Can art be powerful enough as medium to connect two economically and culturally diverse groups of students totally unfamiliar with each other? The author put this question to the test by introducing a lesson on Madhubani, a traditional folk art from a remote region in India. The author describes how this activity gives students an opportunity to…

In West Bengal, India, a traditional caste community of artists, called "patuas", paint colorful scrolls to accompany songs which they sing to relate historic, current, religious, and cultural events to their audiences. These itinerant painter/singers are part of a long lineage that has passed the tradition down for generations. In this…

In this essay, the author furthers the argument that critical commentary on the Rajput and Muslim miniatures of India has focused on a rather odd use of labels and categories, perhaps to an even greater extent than has been the case with much of the rest of the criticism of the art of South Asia. She first examines the use of the term…