About the Book

Satavahanas who ruled Deccan for a long time during the early centuries of Christian era brought consolidation in many spheres. Terracotta art flourished during that period was unsurpassed. There was a spectacular and unprecedented growth of terracotta industry during that period not only due to artistic taste of the people but also due to great demand from the maritime trade from the western world. This period is specially marked by its creative activity in adopting new techniques in manufacturing of terracotta by adopting double moulds. In fact, terracottas of Satavahana period can ‘easily be distinguished by a common factor of theme, form and style’.

In this endeavour, the author studied a large number of individual excavation reports of Satavahana sites. He has covered six states viz., Maharastra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Madhya Pradesh where traces of Satavahana culture existed. Also visited many museums in some of these states. The author has revised the title as “Terracotta Art of Satavahanas’ after incorporating the material from the above states. He tried to compile and interpret the material in a consolidated manner for the first time as no effort was made by any scholar earlier in this regard to glance through the material comprehensively at one place. Useful to the scholars as well as researchers.

About the Author

Boddanapalli Siva Rajendra Babu (b. 1947) took his M.A degree in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology from the Andhra Uni-versity, Waltair in 1970. The Mysore University awarded him the degree of Ph.D in 1994 for his thesis “Material Culture of Andhradesa (Satavahana‑ Ikshvaku Times)” He was awarded Post‑Graduate Diploma in Archa-eolog from the School of Archaeology, Archaeological Survey of India in 1978.

In 1971, he joined the Archaeo-logical Survey of India and served in various capacities till he joined Delhi Administration in 1986 and retired in 2007 as Deputy Director. The author received post‑doctoral fellowship from the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi during the years 2010‑11 on the subject “Art of clay modelling in Deccan during early historic period under Satavahanas”

During his tenure under Delhi Government, he excavated three sites in Delhi. Study of material remains from these excavations pushed back the history of Delhi to the Proto­historic period. At present he is working on “Stucco Art in South India” and “Archaeology of Krishna‑ Tungabhadra Valley”.