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The Description for this book, Brick Temples of Bengal: From the Archives of David McCutchion, will be forthcoming.
Historical study, with reference to architectural style.
The Book “CULTURE AND TRADITION OF WEST BENGAL” by Sahanawaz Hussain highlights the different culture of west Bengal. The state west Bengal has a diverse culture. Author Sahanawaz Hussain highlights all the culture of different district of west Bengal starting from North Bengal to South Bengal. West Bengal boasts a rich literary and cultural heritage with evidenced by authors like Rabindranath Tagore,folk music like baul,Gambhira as well as Najrul Geeti,Rabindra Sangeet. West Bengal is the home of a thriving cinema industry dubbed “Tollywood”.throughout the year many festivals are celebrated in bengal.
The Indian state of West Bengal is bestowed with a rich cultural heritage and great diversity of art forms. Arguably the most remarkable and unique of these art forms is housed on the surface of the so-called terracotta temples constructed mostly during 16th to 19th century CE. Intricate terracotta panels on the walls of these temples weave sacred tales from mythology, folklore as well as profane narratives of everyday life of both affluent and humble people. Probably nowhere in the world has this art form been more artistically displayed. But unfortunately, this magnificent art form of Bengal has been eclipsed by other contemporary mediaeval monuments better placed in the limelight of history and probably of destiny too. Considering the quality of terracotta treasure of West Bengal, one can affirm without any fear of contradiction that only in a few places in India, art lovers would find their souls better rewarded. In the beginning, the book contains brief discussion on the earliest Hindu goddesses, origin of figurative icons of goddesses, art of terracotta, theory of rasa, history of adornment of temple exterior using terracotta artwork in West Bengal, unique external forms of terracotta temples, and diversity of themes in terracotta depictions. Then the origin and course of history of around forty goddesses, depicted on terracotta temples, have been presented along with literary and archaeological evidence. It is undeniable that such a strong presence of the feminine voice as we find in Hindu tradition is wanting in the entire panorama of world religion, from ancient to modern times. But the real highlight of this book is the photographs of pertinent terracotta panels clicked by the author from a plethora of temples in different districts of West Bengal. Moreover, these photographs are supplemented with relevant specimens in medium other than terracotta. It includes stone, metal, wood, painting (both mural and miniature) etc. Overall, this book is embellished with around 260 illustrations many of which are being published for the first time.
Annually during the months of autumn, Bengal hosts three interlinked festivals to honor its most important goddesses: Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri. While each of these deities possesses a distinct iconography, myth, and character, they are all martial. Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri often demand blood sacrifice as part of their worship and offer material and spiritual benefits to their votaries. Richly represented in straw, clay, paint, and decoration, they are similarly displayed in elaborately festooned temples, thronged by thousands of admirers. The first book to recount the history of these festivals and their revelry, rivalry, and nostalgic power, this volume marks an unprecedented achievement in the mapping of a major public event. Rachel Fell McDermott describes the festivals' origins and growth under British rule. She identifies their iconographic conventions and carnivalesque qualities and their relationship to the fierce, Tantric sides of ritual practice. McDermott confronts controversies over the tradition of blood sacrifice and the status-seekers who compete for symbolic capital. Expanding her narrative, she takes readers beyond Bengal's borders to trace the transformation of the goddesses and their festivals across the world. McDermott's work underscores the role of holidays in cultural memory, specifically the Bengali evocation of an ideal, culturally rich past. Under the thrall of the goddess, the social, political, economic, and religious identity of Bengalis takes shape.
This book reopens the debate on colonial nationalisms, going beyond ‘derivative’, ‘borrowed’, political and modernist paradigms. It introduces the conceptual category of samaj to demonstrate how indigenous socio-cultural origins in Bengal interacted with late-colonial discourses to produce the notion of a nation. Samaj (a historical society and an idea-in-practice) was a site for reconfiguring antecedents and negotiating fragmentation. Drawing on indigenous sources, this study shows how caste, class, ethnicity, region and community were refracted to conceptualise wider unities. The mapping of cultural continuities through change facilitates a more nuanced investigation of the ontology of nationhood, seeing it as related to, but more than political nationalism. It outlines a fresh paradigm for recalibrating postcolonial identities, offering interpretive strategies to mediate fragmentation.