Abstract

In 1977, Partha Mitter published his landmark study Much Maligned Monsters. ¹ Rooted in Postcolonial Studies, a field only just being developed—Edward Said’s Orientalism would be published the following year ² —this book seeks to explore the interpretations and misinterpretations of Indian art by Western scholars who often saw monsters where artists intended gods. The tremendous range of Hindu mythology, such fertile inspiration for the visual arts, reinforced Western preconceptions about the “exotic” East.