Naman Ahuja
Dr Naman Ahuja is a Professor and Dean of the School of Arts & Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. A prolific author, he is also the General Editor of Marg Publications, dedicated to art and culture. He has curated some of the most important exhibitions of Indian art in the past ten years, including: The Body in Indian Art & Thought which was shown at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels and the National Museum in Delhi in 2013
Ancient Silver Mask in The al-Sabah Collection
The mask of Shiva in The al-Sabah Collection is remarkable for several reasons: its startling appearance, the fact that it is made out of a precious material like silver, and because it is life size. What could this object have been used for, and what other objects can it be related to? Although its presence has been acknowledged, little is known about the specific nature of Shaivism in the extended Gandhara region of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 5th to 7th centuries CE, the period and region from which this object comes. This lecture draws attention to the significance of sites near Waziristan, Bannu and Ghazni to argue that the imagery is not without precedent and can be situated within wider “post-Gupta” and “late Sassanian” contexts