Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s3.6

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.