HarperCollins presents Pha(bu)llus by Alka Pande with contributions by Johan Mattelaer, Philip Van Kerrebroeck and Amrita Narayanan

jaseya.fazili@harpercollins.co.in | 3 June 2021

Pha(bu)llus explores the intricate network of ideas and beliefs around the phallus and takes the reader on an eye-opening journey through the world; a world where this most obsessed-with body part is the centre of culture and civilization.

Over the ages, the West emphasized upon the sensual symbolism of the phallus, while the East merged its essence with spirituality and religion. From the classical art of ancient Greece to the pyramids of Giza in Egypt to the ornate Shiva temples in India, the phallus sometimes exists as a symbol of fertility, as a symbol of male supremacy, and sometimes as a receptacle of desire and procreation.

Pha(bu)llus uncovers and lays bare the myth, legends and mystery behind what is perhaps one of the most intriguing and erotic motifs in human history.

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‘Pha(bu)llus provided me with a rare and captivating challenge. Through this book, I have explored the  icon of  the male and ‘maleness’ through the lens of myth, metaphor and  magic, traversing global geographies and cultures in the process.’

Alka Pande, Author

‘Phallic symbols abound everywhere we look: in religious and secular architecture, in stories and sayings, in society and in culture. Are we obsessed with the body part that is the phallus? What are the reasons behind the lore that has been built around it through the millennia? Pha(bu)llus is a fascinating illustrative study of a phenomenon that has sustained itself across geographies and cultures, and that continues to define us today. This is a book that we hope will be of interest to many a reader.’

Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher, HarperCollins India  

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About the Author:

Dr Alka Pande is a well-known writer, art historian and art curator. Her major fields of interest are gender identity and sexuality, and traditional arts. She has been the recipient of many awards and honors; she was awarded the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2006, and the Australian-India Council Special Award for her contribution to Indian art in 2009, to name a few. She has authored many books, such as Body Sutra, Panchtattvas: The Road Ahead, Divine Gesture: The Magnificence of Mewar Spirituality, Mukhwas: Indian Food through the Ages, Shringara: The Many Faces of Indian Beauty, Leela: An Erotic Play of Verse and Art, and The New Age Kama Sutra for Women, among many others. Currently Dr. Pande is a consultant art advisor and curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi (India).

 About HarperCollins Publishers India:

HarperCollins Publishers India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and the Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India has been awarded the Publisher of the Year Award three times: at Publishing Next in 2015, and at Tata Literature Live! in 2016 and 2018.

HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Egmont, Oneworld, Harvard University Press, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet.

Pre-Order link: https://amzn.to/3vKrkpK