Books authored by Vidya Dehejia

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Vidya Dehejia on Indian Art (Set of 3 Books)

By Vidya Dehejia

$151

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Slaves Of The Lord (The Path Of The Tamil Saints)

By Vidya Dehejia

$40

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Looking Again at Indian Art

By Vidya Dehejia

$24

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Chola (Sacred Bronzes of Southern India)

By Vidya Dehejia

$71

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Antal and Her Path of Love: Poems of a Woman Saint from South India

By Vidya Dehejia

$28

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India: A Story Through 100 Objects

By Vidya Dehejia

$105

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Namakkal Caves

By Vidya Dehejia

$16

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Vidya Dehejia

Vidya Dehejia is among the most influential historians of Indian art, known for redefining the reception and study of South Asian visual culture within global art history.

Over six decades of scholarship, she has authored 27 books, ranging from early Buddhist narratives to the aesthetics of the colonial encounter. Her contribution to the field of Indian art and culture was formally recognized in 2012 with the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours.

Early Education and Academic Formation

Dehejia completed her undergraduate studies at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, graduating with a First Class in Ancient Indian Culture in 1961. She subsequently studied at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she completed the Archaeology and Anthropology Tripos in 1963, and received her PhD in 1968 for a study on the Early Buddhist caves of Western India.

She held early teaching positions at the University of Sydney, the University of Hong Kong, and the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, where she contributed to the development of Indian art history as an academic field.

Academic and Curatorial Leadership

In 1982, Dehejia joined Columbia University, where she later became the Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian Art.

She served for eight years as Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., where she brought research-based approaches to the interpretation of South Asian art into museum practice.

She also served as General Editor of Marg, one of India’s leading journals on art and culture, contributing to the direction of critical writing for a wide audience.

Scholarly Contributions and Method

Dehejia’s work is defined by an interdisciplinary approach that integrates textual sources, visual analysis, and historical context. Her work addresses early Buddhist art, Hindu devotional traditions, gender and representation, ornament, and the material culture of the colonial period.

A key aspect of her contribution is the shift from formal and archaeological analysis to interpretive frameworks that situate art within social and religious contexts. In Discourse in Early Buddhist Art, she proposed a model of narrative based on multiple viewpoints, challenging linear interpretations of visual representation in Indian sculpture.

Her major publications include Looking Again at Indian Art, Devi: The Great Goddess, The Body Adorned, and India: A Story Through 100 Objects, extending scholarly research into both academic and public-facing histories of Indian art.

Awards and Recognitions

🔸Padma Bhushan, Government of India (2012)

🔸Charles Lang Freer Medal, Smithsonian Institution (2023)

🔸Guggenheim Fellowship

Reading Vidya Dehejia: A Perspective

Reading Dehejia’s work, one notices that interpretation is never forced onto the object. The artwork is allowed to unfold on its own terms, and meaning is drawn from within its form, structure, and context. In this way, stories that have taken fixed form in stone or bronze begin to move again through her analysis.

There is also a distinct precision in her work. Her writing is exact, yet never difficult to follow. It is rooted in a lucidity of language, making her writing accessible across audiences. It is this balance between rigour and readability that distinguishes her scholarship.