Early Indian Terracottas considers Northern Indian terracottas from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. It is in these four centuries that — in the most literal sense of the word — the earth was prepared to form the necessary basis for the Buddhist, Brahmanic and Jain iconography for centuries to come.
This survey introduces mainly hitherto unpublished and complete figurines and plaques rather than fragments as is the case with most other publications on the same or similar subject.
The mostly complete and well preserved moulded plaques and figurines will provide a fresh and clearer insight into the very refined art of the earlier Indian terracottas, which until recently were considered more as pieces of ethnographic interest or folk art rather than art objects in their own right.