15 January,2015 08:21 AM IST | | The Guide Team
Explore how medieval Ethiopian art and architecture might have influenced the life and culture of South India in a special one-day lecture on January 16
Ethiopian art
The Indian Ocean trade route played a very important role in the economy and court culture of medieval Deccan. While cultural exchanges between Arabia or the Persian Gulf in the West, and the archipelagos of Indonesia in the East have been widely written about, there's little information on its relations with Africa.
A new lecture, titled Deccani Art Across the Ocean: Hoysalas, Kadambas and Medieval Ethiopia, will explore the connections between art from South India with the eastern coast of Africa. The workshop looks at how medieval Ethiopian art and architecture preserves significant traces of contacts between 12th century Ethiopia and South India, including examples of Hoysala and Kadamba art that no longer survive in India.
Some of the relevant artifacts may be remnants from the world of circulation around the Indian Ocean as captured in the Indian letters of Jewish merchants, thus opening a window into histories of people and things in motion that continue to resonate even in our era of globalisation.
The workshop will be conducted by William R Kenan Jr, professor of Humanities at the Institute of Fine Arts and Department of Art History, New York University.
On: January 16, 6.30 pm onwards
At: Jnanapravaha, Queens Mansion, third floor, G Talwatkar Marg, Fort.
Call: 22072974/22072975
Email: info@jp-india.org
