A gigantic icon with unusual iconographic features, comprising human heads and various animal forms as body components was discovered more than a decade ago from Tala (District Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh). This image is a masterpiece example of uniqueness; hitherto unknown in the art traditions of India.

The investigation of an image by a group of scholars breaking the barrier of boundaries of nations was an unusual idea to solve the enigma of the Tala icon. The present book is a result of a postal seminar which the editor organised. Apart from Tala Icon, this book also throws light on the history and art-tradition of Daksina Kosala, presently known as Chhattisgarh.

"The range of ideas and images in the text is vast and from this great ocean, formed over several thousand years, art historians can pick-up items that would seemingly explain the various details of the Tala image; but if this is just a random matching of text and image, we will not be able to satisfactorily elucidate the whole."

Content - Foreword, Prologue, Acknowledgements, List of Contributors, List of Plates, Introduction, Papers, Epilogue, Selected Bibliography on Tala