Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Studies in Indian Art c13.s5: 38. Kīrti, Kīrtimukha and Kīrtistambha

Studies in Indian Art c13.s5

Language
English

Contents

38. Kīrti, Kīrtimukha and Kīrtistambha

I

c13.s5.t1.1

Recently Dr. B. C. CHHABRA had drawn attention to the technical meaning of the word *kīrti* and its cognate *kīrtana*, both of which denoted ‘a shrine’ or ‘a temple’. It is clear that, though in a majority of cases the word *kīrti* denotes ‘a temple’, it also means ‘a monument’ in general, ‘any constructional work or sculptural object intended to perpetuate the memory of its author’, and that in this sense the word *kīrtana* can also be employed¹. We propose to examine the word more closely.

c13.s5.t1.2

¹ B. Ch. CHHABRA, *Kīrti*: Its Connotation, *Siddha-Bhāratī*, pp. 38-42.

c13.s5.t1.3

The mediaeval Sanskrit lexicons record *kīrti* as an equivalent of *prāsāda*— *kīrtir yaśasi vistāre prāsāde kardame’pi cha* (Hemachandra, Anekārthasaṁgraha).

c13.s5.t1.4

MONIER-WILLIAMS on the authority of lexicons had recorded so early as 1899: ‘*kīrti*=*prasāda* (favour) or *prāsāda* (a palace)’. Although the printed text of the Medinī gives *kīrtiḥ prasāda-yaśasoḥ* and some others follow, it may be stated categorically that *prasāda* is an error for *prāsāda* and that *kīrti* never was an equivalent of *prasāda*. The other synonym *prāsāda* denotes both ‘a temple’ and ‘a royal palace’, as Dr. CHHABRA has mentioned. It is not correct to render *kīrti* as ‘a palace’, as Monier-Williams had done; the meaning of ‘temple’ or ‘shrine’ is more appropriate, but needs clarification.

c13.s5.t1.5

Originally the word *kīrti* signified an excavated chaitya-hall. The earliest epigraphic use of *kīrti* occurs in a copper-plate inscription found in 1839 in front of the large arched cave or chaitya-hall at Kanheri on a ledge of the mountain, some 30 or 40 feet below inside a big tope with 2 coins and dated in the year 245 of the Traikūṭakas (A.D. 493):

c13.s5.t1.6

*tāvat kīrtiḥ sthireyaṁ bhajatu śubhakārī satsutaṁ puṣyaṇāmnaḥ*²

c13.s5.t1.7

² Published in the *JBBRAS*, V. p. 32, pl. XXVI; Archaeological Survey of Western India Series, No. 10, Inscriptions from the Cave-temples of Western India, Kanheri Caves, Ins. 1, line 8.

c13.s5.t1.8

‘So long may this permanent *kīrti* remain auspicious to Pushya’s noble son!’. What was the nature of this *kīrti* monument is mentioned in the epigraph as:

c13.s5.t1.9

*Ārya-śāradvatīputrasya chaityaṁ ghaṭitapāṣāṇeṣṭakābhiḥ.........pratiṣṭhāpitavān*,

c13.s5.t1.10

i.e. ‘he established the chaitya of dressed stone-bricks which was dedicated to the venerable Śāradvatīputra. It is to be noted that the chaitya was not a *chaityamaṇḍapa* or chaitya-hall but a stūpa which was also called *chaitya*. The expression *ghaṭitapāṣāṇeṣṭakā* may mean ‘dressed stone blocks and bricks’ or dressed stone-bricks, preferably the latter. One thing is clear that the monument referred to as *kīrti* in 493 A.D. was structural and not rock-cut. The meaning of *kīrti* current in the fifth century applied to such monuments as were then known. Structural stūpas and chaitya-halls and Brahmanical temples had come to be erected in the Gupta period, side by side with rock-cut caves or chaitya-halls and even rock-cut temples.

c13.s5.t1.11

To understand the origin of the word kīrti we must look to the earlier tradition of the pre-structural stage of chaitya monuments.

c13.s5.t1.12

As firmly evidenced by the chaitya-halls at Bhājā, Pitalkhorā, Koṇḍane, Bedsa, Karle, Kanheri, Ajanṭā, etc. these selaghara, selamantapa, chetiaghara monuments were excavated in the face of live rock. Their construction was remarkable, comprising a large opening to admit light and air, an inner pillared hall with vaulted roof, two aisles, and a semi-circular apse accommodating a rock-cut stūpa. It has been admitted by all authorities that prior to the introduction of rock architecture there was a stage when the chaitya-halls were erected in timber. Such appears to have been the chaitya-prāsāda of Rāvaṇa in Laṅkā which was reduced to ashes by Hanumān:

c13.s5.t1.13

tatra chāgniḥ samabhavat prāsāda chāpy adahyata. (Sundara. 43. 18).

c13.s5.t1.14

But gradually the technique of cutting the chaitya-halls in rock was discovered and perfected, and this architectural mode fired the imagination of the people.

c13.s5.t1.15

Here then there was the scope for a new word. The cutting or scooving of the rock commenced with the boring of an opening into the facade of the intended chaitya-hall. The facade (gharamukha) consisted of two parts, a large opening above now called chaitya-window and a lower solid screen pierced by three doors, one in the centre to give access to the nave (maṇḍapa) and the two side ones to the two aisles (pradakṣiṇāpatha). As the work proceeded the opening was widened and the debris from inside was thrown or cast outside through that opening. The hollowed out maṇḍapa of the interior was given the literal designation of kīrti and the initial opening with which the cutting commenced and which served a very real function in the execution stage was naturally called kīrtimukha. The ancient terms for our modern chaitya-window must have been kīrtimukha. We are familiar with the root ut-kṛ—'to dig up or out, hollow out, excavate, carve, engrave'. The root is shown to have the meanings 'to pour out, scatter, throw, cast' (MONIER-WILLIAMS). The word kīrti was a verbal noun from √kṛ and in the earliest semantic phases was considered quite adequate to denote a modest and plain excavated or hollowed out chamber, such as the early cells (garbha) and caves (guhā) must have been. That the original rock-cut chaitya-halls must have been so designated is also borne out by the historical etymology of the two subsequent words kīrtimukha and kīrtistambha. Let us first dispose of the second one.

II. Kīrtistambha

c13.s5.t2.1

Literally the word kīrtistambha implies 'a pillar associated with kīrti'. We actually have such free-standing lofty pillars in front of the chaitya-halls at Karle, Kanheri, etc. As a matter of fact such pillars formed an integral part of the earliest chaitya-prāsāda architecture, This is borne out by the description of the *prāsāda* in Laṅkā, of which a monumental pillar formed a distinguishing land-mark: *prāsādasyu mahāms tasya stambham hemaparishkṛitam/ utpāṭayitvā vegena Hanumān mārutātmajaḥ* (Sundara. 43 17).

c13.s5.t2.2

We may go even earlier, and we find that the stūpa monument, when standing under the open sky, had also its free standing pillars. The mounds of thick yellow clay rammed as hard as stone, at Lauriya Nandangarh offer typical examples. Their contents indicate that they were burial mounds. In the particular mound in which a piece of gold-leaf with the figure of the Earth Goddess was found, a little below that level was discovered a long hollow shaft 10" in diameter showing that once a wooden pillar was placed there. In another adjoining mound the shaft of the wooden pillar was found *in situ*. We have another instance in the A'okan pillar installed in front of one of the Gateways of the Great Sānchi Stūpa. Probably reference to a wooden pillar (*sthūṇī*) associated with a mound of earth raised over the relics of the departed ones may be traced to the Ṛigveda X. 18. 1.¹ The Sabhāparvan refers to such a pillar erected on the top of a *śmaśāna chaitya* as *chaityayūpa*, the two together invoked as a befitting *upamāna* in point of loftiness to Viṣṇu riding on Garuḍa.²

c13.s5.t2.3

¹ *ut te stabhnāmi pṛthivī tvat parīmam logaṃ nidadhan mo aham ṛisham. etām sthāṇāṃ pitaro dhāruyantu te' trā yamaḥ sādanā te minotu. I keep off the earth above thee, while over thee I place this clod (or heap) of earth. May I be free from injury. Here let the Pitṛis make stead-fast this pillar for thee, and there let Yama make an abiding place for thee.*

c13.s5.t2.4

² *chintayāmāsa kṛiṣhṇo'tha garuṭmantaṃ sa chābhyayāt, kṣhaṇe tasmin sa tenāsīch chaityayūpa ivochchḥritaḥ* Sabhā 22.22, Poona Edn.

c13.s5.t2.5

Thus in accordance with a well-established old custom the *caitya-prāsāda* was provided with its associative column. This explains the existence of *Kīrtistambhas* in front of *kīrti* excavations.

III. Kirtimukha

c13.s5.t3.1

The term *kīrtimukha* was at the outset applied to the chaitya-window or the big round opening through which the excavation work began and gradually proceeded. It was virtually the gaping mouth of the excavated interior. The curve of the opening was rudimentary in the earliest caves being broader at the base; it then became hemispherical, the two open ends of the curve were still further drawn inside until it became a perfect circle in the Gupta period. Apart from its functional role as an opening for scooving in the rock and subsequently for admitting light and air into the dark interior of the hall, the *kīrtimukha* was also adopted as a decorative pattern and its miniature repetitions were employed to beautify the cornice mouldings or doorways or other portions of the facade. In this new setting the small chaitya-windows enclosed human heads, mostly female faces peeping out of windows (*gavākṣa* or *vitīyana*). On the facade of the chaitya-hall of cave XIX at Ajaṇṭā, we find the miniature chaitya-windows with female faces employed as a very elegant decorative device on the exterior of the cave. In course of time the human faces were substituted by lion-faces as decorative members of the chaitya-window patterns, and these became known as *kīrtimukhas* or *kīrtivaktras*. On the pillars of the Gupta period we find the *kīrtimukha* decoration in which the lion-face has been accepted as a natural member of the pattern. But the *kīrtimukhas* attained to their fullest possibility as an architectural member on the front portion of the *śikhara* of a Hindu temple. The functional chaitya-window or the large circular opening of the excavated caves had long been superseded or left behind, but it was retained as the principal decorative element on the facade of the *śikhara*. This monumental lion-face was termed *kīrtivaktra* (*tadūrdhve kīrtivaktraṃ tu nirgamākītim bhāvayet*, Mānasāra 18. 146) or *harivaktra* (*kīrtivaktraṃ harivaktraṃ choktavat kārayet sudhīḥ*, Mānasāra, 18. 151).

IV. Kīrtana

c13.s5.t4.1

The word *kīrtana* was derived from the same root as *kīrti* and used in the same sense. Grammatically they are analogous to *dṛṣṭi* and *darśana*. From the seventh century onwards the use of *kīrtana* for a ‘temple’ became increasingly popular. Āryaśūra had used it in the *Jātakamālā* as a current term of the Gupta cultural vocabulary (*śrīmanti kīrtanaśatāni niveśitāni satrājir āśramapadāni sabhāḥ prapāś cha*. Jātakamālā, p. 219; EDGERTON, *Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary*, p. 184). But the most conspicuous use of the word occurs in the Ellora Inscription engraved on the Kailāsa temple which is called a *kīrtana*: *kartāpi yasya khalu vismayam āpa śilpī tan nāma kīrtanam akārayata yena rājñā*. Dr. FLEET missed the significance of the word and rendered it as ‘fame’ (*Ind. Ant.*, XII. 159). But Dr. HULTZSCH appraised its true meaning and worte that ‘the word must be taken to signify a temple’ (*Ind. Ant.* XII. pp. 228-229). HULTZSCH added two examples from literature, viz. from the Kādambarī (*kurvan kīrtanāni lekhayan śāsanāni.....Pṛthivīṃ vichachāra*, ‘he travelled the earth.....constructing temples and causing land grants to be written.’) and the Agnipurāṇa (*kīrtanāni cha kārayet*), ‘cause temples to be constructed’. As noted by Dr. P. K. ACHARYA, it was originally Pt. Bhagavanlal INDRAJI who had realised *kīrtana* as a technical term meaning ‘a temple’, ‘a shrine’ (*Ind. Ant.* IX, pp. 34, 36 and note 13). (Acharya, *An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture*, p. 117-118).

c13.s5.t4.2

In an inscription dated V. S. 1093 (A.D. 1036) are found the significant words *kīrtitam*, with reference to a Viṣṇu temple in a cave at Udayagiri near Bhilsa (B. C. CHHABRA, op. cit. p. 42). The past participle form *kīrtitam* means ‘was built’ and here the original sense of the root *kṛ* was retained in its semantic evolution.

c13.s5.t4.3

The period from about 300 to 1200 A.D. falls into three divisions of almost equal length during which Indian sculpture passed through three phases of maturity. Stylistically, these phases correspond to the Classical, Gothic and Rococo conventions of Western art. In Indian history they are known as the Gupta (300-600 A.D.), the early medieval (600-900 A.D.) and the late medieval periods (900-1200 A.D.). The present chapter deals with the history and characteristic features of Indian sculpture during the first phase, whilst the last two phases will be treated in their proper place in the next section.

c13.s5.t4.4

The Gupta period has often been described as the Golden Age of Indian history, above all in the domain of art. In the words of Kālidāsa, the greatest thinker of the age, the art of the period maybe described literally as ‘fine art’ (*lalita-kalā*, *Raghuvamśa*, VIII, 67). It reflected indeed a passion for refinement that was patent in every walk of life; it eliminated ponderousness and volume and concentrated more and more on elegance, producing ultimately a surpassing grace and delicacy which distinguish Gupta work from that of all other ages.

c13.s5.t4.5

Gupta sculpture is, more consciously and explicitly than most schools of plastic art, a synthesis between the external form and the inner meaning. As Kālidāsa has put it, it is like the union of Speech and Thought (*vāg-artha-sampṛkta*, *Ragh*. I, 1). The spiritual content underlying the outer forms of Gupta art is writ eloquently in the faces of the Buddhist and Brahmanical images, which combine an intense religious feeling with a tranquil and classical charm. Such expression can only represent the achievement of a true harmony, at this period, of thought and action in the actual lives of men. In the religious sphere the Bodhisattva ideal of the preceding Kushāṇa epoch, enjoining each to live for all, gave place to a new ideal of the attainment of the highest wisdom as an individual objective (*anuttara-jñānāvāpti*). In accordance with this new outlook, each seeker looked for reality within himself and strove for individual deliverance. He became himself a glowing centre of beauty and spirituality. The introvert vision of the Gupta Buddha image is sharply distinguished from the open, smiling countenance of the Kushāṇa Bodhisattva. Peace, light, and bliss, emblems of the highest wisdom, are reflected in the radiant visage of the Gupta Buddha. The change is visible to anyone who looks at a seated image of Buddha carved in the Sarnath School (*Fig. 120*) or the standing Buddha image of the monk Yaśadinna wrought in serene contemplation, or the image of the sage Kapila in the Isurumuniya Vihāra in Ceylon.

c13.s5.t4.6

The Buddha image was first made some time in the early Kushāṇa period. The evidence of the dated images points to the beginning of the reign of Kanishka as the time of its first appearance in stone. The image from Kosam is dated in the year 2 of Kanishka, i.e. 80 A.D., or forty years later according to some scholars. The seated Bodhisattva image from Kaṭrā Koshavadeva, Mathura, although undated, is considered to be a typical example of the art of the first century A.D. (Fig. 150). If we compare it with standing Buddha image of monk Yaśadinna in the Mathura Museum, we notice a remarkable difference of style. The distinguishing features of the Kuṣāṇa and the Gupta images of Buddha and Bodhisattva may be briefly tabulated as follows:

c13.s5.t4.7

| KUSHANA | GUPTA |
| 1. Plain halo with scalloped margin. | Elaborate halo covered with lotus design. |
| 2. Absence of beaded border in the halo. | Presence of beaded border as part of the decoration of the halo. |
| 3. Simple background of seated figures. | High-backed throne with horizontal architrave and brackets of prancing figures (vyāla-toraṇa), as in the seated Buddha at Sarnath. |
| 4. Muscular body. | Elegance of form. |
| 5. Shaven hair. Spiral hairlock covering bump of intelligence. | Shaven hair type extremely rare. Hemispherical protuberance on head covered with short curls. |
| 6. Bodhi tree carved on the back slab. | Absence of the Bodhi tree. |
| 7. Drapery partly plain and partly folded; folds less stylised. | Drapery entirely shown folded; folds more stylised. Specimens with foldless drapery rare. |
| 8. Folds of saṃghāṭī engraved. | Folds shown in relief. |
| 9. Drapery covers the left shoulder (ekāṃsika). | Drapery covers both shoulders (ubhāyāṃsika). |
| 10. The lower garment reaching the middle of the leg from knee to ankle. | Drapery falling still lower. |
| 11. Presence of fly-whisk bearing attendants in seated images. | Absence of this feature. |
| 12. Right hand in abhayamudrā joined to the back slab with a projecting cushion. | Right hand in abhayamudrā carved free. |
| 13. Ūrṇā mark between the eyebrows usually present. | Same mark absent in most cases. |
| 14. Eyes round and fully opened; the line of the eyelids projecting. | Eyes elongated and slightly opened; no projecting eye-line. |
| 15. Upper and lower eye-lids equal. Figure looking up or towards the spectator. | Upper eyelid broader. Gaze fixed at tip of nose. |
| 16. Plain border of saṃghāṭī. | Edge of the saṃghāṭī frilled and ornamented. |

c13.s5.t4.8

Fig. 150 Bodhisattva Image from Kaṭrā Keshavadeva, Mathura Ist Century A.D.

c13.s5.t4.9

Fig. 151 Bhairava—Terracotta plaque from Ahichchhatra, Gupta Period.

c13.s5.t4.10

Fig. 152 Peripatetic Aspect of Śiva with the begging bowl, Ahichchhatra, Gupta Period.

c13.s5.t4.11

Fig. 153 Dakṣiṇāmūrti—Terracotta plaque from Ahichchhatra, Gupta period.

c13.s5.t4.12

Thus the Gupta type of image shows many features of stylistic evolution which can be easily distinguished. Aesthetically the Buddha image attained a high perfection in early Gupta art. It becomes the true vehicle of the spiritual quality of Gupta culture, which found its consummation in Perfect Wisdom. This supreme ideal of the Mahāyāna was now, according to the *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka*, called the *Ekayāna*, ‘The Only Way’. Both in the seated and the standing images, the figures are gracefully conceived with “wet” drapery revealing the form without excess of folds or ornamentation. The image is now fully evolved and becomes the arch-type for all subsequent Buddhas, whether in sculpture or in painting, and whether in India or abroad. The *mudrās* or poses of the hands become clearly defined for specific purposes. The figures of the two attendant Bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara and Maitreya, establish themselves in full majesty as independent images. Beautiful specimens of them have been found; for example, the Avalokiteśvara figure in the Sarnath Museum standing on a fullblown lotus.¹ Near the Bodhisattva’s feet appear two tantalized spirits (*preta*) with emaciated bodies whom the compassionate lord is feeding with a stream of nectar flowing from his right hand. Similarly the cult of the Bodhisattvas with the effigy of their spiritual parents, the Buddha’s, became widely popular in this period. Amongst the best creations of the age may be reckoned the standing Buddha of Mathurā, the seated Buddha of Sarnath in preaching pose, the colossal copper Buddha from Sultangunj (Bhagalpur), now preserved in the Birmingham Museum, and the bronze Buddha in the Boston Museum—all products of about the 5th century and marked by ineffable sweetness and spiritual calm.

c13.s5.t4.13

¹ Sarnath B(d) 1—Catalogue of the Sarnath Museum, pl. XIII (b).

c13.s5.t4.14

Another aspect of Gupta art is its wide geographical range. From Dahparbatiyā in Assam to Mirpurkhās in Sind, monuments of Gupta sculpture are scattered all over the country-side. Great centres of the art included Sārnāth, Mathurā, Pāṭaliputra, Devagarh, Bhitargaon, Udaigiri, Nāgod, Bhumarā, Ajantā, and the Gandhāra province, where a great mass of remarkable sculpture, in stone and in stucco or baked clay, was produced. Outside India, the school exercised far-reaching influence on the art of China and the Far-East, moulding them into something of an all-Asian pattern.

c13.s5.t4.15

Architecturally, Gupta sculpture is often integrated with the increasingly elaborate architecture of structural temples and excavated cave-shrines. In the Kuṣāṇa period the image was predominant and the modest shrine was only just beginning to appear. It more or less resembled the form of a *gandha-kuṭī* improvised with three plain slabs held in position by a flat top. In the Gupta period the image of the deity, now fully evolved, found its counterpart in a fully evolved temple with flat roof, porch and plinth. The two match admirably and each a gem in its own way fits the other like jewel and its setting. Subsidiary images and reliefs of attendant figures also find their due place in the scheme of temple-decoration. For instance, at Devagarh the main enshrined image must have contributed not a little to the beauty of the temple; but so also, and more obviously, did the carved reliefs representing subsidiary images on the plinth and doorway. The entrance of the Daśāvatāra temple marks the high point of exquisite carving. The figures of Gaṅgā and Yamunā in the upper corners and the pairs of male and female attendants (pratihārīs) occupying the lower portions of the jambs are fine specimens of sculpture. Other decorative motifs on Gupta doorways included figures of dwarfs (pramatha), small flowers (phullavallī), scroll work (patrāvalī or patralatā), the auspicious tree (Śrīvṛiksha), the full-vase (pūrṇaghaṭa), and pairs of flying geese (haṃsamālā) (Fig. 11). We also find in some places the lotus and conch symbols (śaṅkha and padma) carved on the jambs. These together with the figures of Gaṅgā and Yamunā form a characteristic feature of Gupta art, and both are mentioned in the works of Kālidāsa. As a typical decorative feature of the seated images may be mentioned the highbacked seat with a prancing horse or animal (vyāla-toraṇa) between the pillars of the architraves on both sides of the back, e.g. on the seat of the Sarnath Buddha image.

c13.s5.t4.16

Sculpture also found a due place in the cave-architecture of the period. Specially rich in this aspect are the facades of Cave XIX at Ajanta and of the Caves at Karli and Kanheri, in which images of the Buddha occur as a beautiful and effective feature of the decoration.

c13.s5.t4.17

From the point of view of iconography, the Gupta age marks an advance over the preceding Kuṣāṇa period. In the Kuṣāṇa art at Mathurā the earliest forms of Buddhist iconography appear in the images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and the age was also the formative period for the images of the principal Brahmanical gods such as Viṣṇu, Brahmā, Śiva, Kārttikeya and Sūrya, and of goddesses such as Sarasvatī, Lakṣmī and Pārvatī. But the artists were still feeling their way and conventions were elastic. With the advent of the Gupta age, about 300 A.D., not only do the sculptors follow conventionalized formulas (dhyāna), but they also work on an expanded pantheon in which the number of gods and goddesses and their līlās greatly increased. For example, Viṣṇu, is represented holding different attributes in his four hands, and also in the guise of his various incarnations (avatāras) of Trivikrama, Varāha, Narasiṃha, Rāma and Kṛiṣṇa. The form of Viṣṇu resting on the cosmic serpent Śeṣa appears in several examples, the most outstanding being the one at Devagarh (Fig. 12). The deities Kārttikeya, Indra, Brahmā and Śiva also appear in their developed iconographic forms in the upper part of this panel. In the same temple are two other sculptured reliefs encased in door-frames, forming niches projecting exteriorly from the temple walls known as rathikā-bimba, and representing two other parts of Viṣṇu legend, namely, his rescue of the lord of elephants from the clutches of a gigantic serpent (Gajendramokṣa), and Nara and Nārāyaṇa engaged in austerities in their Himālayan hermitage at Badarīnātha (Nara-Nārāyaṇa-tapasya). In this important temple, dedicated to Viṣṇu under the name of Keśavapurasvāmī, were carved in the panels of the plinth the life-stories of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa. The scenes from the Rāmāyaṇa include Rāma and Lakshmaṇa practising archery, the redemption of Ahalya, Sītā and the two brothers marching to the forest, and the episode of Śūrpaṇakhā (Figs. 131-33). In several minor panels fixed in the upper course of the plinth were found subsidiary scenes, e.g. monkeys making a bridge over the sea, Bāli and Sugrīva combating each other, and Sugrīva appeasing the angry Lakshmaṇa.

c13.s5.t4.18

¹ Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art figs. 158-161.

c13.s5.t4.19

The story of Kṛṣṇa had not previously been identified in the Deogarh temple, but recent examination has revealed scenes from the Kṛṣṇa-līlā carved on some panels of the plinth. The more conspicuous ones depict Kṛṣṇa's birth and transference from the prison cell, Nanda and Yaśodā with the holy children in Gokula, the toppling-over of the toy-cart (śakaṭa-līlā), and others. Perhaps the most interesting is the scene showing Kṛṣṇa receiving his supplicating friend Sudāmā leaning on a crooked staff, in the presence of Rukmiṇī, perplexed at the generosity of her husband. In a couple of Gupta sculptures of the Mathurā school, Kṛṣṇa's dance on the head of a serpent (Kālīya-damana) has been identified.

c13.s5.t4.20

The remarkable bronze statue of Brahmā from Mīrpurkhās, Sind, now deposited in the Karachi Museum, is an exceptionally good specimen of the art of metal-casting in this period. But comparable with Viṣṇu in rank and popular grace was Śiva, whose classical story is sung with exceptional charm by Kālidāsa. By devoting his attention both to Rāma through the Raghuvamśa and to Śiva through the Kumārasambhava, Kālidāsa, as the representative genius of the times, points to the synthesis of the rival claims of these two gods. We have evidence in Kushāṇa sculpture of the Pāśupatas and the Bhāgavatas fashioning their images to win sectarian recognition. During the Gupta period Śiva and Viṣṇu are no longer sectarian deities but emerge as national gods entitled to universal adoration and the same high honour as was bestowed on the Buddha; and images of Śiva in the form of ekamukhī-liṅga now came much into vogue (Fig. 136).

c13.s5.t4.21

The most important group of Gupta temples has survived in Central India, namely at Udaigiri, Bhumarā and Khoh in Nāgod State and at Nachnā-Kutharā in Ajaigarh State. The temple at Bhumarā has preserved a fine Śiva-liṅga and a still finer one has been found at Khoh. These temples also contain images of the principal gods and goddesses of the Brahmanical pantheon popular in classical times. A conclave of them is found in each temple, almost corresponding to their enumeration by Kālidāsa in the Kumārasambhava (II. 20-26); that at Bhumarā, for example, preserves those of Yama, Sūrya, Kubera, Brahmā, Indra, Kārttikeya and Mahiṣāsuramardinī. The colossal image of Mahāvarāha at Udaigiri, depicting the scene of the rescuing of the earth from the ocean (pṛthivī-udvahana) is a powerful sculpture and affords an instance of geo-tectonic movement expressed in art. A kindred subject is the lifting of Kailāsa by Rāvaṇa, found at Mathurā, and Mount Govardhana by Kṛṣṇa, of which a beaautiful example exists on a pillar from Māṇḍor in Jodhpur State.¹ The sculpture of the late Gupta and early Pallava period shows other examples of the successful rendering of tense colossal movement in sculpture, of which the Mahiṣāsuramardinī carved at Mahabalipuram is a good example.

c13.s5.t4.22

¹ Kumārasambhava, VII, 42 (mūrte cha Gaṅgā-Yamune tadānīṁ sachāmare devam-aseviṣātām) ; Meghadūta, II, 17 (dvāropānte likhita-uapushau śaṅkha-padmau).

c13.s5.t4.23

¹ Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, p. 86, fig. 166 ; A.S.I. A.R., 1905-6, p. 135, fig. 1.

c13.s5.t4.24

Fig. 149. Mahānārāyaṇa Viṣṇu, Mathura, Gupta Period.

c13.s5.t4.25

In the great Śiva temple at Ahichchhatrā were recently unearthed a number of beautiful terracotta plaques of large size, which had formed part of the frieze around the upper terrace of the temple and depicted the principal events in Śiva's life: his destruction of the sacrifice of Dakṣa Prajāpati, his father-in-law, the holocaust wrought there by his playful gaṇas, his assumption of the terrific form of Bhairava (Fig. 151), his peripatetic aspect with the begging-bowl in hand (Fig. 152), his ūrdhva-retas form as Lakuḷīśa, his dalliances with Pārvatī in the renewed marital life, and finally his reposeful ascetic form as Dakṣiṇāmūrti, Lord of yoga and divine wisdom² (Fig. 153). With the growth of the complex Puranic pantheon a full picture of which can be built up from the works of Bāṇabhaṭṭa in the first half of the 7th century A.D., the scope of Saivic iconography was greatly enlarged, and this is more fully reflected in the next phase of artistic development represented in the great temples of Aihole and Ellora built during the early Chālukya and the Rāṣṭrakūṭa periods.

c13.s5.t4.26

² Ancient India, No. 4 (July 1947-Jan. 48), p. 167, figs. 298-302.

c13.s5.t4.27

The terracotta art of the Gupta period was a major factor in the development of the art-consciousness of the age, and claimed a place of honour alongside stone-sculpture, painting, and architecture. Bāṇabhaṭṭa, in a poetic reference to the love-smitten condition of Vaiśampāyana, speaks of him as being seated statuesquely like a pillar in a building (stambhita iva), a figure in painting (likhita iva), a carved image in sculpture (utkīrṇa iva), or a figure modelled in clay (pustamaya iva).

c13.s5.t4.28

Fortunately a fair number of temples built in brick with ornamental mouldings and friezes of terracotta-panels survive from this period and are distributed over a wide area in the Panjab, the Uttara Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal. Speaking of the Shorkot temple Cunningham remarks: "The moulded bricks are the most characteristic feature of all the old cities in the plains of the Panjab. The variety of patterns is infinite and some of them are very bold and effective."³ Many of the famous buildings in Northern India at the time of Mohammadan invasion must have been built entirely of brick and were decorated with terracotta ornaments and alto-relievos. This was certainly the case with the great temple of the Sun at Multan, the famous shrine of Jogsoma at Thānesar, the great Buddhist buildings at Sankisā, Kauśāmbī and Śrāvastī, all the Brahmanical temples of the Gupta period at Bilsar, Bhītargaon, Garhwā and Bhītrī, and also the great brick temples of Bodhgayā and Nālandā.⁴ The bricks show a The provided image is blank. There is no text to transcribe.

c13.s5.t4.29

³ Cunningham, A.S.R., V, p. 100, pl. XXIX, 1-8.

c13.s5.t4.30

⁴ Cunningham, A.S.R., XI, p. 42; A.S.I., A.R., 1908-9, p. 5, pl. V.

c13.s5.t4.31

Ganga. Lifesized clay Statue. Ahichchhatra Siva Temple.

c13.s5.t4.32

Yamuna. Lifesize Clay Statue. Ahichchhatra Siva Temple.

c13.s5.t4.34

pleasing variety of designs, such as the *nandyāvarta*, lotus, dogtongue, guilloche, fret or diaper. The stucco figures and terracottas connected with these temples show an equally high quality. The Bhitargaon temple in Kanpur district contains a frieze of panels with sharply defined features of much excellence, but has not yet been adequately illustrated in detail.¹ The Rāmāyaṇa panels from Sahet-Mahet are full of liveliness, although inferior in art. The large image of Pārvatī from Kasia, now in the Lucknow Museum, must have presented a technical problem in baking, as it is always difficult to fire a clay image of this dimension. The life-sized clay images of Gaṅgā and Yamunā fixed at the two sides of the steps leading to the upper terrace of the Ahichchhatrā Śiva temple were also remarkable specimens when complete. By far the best examples of the stucco art of the Gupta period, however, were the images (now mostly destroyed) on the Maṇiyār Maṭh at Rājgriha, which were fixed round the base of a circular structure and consisted of a Śivaliṅga, a six-armed dancing Śiva, a four-armed deity wrongly identified as Bāṇāsura, and several Nāgas and Nāginīs, the latter showing fine and sensitive workmanship. These sculptures afford the capacity of the Gupta clay-modellers to execute clay sculpture of considerable size. On a lower scale, the Gupta coroplasts took full advantage of the terracotta medium to broadcast the aesthetic message of their times. The numerous small clay figurines found at most sites present a veritable inventory, as it were, of the types of men and women in all grades of society.

c13.s5.t4.35

¹ A.S.I., A.R., 1908-9, pp. 8-16, pl. I, V, and fig. 2.

c13.s5.t4.36

We also find, both in stone and in modelled bricks, an infinite variety of scroll-motifs, with a tendency towards arabesque. The most conspicuous example of this decoration is available in the casing slabs round the Dhamekh Stūpa at Sarnath, perhaps the most successful example of large surface-decoration in this technique in ancient India (*Fig. 119*). Contemporary literature refers to scroll-work as *patrāvalī*, *patralatā*, *patrāṅguli*, etc. The fashion for deep-cut scroll-work was increasing and found its culmination in the stone *Jāli*, of which the earliest specimens can be seen in the perforated temple-screens at Aihole, that with radiating fish-spokes in the Lāḍkhan temple being particularly notable.² This temple has been ascribed to about 450 A.D.

c13.s5.t4.37

² A.S.I., A.R., 1907-8, pl. LXXI.

c13.s5.t4.38

Gupta art and culture continued in full bloom during the first half of the seventh century, when Harsha was ruling in north India. The University of Nālandā was at the height of its glory and shared equally in the field of literary and artistic activity. Hiuen Tsang mentions several colossal images that he saw in north India at this time, specially the 80'-high copper image of Buddha set up by king Pūrṇavarman in the early 7th century at Nālandā. The colossus no longer exists, but other remains at Nālandā have preserved evidence of advanced artistry; for example, the decorative reliefs with beautiful *kinnara* motifs and lotuses in Site I, and a series of more than 200 sculptured panels in Site II of the 6th-7th century A.D.¹ The Gupta sculptures and detached images at Sanchi are "infused with the same spirit of calm contemplation, of almost divine peace, as the images of 4th and 5th centuries, but they have lost the beauty of definition which the earlier artists strove to preserve and, though still graceful and elegant, tend to become stereo-typed and artificial."²

c13.s5.t4.39

¹ A.S.I., A.R., 1915-16, p. 12.

c13.s5.t4.40

² Marshall, A.S.I., A.R., XXIII, XXIV, Guide to Sanchi, p. 22.

c13.s5.t4.41

In the Madhya Pradesh the brick temples at Sirapura (ancient Śrīpura), Rājim and Kharoḍ, each has a stone doorway in typical Gupta style showing figures of Gaṅgā and Yamunā. The door-lintel in the Rājim temple, 3 miles from Sirapura, represents a bust of Śiva flanked by Nāga figures, whose tails knot and intertwine and make a bold and very effective pattern.³ In the temple at Kharoḍ the stone door-frame of the sanctum is a well-executed piece of sculpture. The inner frame mouldings and jambs are richly carved in conventional ornaments in which makara, lotus medallions and rising scrolls are most conspicuous. At each side of the door-frame is a well-carved, life-size female figure, standing under an umbrella and attended by a diminutive maid, representing the rivergoddesses.⁴

c13.s5.t4.42

³ A.S.I., A.R., 1909-10, p. 14, fig. 3.

c13.s5.t4.43

⁴ Cousens, "Ancient brick Temples in the Central Provinces", A.S.I., A.R., 1909-10, p. 16, pl. IV (b).

Linked texts (32)