The Development of Hindu Iconography c13.28

c13.28

Of the seven different kinds of *mūrtisthānas*, i.e., materials for the making of images, several others, such as metal, stone and paint, etc., require to be considered at some detail. The metal images, especially the bronze ones, fall under the *pākajā* class as has been mentioned above and the discovery of some early specimens fully proves that the Indian artists were quite adept in the art of bronze casting. In fact, the skill they displayed in the casting of the beautiful bronze Buddha of the early Gupta period, found at Sultanganj and now in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, is unique; it can surely rank as one of the best specimens. The gold-plated bronze image of Mañjuśrī recovered from the Balai Dhap mound, close to the ruins of Mahāsthān and now in the Rajshahi Museum, is another fine specimen of the same art, though of a slightly later date. It is unfortunate that very few, if any at all, earlier bronze images have so far been found, but the discovery of those mentioned above proves that the Indian artists had long experience in this branch of fine arts. The uninscribed and inscribed cast coins of the pre-Christian period, some of them going back to an age as early as the 2nd or 3rd century B.C., if not earlier, do not portray, it is true, that excellence which is evinced by the bronze images of a later date. But it should be borne in mind that the Indians in their early efforts at coinage both in the issues of the punch-marked and cast coins, especially the former, were never very successful, and the crudeness with which some of the purely indigenous money were being manufactured up till recent times should be noted.¹ The metal-casters' art, especially in the fashioning of divine images, on the other hand, remained throughout at a high level and the mediaeval bronze statues and statuettes from Nalanda, Kurkihar, Jhaveri (Chittagong) and other places of eastern India, and Chamba, Rajputana, etc., of northern India and the bronze images found at Negapatam, Madura and various other parts of southern India amply testify to the truth of the remark made above.