Studies in Indian Art c12.s12: 26. New Mathura Heads and Other Acquisitions to the Mathura Museum
Studies in Indian Art c12.s12
- Language
- English
26. New Mathura Heads and Other Acquisitions to the Mathura Museum
c12.s12.1
It will be profitable to study the preceding head from Mathura with its strong Indo-Scythian features, in comparison with another head (ht. 17.3. c.m.) which also originated from some ancient site in Mathura, but has now found its way to the Budapest Museum. I am indebted to Dr. Zoltan de Takac of Budapest for the excellent photograph reproduced here. The Budapest head wears a cylindrical tapering cap with ornamental parallel patterns and is adorned in front with a rosette enclosing an unopened bud in the centre which is typical of the head-gear decoration during the Kushāṇa period. The ears without extended lobes, the eyes and the facial expression confirm this dating. The Mathura head on the other hand should be assigned to the early Gupta period, and not to 1st century A.D. as stated by Mr. Nagar, the frizzled locks (vellita keśa) and the distended ear-lobes (pralamba-karṇapālikā) pointing to its Gupta affinities.
c12.s12.2
The question of the subjects represented by these two heads is also of some significance. The head in the Budapest Museum seems to depict a secular figure, probably a portrait figure of an Indo-Scythian personage or dignitary of high rank whose foreign origin is emphatically conveyed by means of the gorgeous cap fitting it. This face no doubt conforms more to a standardised style matured during the Kushāṇa period so frequently seen on the male figures from Mathurā. The same thing could also be said with regard to the two portrait heads bearing monograms, viz., Nāyasa (No. 1252) and Lavaṇa (No. 1566) now in the Mathura Museum, illustrated in Dr. Vogel's *La Sculpture de Mathura* (Pl. IV, figs. a-b and c-d). The artists even while executing portraits from life, as undoubtedly they did in the Kushāṇa period, unconsciously succumbed to conventionalised types.
c12.s12.3
But in spite of some traces of a known formula in the facial expression, the Budapest head no doubt represents a secular figure. On the other hand, the identification of the Mathura head with its ribbed cap and frizzled locks is of interest for religious iconography. The figure does not appear to be an attempt to portray from life. The style indicates affinities with Sūrya iconography. The nearest parallel is the head and bust No. D. 1 in the Mathura Museum, wearing an almost similar *kulah* cap, and also having frizzled locks on the nape, and a short beard covering the chin. [Cf. Journal of the India Society of Oriental Art, 1937, Brahmanical Images in Mathura, p. 129, Plate XV, fig. 4.] These figures show considerable Sassanian influence in the matter of drapery, and Dr. Hackin observed the same thing with regard to the marble Sun image discovered from Khair Khaneh near Kabul [Cf. Memoir on the Researches at Khair Khaneh, p. 13.] indicating adoptation of a foreign style in the drapery of the solar images of the fourth century A.D.
c12.s12.4
The plump face and the goggle eyes are still more remarkable. From a close study images of the two attendants of Sūrya, viz., Daṇḍa and Piṅgala, whose statues made of unspeckled-red sand-stone are common enough in Mathura art of the Gupta period, I am inclined to take the head No. 2844 as one which represented one of the two acolytes of Sūrya, more probably Piṅgala, who stands on the right side of Sūrya and holds a pen in right hand and an inkpot or parchment in left. In this connection the best specimen to compare with is an independent image of Piṅgala, No. 513 in the Mathura Museum wearing bushy hair and *kulah* cap with crescent and globule (*candra divākara*) sign on it. The rigid treatment of the whiskers and the stylized pruning of the beard continued right into the early medieval period and is traceable in a more deteriorated form in several late images of Piṅgala and Daṇḍa from Mathura made of white stone.
c12.s12.5
The following antiquities have been selected for description because they present certain new iconographic features and throw new light to illustrate Mathura art.
c12.s12.6
First in importance is a terracotta piece (No. 2440, ht. 3½"), showing a male squatting figure grasping firmly in both of his hands the paws of a fullgrown lion, who is standing at the back and whose beastly fury the human figure seems to have subdued. It is easy to recognise in this an Indian adaptation of the well-known greek sculpture of ‘Herakles and Nemean Lion’ found from Mathura and now deposited in the Calcutta Museum. The terracotta should be attributed to the Kuṣāṇa period on account of the similarity of the face of the Herakles having typical ear-rings with other Kuṣāṇa figures.
c12.s12.7
Next is reproduced a head (No. 2564, ht. 9", fig. 102) of spotted red sand-stone, turned to the right, and wearing a peculiar helmet with two recurved horns. This emblem signified the ‘Iranian Majesty’. (Kushano-Sasanian Coins by prof Hersfeld, p. 22) and has been traced on the so-called Macedonian soldier type of Coins of Kujula Kadphisis I (see Whitehead, Catalogue of Coins in the Lahore Museum, Vol. *Indo-Greek Coins*, p. 173), and also at Mathura from the well-known Indo-Persian capital found from the Chaubara mound, which has four winged animalswit human heads adorned with ram’s horns (see Cunningham, A.S.B., Vol. III, p. 18).
c12.s12.8
There are two more heads (Nos. 157 (fig. 103) and 1511) of this type in the Mathura Museum obtained from Bhuteshwara mound and Asgarpur Village repcetively.
c12.s12.9
Amongst Buddist sculptures we note the upper fragment of a railing pillar (No. 2663, ht. 2'-8 ½"×17 ½") acquired from a site adjoining Mahāban, showing the worship of the Dharmachakra by two devotees in añjalimudrā. The wheel is only a plain disc, but the new feature in the representation is the background of the Bodhi tree foliage shown very much like that in sculptures from Amarāvatī (Ency. Britanica, Vol. 12,p. 214, plate IV, figs. 1 and 4).
c12.s12.10
Among Brāhmanical sculptures the bas-relief (No. 2661, ht. 1'-7") showing a Śiva Liṅga on a pedestal with two worshippers holding thick garlands and wearing coats and trousers or the nothern dress—deserves special notice. The whole scene with a flying celestial showering flowers is carved in a sunken arch, and represents a typical Kushāṇa composition. It is also the earliest representation of the actual worship of a Śiva Liṅga. The vine motif in the loft side border is also an important feature.
c12.s12.11
To the same period must belong the curious sculpture (No 382, ht. 1'10" white stone) with three heads having above them the bust of another figure whose divine rank is indicated the halo above them. The whole is unified by the foliage and flowers of the Aśoka tree carved on the back. The image bears resemblance to the well-known Indra and Nāgarāja sculptures of the Mathurā Museum, and shows the earliest iconographic representation of the four-faced god Brahmā in Kushāṇa art. There are two other similar, but smaller, images of Brahmā of the Kushāṇa period in the Mathurā Museum. (Nos. 2134 and 2481).
c12.s12.12
Three other Brahmanical sculptures of the Gupta period are also important in that they originate from the vicinity of Katra Keshava Deva and may have belonged to the Brahmanical temple which stood on that site during Gupta times. The first (No. 2577, 9 1/4") represents Rāvaṇa lifting mount Kailāśa, on which Śiva and Pārvatī are seated, the former being shown ūrdhvaretas. The scene is full of commotion due to sudden upheaval caused by the tremendous strength of the demon-king.
c12.s12.13
The second fragment (No. 2664, ht. 8") shows the Trivikrama incarnation of Viṣṇu, measuring out the worlds with his outstretched left leg. Both this and the former scene may reckon as being amongst the earliest representation of these myths in Indian Art.
c12.s12.14
The third piece is a pillar fragment showering Yamunā with a Pūrṇaghaṭa in right hand standing on her vehicle the tortoise. Such door jambs bearing the figures of Gaṅgā and Yamunā were a common feature of Gupta temples, and this pillar is strong proof of the existence of a Brahmanical Gupta temple at Katra Keshvadeva, whose plinth is still traceable.
c12.s12.15
A unique image of Gupta period is that of Piṅgala, attendant of Sūrya, having a halo at the back of head and wearing a kulah cap, scarf and Persian coat. The pot-bellied god holds a pen in right hand and an inkpot in left. The image is undoubtedly the earliest representation of Piṅgala so far met with in Indian art.
c12.s12.16
A clay seal with five letters deeply engraved reading Pusadevasa (Pushyadevasya) and a swastika symbol on the knob is important for the early Maurya variety of its Brāhmī script.