Scent upon a Southern Breeze: Synaesthetic and the Arts of the Deccan

• The book will give a sense of the emergent research in the arts of the Deccani sultanates

• An important feature of the essays is the emphasis on synaesthesia: where a history of art encompasses experiences that are beautiful not just to the eye, but to the ear and the nose

For decades, art historical studies of Deccani art were few and far between. Only in recent years has scholarly interest grown, resulting in major advances in our knowledge of the region's cultural achievements. The 2015 exhibition Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York was a stimulus for further research. To honour this exhibition and the scholarship it embodied, The Aesthetics Project arranged a symposium Nauras: The Many Arts of the Deccan in January 2015 and co-sponsored an exhibition of the National Museum's Deccani artefacts. The proposed volume brings together contributions from the symposium, the exhibition and beyond, to give a sense of emergent research in the arts of the Deccani sultanates. An important feature of the essays is the emphasis on synaesthesia: where a history of art encompasses experiences that are beautiful not just to the eye, but to the ear and the nose. The book will give readers new information about cultural manifestations and insights into new interdisciplinarities within the field of art history.

Contents: Introduction - Kavita Singh; Social Stimulants: Perfuming Practices in Sultanate India - Emma Flatt; Perfume and Pleasure in 17th-Century Deccan - Ali Akbar Husain; Bidri Ware: A Fascinating Craft of the Deccan - Jagdish Mittal; Music, Art and Power in 'Adil Shahi Bijapur, c. 1570-1630 - Katherine Butler Schofield; The Tree of Life and the World of Wonder: 'Aja,ib Imagery on 17th-Century Kalamkaris - Sylvia Houghteling; Documenting the Fabulous: The 'Aja,ib al-Makhluqat of the National Museum - Preeti Bahadur Ramaswami; Slave, Sultan, Scholar: Muhammad Qutb Shah and the Royal Library of Golconda - Laura Weinstein; Weddings and Hunts: A Visual History of Pleasure in 18th-century Hyderabad - Srinayani Lankala.