written in Tamil, invariably dated using the Śaka era calendar system, when inscriptions in Tamil Nadu themselves are not dated similarly?
About the Speaker
Emeritus Professor Frederick Asher is a specialist in South Asian art with interests in India’s visual culture in the context of the Indian Ocean. Asher has completed a term as South Asia editor for Archives of Asian Art and member of the editorial board of South Asian Studies. He held offices in the American Institute of Indian Studies, including Treasurer, President and Board Chair. He received the Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Minnesota and in 2015, was granted the Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies Award from the Association for Asian Studies. His current research examines the visual culture of Indian Ocean trade, extending from the South China Sea to East Africa, and his most recent book, on Sarnath, where Buddhism began, came out recently in January this year.