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Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c4: Preface

Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c4

Language
English

Preface

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Indian art is a subject which shows the maximum creative endeavour of the Indian mind and hands. The evidence of art is as vast and rich as that of Indian literature, religion and philosophy. In order to understand the soul of India, the evidence of art is a window through which the ‘Open Sesame’ treasures of aesthetic value can be viewed in the form of monuments, sculptures, paintings, bronzes, terracottas, etc. Indian art was late in coming to its own on the stage of world art but now its beauty and meaning have established themselves in the eyes of both scholars and lovers of beauty.

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Several histories of art and architecture of India have been written before. The works of Fergusson, Smith, Coomaraswamy and Percy Brown are full of merit and hold the field even today. But they are mostly of a descriptive character with little reference to meaning and generally deal with sculpture and architecture separately. During the last fifteen years of my work as teacher of Indian art to post-graduate classes, I realised that there was the need for a new ‘History of Indian Art’ in which architecture and sculpture should be dealt with as part of a single scheme, as the builders of the monuments actually conceived them; secondly that objective description should be accompanied with an exposition of meaning of religious and philosophical inspiration which brought the art into existence. I have tried to present this two-fold point of view in this new history of Indian art. In addition to these two features I have gone to the original Sanskrit and Pali sources to trace the literary background of the works of art and this has led to the understanding of the art monuments more clearly as embedded in the cultural conciousness of the Indian people through the ages. A net advantage of this method has been the recovery of a large number of ancient terms, hundreds of which have been freely introduced here taking care to explain them by equivalent modern terms where possible. This method had long been accepted as valid and essential in the study of Greek and Roman arts where the surviving literature has been patiently tapped for recovery of original art terms. Dr. Coomaraswamy was the pioneer of this method in Indian context and the same has been carried much further in the present study. Besides Sanskrit and Pali texts early inscriptions of the Śuṅga, Kuṣāṇa, Āndhra periods (2nd cent. B.C.—3rd cent. A. D.) have proved very faithful in supplying a number of appropriate art terms for sculpture and various elements of architecture. For example, Ghara-mukha (porch) Pānīya-poḍhi (cistern of water), Dvigarbha (two-celled cave), Chatushpada-paṅkti (a row of animals as seen on the drum of the Sarnath Capital which had begun to be regarded as auspicious from pre-Mauryan times), darpaṇā (woman holding mirror), Padmavara-vedikā (lotus-railing), Putra-vallabhā (mother and child), etc. There are hundreds of such terms known from inscriptions and literary texts which will be found scattered throughout the book. They have been brought together in the word index.

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I have taken care to raise and discuss specific problems relating to the art of each period. The idea has been to help in a critical formulation and assessment of the value of Indian art in the successive periods.

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Another feature of this study is to pay special attention to the evolution of the art motifs. For example, from the female figures on the Stūpa railings at Bharhut, Bodhgaya and Mathura, to the female figures of the exterior of the Koṇārka Sun temple may seem to be a far cry, but a close study reveals their evolution from the motif of the garden-sports (Udyāna-krīḍā) and water-sports (Salila-krīḍā), which have a literary background from Pāṇini and the Jātakas up to Hemachandra and even later.

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I have naturally persuaded myself to give due recognition to the Indian point of view in discussing the special problems of each period. This has helped to earn a rich harvest of traditional meaning, of course, within the orbit of available evidence.

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In Chapter I, Introductory, I have stated my point of view about the discovery of meaning and treating divine images and auspicious motifs as symbols of religious thought and philosophy. The supreme value of art consists in the fact that it is a bridge between the two worlds of mind and matter both invested with beauty. Art is an idea in visual form. This is the mystery of art to be decoded by the cultural tradition of the people. Indian aesthetic theory looks upon art as the descent of heaven on earth (deva-sānnidhya). The external form, howsoever good, fulfils only one half of artist's efforts, the other half is found to be eloquent with meaning. Even the decorative motifs like foliated scrolls (Patra-rachanā) of Gupta art were considered to be the visible form of Viṣṇu's heaven and blank surface was regarded as ugly or meeting place of the demons. This basic point of view about symbolical themes of Indian art as Buddha, Śiva, Devas, etc. should be thought as the real eye of art in India, where the meaning of the outer form has been preserved in an unbroken tradition as nowhere else in the world.

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Chapter II, Pre-historic Period, draws attention to the artefacts or tools of men living in the Old and New Stone ages. The collective evidence proves the distribution of Primitive Man in India from Kashmir to Madras. Besides the modern terms for the pre-historic implements attention may be drawn to the old terms as aśman-mayī vāśī (stone celts), ayasī vāśī (copper celts), aśma-chakra (stone wheel or pulley), *svadhiti* (axe) all used in the Rigveda, pointing to the fact that Rigvedic man knew some details of the culture of the pre-historic man.

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Chapter III, Indus Valley Art, throws light on the identification of the Great Mother Goddess and in it a suggestion has been made that it was a civilization of the Asuras. The existence of the ten contingents of the architecture of a model city at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa shows that their town-planning closely agrees with the description of historical towns built according to plan. These ten items may be identified as *Prākāra* (City-wall), *Vapra* (High Foundation of the rampart or earth work), *Dvāra* (City-gate), *Aṭṭālaka* (Towers & Bastions), *Mahā-patha* (Highway), *Prāsāda* (Palace), *Āpaṇa* (Market-place), *Puṣkariṇī* (Great Bath or religious pond), *Santhāgāra* (Town-hall) and *Koṣṭhāgāra* (Granary). This enables us to see an integrated picture of the earliest town-planning in India.

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In this Chapter a scrutiny of the pillar on the unicorn seals in its several variations has helped to identify the sign as a *Rudra-Śiva-Stambha* or pillar sacred to Rudra topped by a bowl and supporting a railed structure or *Vedikā* for Agni which was regarded as another form of Rudra (*Agnir-vai Rudraḥ*).

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Chapter IV (a), Vedic Arts and Crafts, is based largely on references in the Vedic mantras and other literature to a variety of *śilpas* and also the architectural details of house-building, dress and ornaments. Full use has been made of the material in the two *Śalā-sūktas* of the Atharvaveda (AV. 3-12, 9-3).

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Chapter IV (b), Vedic Symbols in Art, is a new study explaining the significance of a large number of divine and human symbols in Indian art in the light of Vedic evidence. Special attention may be drawn to the meaning of *Śrī-Lakṣmī*, *Kumāra*, *Daivāsuram*, *Trivikrama*, *Pūrṇa-kumbha*, *Yūpa* and *Kalpa-vrikṣa*.

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Chapter V (a), Art in Mahājanapada Period, deals with the numerous *śilpas* that had been developed in that creative age and as found in the early Buddhist and Jaina literature and which are mentioned by Pāṇini under the general name of *Jānapadī Vṛtti* or simply as *Jānapadī* by Yāska. An explanation of the city described in the *Mahā-Ummagga Jātaka* and of about twenty motifs painted on its walls as recorded in a *sūtra*-like form, pushes back the history of painted halls in Indian palaces to the earliest times. For a graphic descriptian of a palace in its elevational aspect (*Udaya Chhanda*), I am indebted to Dr. Coomaraswamy’s paper on this subject. That evidence from Pali texts has been supplemented by the testimony of the Jaina Āgamas.

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Chapter V (b), Symbols on Punch-marked Coins, has been especially admitted in a history of Indian art as the symbols constituted the main alphabet of art expression from about the 7th century B. C. to the 1st century B. C.

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Chapter V (c), Art of India and Jambūdvīpa, deals with the material noticed by Dr. Coomaraswamy as Western Asiatic motifs. The book traces their Indian background from literary sources.

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Chapter VI, Śaiśunāga-Nanda Period, describes the architecture of the Old and New Rājgṛiha. Here an important section is that of Mother Goddess ring-stones which should be identified as Śrī-Chakras of the cult of Goddess Śrī-Lakshmī, which may be traced to the Yajurveda and even to the Khila-Sūkta of the Ṛigveda, having a continuous tradition in religion, art and literature up to our own times. This affords a very valuable evidence about the worship of the Great Mother Goddess in India, which henceforth should supply an independent chapter to the history of the Magna Mater (Mahī-mātā) in the various religious arts of the world.

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Chapter VII (a), Mauryan Art, makes a special study of the remains of Mauryan palace at Kumrahara (Chandragupta-Sabhā). The evidence of the Mahābhārata about the assembly hall of king Yudhishṭhira has been invoked as supplying common features with the Mauryan assembly hall. The problem of the origin of Mauryan art and especially of Mauryan polish is taken up in detail and new literary evidence has been extracted to show the antiquity of the polish on stone and ceramics (Northern Black Polished Ware) in India. Much attention has been given to the six component parts of the Sārnāth Lion Capital with special reference to their factual description and symbolical meaning. The lion capital illustrates Asoka's conception of Buddha as Mahāpurusha. I have dealt with this topic in much more detail in my book ‘Chakradhvaja—The Wheel Flag of India’ which may be usefully consulted for showing that the Lion Capital of Sarnath was the outcome of the National consciousness of the Indian people, including the followers of Buddhist, Jaina and Brāhmanical religions and tradition as handed down from the Indus Valley and Ṛigveda up to the 19th cent. for which about fifty new sources have been cited there.

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Chapter VII (b), Folk Art, explains the history of the cult and iconography of Yakshas and Nāgas, which played such an important part in Mauryan, Śuṅga and Kushāṇa art.

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Chapter VIII, Śuṅga-Kāṇva Art, includes the explanation of the symbolism of Stūpa monuments from the earliest times to the days of Buddhism. The correspondence between Stūpa and Yūpa has been set forth as known from the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa on the one hand and Buddhist texts on the other. The building of a monumental Stūpa (Mahāchetiya) was regarded as an event of universal acclamation, in which the whole community poured forth the highest ecstasy of its soul. Both the rich and the poor adored the Mahā-thūpa as the visible symbol of the heavenly light that incarnated on earth in the form of the Mahā-Purusha. A vivid description is available in the Mahāvamsa recording a number of architectural terms which help us to understand the building of a *Mahā-Stūpa* in all its details from the foundation to the top. It was no ordinary pile of stone and bricks but Divine Glory made manifest on earth in which many popular cults of the *Yakshas*, *Nāgas*, *Suparṇas*, *Kinnaras* and *Devatās* were mingled. The Great Buddha himself had expressed his last will in favour of raising a Stūpa for the *Tathāgata* and worshipping it as they did for the ancientmost *Chakravartin* sovereigns. A detailed account of the architecture and sculpture of the great Stūpas of Bharhut and Sāñchī is given with special reference to the Uttarakuru motif with its Wish-fulfilling Trees (*Kalpa-vriksha*) as recorded in the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata and Jātaka literature and as depicted on the railings and gateways.

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Chapter IX (a), Rock-cut Architecture, describes the architecture of the Orissan caves giving special attention to the identification of the various scenes depicted in the Rāṇī Gumphā and Gaṇeśa Gumphā Caves in which the romantic stories of Udayana-Vāsavadattā and Dushyanta-Śakuntalā are carved in relief.

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Chapter IX (b), Buddhist Rock-cut Architecture of Western India, as produced in the Hīnayāna phase, is described with reference to the *Chaitya* halls and *Vihāras*. A new identification of the scenes at Bhājā is proposed as their depicting king Māndhātā visiting the Uttarakuru country and not the figures of Indra and Sūrya. The description of the chaitya-halls at Bhājā, Kondāne, Pītalkhorā, Ajantā, Bedsā, Nāsik, Junnār, Karle, Kanherī is given in a detailed manner showing that the movement of rock-excavation enjoyed vide extension in space and time and that it was preceded by similar wooden architecture on a grand scale.

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Chapter X, Kushāṇa Art at Mathura, besides giving a factual description of the Mathura Stūpas and sculptures, both Buddhist and Jaina, discusses the important question of the origin of the Buddha image. It shows that all the available evidence of art and literature is in favour of Indian origin in the Mathura School under the overall influence of the religious movement of Bhakti, which touched deeply not only the Bhāgavatas but also the Buddhists and the Jainas. The main line of enquiry persues an analysis of the elements of the Buddha's iconography clearly showing that all the elements, excepting the halo, were rooted in the traditional forms of a *Chakravartī* and a *Yogī* which were combined for producing the Buddha image. Only the halo was borrowed from Iran where it was known as *Hvarr* or the Disk of Divine Glory seen round the head of religious prophets and kings. A special section on Brāhmanical images in Mathura Art has been added for the first time. The other noteworthy feature of this study is the interpretation of the female figures on the railing pillars of Mathura in the light of the different poses and the scenes associated with female garden- and water-sports, of which a detailed list is available in the early Sanskrit Kāvyas and Purāṇas like the Matsya Purāṇa (Chap. 255).

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Chap. XI, Gandhāra Art, besides presenting the available evidence of the Stūpas and sculptures on a vide canvas from the Indus to the Oxus or Taxila to Kunduz takes into account the important problems of origins with respect to its Indian and Hellenistic motifs, which developed in an eclectic atmosphere of free give-and-take resulting in an unparalleled creativity of works of art and statues and images of high interest and value. In addition to the Buddhist specimens, Brāhmanical sculptures also were being produced in Gandhāra as images of Śiva, Viṣṇu, Sūrya, Kārttikeya, etc. A brief evidence of the art-finds at Termez on the Oxus exposed by the French and Russian delegations has also been included in this chapter. Fuller notices of this material are still awaited. The theory of the origin of the Buddha image in Gandhāra has been eking out without any substantial support and should be laid to rest once for all. The testimony of the Divyāvadāna as to the first formulation of the Buddha image at Mathura points clearly to the ancient tradition about this matter. There is no reason to belittle the achievements of the art of Gandhāra by virtue of its long creative history, prolific nature and originality of themes and its capacity to absorb the diverse influences pouring from India, Iran, Graeco-Roman world and Central Asia.

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Chapter XII, Stūpas in the Āndhra-Sātavāhana Period, concentrates on the wonderful output of a creative effort ranging over five centuries by the dominant spirit and wealth amassed by the Sātavāhana merchants and rulers. The evidence in the Mahāvaṃsa regarding the building of the Mahā-chetiya and that of the inscriptions has been particularly utilized for understanding these great monuments of Amarāvatī and Nāgārjunikoṇḍa, etc. The sculpture found there has a delicate feel as if cast in solidified butter. It has been shown that the art influences from Magadha, Kaliṅga, Central India, Western Indian Caves and South India, were converging on the Āndhra country which contributed to a new quality, vigour and variety of art motifs employed in the embellishment of the Stūpas and their railings.

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Chapter XIII, Indian Terracotta, deals with clay-figurines, which is a subject of unique richness and developed parallel to stone sculpture as the democratic means of spreading art consciousness. Although described as poor man's sculpture, the art of clay-figurines attained to solemn heights, both by virtue of their beauty and as social and religious documents. The available number of clay-figurines is very large ranging in date from the Indus Valley to Pahārpur and the later brick temples of Bengal. A bigger monograph on this subject is under preparation.

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Appendix I, Symbols and Icons in Classical Art and Religion, has been added with the specific purpose of looking before and after. The numerous cults of tutelary gods and goddesses which had been in the field for thousands of years were now being transformed as the higher religion of classical Hinduism. The richness of their symbolical meaning was retained but subordinated and reorganised in the iconographic forms of such higher Gods as Viṣṇu, Śiva, Sūrya, Gaṇeśa, Skanda, etc. Many obscure religious cults took their final leave by getting merged in the great movements of the Bhāgavata, Saura, Śaiva and Tantra disciplines. For example, the Suparṇa and Śrī-Lakṣmī cults became part of Viṣṇu’s iconography. The cult of Gaṅgā and Yamunā was given a subordinate place on the door-jambs of the temples of Viṣṇu and Śiva. The Harivaṃśa gives a list of hundred and eight Auspicious Symbols (maṅgalāṣṭa-śatam), most of which were retained and given honorific places in the iconographic formulas (dhyāna and sādhana) of the Great Gods of the classical religion. The Yakṣas lost their independent character and became subservient to Buddha, Kubera, Śiva, Gaṇeśa or Kumāra. The process is clearly recorded in literature and preserved in iconography. The Revatī Kalpa of the Kāśyapa-Saṃhitā is a rare text which has preserved the names of several hundred minor goddesses, now all classified under the new title of Jātahāriṇī (equivalent of Buddhist Hārītī) and equated with Revatī or the ‘Seven Divine Mothers’. The Nāga deities were merged in the cult of Balarāma. These problems occupied the major attention of the religious teachers and sculptors for about five hundred years (c. 1st to 5th cent. A.D.). The Purāṇas, Āgamas and Saṃhitās provide the data of religious synthesis worked out in the Sanskrit epoch of the Kuṣāṇa and Gupta civilisation. Every student of Indian art standing on this threshold of the old and the new should note all the forms and symbols that had gone before and also those that were to emerge later with the full development of the Brāhmanical images and temples. The present study just takes us to the story of the preceding age to initiate its subsequent part from Gupta times onwards which would be the subject of volume II. I had intended to include a chapter on Palace Architecture, but since the subject developed into a book, I have chosen to publish it separately under the title Ancient Indian Palace Architecture. Additional information about some of the topics discussed here is contained in my papers being published simultaneously under the title ‘Studies in Indian Art’.

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In writing this book on the History of Indian Art I have utilised the extensive sources written by other authors and also benefited from my own pervious writings and interpretations. I am deply indebted to Shri Shiv Kumar Gupta, M. A. Research Scholar under me for the line-drawings and to Shri Prithvi Kumar M. A. my son, for reading the proofs and preparing the word index. They have undergone immense labour for which my cordial blessings go to them.

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Banaras Hindu University.

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VASUDEVA S. AGRAWALA

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Placing of Line-drawing plates I—LXVIII, containing 251 figures:

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| Plates | | Pages | Plates | Pages |
| I—II | facing | 8—9 | XXXV— | |
| III—IV | | 16—17 | XXXVI | facing 192—3 |
| V—VIII | | 24—5 | XXXVII—XL | 216—7 |
| IX—XII | | 72—3 | XLI—XLIV | 240—1 |
| XIII—XVI | | 76—7 | XLV—XLVIII | 248—9 |
| XVII—XX | | 96—7 | IL—L | 250—1 |
| XXI—XXIV | | 128—9 | LI—LII | 254—5 |
| XXV—XXVI | | 146—7 | LIII—LVI | 260—1 |
| XXVII—XXVIII | | 150—1 | LVII—LVIII | 272—3 |
| XXIX—XXX | | 170—1 | LIX—LX | 280—1 |
| XXXI—XXXII | | 174—5 | LXI—LXIV | 296—7 |
| XXXIII—XXXIV | | 184—5 | LXV—LXVIII | 312—3 |

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