Archishman Sarker

Archishman Sarker is an art historian. His doctoral research at JNU examined how images and manuscripts shaped religious life and artistic practices in c. 10th-12th century CE eastern India, focusing on the visual cultures of Buddhist traditions and the ways artworks functioned within everyday, scholarly, and ritual worlds. His broader scholarly interests encompass the historiography and reception of South Asian art from the early historic period to c. 1200 CE, focusing on artistic institutions, knowledge systems, and the circulation of ideas and materials.

For his work, Archishman has received support from the Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Indian Council of Historical Research, Neil Kreitman Foundation, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg, Association for Art History (UK), Fondazione Bruschettini, etc. His writing has appeared in venues including The Burlington Magazine, Religions of South Asia, and Scroll, among others. He also advises museums, public institutions, organisations, and private collections on research-driven approaches to acquisition, cataloguing, and the public presentation of South Asian art.