Marg Magazine

Marg Magazine A magazine of the arts

In 1946, novelist and activist Mulk Raj Anand, along with a group of 14 artists, art historians and architects, founded MARG (Modern Architectural Research Group) in an India on the threshold of Independence. Over the last 75 years, our magazine and books have been a forum for pioneering research in Indian art and are acclaimed for their standards of production and editorial content.

Crystal & Ash: The Buddha at Piprahwa has been edited by Marg’s General Editor Naman P. Ahuja () and is now available fo...
26/02/2026

Crystal & Ash: The Buddha at Piprahwa has been edited by Marg’s General Editor Naman P. Ahuja () and is now available for purchase!

This Marg edition studies the excavations of relics of the Buddha from Piprahwa in Uttar Pradesh. Removed from India for over 130 years, it was only last year that these relics were brought back. In the intervening decades, rumours were rife that duplicates had been made and ownership was repeatedly claimed by different Buddhist stakeholders; an attempt was made to sell the relics in public auction last year.

The essays in this volume look at India's historical relationship with archaeological findings, contextualise the Piprahwa relics in a wider understanding of Buddhism, tackle the issue of holy objects and human remains appearing in secular museums, and observe the relevance of 'relic diplomacy', where relics are means of geopolitical exchange, a process initiated by Emperor Ashoka that continues today.

Get your hands on it today! Check it out through the link in our bio.


History, art history, archaeology, Buddhism, relics, architecture, painting, sculpture, textile, culture, Indian history, magazine, art, auction, UP, India, art magazine, essay, publication, book

Kolam is a testament to mathematics being an integral part of domestic and everyday life. Drawn with rice flour on fresh...
19/02/2026

Kolam is a testament to mathematics being an integral part of domestic and everyday life. Drawn with rice flour on freshly prepared ground at the threshold of houses, Kolams are created in the early hours of the morning during the months of Margali from mid-December to mid-January, by millions of women across Tamil Nadu. While being a part of an aesthetic and ritual tradition, the design also incorporates mathematical principles of symmetry, fractals, array grammars and infinity. 

Kolam makers begin by laying out a dot matrix that determines the final scale of the design. These dots are then conjoined to reveal complex interwoven patterns. Drawn in various permutations, Kolam is a tradition that transcends the two-dimensional ground to represent a world that embodies mathematics.   

Read more about the art of Kolam in Marg’s Volume 77 No.1,  “On Painted Ground”, guest edited by Aurogeeta Das. ()




Art history, art magazine, kolam, floor painting, painting, Tamil Nadu, south India, Indian art, culture, sculpture, textile, architecture

SWIPE TO READ!Read more in Souvik Kar's () essay in our recent volume Video Games: Lila/Maya, edited by Souvik Mukherjee...
09/02/2026

SWIPE TO READ!
Read more in Souvik Kar's () essay in our recent volume Video Games: Lila/Maya, edited by Souvik Mukherjee ().
Link in bio to check out the volume!


Video games, Museum, Indian art, history, magazine, digital art, painting, sculpture, architecture, archeology, dance, culture, Indian art, magazine, art

Jaipur. We're at .artweek till the 3rd of February. And yes, we're here over the weekend too. Drop in at the Rajasthan I...
01/02/2026

Jaipur. We're at .artweek till the 3rd of February. And yes, we're here over the weekend too. Drop in at the Rajasthan International Centre to browse through our latest titles.

See you!

JAIPUR, we have arrived. We'll be at the Rajasthan International Centre for .artweek . Drop in and browse through our co...
27/01/2026

JAIPUR, we have arrived. We'll be at the Rajasthan International Centre for .artweek . Drop in and browse through our collection of new and older titles. See you there!

Meet the speakers!They will be at the .ahmedabad on the 23rd of January for a panel discussion on Marg's recent volume, ...
16/01/2026

Meet the speakers!
They will be at the .ahmedabad on the 23rd of January for a panel discussion on Marg's recent volume, The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries. Swipe for details!
The event begins at 6 PM, at the lecture hall in L.D. Museum.
We hope to see you there!
Make sure to register via the link in bio.

Jain art, art and culture, art history, art magazine, Ahmedabad, publication, painting, scrolls, textile, architecture, sculpture, Indian art, culture, event, panel discussion, museum, art history.

We're excited to invite you to a panel discussion on Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries...
13/01/2026

We're excited to invite you to a panel discussion on Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries.

The Many Worlds of Jain Art

New ideas, modes of performance and even new forms of religious practice are reflected in the styles of Jain art that emerged after the 17th century. Sonya Mace, the George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art, Cleveland Museum of Art; Dipti Khera, Associate Professor in the Institute of Fine Arts and Department of Art History at New York University; and Shobha Telangala, Collections Consultant, Deccan Heritage Foundation, Mysore —three writers of the essays in this pioneering volume will be in conversation with Naman P. Ahuja, the General Editor of Marg and a professor of Art History at JNU, on which biographies and narratives of karma, rituals and spiritual quests seem to show continuities with older times and what the innovations reveal about the shifts in Jain tradition.

Join us on the 23rd of January at 6 PM at the L. D. Museum in Ahmedabad. Please make sure to register via the link in bio.
We hope to see you there!

Art history, art, culture, talk, Ahmedabad, Indian art, painting, Jain art, art magazine, new publication,

Swipe to read! Find more in Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries, edited by Phyllis Grano...
06/01/2026

Swipe to read!
Find more in Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries, edited by Phyllis Granoff and Nandita Punj. Find the volume through the link in our bio. Get your copy now!

Images:
“Karma Theory”, by Terapanthi monk Muni Sohan. This illustration addresses the repercussions of harming other beings for pleasure. The hunter from the first scene becomes hunted—the subject of torture in hell. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Madhur Rekha.
“Rebirth” by Terapanthi monk Muni Dulharaj. The image on the left illustrates a narrative from the Jnatadharmakatha, the story of an elephant who is reborn as Prince Megha; on the right is a depiction of King Shrenika’s encounter with an ascetic, from the Uttaradhyayana Sutra. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Kanak Shri.
“Who should be saved?”, anonymous artist. A diagram depicting the complexity of the principle of ahimsa and the equality of all life forms. Scanned from Kala, a special issue on art and craft.
"Who Are You With?”, by Terapanthi monk Muni Sohan. The four pots, despite receiving the same amount of water, retain varying quantities—an allegory for how the degree to which each individual remembers and practices the teachings they receive depends on their personal character. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Madhur Rekha.

Jain art, painting, illustration, history, art, culture, Jainism, Indian art, art history, art style, monk, nun, spirituality, art magazine, drawing, architecture, textile, sculpture, visual art, video games, numismatics, magazine, volume, essay, philosophy

Read more in Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries, edited by Phyllis Granoff and Nandita ...
06/01/2026

Read more in Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries, edited by Phyllis Granoff and Nandita Punj. Find the volume through the link in our bio. Get your copy now!

Images:
“Karma Theory”, by Terapanthi monk Muni Sohan. This illustration addresses the repercussions of harming other beings for pleasure. The hunter from the first scene becomes hunted—the subject of torture in hell. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Madhur Rekha.
“Rebirth” by Terapanthi monk Muni Dulharaj. The image on the left illustrates a narrative from the Jnatadharmakatha, the story of an elephant who is reborn as Prince Megha; on the right is a depiction of King Shrenika’s encounter with an ascetic, from the Uttaradhyayana Sutra. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Kanak Shri.
“Who should be saved?”, anonymous artist. A diagram depicting the complexity of the principle of ahimsa and the equality of all life forms. Scanned from Kala, a special issue on art and craft.
"Who Are You With?”, by Terapanthi monk Muni Sohan. The four pots, despite receiving the same amount of water, retain varying quantities—an allegory for how the degree to which each individual remembers and practices the teachings they receive depends on their personal character. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Madhur Rekha.

Jain art, painting, illustration, history, art, culture, Jainism, Indian art, art history, art style, monk, nun, spirituality, art magazine, drawing, architecture, textile, sculpture, visual art, video games, numismatics, magazine, volume, essay, philosophy

Read more in Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries, edited by Phyllis Granoff and Nandita ...
06/01/2026

Read more in Marg’s recent volume The Worlds of Jain Art: 17th to 21st Centuries, edited by Phyllis Granoff and Nandita Punj. Find the volume through the link in our bio. Get your copy now!

Images:
“Karma Theory”, by Terapanthi monk Muni Sohan. This illustration addresses the repercussions of harming other beings for pleasure. The hunter from the first scene becomes hunted—the subject of torture in hell. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Madhur Rekha.

“Rebirth” by Terapanthi monk Muni Dulharaj. The image on the left illustrates a narrative from the Jnatadharmakatha, the story of an elephant who is reborn as Prince Megha; on the right is a depiction of King Shrenika’s encounter with an ascetic, from the Uttaradhyayana Sutra. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Kanak Shri.

“Who should be saved?”, anonymous artist. A diagram depicting the complexity of the principle of ahimsa and the equality of all life forms. Scanned from Kala, a special issue on art and craft.

“Who Are You With?”, by Terapanthi monk Muni Sohan. The four pots, despite receiving the same amount of water, retain varying quantities—an allegory for how the degree to which each individual remembers and practices the teachings they receive depends on their personal character. Artwork on parchment paper; 28 x 13 cm. Collection of Sadhvi Madhur Rekha.

Jain art, painting, illustration, history, art, culture, Jainism, Indian art, art history, art style, monk, nun, spirituality, art magazine, drawing

Many modern and contemporary artists, drawing inspiration from diverse traditions of floor drawings and paintings across...
02/01/2026

Many modern and contemporary artists, drawing inspiration from diverse traditions of floor drawings and paintings across India, have depicted them as primary subject matter in their artworks or incorporated their techniques into their art making. In the works of modern artists Fuku Akino, Nandalal Bose, Benodebehari Mukherjee and Prabhat Niyogi, the kolam of Tamil Nadu and alpona of Bengal epitomise Indian ritual culture. In them are recurring allusions to the figure of a woman, leaning over the ground, spotlighting the significance of women and matrilineal practices in transmitting tradition across generations. For Jamini Roy, a key figure of Indian modernism, turning to Bengali folk art and traditions, including floorpaintings, was a conscious rejection of the western academic style in which he was trained. Works such as Untitled (Alpana)—which is one of his many paintings inspired by alpona—exemplify his distinctive, flattened-out painting style, which was influenced by Kalighat Patachitra, or paintings made by Kalighat scroll painters, characterised by vivid colours and demarcated lines. Jyoti Bhatt’s photographs of Rajasthan’s mandana and Gujarat’s rangoli stemmed from an effort to document living art forms that were already waning amid modernisation and rapidly changing lifestyles. His printworks, such as Rangoli Forms and Kolam Forms, which present tableaus of floor drawing motifs, are a result of his engagement with these traditions since the 1970s, through his extensive travels across the length and breadth of the country. Contemporary artists Mahasundari Devi and PushpaKumari, in Aripan Tableau, transpose the symbolic repertoire of Bihar’s floor drawings onto paper, layering it over a cow-dung-painted backdrop and recalling the surfaces on which aripans are created. By doing so, they demonstrate that these traditions have not disappeared, but have found new, portable canvases beyond their site-specific origins.

Edited by Aurogeeta Das, On Painted Ground is available through the link in our bio, or on the Marg website!

Art, history, culture, Indian art, painting, drawing, magazine, new volume, Indian art, artist

📢 Call for volunteers! 📢Marg is coming back to the International Kolkata Book Fair from 22nd Jan to 3rd Feb 2026! We inv...
30/12/2025

📢 Call for volunteers! 📢

Marg is coming back to the International Kolkata Book Fair from 22nd Jan to 3rd Feb 2026! We invite applications from individuals who can assist us with managing and operating our stall.

Write to us at [email protected] to apply!



Book fair, book, magazine, Kolkata, volunteer, call for applications, art history, art and culture, publication, textile, painting, sculpture, architecture, archeology, dance, India, Indian art

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Marg is a Mumbai-based not-for-profit publisher whose mission is to encourage an understanding of Indian art in the broadest sense of the term. It strives to light up “many dark corners” in India’s cultural landscape and to spark debate on all aspects of heritage among academics, critics and interested general readers.

Since its inception in 1946, our quarterly magazine has reflected new trends, new research and new scholarship, from both upcoming and established art historians and scholars. The magazine is aimed at a wide audience and seeks to forge a connection between art and life.

Marg’s quarterly books, published simultaneously with the magazine from 1977 to 2009, have since diverged into independent publications, each a landmark contribution.

Among other avenues we pursue, Marg has been publishing special books outside the quarterly series in a variety of formats.