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    Vintage cars a luxury in British Raj: a case study of different museum and private collections
    (The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Ahmad, A.; Kumar, A.
    Transport is a part of our day to day lives, and in seeing cars, everyone feels a connection and pride in owning it. In India the first car ran on roads in 1897. Prior to independence in the 1940s India had no automobile industry to speak of. Cars were brought into the country in a knocked down condition from England. They were reassembled to serve the minuscule market provided by the British ruling class and some Indian elites. The presence of such vehicles led to the birth of an indigenous spare parts industry mostly concentrated in the south of the country. Road Transport in India grew rapidly after 1947 owing to rapid growth in urbanization and per capita income and to the vehicle production moving there. Museums and Private collections in India have different hues and designs of yesteryears car from British Raj period. ‘Vintage cars’ are the cars according to National Green Tribunal, any car manufactured between 1920 and 1939 is known as vintage car and those between 1940 and 1979 as classic cars. Collectors in India have pre- and post-world war cars, which were manufactured before and after World War 2. These collections mostly hail from “Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. These were prosperous towns and many Zamindars and rich merchants owned such beautiful pieces. There are so many stories linked to these cars that are why people come to the museum. They can love art and yet not be able to relate personally, to a statue or a painting, but they can easily relate to their family car and the adventures you have had in it. They are part of the heritage of India, and should be displayed and learnt about. This paper is based on the case study of the luxury of cars used by rich people and local rajas, baniyas during British Raj.
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    Relic Shrines Pilgrimage
    (The International Conference on Land Transportation, Locomotive Heritage and Road Culture - 2017, 2017) Kumar, A.
    In the South Asian world, the first and second centuries CE gives a new dimension to Buddhism and its pilgrimage with the rise of Buddha image in human form. Whether the image originated in Mathura school of Art or Gandhara school of Art had been a long time question for scholars. This paper does not dwell into the origination of Buddha image but inspite it offers some light on Gandharan regional sites, and relic shrines pilgrimage and routes. Chinese pilgrims' accounts this region mostly confined to Peshawar basin, but due to its unified artistic and stupa tradition which had an extent to South-Afghanistan, as well as on the east of it due to Graeco Roman influences on art, Kashmir is also taken in examples. Buddhist art, culture and traditions flourished in Gandhara which was an ancient region between north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The spread of Semi-Mahayanic tradition and monastic art from India via Gandhara to Central Asia and China played a vital role in the propagation of Buddhism as a world religion. Rise of Buddhism is evident in the period of the 1st century CE to 4th century CE during the rule of Kusana Empire. A distinctive feature of this period was the sustained patronage of Buddhist monasteries, art and architecture. Buddhist chronicles give an idea of pilgrimage sites which venerated body relics of Buddha which later were enshrined in the stupa. It comprises several narrative strands that relate the life story of the Buddha and the manner in which Buddhist teachings and institutions were established on the Gandharan periphery in ancient times. The focus of this work traces the relics associated with the historical Buddha.This paper traces the art and religiousity of relic shrines via Buddhist and cultural context in selecting some specimens of the 4th century BCE until 5th Century CE. Thus the paper will address some broader parameters in the history of Gandharan pilgrimage and move to a focus on Gandharan sculptures and Indo-Greek antiquities, coins that have been subject to concerted collecting efforts in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.