The Development of Hindu Iconography c13.69

Language: English

c13.69.1

Another important factor which contributed to the development of iconographers' art in this country was undoubtedly her contact with the foreigners, especially with the Greeks in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. The exact character of the influence which was exercised by the Greeks on the cultural activities of this country has been a much-debated question, and controversy has been specially keen regarding the indebtedness of the Indians to the Hellenistic Greeks for their own icon-making art. Discussions concerning the latter generally centred round the problem about the origin of the Buddha image, and incidentally the wider aspect of it, viz., the iconical representation of the cult-gods and worshipping them through those media, was brought in. It is not necessary here to refer at length to different views of well-known scholars about the above; it will be sufficient to observe, however, that, though images were made and worshipped in certain places in ancient India,—for which we have cited numbers of early texts in the second and third chapters of this book, the image-making activity of the early Indians received a new impetus after they came in contact with the Greeks. Images used to be made of the Vyantara or intermediate divinities, really the objects of worship among the general mass of the people and the previous settlers of India, and therein lay the root cause of the recognition of this practice by the higher section of the people;

c13.69.2

but that one of the prime factors contributing to its development was the example set up by the Hellenistic Greeks of Gandhāra can be fully demonstrated with the help of the coins. It has been shown in the previous chapter that Śiva was being worshipped in Gandhāra in his bull form at the time the region was being ruled over by the Bactrian Greeks; shortly afterwards, during the rule of the Indo-Parthians and the Kushans, the god began to be anthropomorphically represented, though his theriomorphic form was not altogether forgotten. Now, this human as well as animal representation of Śiva was certainly not unknown in different parts of central and northern India, as is proved by the coins of much earlier times. In fact, the Hellenistic die-cutters must have made themselves familiar with the staff- and water-vessel-carrying Śiva figures of the latter and utilised this iconographic knowledge in giving shape to the Gandhāra Śivas. But, the plastic treatment and new orientation they gave to them on the coins show the nature and extent of the transformation of the theme. This is the reason why several scholars were sceptic about identifying Śiva on the reverse side of some coins of Gondophares and why the treatment of this deity on some of the tribal and Kushan coins forcibly reminds us of a Herakles of the Indo-Greek and the Indo-Scythic coins.

c13.69.3

The striking figure of Viśvāmitra, really Śiva as Viśvāmitra, on the obverse of certain biscriptual silver coins of Dharaghoṣa cannot but convince us of the truth of the above remark; there is some thing, it is true, that is Indian in the iconography of the figure, but much there is also in its whole presentation that is Hellenistic in character. Cunningham characteristically describes it thus, ‘Śiva, standing to front with right hand raised to head, and leopard’s skin over left arm; similar to figure of Herakles crowning himself’ (*CAI.*, p. 67); the very style and treatment of the whole coin itself is Hellenistic, and a comparison can profitably be made between the Śiva figures on indigenous coins of Ujjayinī in Central India with this Viśvāmitra-Śiva type on the coins hailing from an area roughly corresponding to ‘the valley of the Beas, or perhaps the wider region between the Upper Sutlej and the Ravi.’ A comparison can also be profitably made between the figure of Hermes used as a device on some coins of Azes I and the Śiva figure appearing on some coins of Maues. The scarf displayed on the upper half of Hermes’ body, his standing posture, his extended right hand, the manner of his holding the caduceus (a wand intertwined with snakes)—all these features are very much similar to those characteristic of Śiva on Maues' coin and the Sirkap seal already noted.

c13.69.4

A contrast made between the iconographic presentation of two other gods, *viz.*, Indra and Sūrya, on early indigenous coins and their figures on the Indo-Greek and Kushan coins will enable us further to substantiate our hypothesis. Reference has been made to the figure of Indra enshrined on the coins of Indramitra in the Pañcāla series; the same deity appears veritably in the garb of a Zeus on the coins of Eukratides and a number of Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythic rulers of the extreme north-west of India. Nay, there is no doubt that in this region, Indra used also to be represented in his elephant form as has been shown in a previous chapter; but a Zeus type could very conveniently be utilised to represent the god who was the city-deity of Kapiśa. In the numerous sculptural representations of the same god in Gandhāra, however, he appears in the rôle of a worshipping attendant of Buddha, but still the type reproduced there is in striking contrast to another indigenous one presented by the figure of the same god in the Bhaja façade. As regards Sūrya figures on early indigenous coins, we have seen what was their mode of representation;

c13.69.5

the Indians were quite justified in reproducing him as he is visible to all (*pratyakṣa*), but they also represented him in human form as the Bhaja, Udayagiri and Bodh Gaya reliefs show.¹ But the type of the north-Indian Sūrya image which came to be regularly worshipped by the Sauras was certainly stylistically connected with the one so often represented on the coins of Kanishka and Huvishka. The association of the latter with the Hellenistic Sun-God as also many other matters concerning the former will be treated in Chapter X of this book. But it will be sufficient to note here that in this case a very striking example is produced to show how some of the plastic features of an image type, that survived till a very late period, were undoubtedly influenced by their Hellenistic counterparts. This was the nature and extent of the contribution that was made by this art of northwestern region—and in fact, it was at its apogee during the rule of the Kushan emperors—to the development of icono-plastic art in India. The themes were in most cases Indian, but the technique of presentation of some varieties of them at least was greatly influenced by these alien motifs. Even when the former was in a decadent stage, as is proved by the stone sculptures of the third and fourth centuries A.D. in the north-west (but the art was still flourishing in stucco as has so ably been demonstrated by Marshall), the Ardochso type of the late Kushan coins (cf.

c13.69.6

those represented on those of Vāsu Kushan) could influence the Lakṣmī type on those of the early imperial Guptas; but the latter, undoubtedly far more cultured than the late Kushans, soon gave it a character which was far nobler and more artistic than the crude schematic figure, its prototype.