In 2007, a series of socio-political events took place following the exhibition by the graduating batch of the Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA), Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara. The events were a result of sectarian and ideological incursions into artistic expression.
The exhibition is an annual end-of-year show that also doubles as a component of the practical examinations for the graduating students. The 2007 show opened to the public on 9 May, and included works by Srilamanthula Chandramohan, who was enrolled in the master’s programme in the Graphic Arts department at the institution. These works caused an uproar among Christian and Hindu factions, who deemed them to be offensive. The ensuing confrontations between members of these groups, students, staff and the police, and the contentions that arose thereafter had far-reaching implications on the art community.
The first objection to Chandramohan’s work was raised by the district superintendent of a Methodist church in Vadodara, Reverend Emmanuel Kant. The work in question was an installation of a wooden Latin cross painted with an image of Jesus Christ, below which was placed a real toilet bowl made to appear brimming with fish. Through this work, the artist sought to conflate the Christian concepts of sacrifice and resurrection with Hindu notions of rebirth. However, the work was viewed as sacrilegious and misrepresentative by the Church.
Protests from the Hindu quarter came in response to a large flex-print of goddess Durga, which showed her giving birth to a demonic man while also impaling him. The agitating group was led by advocate Niraj Jain — then a member of the right-wing organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad and later of the activist group Hindu Jagran Manch — who viewed the image as profane and a slur against the Hindu faith. According to Chandramohan, the work was meant to convey his awe and fear of a powerful deity who is considered by devotees to be both vengeful and merciful. Eyewitness reports and video evidence show Niraj Jain and his supporters, along with police personnel, entering the campus and clashing with students and faculty, demanding removal of the offending works. The then-Acting Dean, Shivaji Panikkar, refused to concede to the demands, allowing the works to continue being displayed and the exhibition to remain open. On 12 May, Panikkar was suspended by the University, which led to students and staff of the FFA going on strike to protest the dismissal. Over the following two weeks, many of them, including Chandramohan, were arrested and later released.
A criminal case was filed against Chandramohan for his participation in the events that followed the exhibition, but no charge has been brought against him and he has not yet been summoned for a court hearing. As a consequence, his degree was held in abeyance, and he was denied his graduation certificate. The FFA also suffered a major setback, as several grants and projects that were in the process of being finalised at the time of the controversy were frozen, and a more rigid system of administration and staff appointment was put into place, making it difficult for professors to gain advancements.
Chandramohan and Panikkar have maintained that the artworks merit a more complex and layered reading than the interpretations made by the religious groups and the university administration. Chandramohan has further stated that he had no intention of causing offence to any religious communities and sought only to illustrate the ways in which the depicted deities had been relevant to his own life as a man and as an artist. Although the artist continues to produce work, his connection to the controversy makes it difficult for him to find willing exhibition venues.
An artist who works primarily in painting, Anandajit Ray experiments across materials, techniques and traditions through his work.
Ray was born in Kolkata, West Bengal, and obtained a BFA and MFA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda (now Vadodara) in 1989 and 1991 respectively. His visual repertoire consists of the fantastical and grotesque, transforming everyday objects into surreal images. Ray works mainly in watercolour and gouache, drawing from miniature painting traditions, with imagery derived from Surrealism and Dadaism, pop culture, science fiction and comic books. He draws inspiration from a wide range of artists, including the 15th century Netherlandish surrealist painter Hieronymous Bosch, as well as the naturalist style of artists such as the Mughal master Mansur, and George Stubbs.
Through an amalgamation of materials and techniques, Ray work is a reflection on the whimsy of contemporary life and experience. Floating limbs and bodies, as well as ordinary objects like shoes recur throughout his works, as in Mending Spills (2005), Light Step (2011) and U.T. (2011). Animals — transformed into surreal beasts and winged creatures — are presented in dark hues seen in works such as Basically Untitled/Keeping Mumm (2005), A Feeble Attempt to Try And Emulate A Moment Of Designer Happiness: Infatuation (2013), Residual Levity (2021) and Simulated Decoding: Trojan Horse (2021). The artist also incorporates the techniques of photo-collages and book art, seen in works like Use(r)less Manual (2019–20), which presents a multi-page false manual with a fantastical machine, and Kolkatar Kissu Hobe Na (Kolkata Is Doomed) (2018), a handmade book made of board and handmade paper, with illustrations rendered in ink, watercolour and paper collage.
In 1998, Ray illustrated a book of short stories in Bengali, titled Wildfire and Other Stories by the author Banaphool (Balaichand Mukhopadhyay). Ray received the Elizabeth Greenshields Study Grant in 1991 and the Sanskriti Award in 1999. His works have been exhibited in India and abroad, in solo as well as group shows.
As of writing, the artist lives and works in Vadodara.
Largely dated to 1100–400 BCE, with some sites dated to 1400 BCE, the Painted Grey Ware Culture was a post-Harappan material culture found primarily in the Indo-Gangetic plain, named after the finely made painted grey pottery found in the region.
The distribution of Painted Grey Ware sites ranges across the Indo-Gangetic divide, the Sutlej river basin and the Upper Gangetic plains, covering most of northern India and parts of eastern Pakistan. In India, the present-day states of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have over 100 Painted Grey Ware sites, along with a few yields recovered from the Kumaon, Garhwal and Ujjain regions. Important Painted Grey Ware sites in India include Hastinapur, Alamgirpur, Ahichchhatra, Allahpur, Mathura, Kampil, Kaushambi and Shravasti in Uttar Pradesh; Noh, Jodhpura and Jakhera in Rajasthan; and Bhagwanpura in Haryana. At Bhagwanpura as well as Dadheri and Katpalon in Punjab, the Painted Grey Ware level overlaps with the Late Harappan level, whereas at other sites, the culture was found to succeed the Ochre Coloured Pottery and Black and Red Ware cultures, with breaks in occupation. In Pakistan, the sites are distributed across Cholistan, along the Hakra channel of the Ghaggar-Hakra river system. Although the Hakra channel dried out in the second millennium BCE, locations of the Painted Grey Ware sites indicate that a certain part of the river remained intermittently active, primarily during the monsoons.
Painted Grey Ware was made of fine quality clay and had smooth, even-coloured inner and outer surfaces, indicating a sophisticated firing technique. The objects were made on a fast wheel and shaped to an egg-shell thickness. Once hard, they were again turned on the wheel to trim and smooth the surface and finished with a thick black slip or painted with black and brown designs. The painted designs were primarily geometric, with motifs such as rows of lines, dots, dashes, circles, spirals, concentric circles and checks. Symbols such as the swastika and sigma were also found. The use of nature-based motifs was infrequent. At some sites, the pottery was decorated with stamped or incised designs. Although it lends its name to the culture, Painted Grey Ware pottery comprised only 3–10% of the pottery artefacts recovered within its assemblage and was found with other types such as Plain Grey Ware, Black and Red Ware and Black Slip Ware. The size and form of the objects and the relatively small yield have led scholars to suggest that Painted Grey Ware pottery may have been a luxury category of objects likely used by wealthy groups.
The most common objects associated with the culture were small- and medium-sized bowls, dishes and basins. Other artefacts include iron implements such as hoes, sickles and ploughs; terracotta figurines; copper objects, including bangles and a dish; semi-precious stones such as carnelian, crystal, agate and jasper; faience beads and bangles; bone points and needles; and ivory objects such as combs, buttons, arrowheads and mirror handles. The site of Jakhera was significant for crude terracotta figurines of a snake and male and female figures, recovered from what scholars believe was a ritualistic pit. Jakhera also yielded gold artefacts, including a spiral nose ring, a leaf-shaped ornament and wires.
Bhagwanpura and Jakhera also provided insights into the settlement styles of the culture. At Bhagwanpura, three phases in structural design were seen in wattle-and-daub structures, rectangular mud-walled structures and structures built of burnt brick, including a thirteen-room structure. The roads at Jakhera were paved with broken potsherds and there was evidence of a water channel and a bund, suggesting efficient water management practices. Plant and animal matter remains in the region also suggest that it was a largely pastoral and agricultural culture centred around rural settlements.
The appearance of Painted Grey Ware sites in the Mahabharata have led scholars to suggest the association of these sites with the epic, whereas other scholars have linked the culture with the Vedic Period and Indo-Aryan migrants. However, these interpretations remain debatable.
The Painted Grey Ware Culture was succeeded by the Northern Black Polished Ware culture, which is associated with the beginning of widespread urbanisation in the Gangetic plains, characterised by the emergence of the mahajanapadas.
Broadly dated to the third and second millennium BCE, during the Chalcolithic Period in India’s Upper Gangetic Valley, the Ochre Coloured Pottery Culture (OCP Culture) is a cultural sequence defined by its characteristic ill-fired, wheel-made ceramics with a fine or medium fabric and a thick red slip. The culture may have had contact with the Indus Valley Civilisation, but its status as an independent pottery culture remains debated.
The culture, which was first described in 1950–51, derives its name from the ochre-coloured residue left behind by the ceramic artefacts, which may be due to factors such as waterlogging, wind action and poor firing. Pottery finds at Nasik, Jorwe and Nevasa in Maharashtra and Navdatoli in Madhya Pradesh have displayed similar colour and residue as the finds of the OCP Culture, which led to them being erroneously classified as such. However, scholars agree that the geographical extent of the culture is confined to the Upper Gangetic Valley — covering the modern states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, with the greatest number of OCP Culture sites in the Ganges-Yamuna doab region in western Uttar Pradesh — with a few finds in eastern Rajasthan, at the sites of Noh and Jodhpura. More recently, the burial site of Sinauli was classified as an OCP Culture site.
Scholars have divided OCP Culture sites into zones based on archeological findings that suggest contact with the late phase of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The links with the Indus Valley Civilisation are most prominent at sites such as Alamgirpur, Ambakheri and Bargaon in present-day Uttar Pradesh, which fall in the western zone. Alamgirpur is noted for Indus Valley influences in the shape of the ochre pottery in artefacts such as goblets, ring stands and offering stands (also known as dish-on-stand). Bargaon’s archeological yields showed a mix of Indus Valley and OCP cultures, suggesting an overlap between the two phases; the designs on pottery, such as chevrons and wavy and oblique strokes, also suggest contact between the OCP and Cemetery H cultures. In terms of ochre pottery, Bargaon and Ambakheri have yielded Harappan forms of objects such as the dish-on-stand, basins, storage jars with thick clubbed rims, vases with globular bodies and bowl-shaped lids with central knobs. Terracotta objects linked to the OCP Culture were also found at Ambakheri, including figurines of humped bulls, a toy cartwheel and terracotta cakes. Pottery finds at Sinauli included vases with flared rims, basins and bowls, which provide further insight into contact with the late period of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
The pottery finds in the eastern zone, comprising sites such as Atranjikhera, Lal Qila and Saipai in Uttar Pradesh have shown no signs of contact with the Late Indus Valley Civilisation. Atranjikhera and Lal Qila also appeared to be significant in terms of a few structural remains of wattle-and-daub structures. At Atranjikhera, these structures also showed evidence of the use of babul, sissoo, sal and chir pine wood as frames. Lal Qila, which is likely to have been a major centre, also yielded bone tools and a few copper objects. The range of terracotta objects found at the site included anthropomorphic and animal figurines, wheels, bangles, balls, gamesmen, crucibles, beads, grinders and querns. Plant remains indicate wheat and barley consumption, and animal remains and fire pits with charred bones suggest meat consumption. A piece of copper and fragments of a terracotta crucible with copper granules were also found at Atranjikhera. Saipai is also significant as a rare site where Copper Hoard artefacts were found at the OCP level.
Scholars continue to debate whether the OCP Culture can be classified as an independent ceramic culture or whether it is part of the Late Harappan Phase, attributed to migrants from the Indus Valley Civilisation who settled in the doab region. Except at Saipai, the connection between the OCP Culture and the Copper Hoard Culture is unclear owing to a lack of stratigraphic evidence as well as the more widespread nature of Copper Hoard artefacts. However, the archeological burial site of Sinauli, where a large number of copper implements were also found, may provide insights into how the two cultures are related.
At some sites such as Atranjikhera and Noh, the OCP Culture was succeeded by the Black and Red Ware Culture, followed by the Painted Grey Ware Culture, while at Hastinapura and Jhinjhana, the OCP Culture was succeeded by the Painted Grey Ware Culture.
Dated to the second millennium BCE in the Chalcolithic period, the Malwa Culture is a post-Harappan culture identified by its distinct type of painted pottery. The culture extended over the Deccan region, corresponding to parts of present-day central Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and derives its name from the Malwa region in Madhya Pradesh, in India.
The culture has been dated to between 2000 and 1400 BCE in the Malwa region, and between 1800 and 1400 BCE in Maharashtra. In the northern Deccan region, Malwa Culture succeeded the Neolithic-period Savalda Culture, while in central India, it succeeded the Kayatha Culture and, at some sites, the Ahar Culture. Geographically, the Malwa Culture extended from Inamgaon in present-day central Maharashtra to Navdatoli in Madhya Pradesh. Other important sites include Maheshwar and Mandasor in Madhya Pradesh and Prakash and Daimabad in Maharashtra.
The Malwa Culture is known for its distinct pottery styles, comprising wheel-made black-on-red ware, coarse red ware and red/grey ware, of which the black-on-red ware — also known as black-painted red ware — was most prolific. The fabric of the pottery ranged from coarse, with pieces of chopped husk in the core, to fine (predominantly in Maharashtra). The types of objects made include a utensil resembling a lota, with a wide flaring mouth and bulbous base with carination or ridges on the body, a channel-spouted bowl, deep bowls with carination, a spouted vessel with a flaring mouth distinct to Maharashtra, globular jars, deep bowls, knobbed lids and basins. Navdatoli is the only site where goblets or drinking chalices were found.
The upper part of the pottery artefacts are decorated with paintings rendered in black pigment. The paintings are usually highly stylised depictions that include geometric designs such as linear patterns, triangles, lozenges and diamonds, along with depictions of animals including black buck, bull, dog, deer, peacock, pig, tiger, panther, fox, tortoise, crocodile and insects. Depictions of human figures are rare. Altogether, there are estimated to be over six hundred painted motifs.
Painted and decorated pottery are believed to have had religious significance. For example, a jar decorated with applique figures of a female worshipper and a lizard flanking a shrine-like structure was found at Navdatoli. The shrine-like structure is decorated with a tortoise. The tortoise motif is also seen on an amulet found at Prakash, leading scholars to suggest a degree of religious significance. A painting on a fragment of a channel-spouted bowl from Navdatoli depicts a standing human figure with dishevelled hair, which some scholars have identified as a proto-Rudra, while a male figure surrounded by animals on a jar from Daimabad has drawn comparisons with Pashupati. The Daimabad bronze figurines, which date to the Late Harappan phase, have also been ascribed with ritual significance. The presence of bull figurines at some sites may indicate worship of the bull and nature deities. Remains of fire altars have also been found at Daimabad, Inamgaon and Navdatoli. Evidence of an apsidal structure, believed to be a sacrificial temple, was also found at Daimabad.
Other structural remains included circular or rectangular houses and chulhas or hearths. The site of Eran was also marked by a large fortification wall and moat — a singular find of the Malwa Culture. Stone tools were dominant in Navdatoli, and the finds from the settlement indicate that each home made its own tools; the stone tools include knives and blades, and copper tools include flat celts, chisels, arrowheads, swords and ornaments. Evidence of urn burials for children was also found at Inamgaon.
Scholars have remarked on the parallels between some of the pottery and metal artefacts found at Malwa Culture sites with similar objects in western Asia. For instance, the design of channel-spouted bowls is similar to West Asian finds, as is a mid-ribbed sword found in Daimabad. However, these objects appear in the archaeological record before those of the Malwa Culture, and it is therefore unclear how the forms came to be seen in Malwa. This has also led to speculations over the identity of the people of the Malwa Culture, with some scholars attributing the artefacts to Bhil and other communities of central India or to possible migrations from western Asia.
The Malwa Culture came to an end around 1400 BCE. In central India, the pottery phase was replaced by Black and Red Ware while in Maharashtra, it was succeeded by the Jorwe Culture.
Broadly dated to the second millennium BCE, during the Chalcolithic Period, the Copper Hoard Culture is a cultural sequence named after copper implements discovered across northern and central India. The range of the discoveries extends predominantly over the Upper and Lower Gangetic Valley and the Chota Nagpur plateau, covering the modern Indian states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Rajasthan. In comparison, fewer discoveries have been made in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The culture was first described in 1822, following the discovery of a harpoon in Kanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. Since then, nearly 1500 objects have been identified as part of the culture and recovered as hoards. These objects include harpoons, various types of celts — a tool with a chisel-shaped edge — antennae swords, axes, ingots as well as anthropomorphic figures. Rather than being discovered during formalised archeological expeditions, most of these objects were accidental discoveries that took place during agricultural work, and a few objects were also retrieved from scrap metal markets.
Scholars have identified variations in typology across areas where the hoard artefacts were discovered. For instance, flat, shouldered and bar celts and axes were the dominant artefacts in Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar, whereas in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, antennae swords, anthropomorphic figures and harpoons were predominant, in addition to celts and axes. The artefacts commonly found in Rajasthan were bar celts.
The anthropomorphic figures are considered the most significant artefacts of Copper Hoard Culture. The objects vary between 25 and 45 cm in length and 30 to 44 cm in breadth, with some weighing up to 5 kg. While there is a diversity of form and size among the figures, most figures featured a head, two arms curved inwards and two outstretched legs. The largest hoard of such figures, numbered thirty-one, was found in Madarpur, Uttar Pradesh, where they were discovered stacked in situ. The purpose of these figures is debated. Some scholars have suggested that they may have been hunting implements, complementing hoard objects such as harpoons and swords. However, the weight of the figures as well as their unstandardised form is likely to have made them inefficient for hunting. Alternately, other scholars suggest a ritual or religious purpose for these figures, citing similarly shaped objects currently used in northern India in the worship of the Hindu god Shani. A similarly dedicatory or ritualistic function has been ascribed to other Copper Hoard objects, such as harpoons and axes, based on their size, use-wear and utility.
The dating of Copper Hoard objects and the identity of the people who made them are also widely debated. Most of the discovered hoard objects were found without stratigraphic contexts, making it difficult to date them. At the Saipai site in Uttar Pradesh, copper implements were found at the Ochre Coloured Pottery Culture level, but there is little other stratigraphic evidence to suggest how the two cultures are linked. Several copper implements, including antennae swords and copper sheets, have been found during excavations at the burial site of Sinauli in Uttar Pradesh, which is dated to between 2200 and 1800 BCE. Archeologists conducting the excavations have linked the Sinauli site to the Ochre Coloured Pottery Culture and the Copper Hoard Culture, suggesting a commonality between the two cultures. However, the Copper Hoard Culture is also believed to be contemporary with the Ochre Coloured Pottery Culture, although they may not be culturally linked.
The makers of the artefacts are believed to be either Indo-Aryan migrants or people of the Indus Valley Civilisation who may have migrated eastwards during the Late Harappan Phase. Another theory suggests that the artefacts were made by Proto-Australoid peoples of the eastern region of the Upper Gangetic Valley. The valley was known as a copper manufacturing area between the third and second millennia BCE, but it is unclear if the Copper Hoard Culture was an associated culture or an independent centre.
A group of goddesses usually depicted together, the Saptamatrikas, meaning ‘seven mothers’ in Sanskrit, are believed to be emanations of Devi, or the Great Goddess, and symbolise different aspects of the divine feminine energy, or shakti. The goddesses are ascribed a number of qualities, which include protection, destruction, and benevolence.
Six of the seven goddesses are also considered emanations of a god, who can be considered the divine male counterpart or purusha, and they are depicted with the same weapons and mounts as the gods. The goddesses, listed in the order they are typically depicted in, are Brahmani, the four-headed counterpart of Brahma; Maheswari, the counterpart of Shiva, who is also known as Maheshwar; Kaumari, the counterpart of Kumara, also known as Kartikeya, Skanda or Murugan; Vaishnavi, or Narayani, the counterpart of Vishnu, also known as Narayana; the boar-headed Varahi, counterpart of Varaha; Indrani or Aindri, the counterpart of Indra; and Chamunda, the only goddess who is not the counterpart of a male god, but represents a female form of Shiva’s power. Occasionally, the goddesses are depicted as a larger group of eight or nine, with the presence of Maha Lakshmi, Chandika, Narasimhi or Vinayaki.
The Saptamatrikas hold great significance in the goddess-oriented sects of Hinduism and Tantrism. In Shaktism, they are believed to have aided Shakta Devi in her fight with the asuras. In Puranic literature, they appear in order to aid Shiva in his battle against the demon, Andhaka. In the Devi Mahatmya, the Saptamatrikas perform a similar function and help Durga vanquish the demon, Raktabija. The seven goddesses are also connected with the worship of the warrior god Kartikeya.
In most early references, the Saptamatrikas are cited as inauspicious and associated with diseases and the protection of children. It was believed that the seven goddesses had to be appeased in order to ensure the health of a child. In later mythology, however, they came to be seen primarily as protectors, though some of their early inauspicious characteristics persist.
The earliest mention of the Saptamatrikas appears in the Markandeya Purana, dated to between the fourth and sixth centuries, and their iconographic features have been described in several Puranic and Agamic texts, the Devi Mahatmya and also the in the Mahabharata. The earliest sculptures of the Saptamatrika are from the Kushana period, dating back to the third century BCE. These figures emphasise the maternal as well as destructive characteristics of the Saptamatrikas. A more complex iconographic representation of the group became common during the early medieval period, between the fourth and sixth centuries. During this time, the Saptamatrikas were recognised as goddesses who patronised the royal courts and the Gupta rulers had them carved on royal monuments in order to strengthen the loyalty and adherence of their armies. Other dynasties that commissioned Saptamatrika imagery include the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the Chandellas, and the Chalukyas.
The Saptamatrikas are generally carved in relief stone slabs in their sequential order. They are typically flanked by two male figures: a malevolent form of Shiva as Virabhadra, and his son Ganesha. The Saptamatrikas are popularly considered Shaivite goddesses, as evidenced by their image at the Rameshwara Cave, Ellora, a cave dedicated to Shiva,one of four depictions in Ellora.
In Tantrism, the Saptamtrikas are part of the sixty-four or eighty-one yoginis that are worshipped. The eighty-one yoginis are believed to have evolved from a group of nine matrikas, instead of seven, with the other two goddesses being Chandika and Mahalakshmi. According to the Natyashastra, the Saptamatrikas are to be worshipped before a dance performance. The Saptamatrikas also appear in artwork from the eleventh century, including in Rajasthani miniature paintings, as well as in paintings from regional schools of Nepali art.
A fifteen-foot-tall sculpture, the figure of the Buddha, with his attendants, is carved in front of a votive stupa in the Vishvakarma Cave, or Cave 10, at Ellora. The statue and the cave have been dated to the seventh century CE.
The sculpture appears at the end of the apsidal hall, in front of its rounded apse. The Buddha is shown seated on a throne-like chair with his feet touching the ground, an uncommon sight, as he is typically depicted seated in the padmasana posture. He may possibly be forming the vyakhyana mudra with his hands, although this is unclear as the fingers have been damaged. The Buddha’s head is surrounded by a circular halo, carved in low relief on the oval stone slab backing the sculpture. The figure is surrounded by mythical creatures, most prominently lions. Carved in high relief along the arch that surrounds the Buddha are floating vidyadharas, who appear to be moving towards the low relief image of the Bodhi tree at the top. Two standing bodhisattvas flank the Buddha on either side, with the one on the left possibly being Avalokiteshvara. The votive stupa behind the sculpture may have been donated by a visiting king or some other high-ranking pilgrim, as such votive shrines and stupas had become favoured offerings by the seventh century CE in the subcontinent.
Named after the divine architect of gods, the Vishvakarma Cave was carved in the Kalachuri idiom of architecture. It is the only chaitya hall amongst the Buddhist caves at Ellora and imitates wood-based architecture, especially through its ribbed, barrel-vaulted ceiling which resembles wooden beams. Visitors can approach the sculpture through the central nave which is lined by twenty eight octagonal pillars on the sides. The pillars have plain capitals and a frieze featuring ganas above them. The stupa, behind the Buddha, is positioned at the centre of the nave and extends to cover almost the entire height of the main hall.
A collaborative arts studio based in Mumbai, India, CAMP is known for its experimental art practice that uses tools and approaches associated with state power and authority — such as CCTV cameras and radio — to show how technology and infrastructure shape the cultural and political landscape of a people or region. At the time of its establishment, one of the aims of the studio was to spark critical thinking through art. It was also aimed at finding spaces to create and present artworks using mediums outside of conventional art market formats, such as video installations.
The studio was established in 2007 by filmmaker and media artist Shaina Anand, architect and artist Ashok Sukumaran and Sanjay Bhangar. Over the years, social activists and artists including Simpreet Singh, Zinnia Ambapardiwalla and Zulekha Sayyed have contributed to various projects by CAMP. According to its founders, the meaning of CAMP as an acronym keeps shifting with time and with the audience in question. In addition to its artworks, the studio is also known for its online, free-access media and film archives — pad.ma and Indiancine.ma — established in 2008 and 2013 respectively.
Their use of CCTV is one example of CAMP’s alternative approaches to acquiring footage for video works, and the artists aim to bring to notice the ubiquitous presence of surveillance devices, while exploring its possibilities as an art medium. In 2008, CAMP collaborated with the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Arndale Shopping Centre, both in Manchester, United Kingdom, for a project titled CCTV Social, in which thirty–six participants were allowed into control rooms of the sites, giving them a chance to examine and critique existing surveillance systems. A film, Capital Circus (2008), used footage from 208 CCTV cameras at the Arndale Shopping Centre, which is a structure that was rebuilt to its present state after a bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1996. The following year, for the project Al Jaar Qabla Al Daar (The Neighbour Before the House), CAMP installed CCTV cameras in East Jerusalem. In the film, Palestinian families used CCTV camera access to look at their neighbourhood, with the CCTV acting as a narrative tool in the exploration. Other projects centred in Amsterdam (In Camera Res, 2019) and Mumbai (CCTV Landscape From Lower Parel, 2017) also explored this view of examining urban narratives, of the past and the future, overlaid with technology.
Another set of projects and works examines the centuries of maritime trade and history linking western India, West Asia and Africa. Wharfage, awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Sharjah Biennale in 2009, explored the network of culture, people, trade between the regions through the format of pirate radio. Broadcast during the Biennale from the Sharjah port, the radio allowed sailors, workers and traders from these locations to converse with each other and a public audience, and share and request songs, and also included live interviews of locals conducted by CAMP members. The strands of this cultural and historical network were explored in the feature–film–length work From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf, for which CAMP collaborated over four years with a group of sailors from the Gulf of Kutch, Gujarat. Combining footage shot on professional cameras and mobile phones, the latter contributed by the sailors, the film presented the rhythms of the trade route and life at sea in the modern world.
CAMP’s projects are also local in scope, focusing on histories and social development in Mumbai. One such project, Pani Sare Dhaga Ma (2008), involved a collaboration between youth associations and CAMP in which the metropolitan city’s water supply system, its issues of access and subversion of the official distribution network were studied from the lens of Jogeshwari, a suburban area of Mumbai. In 2016, CAMP collaborated with the Indian architects Prasad Shetty and Rupali Gupte to create a community space in Lallubhai Compound, Mankhurd, a residential colony created under the city’s Slum Redevelopment programme. The project created space for community activities, open to adults and children, in the tightly congested architecture of the colony and the studio remains involved with the project. Past, Present and Future (2020) is an ongoing project chronicling the public histories of Mumbai, and within this, the work Ghar Mein Shehar Hona: City Housing in a Cultural Matrix (2019–20) examines the city’s complex housing situation.
Ethnographical and sociological outlooks on development and its factors, as well as the Indian political scenario have also featured in CAMP’s works. The leaked telephone conversations of an Indian political lobbyist, Niira Radia, which were made public in 2010, form the starting point and content of an audio installation, Two Stages of Invention (2011). An observer could read the transcript of the telephone conversations or could pick up a telephone and use the Interactive Voice Response system to pick a specific excerpt to listen to. A more recent video–format project, A Passage through Passages (2020), looks at the politics of development through road infrastructure in South Asia and is based on research conducted around newly laid highway projects in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and the Maldives.
CAMP’s works have been exhibited in museums and galleries in India and internationally. It has also participated in several biennales around the world, including at Shanghai, Gwangju, Liverpool, Chicago, Lahore and Kochi. In 2020, the studio received the Nam June Paik Art Centre Prize, which was followed by a solo exhibition at the Nam June Paik Art Centre, Seoul, South Korea in 2021.
A contemporary Indian artist, curator and teacher, Rekha Rodwittiya is known for her figurative paintings and self-portraits that focus on the politics around the female body, often averting the male gaze by depicting almost androgynous forms. Rendered largely in watercolour, acrylic and oil, on paper as well as canvas, her works often employ large, bold shapes and clean lines in an almost graphic style. Rodwittiya draws on South Asian iconography, Western aesthetic conventions and personal experience to explore socio-political issues from a feminist perspective, creating a densely-layered visual vocabulary.
Born in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) in 1958, Rodwittiya developed a keen interest in the arts at a young age. Growing up in a non-patriarchal, urban middle class family where she was allowed freedom of thought and experience, she was able to pursue this interest from early childhood onwards. Her family travelled extensively, living in various cities before moving to Baroda (now Vadodara) in 1967. She enrolled in the undergraduate painting programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda in 1976, where she studied primarily under the tutelage of artists Jyoti Bhatt and Nasreen Mohamedi. She also learnt photography from Bhatt, and sold her photographs through student-organised exhibitions or through friends within her circle. This allowed her to be financially independent and offered the stability she sought as a single mother during her student days. In 1982, she was awarded an Inlaks scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in painting at the Royal College of Art, London; she also studied film and video for a brief period while in London. After returning to India, she settled in Baroda where she set up the Collective Studio in 1984, which offers a space for young artists to develop their practice. She has developed and run this initiative with her partner, the artist Surendran Nair, whom she met in 1985. In 1990, Rodwittiya was awarded a fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Asian Cultural Council, which enabled her to work in New York City, USA for six months. In 1991, she delivered a series of lectures on Indian art in France and Italy, at the invitation of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Grenoble, and Castello de Rivoli, Torino.
During the seventies, Rodwittiya experimented with figurative art like most other artists teaching or studying in Baroda at the time. She strengthened her figurative and narrative expression while studying at the Royal College of Art, where she produced close to two hundred watercolour paintings in two years. Her works from this period communicate politics of power, violence and gender through the use of cartoon-like figures and a tableau format. For example, in The Ornate Chair Still Beckons (mid-1980s) she depicts a male figure sitting on a throne-like chair, maintaining steady eye contact with an animal-like figure who inflicts violence on a female figure situated on the extreme right of the painting. London was rife with protests against the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and Rodwittiya felt drawn to issues centred around women. It was in London that she was exposed to a lot more literature and culture that focussed on women’s issues, compared with the Marxist ideology prevalent in Baroda circles. Away from India, she was able to understand more clearly, and in turn convey through her paintings, the patriarchy prevalent in the country.
In the 1990s, Rodwittiya’s paintings showed energetic, powerful figures painted in vibrant colours against dramatic backdrops. The women in these paintings and later series often stand as protectors of society against backdrops of destruction, violence and degradation, as in At the Graveyard of My Childhood from 1994. Here, a solitary female figure stands holding a basket filled with large and small objects — including a teacup, a bicycle, a car, buildings and trees — almost as if cradling society. The fiery backdrop behind her contains scattered overlapping motifs such as leaves, books, tools, houses and an aeroplane, with a landscape in silhouette appearing above them. She showcases her women as vulnerable, yet strong and resilient characters, who survive despite social and patriarchal injustices. The colour red is predominantly used in her paintings of this period, due to its symbolism in South Asian rituals as a colour of violence, passion and feminine connotations, such as fertility.
By the 2000s, Rodwittiya modified her language and reduced the number of elements in the negative space of her paintings, bringing more intricacy to the central figure. In works from this period, she depicts full-frontal female figures against a solid coloured background, who confront the viewer with their authoritative gaze. In works such as Once Upon a Time (2005–06), she includes elements that are both autobiographical and metaphorical. Motifs such as cats, paint brushes, diyas or sacred lamps and bowls, with their particular significance to the artist, become part of a rich personal tapestry interwoven with broader South Asian iconography.
Recognisable elements from the traditional imagery that populates her work include the archetypal female protagonist nayika, Hindu deities in yoga poses, lotuses, the mythological bull Nandi and the Himalayan mountain goat markhor. Many of these can be seen across her work, particularly in the Love Done Right Can Change the World series from 2015. Her female figures also sometimes carry guns, long swords and knives in paintings from the 2010s. This is seen in the Matters of the Heart series (c. 2014), where Rodwittiya combines watercolour painting with photomontages to make self-portraits and images of warrior-like women often posed as powerful guardian figures from traditional Indian art. The photomontages are composed within the outlines of the central figure, such that they appear to be draping as well as contained within the figure. They comprise photographs collected on her travels around the world — like the many personal objects that recur in her work — showing monuments, natural landscapes and an image of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
In addition to practising as an artist, Rodwittiya is also a curator and teacher, primarily at the Collective Studio, Baroda. The Studio is modelled on the ancient guru-shishya or ‘teacher-student’ tradition, with Rodwittiya and Nair offering personalised teaching, financial assistance and boarding to young artists. Rodwittiya has curated shows of the resident artists at the Studio, as well as of other artists including Jyoti Bhatt, Manisha Gera Baswani, and Nair. She has also curated exhibitions on Nair and Bhatt at Cymroza Art Gallery and Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai.
Rodwittiya has exhibited widely in India and internationally, with notable recent examples including Rituals of Memory at Aicon Gallery in 2016 and Rekha@Sixty: Transient Worlds of Belonging at Sakshi Gallery in 2018. Her works are part of private and public collections, including the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts and the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bengaluru.
At the time of writing, Rodwittiya lives and works in Vadodara.
Deriving its name from charkh, a Persian word meaning ‘wheel’ or ‘circle’, the charkha is a hand-driven spinning wheel used for spinning fibre into yarn, which can later be woven into fabric. It was designed to mechanise the earlier, slower method of hand-twisting fibre onto a spindle. Typically made of wood and used for small-scale, domestic production of yarn, the charkha became a prominent symbol of the Indian freedom struggle in the twentieth century. The charkha — and the more generic motif of the chakra, the flat spoked wheel with which it is often conflated — has historically been imbued with great symbolic significance in South Asia. In Buddhist iconography, the wheel of the law, or dharmachakra, represents the initiation of reformative and revolutionary actions, and features in the story of the Buddha’s first sermon.
With material evidence sparse for such perishable objects, the spinning wheel’s origin is a matter of speculation. Specimens of twisted cotton thread found from Indus Valley sites in the early twentieth century were initially used as evidence to date the charkha to the third millennium BCE. Contemporary scholars, however, consider this inconclusive as such a twist could also have been achieved with a handheld spindle instead. This, taken with the lack of specific visual representation of the spinning wheel in textile documents or literary sources before the thirteenth century, has been used to make the case that the spinning wheel may have been a medieval invention. The earliest known definitive appearance of the spinning wheel in the historical record is in an illustration appearing in al-Wasiti’s 1237 illuminated manuscript of the Maqamat-al-Hariri from present-day Iraq. A reference to the charkha in the Futuh-us-Salatin written in 1350 by Abdul Malik Isami is the earliest found in the Indian subcontinent. The word charkh, presumably used for spinning equipment, appears in Persian poetry from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and while it probably refers to the spinning wheel, this is difficult to establish conclusively. Meanwhile, a silk-reeling machine that appears in a tenth-century description is considered only vaguely similar to a charkha, and would not have been effective for other fibres such as cotton. This has led scholars to guess at a Persian origin for the spinning wheel, and propose that it spread from there to South Asia, Europe and China.
The most basic form of the charkha, the floor or table-top charkha, comprises an asymmetrical U-shaped wooden frame or pedestal, which holds a large spoked wheel on its higher arm and a horizontally mounted spindle on the other end, with a drive band connecting the two. The spindle is fed by a distaff, the rod onto which the raw carded (cleaned and combed) fibre has been gathered. The user of the charkha holds the distaff in one hand, at an appropriate distance and angle to the spindle, and turns the wheel with the other hand. The slow turning of the wheel spins the spindle fast enough to tightly twist and pull the fibre from the distaff to yield yarn, which is wound around the spindle. The driving wheel of the charkha is either a spoked wheel with a rim, or a rimless one with two or three layers of spokes. The speed of the spinning and the tautness of the yarn are entirely determined by the user, and the process is intermittent as the spun yarn must be periodically transferred onto a bobbin and new fibre introduced from the distaff.
A portable version, also known as the peti (‘box’) charkha, book charkha or Yerawada charkha, was developed by Mahatma Gandhi and his associates during his incarceration at Yerawada Jail in Poona (now Pune) in 1930–31. Essentially the same as the full-sized version, but incorporating an additional wheel, this charkha folds into a compact wooden case the size of a large book or small briefcase. Two wheels of different sizes connected by a drive band are fitted horizontally in one half of the case. The hand-driven larger wheel spins the smaller one, which is in turn connected by a drive band to the detachable spindle in the opposite half of the case.
The traditional full-sized spinning wheel — historically associated almost exclusively with women — was the basis of industrial machines such as the spinning jenny (1746) and the spinning mule (1779), which acted as catalysts for the Industrial Revolution in Britain. These new inventions, coupled with laws such as the Calico Acts, protected British textile manufacturers from the competition from Indian fabrics, until machine-made fabric was able to dominate the market in the nineteenth century. This industrialisation of British textile production was coordinated with its deindustrialisation in India. Following colonial expansion in the late eighteenth century, the British East India Company turned the subcontinent into a source of cheap raw materials such as unprocessed cotton to be spun and woven in Britain. The finished textiles were imported into India and sold to (typically middle- and upper-class) consumers, replacing hitherto domestically produced goods, and thereby impacting both the textile economy and fashion in the subcontinent.
The charkha became the symbol of the Swadeshi movement led by Gandhi in 1905. The movement called for the rejection of foreign-made goods, especially textiles, in favour of indigenous industries and self-reliance. The charkha represented the assertion of an Indian way of life and a counter to the mechanisation that led to the ruin of India’s textile industry. The charkha soon became closely associated with Gandhi himself, with his insistence on spinning cotton regularly as a patriotic as well as symbolic act. He also gifted a portable charkha to the American missionary Reverend Floyd A Puffer who was working for the poor in India at the time, after using it during one of his sentences at Yerawada Jail (1932–33). The historical artefact resurfaced decades later when it was placed on auction by British auction house Mullock’s in 2013 and 2014. However, due to a conflicting claim to the portable charkha by Puffer’s daughter, it was not sold despite securing bids well over the estimated range on both occasions.
Featuring frequently in imagery of the freedom struggle, in 1921 the charkha was adopted as the central emblem for the flag of the Provisional Government of Free India. Even though the symbol was later reduced to a single central wheel, representing the Ashokan chakra, the charkha remains associated with the Indian flag today. Modernist artists such as MF Husain and Jamini Roy have also used the nationalist symbol in their work, usually as a representation of rural life and the labour of traditional art forms.
An opulent piece of jewellery featuring the substantial Queen of Holland diamond as its centrepiece, the Toussaint necklace was commissioned in 1931 by Ranjitsinhji Jadeja (r. 1907–33), the ruler of the former princely state of Nawanagar (present-day Jamnagar, Gujarat in India). The necklace was designed by the luxury jewellery house Cartier and named after its influential director Jeanne Touissant, who absorbed influences from Mughal and other royal Indian jewellery in her work, and is also known for her involvement in the Art Deco movement. Following its dismantling in 1960, the necklace no longer exists in its original form.
The two chains of the Touissant necklace consisted of large clear white diamonds, with square pink ones acting as links. At its centre, there were three pink diamonds, along with a 26-carat blue and a 12-carat green diamond. Its central pendant stone was the bluish Queen of Holland, then weighing 136.25 carats and considered one of the largest diamonds in the world.
Information on the diamond’s origins is entirely speculative. Its appearance in Amsterdam, Netherlands, recorded in 1904, would indicate South African origin given the large number of diamonds making their way into the country from South Africa at the time. Yet its bluish tint, characteristic of Golconda diamonds, has led experts to suggest that it originated in the Deccan region of India. Named after the then ruler of the Netherlands, Queen Wilhemina (r. 1890–1948), the diamond was cushion-cut in the early twentieth century by Dutch firm F. Friedman & Co., who owned it at the time. Ranjitsinhji, a jewel connoisseur as well as renowned cricketer, bought it from the firm in 1930, and took it to Cartier in 1931 to have it set as the centrepiece of what would become the Touissant necklace.
The necklace was completed in 1933, the year of Ranjitsinhji’s death. It went on to make several public appearances around the neck of his nephew and successor Digvijaysinhji Jadeja (r. 1933–66). The Touissant necklace remained with the family until it was dismantled in 1960, when Cartier bought the Queen of Holland as a standalone. After it was sold to William Goldberg in 1978, the diamond was further cut down to 135.92 carats. At the time of the writing, the diamond is owned by Robert Mouawad, former president of the Mouawad house.
The Toussaint necklace entered popular consciousness again following the release of the American film Ocean’s 8 in 2018. The comedy heist film featured a smaller imitation that was recreated by Cartier using zirconium oxide crystals in place of the original diamonds.
A large pinkish-brown diamond, the Star of the South has been a subject of attention and intrigue since its discovery in the mid-nineteenth century. Among the first Brazilian diamonds to receive international fame, it has made its way to Europe as well as India, where it was in the ownership of the royal Gaekwad family of the princely state of Baroda (in present-day Gujarat, India) for many years. In the wake of a number of anonymous sales and transfers from the late twentieth century onwards, the whereabouts of the Star of the South at the time of writing remain unknown.
The diamond was discovered in 1853 by Madi Magassa, an enslaved labourer, among the alluvial deposits of the Bagagem river in Minas Gerais, Brazil. She took the 261.38-carat rough diamond to the mine owner Casimiro de Moraes (referred to as Casimiro de Tal in some accounts). In keeping with the practice of rewarding honesty among enslaved workers, he released her from slavery and granted her a pension. Unaware of its value, de Moraes sold the diamond for GBP 3,000 to an unnamed purchaser, who took it to Rio de Janeiro and sold it for GBP 35,000.
By 1855, it was in the possession of Parisian firm Halphen, who showcased the diamond at the Paris Industrial Exhibition that year, while it was still in the rough. Halphen also named it ‘Étoile du Sud’, French for ‘Star of the South’, referencing its South American origins. The diamond’s name later inspired the renaming of the city of its discovery to the Portuguese translation ‘Estrela do Sul’. Between 1856 and 1858, it was sent to Royal Coster Diamonds in Amsterdam, where it was cut by LB Voorzanger, who had also been responsible for re-faceting the Koh-i-Noor diamond shortly before.
Over three months, Voorzanger cushion-cut the diamond in an oblong form measuring 35 x 29 x 19 millimetres, reducing its weight to 128.48 carats but greatly enhancing its brilliance. The diamond continued to attract attention and grew in popularity through its media coverage, particularly after a replica of it was showcased at the International Exhibitions of London and Paris in 1862 and 1867 respectively. Later in the same decade, Halphen is said to have sent the Star of the South briefly to India, where it drew the attention of various members of royalty, including an unnamed maharaja who made an unsuccessful bid for the diamond.
In the late 1860s, the Maharaja of Baroda Khande Rao II Gaekwad (r. 1856–70) bought the diamond for GBP 80,000 using the services of London dealer Edward Dresden, after whom the 78.5-carat English Dresden was named. The Gaekwad family later also purchased this diamond — which originated from the same region as the Star of the South — and in 1880, commissioned a necklace that would showcase both historic diamonds. In 1948, Khande Rao’s granddaughter-in-law the Maharani of Baroda Sita Devi (r. 1943–48) was photographed wearing this necklace by Henri Cartier-Bresson. While there is no conclusive information about the diamond between 1950 and 2001, the Gaekwad family claims that the Star of the South was included in its wealth tax returns until as late as 1988.
In 2001, an anonymous buyer bought the Star of the South and sent it to the Gübelin Gem Lab in Lucerne, Switzerland to be analysed, making it one of the few historic diamonds for which a comprehensive gemological analysis has been published. The luxury house Cartier is said to have purchased the Star of the South in 2002, according to reports that appeared in 2007.
Active between 1692–1715 at the court of Mewar in present-day Rajasthan, the Stipple Master was an otherwise-anonymous painter who pioneered the use of the nim qalam technique in Udaipur. Not much is known about the Stipple Master’s identity, and the name is a modern pseudonym. It is likely that they were a male artist, as was the norm at court ateliers in the early modern period in the subcontinent. Several works attributed to the master depict his patron, the ruler Amar Singh II of Mewar in intimate, leisurely settings, and were probably developed in close collaboration with the latter. These suggest that he may have held relatively high rank with considerable access to the maharana.
Before ascending the throne in 1698, Amar Singh had rebelled against his father, setting up his own court and atelier with support from the ruler of Bundi. Scholars have suggested that it was at Bundi that Amar Singh and the Stipple Master — possibly a member of his retinue or newly-formed atelier — developed a preference for shading techniques such as stippling and the use of short strokes. It is also possible that the Stipple Master was employed by the court of Kota or Bundi prior to working with Amar Singh. His work and technique suggest that he was familiar with examples of nim qalam work produced in the courts of the Deccan Sultanates and the Mughals.
The master’s images were markedly different from the flat and opaque style of rendering paired with the use of primary colours then prevalent in the Mewar School of Painting. He made use of perspective in depictions of architecture or landscapes. Figures were shaded with stippling, adding depth. They were also highlighted with a limited but vivid palette of colours, primarily lime green with accents of pink or red. This made them stand out against the plain, monochromatic background.
The Stipple Master’s aesthetic went on to become the dominant style of Mewar in subsequent decades. He appears to have developed a reputation as a portrait artist, producing hunting scenes and equestrian portraits as well as depictions of Amar Singh at leisure. Unlike his predecessors at the court of Udaipur, the Stipple Master’s renditions of his patron were naturalistic, sensitive to the latter’s changing facial features over the years. After Amar Singh’s death, the Stipple Master continued to work for his son Sangram Singh, who ascended the throne in 1710. The Stipple Master retired or died in around 1715.
A pottery style which derives its name from the black and red colours of the pottery wares, Black and Red Ware is significant for its chronological span — from the Neolithic Period to the Early Historic Period — as well as its geographical spread across most of the subcontinent. Its expanse has led scholars to believe that the ceramic style cannot be considered representative of a singular cultural sequence or artisan community in Indian proto- and ancient history. Black and Red Ware differs from Black on Red Ware — a pottery style associated with Harappan culture, in which both surfaces of the artefact are red and designs are painted in black.
While both colours may appear on the same surface, most objects typically have a red exterior surface and a black interior surface. The surfaces may be further decorated with paintings. The colour of the surfaces may have been achieved using the inverted firing technique, in which the pot is positioned upside-down in a kiln, with the interior filled with vegetal matter. When fired, the outer surface is oxidised, resulting in the red colour, while the inner surface is subject to reduction conditions, turning it black. Some scholars have suggested that a double-firing technique may have been used to achieve the same result. The discovery of a similar kind of pottery in ancient Egypt, dated to the fourth millennium BCE, has led to speculation that the technique may have originated there.
Black and Red Ware was first excavated and described by Mortimer Wheeler in 1947 and was initially called Satavahana Ware. However, following excavations in the post-Independence period, yields of Black and Red Ware artefacts were discovered in several cultural phases beginning with the Neolithic period in the third millennium BCE, at the present-day sites of Chirand in Bihar and Piklihal in Karnataka in India.
In Western India, Black and Red Ware pottery is associated with the Harappan culture at sites such as Lothal, Somnath (Prabhas Patan) and Bet Dwarka. In the post-Harappan phase, the pottery was seen in the Rangpur Culture and the Ahar-Banas Culture (corresponding to present-day Rajasthan). It was also found at the Chalcolithic period sites of Inamgaon, Theur and Chandoli in present-day Maharashtra and Navdatoli, Eran and Kayatha in Madhya Pradesh. In the Upper Gangetic Valley, at the sites of Atranjikhera, Uttar Pradesh and Noh, Rajasthan, it occupied a stratification layer between the Ochre Coloured Pottery Culture and the Painted Grey Ware Culture and was also found in Painted Grey Ware phases at several sites, including Atranjikhera, Hastinapur and Kaushambi in Uttar Pradesh. In the Deccan region, Black and Red Ware was found at megalithic sites, including Dharanikota and Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh. Black and Red Ware sites of the Historical period include Broach (now Bharuch) in Gujarat, Shravasti in Uttar Pradesh and Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Black and Red Ware has also been found at several Chalcolithic period sites in present-day West Bengal, including the prominent site of Pandu Rajar Dhibi.
