Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India.

E. B. Havell (Ernest Binfield) was Principal of the Madras School of Industrial Arts from 1884 to 1892 and Principal of the Calcutta School of Art and Keeper of the Government Art Gallery from 1896 until 1906. In Calcutta, Havell worked with Abanindranath Tagore, nephew of Rabindranath Tagore, in developing a Bengal School of Art by reforming the art education at the Calcutta School of Art to gain inspiration from Mughal art rather than western methods. In February 1910, Havell gave a lecture in London to the Royal Society of Arts on Indian Art, to which the Chair, George Birdwood, responded that India had no fine art tradition. Partly as a response to this and partly for his deep admiration for the Indian art forms, Havell founded the India Society — he convened a meeting at his house in March 1910 where the idea of the Society was concretized. The India Society was formed to bring attention to Indian Art in Britain and the West. The Society organized lectures, exhibitions and produced several publications on Indian Art, including Havell’s 1920 publication of a Handbook of Indian Art.
The present volume is supplementary to his Indian Architecture: its Psychology, Structure, and History, which dealt with the Muhammadan and British periods, but it has a wider scope as a study of the political, social, religious, and artistic aspects of Indo-Aryan civilisation, as revealed in the ancient and medieval monuments of India. For the chronological and statistical framework of it the author has mostly used the data furnished by such well-known authorities as Professor T. W. Rhys Davids’ Buddhist India, Mr. Vincent Smith’s Early History of India, and Dr. Barnett’s Antiquities of India.
Note to the Readers: Cosmo shall soon be releasing Mr. Havell’s other masterpiece mentioned in the flap – Indian Architecture: its Psychology, Structure, and History.