Presentation of ABIA Index I
By Karel R. van Kooij
On December 18, 1998, the first volume of the ABIA South and Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology Index was presented to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of Leiden University, Professor W.L. Idema. The function concluded the third workshop on ABIA Index work in progress held in December 15-18, 1998, and was hosted by the International Institute for Asian Studies. The presentation was preceded by a series of lectures on Indian, Sri Lankan, and Indonesian art.The ABIA Index is an international project initiated by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden and Amsterdam, to compile and maintain a bibliographic database documenting publications on South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology. The work is being carried out jointly by the IIAS, the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology (PGIAR) in Colombo, and the SEAMEO Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts (SPAFA) in Bangkok, with contributions from scholars in India, Indonesia, other parts of South and Southeast Asia, and Russia. In this new formula, the ABIA Index continues the once widely known Annual Bibliography of Indian Archaeology, which was edited by Kern Institute Leiden (with the aid of the government of Ceylon), work on which had come to a standstill over twenty years ago.
This first volume, published by Kegan Paul International, London and New York 1999, ISBN 0-7103-0625-3, in the series Studies from the International Institute for Asian Studies, contains over 1300 entries that describe monographs, articles in readers, articles in periodicals including reviews, and PhD dissertations in Asian and European languages which were published in 1996 and 1997. The records consist of bibiliographic entries and annotations, which are arranged geographically and according to subject - pre-and protohistory, material culture, epigraphy and palaeography, numismatics and sigillography. An author index, a geographical index, and a subject index are included. In a format that will be continued in subsequent volumes, two articles precede the central bibliographic section. In the first volume, Professor Edi Sedyawati, Director General of Culture, Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, and Professor of Archaeology at the Universitas Indonesia (UI), Jakarta discusses publications on art and archaeology written in Indonesian between 1977 and 1997. Professor Karel R. van Kooij, Professor of the history of South Asian art and material culture, Leiden University, and general editor of ABIA Index, participates in the on-going debate in South Asian art history on the interpretation of early Buddhist art, which also pertains to the more general problem of the 'limits of interpretation'.
The work on the ABIA Index volume 2, which will focus largely on publications of 1997 and 1998, is in progress. It is scheduled to be out in December 1999. In order to include as many publications as possible, help from our colleagues is most welcome. Please send information about your publications (from 1997 onwards) in the field of South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology, and related areas, preferably provided with a concise abstract, to the following adress: ABIA Project, IIAS, P.O.Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands,
Fax: 31-71-5274162, E-mail: abiaraven@let.leidenuniv.nl.
The book can be ordered through:
Kegan Paul International, P.O.Box 256, London WC1B 3SW, England, e-mail: books@keganpau.demon.co.uk.
Professor Karel R. van Kooij is the general editor of ABIA Index.