New Light on Hampi (Mumbai, India: Marg Publications, 2001; $66; distributed by Art Media Resources, Ltd., Chicago), edited by John M. Fritz and George Michell, surveys the results of 20 years' work by an international team at the fourteenth-sixteenth-century imperial city of Vijayanagara, near the village of Hampi in southern India. Essays cover everything from intricately carved plaster decoration on courtly buildings to hydraulic works. Vijayanagara is one of the world's most photogenic sites, and the editors have taken full advantage of that in this well-illustrated book. [More Asia and Pacific books...] |