Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.s1: (b) Folk Art
Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c11.s1
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(b) Folk Art
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The tradition of folk art may be recognised in a group of free standing statues which have been found at many places in north India, in Bihar and in Orissa. They are mostly figures of Yakṣhas and Yakṣhīs and they carry with them a distinct plastic tradition which it is not possible to connect with the finished products of the court art. The material as observed about the images has been found over a very extensive area, from Mathura to Orissa and from Patna upto western India, thousands of miles in length and breadth, which establishes in an undisputed manner the existence of a far flung style. These can be classed as representing the earliest Indian statuary consisting a group of free standing huge figures (more than life-size), installed under any protective shed or the open sky, carved out in the round, but still conceived frontally. They are symbol of power, impressive in their sheer volume, powerful built, colossal size, proclaim unmistakably their divine character. The following images are noteworthy :—
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(1) Yaksha statue from Parkham village in Mathura district (inscribed). [Fig. 50].
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(2) Yaksha from Baroda village in Mathura district. [Fig. 51].
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(3) Yakshi from Jhing Ki Nagara in Mathura district.
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(4) Yaksha statue found at Noh, village in Bharatpur district.
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(5) Yakshi from Besnagar near Bhopal. Now preserved in Indian museum.
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(6) A Yaksha statue from Pawaya, ancient Padmavati, now preserved in the Gwalior Museum (inscribed).
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(7) Yakshi holding fly-whisk in the right hand (Chamaragrahini) from Didarganj, Patna. Bearing bright Mauryan polish. [Fig. 52].
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(8) A Yaksha statue from Patna, now preserved in the Indian Museum (inscribed).
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(9) Yaksha statue from Patna (inscribed) now preserved in the Indian Museum.
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(10) Yakshi statue at Besnagar locally known as Telin.
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(11) Trimukha Yaksha statue--trifaced image found at the site of Rajghat (ancient Banaras), now preserved in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, B.H.U. [Fig. 53].
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(12) A Yaksha image found somewhere in western India, once installed in the Victoria Albert Museum, now in National Museum. Probably it comes from Sopara.
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(13) A Yaksha image found at Bhilsa in the bed of river Betwa (Vetravati).
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(14) Several big statues of Yakshas found recently in excavations at Sisupalgarh in Orissa.
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(15) Ahichchhatra Yaksha from Phalgu-Vihara (Kushana period).
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(16) Yaksha image from Amin in Kurukshetra.
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IDENTIFICATION— The question of the identification of this remarkable group of statues is of paramount interest for understanding the history of early Indian art both in the Mauryan and Śuṅga periods. Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy, K. P. Jayaswal and Ram Prasad Chanda had worked on this problem and taken part in the controversy regarding the proper identification of these images.
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Prof. Jayaswal was the first to suggest on the basis of his reading and interpretation of the inscription on the Parkham image, that it represented the statue of King Ajātaśatru of the Śiśunāga dynasty. He read the name Kuṇika which according to the Jaina tradition was a second name of Ajātaśatru. Subsequently when two more Yaksha statues were found at Pāṭaliputra Jayaswal again identified them as the portrait statues of two Nanda emperors, Nanda and his son Mahānandī. Ram Prasad Chanda, however, controverted this view with cogent arguments developed in his monograph entitled "Four Yaksha Statues". There he has conclusively shown that these statues cannot be taken as those of Magadha emperors but represent figures of Yakshas and Yakshis who were worshipped as part of the folk cults prevalent in ancient India. Dr. Coomaraswamy was at first inclined to agree with Jayaswal but later on convinced that these statues represent Yakshas and Yakshīs. He wrote about the Parkham Yaksha, "In view of the recent criticism it is impossible to adhere to Jayaswal's view and it is necessary to revert to the opinion that the statue represents Yaksha and must date from the third century B.C."
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The question should be decided on the basis of the firm facts. In the first instance the short inscription on the female statue, locally known as Mansā Devī, found at Jhīng Kā Nagarā, calls it a Yakhī (in Prakrit, Sanskrit, Yakshī). The statue from Pawāyā (Padmāvatī) also is mentioned in the epigraph as that of Māṇibhadra Yaksha, which was installed by the members of a Goshṭhī at Pawāyā. The image found at Noh, in Bharatpur district, was traditionally known as that of a Jakhaiyā, i.e. Yaksha.
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As regards the Parkham image which Dr. Jayaswal identified with that of Kuṇika, the fact is that the inscription mentions the name of a teacher called Kuṇika, and his pupil Kuṇikāntevāsī had established that image. At the beginning can be read three letters Niṣada which obviously form part of the name Maṇibhada (in Prakrit) or Māṇibhadra. So the Parkham image also represented the Yaksha Māṇibhadra.
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As regards the two Patna statues inscription on one of them reads Bhange Achachha Nivika which, may be rendered into Sanskrit as Bhagavān Akshaya Nivika, i. e. of inexhaustible wealth; the inscription on the other as Savaṭa-Nandi i.e. in Sanskrit Sarvatra *Nandi*. Both of these are apparently good Yaksha names. Dr. Vogel has mentioned (in his *Catalogue of the Mathura Museum*) that the statue obtained in the Baroda village of Mathura district was also being worshipped under the name of *Jakhaiyā*.
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We thus see on the basis of both the inscriptions on some of the statues and also local traditions obtained on the spot with respect to some of them, that these were the statues of Yakshas and Yakshīs whose worship at one time was extremely popular.
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STYLE—Stylistically the above group of Yaksha images is distinguished by the following characteristic features:—
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(1) They are of colossal size (*Mahākāya, Mahā-pramāṇa*) and massively built with pronounced emphasis on muscular strength.
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(2) They are usually carved in the round (*chaturmukha-darśana*) and, therefore, free-standing; the main effect is frontal, as if they were intended to be seen from the front side only.
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(3) The drapery consists of a turban on the head and upper scarf thrown on the shoulders and arms, or tied round the chest and a *dhoti* hanging below up to the ankles and fastened with a girdle.
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(4) The ornaments consists of heavy ear-rings, heavy torque (*Kaṇṭhā*) and a flat triangular necklace and also armlets with feathered projections.
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(5) There is also a tendency to depict the figure as slightly protuberant or pot-bellied as in the case of the Parkham Yaksha and Māṇibhadra Yaksha from Pawāyā. These images are marked by the distinctive style which is the earliest in the history of Indian sculpture as known from historical sites. We have no earlier specimens to connect this style with preceding traditions or to throw light on the origin of this art. But its dominant character and almost country-wide extension, as for example from Mathura to Orissa and Pāṭaliputra to Bombay, furnish certain proofs that this art must have had a long history, most probably rendered in perishable material like clay or wood. As regards their position in the evolution of Indian art the most natural suggestion is that they were executed during the Mauryan period (third century B. C.). It was just the time when stone was being used for architecture and sculpture under the direction of the Mauryan emperors Chandragupta and Aśoka. The polished specimens of Mauryan art represent a court style whereas the Yaksha images are examples of folk art.
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With the making of these images a style of art became established which the artists of the subsequent period were bound to regard as their model. This is what we actually find in the art of the Śuṅga period. The Yaksha images carved in the monuments of Bharhut and Sanchi are the proof of the continuity of the Yaksha tradition both in iconography and in the style of art. The Sanchi and Bharhut Yaksha appear in the direct line of their ancestors, viz. the Yaksha images found at Parkham in the Mathura district and nearer home at Bhilsā and Pawāyā.