Narrative Visions and Visual Narratives in Indian Buddhism

This volume explores the interaction between text and image in Indian Buddhist contexts, including not only the complex relationship between verbal stories and visual representations at Indian sites, but also the ways in which visual imagery is used within textual narratives. The chapters are authored by a mixture of textual scholars and art historians, bringing together different disciplinary perspectives to seek a richer understanding of how text and art relate, and of the role of narrative imagery in different media and contexts.

The book opens with an introduction that explores what narratives and visual narratives are, and why we might want to study narrative images alongside imagery-rich literary narratives. The volume is then divided into three parts. "Visual Narratives" explores visual depictions of stories in their own right; "Narrative Networks" seeks to understand the relationship between specific visual and verbal narratives; and "Narrative Visions" investigates how visual imagery and visualisation work in textual narratives.

This volume bridges the divide that traditionally exists between textual scholars and art historians, and challenges the contributors to think beyond the usual boundaries of their work.