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Studies in Indian Art c12: VI. Mathura Art

Studies in Indian Art c12

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VI. Mathura Art

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15. Pre-Kushāṇa Art of Mathura

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During the first three centuries of the Christian era, Mathura filled almost the whole picture in the realm of artistic activity in North-eastern India. It is common knowledge that the great Kushāṇa emperors Kanishka, Vāsishka, Huvishka and Vāsudeva were munificent patrons of the Buddhist faith and took pride in raising stupendous monuments for the edification of their cherished religion. Innumerable Stūpas and Vihāras must have been built under their liberal patronage and at Mathura we have evidence of a definite instance in which a Vihāra or monastery owed its existence to the liberality of Emperor Huvishka. The Shāhānushāhis not only evinced personal interest in the erection of public buildings of a religious and secular character, but also encouraged their higher officials to dedicate funds for the endowment of public institutions. In a recently acquired pillar inscription from Girdharpur it is recorded that in the year twenty-eight, in (the month of) September, the first day (of the month) a Charitable Home (Puṇyaśālā) was endowed with a perpetual gift by the nobleman Prāchi, son of Rukamāna, ruler of the Kharāsalera and chief of the Vakana tribe...... ‘Whatever be the merit of the gift, that belongs to His Majesty Huvishka, and to those who hold His Majesty dear’. (J.B.O.R.S., Vol. XVIII, p. 5). This nobleman must have been obviously a devout servant of the Devaputra Shāhi Huvishka, who though of foreign origin was in this case edifying the Brāhmanical religion by endowing a substantial sum for such acts of piety as gave to the Puṇyaśālā its significant name. At Sarnath we have the instance of the Great Satrap (Mahākshatrapa) Kharapallāna and the Satrap Vanashpara who erected a colossal Bodhisattva together with a Chhattra-yashṭi in the year third of the Mahārāja Kanishka (Sarnath Museum Catalogue, pp. 35-36). Thus we may be sure that the abundant architectural output of the Kushāṇa period was the result of a carefully-devised policy emanating from the emperors and permeating the entire rank of state officials. In the development of art and architecture, Mathura took long strides in a short time and perfected its artistic canons to a degree of excellence that for a time put into shade the ancient stone-cutters of Sanchi and Bharhut. Mathura became the most prolific centre of art production during this period and its ateliers flourished as warehouses for the newly conceived Buddha and Bodhisattva images to be exported to such distant places as Sarnath, Sanchi, Kuśinagara and Śrāvasti.

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The sculptors of Mathura were confronted with one supreme task, viz., that of amalgamating the two divergent currents of differing religious traditions, i.e., worship of Kubera with all its attendant Yakshas and Yakshīs, Vṛikshakas and Pushpa-Bhañjikās on the one hand, and the worship of the Bodhisattva or Buddha on the other. It must be said to the credit of these Mahāyānist art-workers that they acquitted themselves remarkably well. They realised that the people were anxious to bow to the Buddha, but not at the cost of the traditional Yaksha. They were ready to welcome the serene Yogi Buddha but did not like to be deprived of the cherished female motifs to which they had been used since the days of the Mauryas and the Sungas. The Buddha figure offered to be integrated on the broad canvas of religious life as one contributing to the refinement of the life inside the home and not to its unsettlement. The Buddha incarnating in stone for the first time was not to play the role of an iconoclast with regard to other deities of the existing pantheon. In art, and in religion, everywhere the prevailing note was harmony and amity, not dissension or discord. The genius of the Kushāṇa art-makers comprehended the problem rightly and rendered a good account of themselves by producing most splendid and beautiful specimens of the Bodhisattva, the Buddha, Viṣṇu, Sūrya, Śiva, Jina, Kubera, Yakṣas, Nāgas and their female counterparts.

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We may briefly summarise the achievements of the Kushāṇa artists as follows:—
1. Carving out for the first time the Buddha figure in stone;
2. Making images of the various Brāhmaṇical deities, as Sūrya, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Durgā, Sarasvatī and Seven Mothers, etc.;
3. Perfecting in an endless variety the ancient cult of the Kubera and Yakṣa worship and giving plastic forms to them, in short a faithful adherence to the older traditions of Sanchi and Bharhut both in composition and technique;
4. Retaining the non-sectarian character of their work and yet serving the ends of all the three cults, the Buddhist, Jaina and Brāhmaṇical.

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But the great age of the Kushāṇas, though veritably the golden age for the Mathura School of sculpture, does by no means represent its beginning. They were not novices in the art of stone-cutting who fashioned the Katra Bodhisattva (Mathura Museum, A 1), portraits of Wema, Kanishka and Chashtana and a vast gallery of most beautiful and perfectly carved railing pillars with figures of Yakṣiṇīs and Vṛkṣakās engraved on one side and Jātaka and life-scenes of the Buddha on the other. The traditions of the Mathura School were already of respectable antiquity when the revival of art took place under the Tigra-khaudas. The early Indian school of Sanchi, Bharhut and Bodh-Gayā had an important outpost at Mathura, where remarkable parallels of the Yakṣīs and Vṛkṣakās, dwarfs and fantastic animals, toraṇas and railings were being constantly wrought in considerable numbers. Dr. Coomaraswamy remarks that ‘the school of Mathura is more nearly related to Bharhut than to Sanchi, and is represented by some fragmentary sculptures which must go back to the middle of the second century B.C.’. It is proposed in this article to give an account of the pre-Kushāṇa specimens found at Mathura and now preserved in the local Archæological Museum, and we shall naturally devote our attention to the elucidation of certain points connected with the famous group of the colossal Yakṣa images which are said to be the most conspicuous specimens of the old national and indigenous school of art in India.

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Mathura must have been an important centre in the Mauryan empire of Aśoka, but it is strange that while Sarnath, Prayāga and Sanchi were considered suitable sites to be chosen for the erection of his monolithic inscribed columns, Mathura, an important town connecting, as a natural emporium of trade, the north-west with the centres on the lower Gaṅgā, should have remained without any such monumental remnant of the Great Buddhist Emperor.

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It has been affirmed with some justice that no genuinely Mauryan relics have so far been discovered at Mathura (R. B. Rama Prasad Chanda, *A.S.R.* 1922-23, p. 164). In none of the sculptural finds can we detect the characteristic polish which proclaims without doubt the Mauryan nature of a find. But it is hard to believe that Mathura as a religious centre was at a discount in the Mauryan age. We read in the life of Hiuen Tsang: "In the kingdom of Mathura there are still to be seen the *stūpas* in which were deposited of old the relics of the holy disciples of Śākyamuni, viz., Sāri-putra, Mudgalāyana, Pūraṇa-Maitrāyaṇi-putra, Upāli, Ānanda, Rāhula and Mañjuśrī. On the yearly festivals, the religious assemble in crowds at these *stūpas*, and make their several offerings at the one which is the object of their devotion. The followers of *Abhi-dharma* offer to Sāri-putra, and those who practise contemplation (*dhyāna*) to Mudgalāyana. Those who adhere to the *Sūtras* pay their homage to Pūraṇa-Maitrāyaṇi-putra. Those who study the *Vinaya* honour Upāli, religious women honour Ānanda, those who have not yet been fully instructed (*catechumens*) honour Rāhula; those who study the Mahā-Yāna honour all the Bodhisattvas. Five or six *li*, i.e., about a mile and a quarter to the east of the town is a monastery on the hill said to have been built by the venerable Upagupta. His nails and beard are preserved there as relics" (*Mathura Memoirs* by Growse, part I, p. 62). These seven *stūpas* with the exception of that of Rāhula, are the same as those noted by Fahien. Now we know from the *Aṅguttara Nikāya* that Sāri-putta¹, the foremost of the highly wise (*Maha-pañña*), Mahā Moggallāna, the foremost of the possessors of miraculous powers (*iddhimantānam*), Punna Mantaniputta, the foremost of the preachers of dhamma (*dhamma-kathikānam*), Rāhula, the foremost of the students (*sikkha-kamānam*), Ānanda, the foremost of the vastly learned (*bahussutānam*) and Upāli, the foremost of the masters of Vinaya (*Vinayadharānam*), were the most proficient disciples of the Buddha in subjects noted against them and their names can be recognised in Hiuen Tsang's list of saints whose *stūpas* existed at Mathura from days of old with relics of the above worthies enshrined in them from a remote antiquity. What that period could possibly have been when *stūpas* were raised over the relics of these great teachers? It seems but reasonable to suppose that it should have been the age of Aśoka when Mathura was fitly honoured by the construction of a number of holy *stūpas*. Nor need the mention of Mañjuśrī disturb us, for Hiuen-Tsang is careful enough to associate the Mahāyānists with the worship of the *stūpa* if Mañjuśrī and the other Bodhisattvas, who were thus isolated from the gallery of older patriarchs being worshipped by their respective followers.

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¹ *Journal of the Department of Letters*, Calcutta University, Vol. III, 1920, pp. 252-53.

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It is not necessary to dwell more on the achievements of Mathura sculptors during the Mauryan age in the absence of any definite site which could be demonstrated as sheltering a Mauryan monument. The reason of such an absence may probably be that all that was excavated at Mathura during the last seventy-five years was not adequately surveyed at the time of proper operations, or it is also just likely that there are yet some mounds which may one day bring to light genuinely Mauryan relics both in the field of sculpture and architecture. This should be so specially with a thorough exploration of the sites which have yielded Sunga relics, like the Parkham statue, and the Mora and Ganesha inscribed bricks or the fine cross-bar of the Gāyatrī-Ṭilā. The paucity of sculptural specimens of the Aśokan art of the Maurya period may be said to be more than compensated by an abundance of the pre-Maurya and Maurya terracottas discovered at Mathura in surprisingly large numbers and deposited in all the big Museums in India and outside. The study of these terracottas is a vast subject in itself and it is much to be regretted that a systematic treatment of the problems disclosed after such study is a desideratum in our study of the ancient Indian art.

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The earliest extant specimens of sculptures at Mathura bring us face to face with the so-called Ancient National School, which arose side by side with and possibly even prior to, the Aśokan school, and a continuous history of which may be traced for four hundred years in India (A.S.R., 1922-23, p. 164). Sir John Marshall speaks of three main classes of pre-Kushāṇa sculptures at Mathura; the earliest belonging to the second century B.C. (to which class we would assign the Parkham statue and Mansīdevī), the second to the following century; and the last associated with the rule of the local Satraps (Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, pp. 632-633). Amongst specimens of the first class stand out the colossal statues of Yakshas discovered at Parkham and Baroda villages and Yakshiṇī called Mansā Devi still worshipped at Jhinga-ka-nagara village in the Mathura district. The first two are preserved in the Mathura Museum while the Yakshiṇī is in situ 13 miles north of the city.

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The present writer had the good fortune of recently discovering another colossal statue of a Yaksha, an exact prototype of the Parkham image, having a lateral topknot on the head and standing with an epic force of volume and expressiveness (Figs. 61, 63). The image is of the same stone as the Parkham Yaksha, and most probably bears an inscription between its feet, but the inscription level of the image has not yet been penetrated. The height of the image visible above ground is 5 feet, its girth at shoulders inclusive of both arms is 7 feet. There are three very heavy earrings suspended in each cloven ear-lobe. The flat torque (graiveyaka) is tied at the back of the neck by a band having an inter-woven knot and terminating in two very beautiful tassels which most artistically dangle below on the back and whose thick flowery terminals are shown as if attached to the loop and the allied lotus-shaped medallion fastened within it, this latter device being intended to keep in position the conspicuous flat triangular necklace of the chest in front (Fig. 63). The artistic effect of these brocaded bands and the clever way in which the sculptor has arranged them far excels any other thing of the kind so far seen on these colossal Yaksha figures. The figure wears a dhoti which is held fast by a girdle on the loins and there is a second flat girdle laid round the chest touching the lower-most fringe of the necklace. This device of the second girdle is also found in a slightly varied form fulfilling the same purpose in the corpulent Yaksha figures of the Kushāṇa period (cf.. Vogel's Catalogue, C 3). In the right upper arm there is an armlet decorated with an outstretched plumage of three feathers, while in the forearm are seen four bracelet bangles of the finest workmanship and studded with jewels of various shapes and sizes. The right arm is turned at the elbow and raised towards the shoulder. It seems to have held something which was supported against the shoulder, probably a chaurī (Fig. 61). The left arm is broken away but it may have held a purse as in the Parkham Yaksha. Technically the figure is in all details related to the Parkham image, and artistically also it is a replica of the same though much improved in finish and gracefulness of pose.

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Fig. 61 Mathura Yaksha (Profile View)] [Figure: Fig. 62 Vaiśravaṇa Yaksha] [Figure: Fig. 63 Mathura Yaksha (Back View)

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These Mathura images have been spoken of as ‘the crudest products of the early Indian school’ (R. P. Chanda, A.S.R. 1922-23, p. 165), nevertheless they evince some genuinely aesthetic features. They should not be understood to be isolated examples of an art prevailing in the third and second centuries B.C. We have till now discovered about ten such big statues and it will be found useful to give the following list of them :—

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1. Yaksha from Parkham (*MM. C. 1, Fig. 37*).
2. Yaksha from Baroda village (*MM. C. 23, Fig. 39*).
3. Yakshi image called Mansā Devī still worshipped at Jhinga-ka-nagara, 13 miles north of Mathura.
4. Another colossal Mathura Yaksha, discovered by me *Figs. 61, 63*.
5. Patna Statue of Yaksha *Vuṭnundi* in the Bharhut gallery of the Indian Museum, Calcutta.
6. Colossal statue of another *Bhage* (Bhagavān) Yaksha in the Indian Museum, Calcutta.
7. Inscribed Māṇibhadra Yaksha from Padmāvatī now in the Gwalior Museum (*A. S. R. 1915-16, p. 105-06*) (*Figs. 36, 38*).
8. Female Chauri-bearer from Didarganj in the Patna Museum.
9. Colossal female statue from Besnagar, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (Smith's *History of Fine Art*, p. 62, Plate XIV). ‘An uninscribed colossal statue of a female, 6 feet 7 inches in height, and found near Besnagar adjoining Bhilsa in the Gwalior State, Central India, a locality associated by tradition with Aśoka, is attributed to his regin on account of the style and costume. The image now illustrated for the first time (Plate XIV) has suffered so severely from violence and exposure that it is difficult to estimate its æsthetic quality but so far as can be judged from what is left, the statue was a good naturalistic figure, probably intended for a Yakṣhī, or minor deity’. (Smith's, ibid, p. 62-64).
10. Colossal female statue, 7 feet high, locally known as the Telin, or oil-woman, existing within the walls of Besnagar (Smith's, ibid, p. 64; Cunningham's *Reports*, Vol. X, p. 40).

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Attention may also be invited to the stone figure without head and feet, excavated by Pandit Dayaram Sahni at Kosam and illustrated in plate XXI of *A. S. R.* 1921-22. On page 46 of the *Report* is suggested that the figure probably was of a Yaksha but unfortunately no dimensions of the same are given. On account of its very close resemblance with the style of the Parkham and Pawāyā Yakshas, the image deserved a more detailed notice than accorded to it in the *Report*. The triangular flat necklace, folds of flesh below the breasts, the *dhoti*, and the belt, position of the left hand suspended low and holding probably a purse, mark it out as an example of the old school, the same feature of the left hand being common also to the two Patna statues and the Pawāyā Yaksha. In the same plate (XXI b) is given a Sarnath female chauri-bearer which is stylistically suggestive of the ancient National School. The Besnagar Kalpa-Vṛiksha in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, is also an example of this same old school.

Identification

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There has been a mass of controversy about the identification of the first eight figures in the above list which constitute a distinct icon-group. The archaic aspect of the Parkham and two Patna statues and a reading of their inscriptions led Mr. K. P. Jayaswal to pronounce them as portrait statues of the great Śaiśunāga Emperor Ajātaśatru and of Udāyin, Nanda and Varta Nandin respectively, who reigned between 600 B.C. and 400 B.C. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy and several other scholars were once inclined to favour acceptance of Prof. Jayaswal's views, but later researches and a more thorough study of the development of the old indigenous art has led them to revise their opinions, as will be evident from the following remarks of Dr. Coomaraswamy about the Parkham Yaksha: "But in view of more recent criticisms it is impossible to adhere to Jayaswal's views and it is necessary to revert to the opinion that the statue represents a Yakṣa and must date from the third century B.C." (*History of Indian and Indonesian Art*). Mr. Rama Prasad Chandra minutely entering into epigraphical details has examined the question at length in his article entitled "Four Ancient Yaksha Statues" (*Journal of the Department of Letters*, Calcutta University, Vol. IV) and has to a large extent succeeded in establishing that this group of images represents the ancient Yaksha figures.

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We propose here to deal with this question on the basis of three sources, viz., (a) epigraphy, (b) tradition, and (c) iconography, and shall see in the end that arguments from these different sources point to one unanimous conclusion.

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A. EPIGRAPHY.

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The images found at Parkham, Jhinga-ka-nagara, Patna and Pawāyā bear inscribed records on them.

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1. PARKHAM IMAGE :—Vogel's reading of the inscription is as follows :— (*ṇi*) *Bhadapugarinā(ka)*.........(*ga*)atha.........*pi*.........*Kuni(ka)* *tevāsinā* (Gomita-kena) *katā*.

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"Made by Bhadapugarin......Gomitaka the pupil of Kunika" (Vogel's Catalogue, p. 83). Here the first letter should be read as *ṇi* instead of *ni*, then *bhada* becomes clear. It is likely that the lost letter before the initial *ṇi* may have been *ma*, and then the first word would be restored as Maṇibhada, which is also the name of a famous Yaksha on the large figure found at Pawāyā. The two letters after *bhada* have been read as *puga*, by Dr. Vogel and Sten Konow, but elongated right vertical of *pa* and the horizontal top hook of *ga* make it more probable that the word intended was *pūge*, which will give the meaning that (the image was placed) in the *pūga* or guild of Maṇibhadra, an analogy being available in the *gauṣṭhi* of the *Maṇibhadra-Bhaktāḥ* at Padmāvatī. The remaining two letters after *pūge* are read as *rānā* or *rājā* and the rest are doubtful. It is just possible that they gave the name of the reigning king. The inscription falls into two parts and I am inclined to believe that in the first portion running on the proper right side and between the legs were recorded the circumstances, time and locality of establishing the image, while in the second half portion on the proper left side was given the name of the sculptor by whom the image was made (*Kuṇikatevūsinā katā*), a peculiarity of construction also found in the record on the Mansā Devī image. The last but one letter on the front side is decidedly *pi* (as read by Dr. Vogel) and it is very likely that the entire word read as *paṭithāpito*.

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2. MANSA DEVĪ, FEMALE IMAGE.—The inscription on the female image in worship at Jhinga-ka-nagara in the Mathura district has been deciphered by Mr. Chanda (A.S.R. 1922-23, p. 165) from whom we quote below:

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"Rai Bahadur Pandit Radha Krishna of Mathura has now discovered another statue of the same age, a colossal female figure seated on a wicker chair (mooṛā) at present worshipped as Mansa Devi in a modern temple at a village called Jhinga-ka-nagara (Nagariya), 13 miles to the north of Mathura. The head of the statue is lost and has been replaced by a modern one. The front side is covered with a thick coat of vermillion, but on the pedestal between the feet is a mutilated inscription in three lines which may be read as follows:—

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1. *Sā puṭehi kārito.*
2. *Yakhilāyāvā Kunikāte.*
3. *(Vāsinā Nāke) na katā.*

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(This image of) Yakṣi Lāyāva has been caused to be established by.........together with his sons, and made by Nāka, pupil of Kuṇika."

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Thus according to the inscription itself the Mansā Devi is the image of a Yakṣī or Yakshi. The two verbs *kārita* and *katā* are applicable to the donor and the sculptor respectively. In the now-remaining letters of the Parkham image inscription, it is not possible to trace the word *Yakha* (Yaksha) but if the Kuṇika mentioned in it and the Mansā Devī inscription refer to the same teacher whose disciples carved the two images, then on the analogy of the Yakṣī carved by Nāka, pupil of Kuṇika, we may safely identify the image of Parkham to be that of a Yaksha, made by Gomitaka, another pupil of the same Kuṇika. The expected inscription on the new Yaksha is sure to throw much welcome light on this knotty point.

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3. PAWĀYĀ STATUE.—This image of Maṇibhadra was discovered by Mr. Garde, Superintendent of Archaeology, Gwalior State, at a place called Pawāyā, the site of ancient Padmāvatī and is now preserved in the Museum at Gwalior. The front face of the pedestal bears the following inscription in Sanskrit in the script of about the first century A.D.:—

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1. 1 राजः स्वामि शिवनन्दिस्य संवत्सरे चतुर्थे ग्रीष्मपक्षे द्वितीय २ दिवसे
1. 2 द्वादशे १०२ एतस्य पूर्व्या गोष्ठ्या माणिभद्रभक्ता गर्भा सुखिताः भगवतो
1. 3 माणिभद्रस्य प्रतिमा प्रतिष्ठापयन्ति गोष्ठयां आयु बलं वाचं कल्याणा-
1. 4 भ्युदयं च प्रीतो दिशतु ब्राह्मणस्य गौतमस्य क्रमारस्य ब्राह्मणस्य रुद्रदासस्य शिवत्रदाये
1. 5 शमभूतिस्य जीवस्य खंजबलस्य शिवनेमिस्य शिवभद्रस्य कुमकस्य धन दे—
1. 6 वस्य दा....।

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This image of Māṇibhadra was installed in a club (*goṣṭhī*) by his devotees. M. M. Hara Prasad Sastri conjectured without much support that Māṇibhadra was some Bodhisattva, but R. B. Rama Prasad Chanda has proved beyond doubt on the basis of evidence derived from Sanskrit, Jaina, and Buddhist literature that this Māṇibhadra was the name of a Yakṣa (*Four Ancient Yakṣa Statues*, pp. 3-6). We can therefore be sure that this Māṇibhadra was a Yakṣa whose worshippers organised themselves into a kind of guild and dedicated the image of their favourite deity inside its premises.

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4. PATNA STATUES—These two statues bear the following records according to Mr. Chanda :—
(a) *Bhage Achachha-nī vī ka*
(b) *ya kha Sa (?) rvaṭa namdī*.

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The first may be rendered in Sanskrit as अक्षतनीविक which is the auspicious name of the deity associated with inexhaustible wealth (*akṣaya-nīvi*) and he can be no other than one of the gods in the train of the tutelary deity of wealth, the lord of the Yakṣas. The second needs no straining and is clearly designated as a *yakṣa* or Yakṣa and his Sanskrit appellation can be rendered as सर्वत्र-नन्दी. From the epigraphic evidence collected here it is clear that the trend of the record is to style these images as those of Yakṣas whose high position in the pantheon is indicated by the application of such honorific titles as Bhagavān.

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B. TRADITION.

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1. BARODĀ IMAGE—The two parts of the colossal male figure from Barodā near Parkham (Mathura District) are even more massive and archaic than any of the other figures; the complete statue must have been over 12 feet in height (Dr. Vogel's *Catalogue*, p. 92 ; Mathura Museum No. C. 23). The carving is much obliterated but the heavy earrings, the necklace with four tassels at the back, and the flat girdle suggest a close relationship between this figure and the Parkham image which it surpasses in size. Pandit Radha Krishna obtained these fragments from the village of Barodā, four miles from Parkham and 2 miles from Chhargāon. It was being worshipped under the name of Jakheya. The information contained in the last sentence is of utmost importance for the identification of such images. It is not a little surprising that the village folk should have clung so persistently to the hoary tradition of worshipping this colossal image as a Yakṣa.

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² NEW MATHURA YAKṢA (Fig. 61, 63)—It was one of my rare surprises when, strolling in a village, in reply to a query about some old images, I was told by four illiterate simple village-men that they had none of the objects I wanted except a big statue which they were worshipping as Jakheya. I readily offered to see what it was and discovered in a minute the beautiful image illustrated here in Figs. 61, 63. In this case too, the tradition has faithfully preserved through at least twentytwo centuries the name by which the image must have been designated on the day of its original creation.

C. Iconography

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The evidence furnished by epigraphy and supplemented by tradition is also confirmed by the iconographic form and style of these images. They constitute stylistically a distinct icon-group, the technical traditions of which have been handed down through at least half a millennium from the second century B.C. to the third century A.D. The Yaksha formula supplied by these big statues was followed and adopted in the case of numberless images of moderate dimensions carved during succeeding centuries, representing Yakshas, Nāgas, Bodhisattvas and Vishnu.

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We have above referred to the purse carved in the left hand of the Parkham (only the purse still remaining), Pawāyā and Patna Yakshas. The purse was a characteristic symbol of the Yaksha-rāja Kubera in the iconography of the Kushāṇa period and no wonder if this feature is traceable to a much earlier epoch. Then the protuberant belly (Kumbhodaratva) was also the mark of the Buddhist god Jambhala, and this feature is conspicuous in the two Mathura statues, as also in a number of other images found at Mathura. The costume is always a dhoti tied with a belt on loins and another girdle tied round the chest, while later on we also find a scarf thrown over and passing on the back. Of ornaments we recognise a flat torque, triangular necklace, armlets, and very dumpy earrings. We may perhaps be justified in recognising the mention of the torque in the following sūtra of Pāṇini:—

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Kula-kukshi-grīvābhyo Svā-sya-laṅkāreshu, IV. 2. 96.

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This regularises the form graiveyaka in the sense of a neck-ornament. As available examples of the earliest graiveyakas we can quote the flat torques round the necks in the Parkham, Barodā and other Yakshas, which along with the triangular necklaces were handed down to the images of the Kushāṇa Bodhisattvas.

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It is clear from the above that three classes of evidence viz., iconographic, epigraphic and stylistic, converge in pointing to but one conclusion, viz., that in at least the third century B.C. there flourished a school of art wholly the result of indigenous traditions and possessing a separate individuality of its own, which inspired the cutters of the Maurya-Śuṅga periods to conceive and create colossal images worshipped as Yakshas. It seems reasonable to suppose that this school did not come into existence all at once in the Mauryan period, but should have been the result of development of several centuries before that. We know of the cyclopean walls of Jarāsanda kā-Baithaka which have been assigned to the Śaiśunāga period, and which point to the use of stone for building purposes in at least the sixth century B.C. It is in the fitness of things that Pāṇini, whose date on a moderate estimate must be fixed at about 500 B.C., makes mention of takshan artisans, which term we prefer to render by the word sculptor, because the rival term for a cartwright was rathakāra and vardhakī. As to the enquiry about the artistic canons of Pāṇini's takshans the most plausible answer that suggests itself is that they were representatives of the old Indian school of sculpture, termed above as the Ancient National School. This school should not be considered an upstart in the third or second century B.C. It must have naturally passed through an evolution of several centuries prior to the subsequent period when the masons of India came to be influenced by the Hellenistic cutters of the north-west. It is due to the existence of a gradual and protracted evolution of artistic traditions that the ancient Indians succeeded in creating absolutely independent types and motifs which in the judgment of all critics are pronounced and unaffected by traces of foreign influence. We gather from Pāṇini that there were two kinds of *śilpins* (artisans), viz., those belonging to the village and those working for the king. These two classes were (1) *grāmaśilpī* and (2) *rāja-śilpī* respectively. The sūtra *Grāmaḥ śilpini* (VI. 2.62) is illustrated by such form in the *Kāśikā* as *grāma-nāpita* and *grāma-kulāla*, i.e., the village hair-dresser and the village potter. The latter workman most probably was responsible for turning out pottery and terracottas in which the village-folk were interested. The other Sūtra *rājā cha-praśam-āyām* (VI. 2. 63) states that when praise is implied for the work of the artisan, the word *Rājan* is added as a former member of the Karmadhāraya compound without effecting any change in the accent of the latter member. The general form obtained would be *rāja-śilpī* which was to include all workmen attached to royal courts and not providing for the simple tastes of the country life. As special class of artisans coming under the *grāma-śilpī* category Pāṇini has himself spoken of the *grāma-takshan* (V. 4. 95), i.e., a stone-cutter catering for the democratic art, as opposed to court art. In fact the *Kāśikā* gives the counter-example of *Rājñas-takshā* (king's sculptor) as opposed to *grāma-takshā* or village-stone-cutter of Pāṇini (V. 4. 95).

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Let us consider what these two classes of art-workers stood for. Scholars have testified to the existence of a two-fold art tradition in the Mauryan period. The monuments of Aśoka, highly polished monolithic columns with their spirited animal-mounted capitals, have been assigned to be the products of the official or court art of the Emperor. The other was a purely indigenous art embodying the older Indian traditions and ministering to the needs of a people interested in the worship of Yakshas, Nāgas and Dryads (tree-spirits). Dr. Coomaraswamy who has fully dealt with the subject, remarks that "the distinction was not so much between a native and a foreign art as between a folk art and a court art. Probably the most important examples of the old art are the famous free-standing figures from Besnagar and Parkham, etc. of colossal sizes. Although of archaic aspect, and designed from a frontal view point with flattened sides, they represent a relatively advanced art and imply a long anterior development and practice, if only in the handling of wood. Magnificently conceived they express an immense material force in terms of sheer volume; they are informed by an astounding physical energy which their archaic "stiffness" by no means obscures" (*H. I. I. A.*). This is the most reasonable view to hold about the past history and evolution of the old indigenous art otherwise known as the Ancient National School, wrought at the hands of the *grāma-takshans* whose services were requisitioned by the people for purposes of embellishing their *chaityas* (chetiyas or chaeyas) principally with the architectural and sculptural forms of railings and *toraṇas*. This was an art untouched by the philosophy of the great enlightenment which made men look before and after in search of an ideal. The same learned authority further states that "There is no suggestion here indeed of introspection or devotion, this is an art of mortal essence, almost brutal in its affirmation, not yet spiritualised. But this is the material that must later on be used to serve the ends of passionate devotion (*bhakti*) to spiritual and unseen powers, and for the exposition of cosmic theory in terms of an elaborate theology; the same energy finds expression in the early Kushāṇa Buddhas and survives even in the more refined creations of the Gupta Age".

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A detailed study of the specimens of the early school represented in the Yakṣas and Yakṣīs on railings and *toraṇas* at Sāñchī, (Fig. 61) Bharhut, Bodhgaya and Mathura, leads us to an important problem of Indian iconography, viz, the Indian origin of the Buddha image. One has just to look at the following series and one will not be able to resist the conclusion that the Bodhisattva type of the early Kushāṇa period, colossal and carved in the round, is a direct descendant of the early Yakṣa types. We feel as if the face of the Parkham or Patna Yakṣa has been transplanted to the torso of the Sarnath Bodhisattva or the Mathura Bodhisattva in the Lucknow Museum. Dr. A. Coomaraswamy who has treated the subject at length (Origin of the Buddha Image, *Art Bulletin*, 1927, pt. 4, Museum of Fine Arts) has also drawn attention to the stylistic continuity presented in the following:—

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1. Parkham image (8' 8") in the Mathura Museum; (Fig. 37).
2. Patna Yakṣa with head (Fig. 40).
3. Bodhisatva in the Lucknow Museum, originally found at Mathura (8').
4. Image of Bodhisattva Śākya Muni at Sarnath (8' 1½") [*Sarnath Museum Catalogue* B (a) 1'; gift of Bhikshu Bala of Mathura.

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"In such a series the relationships are very evident, and there is no room for the insertion of any Hellenistic type". (*Yakṣas* by A. K. Coomaraswamy, p. 30). Here we meet with an unconscious or at least unintentional stylistic evolution. "In early Indian art, so far as cult images are concerned one inconographic type stands out predominant. That is the standing figure with the right hand raised, the left on the hip. Sometimes the right hand holds a flower, or *Chauri*, or weapon; sometimes the left grasps the robe, or holds a flask, but the position of the arms is constant; those with four or more arms do not appear before the second century A.D., when the fundamentals had already been established. Stylistically the type is massive and voluminous, and altogether plastically conceived, not bounded by outlines; the essential quality is one of energy, without introspection or spiritual aspiration. Of this type are the early images of Yakṣas and Yakṣīs whether independent or attendant. And it is also this type which provided the model for cult images of other deities, such as Śiva or Buddha, when the necessities of *Bhakti* determined the appearance of all deities in visible forms". (*Yakṣas*, p. 29).

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Stylistically speaking, therefore, the Yaksha-Bodhisattva formula affords a complete and most satisfactory explanation of the origin of the Buddha image as a genuine expression of the Indian sculptors' artistic genius.

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We have to remember that in the earlier Buddha-Bodhisattva images produced by Mathura artists the difference of style between the Buddha and the Bodhisattva figures is absent. As instances may be quoted the Katra and Anyor Buddhas (MM. Nos. A. 1 and A 2) which are mutually similar in style and form, representing the seated Bhagavān Buddha under the Bodhi tree in the attitude of imparting protection, but the one is called a Bodhisattva and the other an image of Buddha. Their inscriptions inform us:—

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A 1. *Budharakhitasa mātare Amohā-āiye Bodhisacho patiṭhāyito*.....i.e., Budharakhita's mother Amohā-āsi erected the Bodhisattva.

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A 2. *Upāsakasya Sushusya Hārushasyu dānam Bu(d) dh pratimā*.....i.e., The Buddha image is the gift of Upāsaka Susha of Hārusha.

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Dr. Vogel remarks in this connection that 'palaeographical evidence points to the sculpture (A. 1) belonging to the early Kushāṇa period. It is with the Buddha image of Anyor (A 2) the oldest representation of Śākyamuni of which the date can approximately be fixed by an inscription, and must be one of the first Buddhist images made in Mathura'. (*Vogel's Catalogue*, p. 48). According to him A 2 *Buddha-pratimā* may be assigned to the early Kushāṇa period on account of the character which agrees closely with that of the Sarnath Bodhisattva inscriptions of the third year of Kanishka. The image is the oldest Buddha figure designated as such in an inscription and must, therefore, be one of the first representations of Buddha found in India, excluding Gandhara. (*Vogel's Catalogue*, p. 49). The question of Gandhara characteristics, if any, in the style of these Buddha images, need not detain us, as here we aim at showing that in the Mathura school the artists in the beginning made no distinction between a Buddha and Bodhisattva statue. They had before their mind's eye the stylistic type of the Yaksha and the idealistic type of Śākyamuni. Iconographic niceties between Buddha and Bodhisattva did not matter to them.

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This Yaksha-cum-Bodhisattva-Buddha formula is seen applied at its best in the colossal Sarnath and Lucknow images, the former one [Sarnath Museum No. B(a)1] has been invariably designated a Bodhisattva in the three inscriptions engraved on the image and its umbrella-post (*Chhatra-yashṭi*) [Vogel's Catalogue of the Sarnath Museum, pp. 35-36]. The absence of this distinction between Buddha and Bodhisattva is attributable to so late a date as the year third of king Kanishka.

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Thus it is established that the earliest Buddhas or Bodhisattva at Mathura were cast into the plastic moulds of the Yaksha forms of the ancient Indian School. Nevertheless scholars like Dr. Coomaraswamy whilst recognising the independent contribution of the Mathura school in the shaping of the Buddha image on the lines of older traditions have noted the fact 'that a Hellenistic element, plastic and iconographic of some kind, enters into and is absorbed by Indian art, remains' (*H. I. I. A.* by Coomaraswamy).

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Much has already been written for and against the famous theory of the Greek origin of the Buddha image, propounded by Foucher, and once adopted by many adherents. Of late, criticism on the point has become more sober and scholars are beginning to feel that emphasis on an absolute origin in one school is academical rather than real, because the importance of foreign or Gandhāra influences in the composition of the Yogi Buddha image is only slight. Mr. Vincent Smith went so far as to say that the Gupta Buddha is 'absolutely independent of the Gandhāra school'. It should then be conceded that the Kushāṇa Bodhisattvas and the transitional forms could not originally have been derived from Gandhāra.

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Let us look at the facts from an unbiassed point of view. Mathura in the first century B.C. came under the sway of the Śaka-Satraps, viz., Mahā-Kshattrapa Soḍāsha and his father Rañjuvala, and others. The most famous monument of this period is the well-known Lion-capital of Mathura, now in the British Museum, with Kharoshṭhī inscriptions which mention the Mahāsanghika order of monks, the Sarvāstivādin monk from Nagar and an other resident of Taxila. It was during this period that intercourse between Mathura and Gandhāra seems to have been fairly established, as a result of which the workmen of the interior of India came into contact with those of the North-west for the mutual advantage of both. Within the geographical triangle of Ujjain, Mathura and Taxila held under the sway of the Kshaharāta Satraps, named Nahapāna, Soḍāsha and Liaka respectively, was witnessed the powerful mingling of three different currents of culture, ancient Hindu, Yavana (Greek) and Iranian (Śaka-Parthian), in the first century B.C. and later. Mathura became the sacred spot for the confluence of this *Trivenī* of cultures, and this contact is fully reflected in the specimens of its Museum (*cf.* R. P. Chanda's remarks in the *Report of the Mathura Museum for 1931*, page 7). It became a period of unprecedented artistic activity and supplied a befitting prologue to the age of the Great Kushāṇas in the first and second centuries A.D.

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In this interval the earlier Buddhist school of Mathura with its fundamentally Indian character received an inspiration partly from the North-west, but there also it thoroughly indianised its borrowings (*cf.* Vogel's *Cat. of Mathura Museum*, p. 33). It continued to follow unhampered the traditions of Bharhut and Sāñchī in the making of numberless types and compositions, viz., the Yakshīs, Vrikshakās, Atlantes, winged animals, tritons, Padma-pāṇi¹ Yakshas, Jātakas, life-scenes of Gautama, figures of donors, lotus-seat etc., and also its architectural forms of *stūpas*, *vihāras* and *chaityas*, the Buddhist railing and the Toraṇas, together with a vast array of animal and floral designs and sacred symbols. Thus equipped with an effective individuality of its own and coming into possession of an enhanced political prestige during the Śaka-Satrap period, it stretched out one of its hands with the Buddha and Bodhisattva figures to offer to Gandhara, and the other hand with the same delectable present eastward to Sarnath, Sahet-Mahet, Kusīnārā and Bodhgaya which were once important centres of ancient National School in East India, where numerous Mathura Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have been unearthed. R. B.

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Rama Prasad Chanda writes about this eastward contribution of Mathura: ‘There is apparently a gap of about three centuries in the history of sculpture in Eastern India between the Śuṅga and the Gupta periods, and almost all sculptures of the intervening space that are found there are either importations from Mathura or are works of artists from Mathura with red sandstone as the material’ (A. S. R. 1922-23, p. 170). What has been said above with regard to the westward expansion of the Mathura school, may as well apply to the eastward expansion of the Gandhara school, as Dr. Coomaraswamy succinctly puts it: ‘It (Gandhara art) may be described from one point of view as representing an eastward extension of Hellenistic civilisation, mixed with Iranian elements from another as a westward extension of Indian culture in a western garb’. (H. I. I. A.). This discovers to us in a most balanced manner the contribution of one school to the other, and having juxtaposed the two together as neighbours, independent yet friendly, guides us to the grasp of that status in which in ancient times the courses of their progress mutually influenced each other. After all that has been said and written, the fact remains of the old Indian art, now shifted from Sāñchī to Mathura still continuing to flourish in full vigour and splendour during the first three centuries of the Christian era in the Śūrasena country, of course with the absorbed traditions of its new culture-feeders.

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¹ Examples of Padma-Pāṇi Yaksha in the ancient Indian sculpture occur at the following places: 1. Sāñchī-Guardian Yaksha at the base of a pillar, north Toraṇa (Fig. 64) : 2. Āmin (Thaneshwar) Yaksha with *Padma* in hand; 3. Mathura Yaksha on railing pillar with lotuses in right hand (Fig. 66); also Smith's *Jaina Stūpa*, pl. 64).

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Let us now turn to other examples of older art at Mathura. It is well known that in the scenes from the life of Buddha depicted in the older art; *he is not represented in human form, but only by symbols*, of which the *chaitya-vriksha*, Bodhi-druma, Stūpa, and Dharmachakra or the wheel are the most usual. Beneath the Bodhi-tree is an altar (*Bodhi-maṇḍa*) or throne (*vajrāsana*). On the other hand, in all Jātaka scenes, the future Buddha (Bodhisattva) is visibly represented in his human or animal form. The anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha figure nowhere occurs in the plastic language of the ancient Indian school at Sanchi, Bharhut, Bodh-Gaya or Mathura. At Amaravati in the second century A.D. we find the old symbolic schemes are still in use but side by side with these is also met the image of the Buddha introduced as an integral part of the composition. Between Sanchi and Amaravati stands the Mathura school, whose Jaina Tīrthaṅkara images and some of the Buddhas or Bodhisattvas cannot be related to any known examples of the Gandhara school.

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In the pre-Buddha image period in Mathura sculpture the use of the following symbols representing Buddha deserves notice:—

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1. Dharma-chakra on pedestal (MM. 438, Fig. V). It is found in the central medallion of a railing upright (2 feet in height), found in a well at the Mahādevaghāṭ, adjacent to Jumna Bagh in Sadar. Above is a half-lotus, in the centre is installed a Dharma-chakra from which four streamers are flowing, placed on a Damaru-shaped pedestal in which the central cylinder is joined to two sets of triple parasols. The Dharma-chakra is thus elevated to a Sapta-bhūmika Āsana (seven-storeyed seat). In the lowest medallion is carved a winged lion expressive of great spirit. The specimen must belong at least to the first century B.C. and was discovered in the vicinity of the group of mounds, Saptarshi and others, which yielded the famous blue schist female Queen or Hāriti.

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2. Stūpa-worship (Vogel's Catalogue No. I. 10). This is a frieze probably belonging to the Urdhvapatta of a Stūpa. It depicts the worship of a Stūpa decorated with two parasols worshipped by a Sreshṭhin preceded by two attendants carrying parasols probably intended to be dedicated to the Stūpa.

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3. Two other symbols, the Ushṇīsha and the begging-bowl (Bhikshā-pātra) are shown on a Toraṇa tympanum carved on two sides (MM. No. I. 1), each divided by concentric arches into three lunulate areas. On one face the centres of the three compartments are occupied by an alms-bowl apparently filled to the brim with offerings, a Buddha seated in the protecting attitude, and a Bodhisattva in royal attire seated in meditation under a tree. On the reverse we have in upper compartment Buddha's head-dress which, as we know, received the homage of the thirty-three gods and in the central one a Bodhisattva (Dr. Vogel's Catalogue, p. 133).

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This piece must belong to early first century A.D., and is interesting as an iconographic epitome in that it shows the symbolical and anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha and Bodhisattva treated together.

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Another noteworthy example of the Śuṅga period is a jamb fragment (MM. No. 1516) consisting of several panels of carving but of which only the first one is completely preserved, while in the second separated from the upper one by a Buddhist railing are seen head of two male figures with characteristic heavy Śuṅga turbans. The interest of this piece proceeds from its representing a Chaitya-vriksha very closely resembling the Kalpadruma from Besnagar (now in the Calcutta Museum) encircled by a square railing, in the angles of which are planted three parasols dedicated to the tree spirit.

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Toraṇa Jamb No. H.12 is important for two reasons, firstly it makes us familiar with the earliest form of seat originally meant for the symbols but here supporting the Buddha himself, and secondly for the plastic form of the Buddha's face which very much resembles the old Bhikshu faces. The composition depicts the scene of the four Lokapālas presenting Bhikshā-pātra to Buddha, but it must be a very early piece belonging to the beginning of the first century A.D. The graded pyramid placed inverted on a square Āsana, represents the seat for the Buddha which at once reminds of the Sapta-bhūmika Āsana of the Dhamma-chakra described above (MM. 438). This peculiar pedestal is in turn supported by a pair of addorsed lions. The whole piece is effectively reminiscent of the transitional forms in the growth of the Buddha image.

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The Vedikā or railing was the most important product of the early art and was cherished as the main object for display of the sculptor's decorative skill. The emergence of the Buddha image gradually threw the railing into the background. It was still the favourite theme in the Kushāṇa period but went out of fashion during the Gupta epoch. The railing originally consisted of the following parts: —

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1. Upright pillars having three mortices on each side (Pali thaba, Sans. stambha).
2. Cross-bar (Suchī).
3. Base (ālambana-piṇḍikā).
4. Coping-stone (Uṣṇīṣa).

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The railing flourished as an architectural feature common to the monuments of all the three religions. Instances of Buddhist railings are already so numerous.

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Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar succeeded in excavating railings (Śilā-prākāra) in the Hindu shrine of Sankarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva at Nagarī ancient Mādhyamikā (Arch. Survey Memoir No. 4, p. 119), and has remarked in this connection that "without being dogmatic on the point, I must say that I could not help thinking that what are now called railings round Stūpas were really pujā-śilā-prākāras, though they were round and ours was rectangular" (Ibid., p. 129). He has rightly connected this instance of a Hindu railing termed the pujā-śilā-prākāra with the silāvigadabhichā occurring in the Rummindei pillar inscription of Aśoka. For examples of Jaina railings we may remark that though King Khāravela of Kalinga has referred to the Kalinga Jaina image (line 12) and the temples of all deities (sarva-devāyatana) in line 17 of Hathi-gumpha inscription, which facts prove the antiquity of the Jaina religious art in the second century B.C., it is the unique fortune of the Mathura School that instances of Jaina railings have been unearthed at one of its most ancient sites, the Kankali Tila. Hundreds of examples of railing pillars and cross-bars decorated with a vast multitude of animal, floral and religious patterns were found which are now deposited in the Lucknow Museum and have been adequately illustrated in V. A. Smith's The Jaina Stūpa of Mathura. The finds from the Kankali site constitute a group by themselves for purposes of detailed study of the Mathura sculpture. There existed on the Kankali site, Mathura, a Jaina Prāsāda (temple) in the second century B.C., to which subsequently another was added about the middle of the first century B.C. Dr. Bühler wrote that "with respect to the history of the Jaina sect, we learn through No. 1 (inscription of Utaradasaka recording the gift of a prāsāda-toraṇa) that the Jainas were settled in Mathura in the second century B.C. and through No. XX (vodve thupe deva nirmite) that an ancient Jaina Stūpa existed in Mathura, which in A.D. 167 was considered to have been built by the gods, i.e., was so ancient that its real origin had been completely forgotten". (Bühler, E. I. Vol. II, p. 198). To quote again "there were two temples (*prāsāda*) on the site of the Kaṅkālī mound. One of the two temples existed on the evidence of the very ancient No. 1 of my second series of Mathura inscriptions already in the middle of the second century B.C., while the likewise archaic inscription No. IV of the same series which records the creation of the second temple cannot be later than about the middle of the first century”. (*E. I.* Vol. II, p. 319). For an example of the ancient Jaina Stūpa carved in sculpture may be cited a figure given on a cross-bar medallion from the Kaṅkālī site (Smith’s *Jaina Stūpa*, plate 72, fig. 1, here Fig. 22). Bhandarkar has drawn attention to this edifice as an example of a square Stūpa. He writes, “It is a structure built in horizontal tiers and must be a *Stūpa* as indicated by the heavy sausage-shaped garlands”. (*Excavations at Nagarī*, Archaeological Memoir No. 4, p. 136). The structure is surmounted by a Dharma-Chakra. The whole figure is an exact replica of the figure already described (MM. No. 438) as a Dharma-Chakra on Sapta-Bhūmikā-Āsana or *Prāsāda*, and this view is further strengthened by comparing the winged lion on the lower medallion of the Buddhist upright with that carved on the reverse medallion of the Kankali tila cross-bar. We know from other specimens of Mathura art that the wheel was a symbol common to both Buddhism and Jainism. The Stūpa likewise was a monument raised by the followers of these two religions for enshrining the relics of their saints. As examples of the Jaina Dharma-Chakra and Stūpa we have reference to the *Wheel and the Relic Memorial* in line 14 of the Hathigumpha cave inscription in the following words :-

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