Annapurna Garimella writes about the journey from 'ruin' to 'monument', citing the example of Hampi.

The essay tries to interpret the architectural projects commissioned by 5th and the 6th Gurus in the light of the changing character of the Guruship. The saintly Guru Arjan Dev completed the compilation of the Adi Granth and the Harmandir (Golden Temple), Amritsar. Other architectural projects included water bodies built for the common good with the labour of followers. His son, Guru Hargobind introduced militant resistance to the Sikh fold. The architectural projects he patronized included defensive structures, planned cities, and places of worship. Their personalities encapsulate the double saint-soldier ideal within Sikhism.

This paper studies a range of manuscripts of the Adi Granth, the holy book. It is explained in terms of major cultural shifts in the Panjab from the 17th-19th centuries. The writer traces the shift from the Islamicate codex format to the horizontal pothi format as a reflection of new Sikh political formations that shifted prestige away from Islamic cultural models. Forms of embellishment both illumination and illustration are discussed and their significance analysed.

The article examines frescos in the lesser known Sikh court of Patiala. These virtually unknown paintings are particularly fine and open up a number of questions regarding eclecticism and artistic interactions in the 19th century. The focus is on the iconographic programme of four elaborate fresco sequences and suggests the possibility of reading Vaishnava themes as Sikh themes.

There is a strong case for taking a fresh look at Indian art and identifying the natural phenomena they portray. Examined afresh here are a Jahangir period painting of a dodo, a Pahari painting of an episode from the Shivapurana which depicts several animals, and a Bundi drawing of the birds, animals, and fish.

The attention paid to Gandharan images of the Buddha has marginalized the significance of relics in the eyes of modern scholars. The interrelationship of Buddha image and stupa containing the Buddha's corporal relic's is examined here. The images were dependent on relics and understood as visible manifestation of the relic's power. Some such structures even housed relics that were accessible for devotion, and where individual sculptural offerings could be made. After the Gandhara period of Buddhist activity (5th-8th century CE), the image became the primary object of worship.

Abha Narain Lambah writes about two conferences on conservation, one on heritage management held in Bhopal and one organised by Unesco's World Heritage Centre in Chandigarh.

Kavita Singh reviews the K.G. Subramanyan retrospective at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, and reports on the revitalization of the gardens of Humayun's Tomb; Monisha Ahmed writes about the Tapi Collection textile exhibition, an exhibition of Raja Ravi Varma's works, a series of lectures by Stuart Cary Welch, and marks the passing of Roshan Kalapesi, patron of Paramparik Karigar; John Siudmak writes from Tokyo on two parallel exhitions displaying stone sculptures from historical India, lent by the Indian and Pakistani governments.

Speaking of Dance: The Indian Critique by Mandakranta Bose, reviewed by Alessandra Lopez y Royo; The Temples in Kumbhariya by M.A. Dhaky and U.S. Moorti, reviewed by Devangana Desai; Kalatattvakosa: A Lexicon of Fundamental Concepts of the Indian Arts. Vol. V: FORM/SHAPE, AKARA/AKRITI, edited by Ramesh Chandra Sharma, reviewed by Pratapaditya Pal.

Book notices on A Bibliography of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy by James S. Crouch, reviewed by Annapurna Garimella; From Kashmir to Kabul: Photography 1860-1900 by Omar Khan; Mehrauli: A View from the Qutb photographs by Karoki Lewis, text by Charles Lewis, reviewed by Annapurna Garimella; Vishnu Cult in Karnataka by Srinivas V. Padigar, reviewed by B.V. Shetti; A Treasury of Indian Folk Textiles by Carol Summers; Designs and Patterns in Phulkaris by S.S. Hitkari.