The Indian art collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum are unrivalled outside the Indian subcontinent. This richly illustrated volume, written by the Museum's curators, presents over 200 of the finest treasures from the collection in a new study which discusses the arts of Mughal, Rajput and British India in the social and cultural context of their time.
The book begins with a survey of the visual arts in pre-Mughal India, then turns to the court arts of the Mughals and the provincial courts of Rajasthan, the Deccan and the Punjab. The European intervention is studied through the great textile trade and the impact of Indian art on European taste is assessed through the Great Exhibitions of the late nineteenth century.