Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s3: (c). Art of India and Jambūdvīpa

Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s3

Language
English

(c). Art of India and Jambūdvīpa

c9.s3.1

GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND OF JAMBŪDVĪPA : Indian art did not exist in isolation but as part of a wider cultural context named after Jambūdvīpa which is the name in the Purāṇas for the vast area from China to the Caspian sea and from India to Siberia. In earlier geography of the four continents (*Chaturdvīpī-Bhūgola*) the earth was conceived in the form of a four-petalled lotus (*Chaturdala-Bhūpadma*), with Meru mountain in the centre as pericarp, and with *Bhadrāśva* in the east, *Bhārata* in the south, *Ketumāla* in the west and *Uttarakuru* in the north. Later on this geographical conception gave place to that of seven continents, in which the whole of Asia became Jambūdvīpa. In this chapter Jambūdvīpa is used in this particular sense to conceive of the art and culture which spread over this wide territory.

c9.s3.2

*Bhadrāśva* literally means the Auspicious Horse, i. e. the White Winged Dragon, held sacred in Chinese art and religion, and therefore it had become the ancient Sanskrit name of China. *Bhārata* to the south was also known as *Haimavata-Varsha*. *Ketumāla* to the west was the area from the Pamirs to the Caspian or even further up to Western Asia. This was the land of the Oxus (*Vakshu* or *Chakshu*), the Scythians and Iranians and of Ahuramazda; the name *Ketumāla*, Wreath of Banners, probably refers to the Farr or Divine Glory called *Dhavajavatī Kanyā* or the Winged Maiden of the Sun-god stationed in the sky.¹ Uttarakuru was the land north of Pamir extending up to Siberia, in the eastern part of which was *Chandradvīpa*, the original home-land of the *Śakas*.

c9.s3.3

¹ अत्र ध्वजवती नाम कुमारी हरिमधसः । आकाशे तिष्ठ तिष्ठेति तस्थौ सूर्यस्य शासनात् ॥ (Mahābhārata, 5. 108. 13)

c9.s3.4

CULTURAL BACKGROUND : The above geographical statement shows that India was at the centre of a wheel with peripheral expansions in which her culture and inter-continental commerce were countable factors. In this picture *Paipīlika* gold from Siberian river-washings was coming to India by trade-routes across the Pamir, Chinese silk and Central Asian jade came into the hands of Indian marchants, and traders from India reached Babylon with their peacocks and Egypt and Western Asia with their cotton and teak.

c9.s3.5

The story of India's relations w'th Western Asia goes back to the Indus Valley as we have pointed out above. The discovery of Indus Valley seals in testified strata of the Sargonic period (C. 2350 B. C.) supplies, in the words of Hrozny, "a strong evidence of a lively commercial intercourse between India and Near East". The next definite proof is the presence of *Āryan* names amongst the Kassite rulers of Babylonia (about 1746 to 1180 B. C.) and of the Vedic deities *Indra*, *Mitra*, *Varuṇa*, and *Nāsatya* amongst the Mitanni people at Boghaz-koi in Cappadocia (about 1400 B. C.). Equally significant is the discovery at Boghaz-koi of a text on horse-breeding by Ki-kku-li, a Mitannian author, which contain numerous Sanskrit words as *Ekāvartana*, *Dvyaāvartana*, *Tryāvartana*, etc.

c9.s3.6

EARLY ART FORMS : These facts have left a definite impression on art forms which come from Western Asia and India as the common heritage of a culture in which both the east and the west made their contribution. To this broad canvas of early Indian art forms, we have given the name of Jambūdvīpa art which according to the ancient Indian evidence extended from *Bhadrāśva* or China to *Ketumāla* or Iran and Mesopotamia. For example, we find in Indian literature, references to winged lion (*Siṃhāḥ Pakṣagamāḥ*, Vālmīki, Kiṣkindhā, 42,16), two-headed eagle (*Ubhayataḥ Śīrṣṇī Aditi-Suparṇī*, ŚB. 3. 2. 4. 16), of which the two heads face east (*Suprācī*) and west (*Supratīcī*, same as *Dvimūrdhā-Śakuni*, Matsya 6. 1. 17), winged bison (*Pakṣī Mahiṣa* and *Suparṇa Mahiṣa*, AV. 13. 2.32-33), two-headed bull (*Catuḥ śṛṅga dviśīrṣā Vṛṣabha*, ṚV. 4. 58. 3), four-horned or two-headed 'bison (*Catuḥ-śṛṅga Gaura*, ṚV. 4. 58. 2), ten calves with a single head (*Eka-śīrṣāṇaḥ Daśa-Vatsāḥ*, AV. 13. 4.6), and a number of other animal-faced (*Mṛga-rūpa*), bird-faced (*Aṇḍaja-rūpa*), fabulous (*Ihāmṛga*), mythical, chimerical and grotesque forms (*Vikaṭa-rūpa*) with one or more heads (*Bahu-mukha, Bahu-śīrsha, Aneka-vaktraka*). This was the background of Jambūdvīpa art in which many common elements from early Indian and Western Asiatic art can be recognised. We may study their parallels in Sumerian, Hittite, Assyrian, Mesopotamian, Cretan, Trojan, Lycean, Phoenician, Achaemenian and Scythian cultures.

c9.s3.7

Early Indian art invented a number of fanciful figures as *Siṃha-vyāla, Gaja-vyāla, Aśva-vyāla, Nara-vyāla, Vṛisha-vyāla, Mesha-vyāla, Śuka-vyāla, Mahisha-vyāla*, etc, in which a particular head was joined to a different body. Later *Śilpa* texts give their number as sixteen each represented in sixteen poses, giving an aggregate of 256 forms (*Aparājita-Pṛichchhā*, 233. 4-6, *Iti shoḍasha vyālāni uktāni mukhabhedataḥ*). Their variety and poses, once formulated were subject to elaboratiou by ingenious sculptors, ivory-carvers, etc. as in the art of Begram plaques. The meaning of these motifs in Indian literature is that they are so many attendants (*Gaṇa-Pramatha*) of one *Rudra*. Each individual although born as a human being carries in his face the physiognomy of a bird or an animal, the different forms being called *Īhā-mṛiga*, animals of fancy or fabulous creatures. The germs of the idea are met with in the Ṛigveda (VII. 104. 22) where the mythical forms are called *Yātu* and six illustrative names are given. For example, owl (*Ulūka-yātu*), owlet (*Śuśulūka-yātu*), dog (*Śva yātu*), cuckoo (*Koka-yātu*), eagle (*Suparṇa-yātu*) and vulture (*Gṛidhra-yātu*). These are associated in Ṛigveda with Indra, as the Purāṇic Gaṇas with Rudra and they are called *Asuras* (Brahma Purāṇa, 213. 93, 99), *Dānavas* (Matsya, 163. 1-4 ; Harivaṃśa 3. 45) also *Niśāchara-Gaṇa*.

c9.s3.8

Some of these motifs are as follows :—

c9.s3.9

1. Winged Lions (*Sapaksha-Siṃha*)—The earliest reference in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa places them on the Somagiri mountain, on the junction of the Indus with the sea (*Sindhu-Sāgara Saṅgama*) which marks the end of the western direction. Probably the author was writing against the background of the traditional art-motifs of Iran and Mesopotamia where such lions were depicted in colossal size and of which stories were brought by mariners and traders. At Sāñchī we have figures of winged lions on the western gateway and also we find them at Mathura and Amarāvatī with turbaned human faces, with beards and wings [Fig. 24].

c9.s3.10

2. Griffin, an imaginary animal with the body of a lion and the curved beak and wings of an eagle (*Śyena-vyāla*) [Fig. 25].

c9.s3.11

3. Tritons, a marine demigod with the upper half of a human being joined to the lower half of a fish or an ophidian creature, which are popular at Mathura. These seem to be the *Mahoraga* motif of Indian literary texts. [Fig. 26].

c9.s3.12

4. Centaurs, Kinnara of Sanskrit literature with a horse's head joined to a human body (*Aśva-mukha*), or a human bust joined to a horse's body (*Purusha-vigraha*), both forms being popular in Indian art and literature. [Fig. 27].

c9.s3.13

a

c9.s3.14

b Fig. 24

c9.s3.15

c

c9.s3.16

d Fig. 24

c9.s3.17

a Fig. 25

c9.s3.18

b Fig. 25

c9.s3.19

a

c9.s3.20

b Fig. 26

c9.s3.21

c

c9.s3.22

d Fig. 26

c9.s3.23

a Fig. 27

c9.s3.24

b Fig. 27

c9.s3.25

Fig. 28 a

c9.s3.26

Fig. 27 c

c9.s3.27

Fig. 28 c

c9.s3.28

Fig. 28 b

c9.s3.29

Fig. 27 d

c9.s3.30

Fig. 28 d

c9.s3.31

a

c9.s3.32

c

c9.s3.33

Fig. 29

c9.s3.34

b

c9.s3.35

Fig. 31

c9.s3.36

Fig. 30

c9.s3.37

Fig. 32

c9.s3.38

a

c9.s3.39

Fig. 33

c9.s3.40

b

c9.s3.41

a

c9.s3.42

Fig. 33 c

c9.s3.43

b

c9.s3.44

b

c9.s3.45

Fig. 35

c9.s3.46

a

c9.s3.47

b

c9.s3.48

Fig. 34

c9.s3.49

a

c9.s3.50

b

c9.s3.51

c

c9.s3.52

e

c9.s3.53

d

c9.s3.54

b

c9.s3.55

a

c9.s3.56

f

c9.s3.57

c

c9.s3.58

d

c9.s3.59

Fig. 37

c9.s3.60

Fig. 36

c9.s3.61

MAP OF ANCIENT RĀJGRIHA AND GIRIYEKA

c9.s3.62

Fig. 38

c9.s3.63

5. *Suparṇa*, creatures with the body of a bird joined to a human head, corresponding to Harpies of classical art. They are represented at Sanchi, and Mathura (lintel from Kaṅkāli Ṭilā). [Fig. 28].

c9.s3.64

6. Double-headed Eagle—It is found at Sirkap, Taxila in India, but Coomaraswamy has mentioned it as a motif of Hittite art and probably earlier. In the great legend of *Suparṇī* and *Kadrū*, we find the conception of double-headed *Aditi* who was the same as *Suparṇī*, i. e. eagle. In the Mahābhārata we read of Bhāruṇḍa birds with a double head tagged to a single body (*Ekodara Pṛthag-grīva*, Bhīṣma parva 8. II). [Fig. 29].

c9.s3.65

7. Animals with interlacing necks (*Ekagrīva Bahūdara*) which were depicted in Sumerian art, also in the Atharva Veda we read of ten calves with a single head (*Eka-śīrṣāṇaḥ daśavatsāḥ*, AV. 13. 4. 6.), a motif referring to the single principle of *Prāṇa* with its ten aspects. At Ajanta is a figure of four deer with one neck. [Fig. 30]. This motif continued in medieval art under the name of *Pañcha-śarīrī*, etc.

c9.s3.66

8. Animals posed in profile with head forward *Utkṣipta-Śiras*, with heads facing (*Āvṛtta Śiras*) and with heads turned back (*Parivṛtta-Śiras*).

c9.s3.67

9. Animals addorsed or with backs touching (*Pṛṣṭha-gamita*), as the lions on the Aśokan Capital, also known as *Saṅghāṭa*, as *Haya Saṅghāṭa*, *Gaja-Saṅghāṭa Simha-Saṅghāṭa* etc, as on the pillar capitals in the Karle Chaitya-hall. These animals were also depicted affronted (*Sammukhī-kṛta*). Sometimes they were depicted as decorative motifs on friezes, coping-stones and lintels of early Indian art, and at other times they are showu in combating poses, e. g. *Garuḍa* and *Nāga* in Mathura relief, or lions and elephants on the high plinth at Ellora. [Fig. 31-32].

c9.s3.68

10. *Sūrya*, riding in a chariot of four horses, originally a Vedic motif with alternative number of horses as seven. On Bodh-Gayā railing the earliest figure of *Sūrya* is depicted in a car of four horses. In Bhājā cave (2nd cent. B.C.) there is a figure seated in a chariot of four horses moving on the back of corpulent demons who is often taken as *Sūrya*, but is really Māndhātā on his visit to Uttarakuru. At Mathura in Kuṣāṇa art *Sūrya* is shown with two or four horses, a tradition continued in Gandhāra and Sassanian art, as in the image from Khair Khaneh (near Kābul); but from Gupta period onwards *Sūrya*’s car was drawn by seven horses as in the Vedic and Purāṇic traditions. [Fig. 33].

c9.s3.69

11. Battlement motif—This is the same as *Kapi-śīrshaka* of Indian architecture and is a favourite motif in Mesapotamia and India. We find it at Susa, Persepolis, Sanchi, Barhut, Mathura, Bodh Gaya and in Gandhāra art. [Fig. 34]

c9.s3.70

12. Tree of Life. Originally a Vedic motif as Aśvatta, or Kalpa-Vṛiksha, Tree of Heaven or Soma Plant of Immortality; it is found in Nordic mythology as the Tree of Existence, Yggdrasil and also in Egypt and Western Asia. In the Vedic legend it was Suparṇa, the great Garuḍa, who transported the Elixir of Life from the region of the Gods. In art we find the Tree of Life being worshipped by two Suparṇas (Sanchi East Gate-way) and we clearly see the same motif in Egypt and Mesopotamia worshipped by two Harpies or winged human-faced birds. This Tree was later on styled as Śrī-Vṛiksha, Tree of Prosperity and depicted at Sanchi in a manner similar to that in Western Asia, i.e. by the technique of repeat motif. It is also seen in a conventionalised form on the door-way of the Deogarh temple. [Fig. 35].

c9.s3.71

13. Palmette and Honeysuckle, the first is the tāla-parṇa motif of Indian art, also represented as tāla-dhvaja or tālaketu with its capital formed of palm-leaves, as at Mathura. Honey-suckle is taken by Coomaraswamy as Blue Lotus, but it seems to be a flower comprised of six anthers and a pistil in the middle, probably the Indian Muchukunda flower (Pterospermum Suberifolium). Both Palmette and Honeysuckle are found as alternating motifs on the frieze of the Rampurvā Bull-Capital of Aśoka. [Fig. 36]

c9.s3.72

Many other geometrical designs as triangle, square, Svastika, Nandyāvarta, and floral motifs as lotus, chaturdalapushpa (four-petalled flower, Hindi chauphuliā चौफुलिया), pīpal leaf, acanthus leaf (kaṇṭakārī) occur as motifs common to Indian and what is here termed as Jambudvīpa art. As Coomaraswamy has pointed out, the fret (gavāksha and kuñjarāksha), spiral (āvarta or bhramaraka, Hindi चक्राँरी), volute (vellana or loḍaka, Hindi : Belan-loḍhā बेलन-लोढ़ा), labyrinth (vyūha), spider's-web (ūrṇa-vābhi; Hindi Makaḍā मकड़ा) are some of the motifs that have survived in folk-art up to our own times. [Fig. 37]

c9.s3.73

The stock of decorative motifs and thematic representations in early Indian art is so exceptionally rich, well defined and widely distributed that one is obliged to believe a preceding ancient tradition cultivated for many centuaries in wood, clay, ivory, semi-precious stones, glass, textiles and metal. We have already cited some literary references in proof of their existence in the long expanse of time covered by the civilisation of the Janapada age. What we come across in the Maurya, Śuṅga and Sātavāhana periods was a normal evolution of earlier art-forms and not an avalanche of borrowing that visited suddenly. It is therefore essential for understanding the inspiration and meaning of Indian art-forms to go deeper into their literary traditions from the Vedic to the Purāṇic period, and also to correlate them with continued survivals in folk-art and other formal arts up to our own times.

Linked texts (9)