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Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.s1.t3: Sculptures

Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.s1.t3

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Sculptures

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The number of surviving sculptures from the Mahācetiya is probably the largest found anywhere else in Andhradeśa. These sculptures certainly show a great beaty of carving and variety and give evidence of the natural evolution of style over a period of five centuries. On the basis of style and epigraphic evidence these may be roughly divided into four periods as follows :

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1. Early or Archaic Period. C. 200 B. C. Contemporaneous with the foundation of the Stūpa (of which period several inscriptions in Maurya-Śuṅga script have been found).

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2. Intermediate Phase. C. 100 A. D. Contemporaneous to the period of the Sātavāhana Emperor Vāsiṣṭhīputra Pulumāvi (A. D. 16-119; whose inscription is found at Amaravati, Sivaramamurti, ASMM, No. 51).

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3. Mature Phase. C. 150-200 A. D. Contemporaneous to the period of Siri Yajña Sātakarṇi (A. D. 160-189; whose inscription was found at Amaravati, Fergusson, *Tree and Serpent Worship*, p. 261).

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4. Last Phase. 3rd century A. D. Contemporaneous to the period of the Ikshvāku kings. Inscriptions in the Ikshvāku skript of Nagarjunikanda being also found at Amaravati.

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The evolution of the Amaravati Stūpa thus becomes a simple problem receiving chronological proof from the epigraphs themselves. Whenever there was architectural and sculptural activity in relation to the Mahāchetiya it has left behind its proof in the existing inscriptions and we are thus provided with a natural frame-work of time-scale in which the builders raised, restored, enlarged and retouched this stupendous monument.

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In the early phase, the style of figures with their faces, dress and ornament has its nearest parallel at Bharhut and in Caves X and IX at Ajanta. Sculptures of this period are limited in number and fragmentary. The faces are frontally conceived with conspicuous turbans on the head and heavy earrings of the *prākāravapra* type with a spiral back and square front as explained earlier, and several necklaces with square clasps; and the eyes are slightly aslant. There is some degree of stiffness and dullness in expression. The arms and fingers are attached and bear ornaments of puppet-like formality. The girdle of the female figures is broad, secured by a big clasp in front. On the male figures the girdle is rope-like resembling the entrails of a boar (*śūkarāntraka*) type and generally female figures wear a sash (*kāyabandhana*). Double lines are engraved on the thighs and lower part of the cloth indicating fine folds. The feet are splayed opening wider on the front side adjoined at the heel.

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There is no Buddha figure as at other centres, but his presence is always indicated by symbols. On the coping the heavy garland is carried on the shoulders of dwarfish Yakshas, as shown at Bharhut, Sanchi and in the Western Indian Chaitya-halls (cf. Sabhāparva, *ante*, p. 88). There are rows of elephant-headed pot-bellied Yakshas who formed the prototypes of Gaṇeśa figures of much later times. Some of the animal figures on the rail, especially winged griffins with eagle heads are very vigorous and recall the varied rich repertoire of early Indian art which was in vogue from India to Iran and Western Asia. The pillar with the vase-capital supporting addorsed elephants also bespeaks archaic traditions. The bell motif (*kiṅkiṇī-jāla*) of the early Stūpa copings also occurs here as a border motif. The *makara* appears with a gaping mouth oozing meandering creepers. [Figs. 210-13].

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In the second phase there is a definite evolution of style marked by naturalness and freedom of expression, greater elegance and variety of poses. The material consists of some casing slabs. The style of carving has its parallel in the early Kushāṇa art of Mathura (c. 1st century A. D.). The stock of motifs became richer with a general tendency to incorporate the scenes from social life. The worship of Buddha through symbols and human figures is seen side by side just as in early Mathura reliefs. This was the period of Vāsishṭhīputra Puḷumāvi and the great Sātavāhana empire was in its full force and independent assertiveness. His authority and artistic activities extended from the eastern to the western ocean as we known from a Nasik cave-inscription in which some donation of Puḷumāvi are recorded in favour of the Dhānyakaṭaka monks. The slabs depict a series of life-scenes of Buddha, showing the Master in a symbolical form but only a couple of times in human form. The elegant Buddha figures indicate to Mathura for their prototypes with a spiritual expression as on the face of the Katra Bodhisattva. Some of the scenes are—*Buddha's Abhinishkramaṇa* and *Māra-vijaya*. The women wear diaphanous drapery as at Mathura and appear to be nude although they are with vestment.

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The third phase appertains to the mature stage at Amaravati when the building activity and the sculptural art reached their highest development. In the second half of the second century A. D. the glory of the Sātavāhana empire (*sām rājyalakshmī*) enjoyed its highest wealth, beauty and fame of which the best fruits may still be seen in the large number of rail-pillars, copings, bars, *āyāka*-platforms and their pillars, terraced balustrade and the drum-slabs with intervening decorative friezes and the large number of *paṭṭas* like the *chakra-paṭṭa*, *stūpa-paṭṭa*, *savastika-paṭṭa*, *Buddha-paṭṭa*, and the still numerous slabs carved with Buddha's life. The Mahāchetiya evolved as a *maheśākhya* Stūpa by several devices of enlargement invested with boldness of imagination and utmost depth of religious feeling and creative originality. The sculptures are marked by an unknown exhuberance and joy determined to fructify the kingdom of heaven (*Amarāvatī*) on earth.

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The great ground rail, about 13' high, was a work of this age and is said to have been inspired by the sage Nāgārjuna. The gorgeousness of decoration and perfection of carving in the medallions, fluted corners of the pillars, and on the copings and cross-bars, make the Amaravati Mahāvedikā an wonderous work of superb art throughout India. The *ūrdhva-paṭṭa* slabs are of the same quality showing the highest watermark of the manipulating skill of the Sātavāhana artists. Working on large slabs, 10 to 13 feet in length, they have displayed perfect mastery of composition dealing with a number of figures and scenes but all set in distinct registers and groups of principal and subsidiary, vertical and horizontal bands. The world of Devas and that of men and animals are integrated with a rare perfection and an atmosphere of endless joy is created in the visage of each *ūrdhva-paṭṭa*. Indeed, there is so much of meaning for the mind to grasp and so much of beauty to admire that each Amaravati slab leaves a haunting impression ever afterwards. As observed by Sivaramamurti, the figures are conceived in several planes, both deep and shallow and in difficult poses with all kinds of flexions, buoyancy and facile movement. The delineation of figures in the hands of the Mahāchetiya-masters appears more like script than carving.

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For the Buddha most-often repeated is the Pādukāpaṭa combined with a Pillar of Fire (Agniskandha = Aggikhandha) which was but another form of the Tower of Wisdom (Prajñākandha) that the Buddha was. It was then a prevailing conception about his cosmic mind that a ray shooting from it enveloped the whole world and thus he became a Lokottaramahāpurushaa the Supramundane Great Being, visualised as the lofty brand of fire or the burning bush of light or a perfect incarnation of Sūrya, in which family he was born.

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The main garland on the coping, transported by men and women of full stature and perfectly adorned with beautiful ornaments and drapery, belongs to this period. Their handsome forms agree with the ideal Mālādhārī Devas mentioned in the Divyāvadāna amongst the encircling Rakṣāpaṅkti. The Amaravati carvings of the thousandfold garland and the human figures carrying it are a great advance on the dwarfish Yakshas of earlier periods, or Erotes of Gandhara sculpture and they show the complete Indianisation of the motif with a religions background and integration amongst the several classes of Devas invoked for the welfare of a being and the portection of a monument. The Garland is sometimes shown being emitted from the mouth of a makara, a symbol of Varuṇa's ocean and also from the mouth of a stoutly built Yaksha, a servant of Vaiśravaṇa Kubera. The Bhāgavatas later on transformed it into a heavenly garland of one thousand lotuses offered to a deity.

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The crowded composition of figures is visible in such scenes as the confusion created by an elephant in the streets of Rājagṛiha, or by the fierce aspect of king Udayana shooting with his bow at the frightened harem. In both of these the artists retains his mastery over the available surface of the bas-relief for distinctness and symmetry. [Figs. 214-15].

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The mature Amaravati style of the second century A. D. with its great majesty of sculpture was followed by a comparative decline and stiff formalism in the 3rd century A. D. which was the same period as that of the Nagarjunikonda Stūpa. Quite a good number of drum slabs were either used as palmsests for carving fresh scenes or their backs were out-turned as faces and carved with new scenes of chaityapaṭṭas which were more conventional. The freedom of the artists was subordinated to a set pattern of decoration and conventionalism that did not much scope for imagination. The figures are somewhat taller and slimmer, and loaded with pearl-string decoration. The sacred-thread woven with small pearls (*muktāphala-yajñopavīta*) appears as a charming feature on divine and human figures, both male and female, for the first time which later on became so common in the Gupta age. The use of *sīmanta-makarikā* head-ornament formed by addorsed alligator-heads is seen for the first time in this phase. Lion head motif (*siṃhamukha*, *kīrtimukha* or *grāsa*) also begins to appear as on the crown of a Nāgarāja figure. The figures of grotesque dwarfs are carved with the lion face motif on the pot-belly.

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A special feature of rail-decoration occurring in this phase is the design of "rosette and leaf" on the roundels of cross-bars and pillars which is ubiquitous at Nagarjunikonda. The frieze-decorations containing peeping human faces out of chaitya-window designs are depicted in the architectural moulding of this period. Thus we see that the pearl-*yajñopavīta*, the *makarikā* ornament, the *kīrtimukha* motif, the chaitya-window moulding with human face, the sette with a high makaratoraṇa back and foliated scroll-work are some of the features in the last phase of Amaravati art which link it up with the subsequent style of the Gupta age.

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All these features are also seen in Gupta art at distant centres like Ajanta, Sarnath, Mathura, Bagha, etc. The unity of art motifs in each period is not a little surprising. The *Kuṇḍalitapaṭa* seen in a terracotta plaque from Ahichchhatra is mentioned by Bāṇa amongst the presents sent to Harsha by Bhāskaravarmā of Kāmarūpa. These are only a couple of examples amongst thousands and it shows how the motifs of art travelled all over the country and became a part of the national style. Bāṇa also states that the pearled necklace named *mandākinī* was presented by Nāgārjuna to his friend, a Sātāvahana King, lord of the three oceans (*trisa-mudrādhipati*) and from there through successive owners it came into the possession of Harsha, king of North India, pointing to how such objects travelled between Vengi and the North. The stone doorway of the Tejpur temple of Assam has a striking similarity with the carved doorways of the Bhumra and Deograh temples. This fact may be due to the closely knit ties of intercommunication through the Sārthavāha traders, embassies exchanged with costly presents including the choicest objects of art, pilgrims including both the rich householders who were patrons of art and the *śilpins* who created art. There emerges the fact that the people of one part of the country became interested in the art motifs developed elsewhere and the universal art consciousness resulted in the evolution of common cultural patterns. Indeed, it is mentioned in literature that the gold and silver ornaments, jewellery, carved ivories, rich textiles, embroidered fabrics of gold and filigree work and even stone sculptures as known by the discovery of Mathura images at distant centres, were regularly exported and imported in a net-work of trade and commerce maintained by a flourishing business community.

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What applied to the whole country was a phenomenon which operated from Amaravati to Nagarjunikound where we find a transference of art activity and a continuity from earlier periods most likely due to the succeeding gerenations of common workmen which was backed by the common political influences under the Ikshvāku kings.

Cites (11)