In what is often considered to be the heyday of classical Indian culture, the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the dynasty of the Vākāṭakas emerged as one of the major patrons of religion and art. Covering the greater part of the northern Deccan, the Vākāṭaka kingdoms were situated at the crossroads of the main north-south and west-east caravan routes.

This situation in the heart of the South-Asian subcontinent may partly explain the prosperity of the Vākāṭaka kingdoms and certainly accounts for their cultural diversity and richness, to which the Hindu temples on and around the Rāmagiri (Ramtek Hill) and the Buddhist Caves at Ajanta still bear witness. Here, at the crossroads of the lndo-Aryan north and Dravidian south, the northern culture of the Gupta kingdom reached the Deccan and developed a character of its own. The articles collected in this volume intend to augment our knowledge of how the Vākāṭaka culture came into being, which forces and influences contributed to its flourishing, and how its achievements informed the historical and cultural developments after its fall.

Richly illustrated contributions address the Vākāṭaka Heritage from a variety of disciplines: history (Kulke, von Stietencron), archaeology (Kennet), numismatics (Raven), political and religious history (Willis, Bakker), iconography (Brown, Yokochi), and art history (Williams, Spink, Wood, Stadtner, and Nigam).