Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c10: Chapter VII. Metal-Casting and Jaina Images
Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c10
- Language
- English
Contents
- c10.s1 I.—Metal images, chaityas and utensils of worship — 130 parts
- c10.s2 II.—Jaina Images — 11 parts
Chapter VII. Metal-Casting and Jaina Images
I.—Metal images, chaityas and utensils of worship
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Tāranātha has recorded that the art of metal-casting was founded in the eastern provinces by two men, father and son, named Dhimān and Bitpālo, who lived in Varendra (North Bengal) or Nālendra (Nālandā) during the reigns of Dharmapāla and Devapāla. Both of these artists are stated to have "produced many works in cast metal, as well as sculptures and paintings which resembled the works of the Nāgas. The father and son gave rise to distinct schools; as the son lived in Bengal, the cast images of gods produced by their followers were called gods of the Eastern style, whatever might be the birth-place of their actual designers."¹ Before the discoveries at Nālandā, the specimens in metal discovered in the eastern provinces were so few that it was not possible to discuss the artistic merits of metal images cast in these provinces with any degree of completeness. The discoveries at Nālandā have now made it possible to discuss the origin and development of metal-casting in the eastern provinces. In this case also, we can trace the evolution and the rise and fall from inscribed specimens as well as from dated images.
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The most important dated images are the images of Nāga and Muṇḍeśvari (7) dedicated during the reign of Devapāla and discovered at Nālandā.² The next dated image is that of Pārvatī discovered at Bihar in the Patna District, which was dedicated at Uddaṇḍapura in the 54th year of the reign of Nārāyaṇapāla.³ This is the first period of activity of the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture as proved by dated inscriptions and votive inscriptions on stone images. We find that in metal specimens also there is a corresponding increase of activity and elevation of the standard of excellence of artistic work of this school, in this period. Fortunately we possess several inscribed metal images of the pre-Pāla period. The best of these no doubt is the image of Buddha discovered at Nālandā.¹ In this particular specimen, the latent influence of early Gupta art is so much apparent that it would perhaps be a mistake to include it amongst specimens of the pre-Pāla period, by which term we designate the period which elapsed between the fall of the Early Gupta Emperors and the rise of the independent kingdom of Bengal under Gopāla I and his son Dharmapāla. In another specimen, which is also inscribed, we find the destructive influence of the anarchical state of the country in this period reflected on its art products. Inscriptions and traditional history show that for some time, before the rise of the Pāla dynasty, Bengal was in a state of complete anarchy.
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Both the epigraphist and the historian have recorded this state of the country and have used the very expressive term *mātsya-nyāya*² for it. In the earlier part of this period (*circa* seventh century) an image of a Buddha was dedicated at Gaya by a Rāṇaka named Yakshapāla. This inscription is incised on a thin plate of copper attached to the bottom of this image, much in the same way as inscriptions are placed on the bottom plates of Nepalese and Tibetan Buddhist images.³ In this particular image we find the same want of proportion between the different limbs of the body, as we find in the image of Buddha dedicated by the General Malluka.⁴ Want of proportion is the most important feature in this specimen, which is absolutely wanting in the Sultanganj copper image⁵ or the Nālandā gilt image of Buddha. The image of Sarvāṇī discovered by Mr.
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Nalini Kanta Bhattasali, M.A., Curator of the Dacca Museum, which was dedicated during the reign of king Devakhaḍga,⁶ as well as the copper image of Viṣṇu, discovered at Kumarpur in the Rajshahi district and now preserved in the Rajshahi Museum also belongs to this period.⁷ Turning to later specimens of metal-casting, we find that this particular specimen is a very crude art-product compared with the metal images discovered at Nālandā which were dedicated during the reign of Devapāla.⁸ It must, therefore, be admitted that with the rise of the mediæval school and the great improvement in stone carving in its first period there was a concomitant improvement in metal-casting of the eastern provinces. The next best specimen, which is uninscribed, is, no doubt, the image of the goddess Ganges discovered at Nālandā, which can be recognised by her *vāhana*, the *makara*.⁹ Many of the Nālandā images were destroyed during the conflagration, which followed the destruction or sack of that place by the early Muhammadan invaders under Muhammad Bin Bakhtyār in 1199 A. D. After the discovery of these images, some of them have been cleaned by the Archaeological Chemist but the majority of them still lie covered with verdigris and patina caused by exposure to intense heat. The next uninscribed specimen which, in my opinion belongs to the first period, is, no doubt, an unidentified image labelled "Kuvera and his two wives" by the excavators of Nālandā¹.
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We find the same characteristics, e.g., well defined proportions, sense of symmetry and expression of infinite charm on the face of the human figures in metal, as we find in all specimens in stone of the first period of the activity of the Eastern School. The chaitya discovered at Ashrafpur² in the same District belongs to this period.
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¹ *Indian Antiquary*, Vol. IV, 1875, p. 102.
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² *Annual Report of the Archæological Survey, Central Circle, for 1920-21, pl. 19. See pl. I b.*
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³ *Indian Antiquary, Vol. XLVII, 1918, p. 111. See pl. III a-b.*
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¹ *Annual Report of the Archæological Survey, Central Circle, for 1920-21, p. 39 pl. III. See pl. LXVI a.*
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² *See Pālas of Bengal, Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. V, pp. 45 seq.*
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³ *Indian Antiquary, Vol. XIX, 1890, pp. 77-78 and pl. See pl. LXVI c.*
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⁴ *Pl. VII d.*
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⁵ *Smith, History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, p. 171; fig. 118.*
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⁶ *See pl. I-c. Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XVII, pp. 357-59.*
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⁷ *See pl. LXVIII a.*
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⁸ *See ante, p. 124, pl. I b and LXXI f.*
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⁹ *See pl. LXXI d.*
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¹ Annual Report of the Archæological Survey, Eastern Circle, 1920-21, p. 42.
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² Proc. Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1891, pl. III ; See pl. LXXV b.
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It cannot be denied now that the artists of the Eastern School suffered a good deal during the border wars which followed the conquest of Magadha by Bhōja I and its occupation by his son Mahēndrapāla. For three generations the Pālas were at war with the Pratihāras and during this period artistic activity declined in the eastern provinces. The products, which can be definitely assigned on the ground of palæography to this particular period, show the same decline in general excellence as we find on the stone images. The image of Pārvatī which was dedicated in the 54th year of the reign of Nārāyaṇapāla cannot be called an object of art. It is a crude image and, though it was made at the cost of a comparatively wealthy person, it cannot be called, even by courtesy, an art product. The reason is not far to seek. In the history of the Pāla dynasty we find that in the 7th year of his reign, Nārāyaṇapāla was in the possession of Gaya and in the 17th year of his reign he was in the possession of Munger. Between the 17th and 54th years of his reign there is a gap of thirty-seven years, the history of which we cannot account for. It is during this period that Bhōja I defeated the Pālas with his army of feudatories, many of whom boast of having defeated the king of Gauḍa in the famous battle of Mudgagiri or Munger.³ Later on, when he was a very old man, Nārāyaṇapāla reconquered a portion of eastern Magadha, but then the long border war had most probably reduced the country to a chaotic condition and the artists of the Eastern school had most probably fled to distant provinces where security still prevailed. The specimen which can be definitely relegated to this period is the four-armed figure of Prajñāpāramitā⁴ and the four-armed Bodhisattva discovered at Nālandā.⁵ There are very few inscribed specimens belonging to the reign of Nārāyaṇapāla and there are no inscribed specimens in metal. We reach a more solid ground in the next century. In this period of decline a certain amount of unnecessary elongation of the limbs is noticeable in certain stone images, such as Lōkanātha (I. M. No. 3962)⁶ and the same characteristic is to be found in an image of Lōkanātha discovered at Bandarbazar in the Sylhet District and now in the Dacca Museum.⁷
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³ Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. V, p. 59 seq.
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⁴ See pl. LXXI a.
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⁵ See pl. LXIX a.
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⁶ See pl. XII a.
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⁷ See pl. LXVI b.
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In the middle of the 11th century Mahīpāla I revived the Pāla power. Northern Bengal, which had been conquered by kings of Tibetan descent, was reconquered and the western provinces were recovered from the Pratihāras. Eastern Bengal was conquered and Mahīpāla I could boast of having founded a second empire, like Dharmapāla. The power of the Gurjara-Pratihāras was crushed for ever, and, though there were invasions from the south and from the southwest, the metropolitan districts were at peace. Art revived as a result of the material prosperity of the people of Gauḍa, which we can see in the images discovered at Imadpur in the Muzaffarpur District of Tirhut or Northern Bihar. These images were dedicated in the 48th year of the reign of Mahīpāla I and cannot be traced at present. Probably they form a part of some private collection outside India. Crude lithographs were published in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, but even from these productions we can judge that art, so far as metal-casting was concerned, had revived to the same degree as stone carving.¹ We may say, therefore, with a tolerable degree of confidence, that there was a renaissance of metal-casting in the eastern provinces along with that in stone carving. Here again, as in the case of stone-carvings, we find images of metal in the districts of Bengal proper, while the earlier specimens were entirely confined to northern and southern Bihar. Very few specimens discovered in the districts of Bengal proper can be referred to the period of history, which preceded the reign of Mahīpāla I. In the third period of activity of the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture, we find beautiful images produced in Bengal proper, among which may be mentioned the images of Śiva and Durgā in the collection of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Pariṣad. These images were discovered at some place in the Maldah and Bogra Districts². None of them have been cleaned as yet but even in this state they show a virility and strength which is certainly absent in the image of Pārvatī dedicated in the 54th year of Nārāyaṇapāla. To the same period must be relegated the beautiful images discovered in different parts of Bengal and Bihar. The earliest and the best specimen of the period of the second Pāla empire is the figure of Cuṇḍā discovered at Sonarang in the Dacca District and now preserved in the Dacca Museum³. Next in order come the Shaḍaksharī group⁴ and a miniature figurine of Tārā from Nālandā⁵. After them must be placed another image in the Dacca Museum, a figure of Tārā discovered in the Tippera District⁶. Some of these images were discovered from the banks of a tank or lake called Sāgardighi in the Murshidabad district of Bengal, others were discovered in a deserted town in the northern part of the Rangpur District. A collection of fine miniature images was rescued from the melting pot by the late Mr. Pūrṇa Chandra Mukherji of this Department at Patharghatta in the Bhagalpur District and presented to the Indian Museum at Calcutta. In the first and third groups of specimens we get inscribed images. These inscriptions show the use of characters which are certainly later than the Kṛṣṇa-dvārikā and Narasimha temple inscriptions of the 15th year of Nayapāla, the son and successor of Mahīpāla I. They show some resemblance to the characters used in the inscriptions on the image dedicated in the 13th year of the reign of Vigrahapāla III¹. In Bengal proper we have found very few inscriptions of the particular type. The proper appellation of this variety of the alphabet would appropriately be proto-Bengali, but this term has already been used by Bühler for the variety which we find in the inscriptions of Vijayasena and his successors². It may therefore suffice in the present case if this variety is termed the Bengali alphabet of the late 11th century. The following inscription is to be found on the back of one of the three images discovered at Sagardighi in the Murshidabad District.
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¹ Proc. A. S. B., 1881, p. 98.
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² Handbook to the sculptures in the Museum of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Pariṣad, pp. 142-43. See pl. LXIX g and LXXI b.
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³ See pl. LXVIII b.
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⁴ See pl. LXIX c.
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⁵ See pl. LXIX b.
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⁶ See pl. LXXIV b.
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¹ See pl. V a.
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² *Indische Palæographie* Eng. Trans. by J. F. Fleet, *Indian Antiquary*, Vol. XXXIII, 1904, p. 58.
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*Sh(s)uvāchaka Nānnō-dāsa-sh(s)uta Pānō dānapati idaṃ dēya-dharmma.*
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"This image is the gift of Pāna, the son of the religious preacher Nānnōdāsa." Resemblances in the details of these three images indicate definitely that they were the handi-work of one and the same artist. Two images have been referred to above in the section on the images of Viṣṇu. One of them is undoubtedly Viṣṇu or Trivikrama as the order of the implements in his hands is G. P. S. C.³ He is attended by two male figures. The point of resemblance between this figure and the second is that out of the four attributes in the latter, two are placed on full-blown lotus flowers, as we find in the case of the mace in specimen No. 1.⁴ The main figure in the second case is seated in the *mahārājalīlā* posture, i.e., one leg is placed on the ground and the other haunched up. The head dress and the ornaments and other details are exactly similar to those of the first specimen.⁵ The third specimen has already been described in the section on Buddhist images and most probably represents some long forgotten form of Viṣṇu, in which it had become particularly identical with some form of Avalokiteśvara or Lōkanātha⁶. But here, also, the common feature is the wheel, in the middle proper right hand, placed on a lotus, as we see in the case of the conch and the mace in specimen No. 2 and in the case of the wheel and the mace in specimen No. 1. All three figures would compare very favourably with a fine image of Viṣṇu discovered by Mr.
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Nalinikanta Bhattasali at Baghaura in the Comilla District, which was dedicated in the 3rd year of the reign of Mahīpāla I⁷. The inscription on the third metal image indicates that it was later than the Baghaura image. These details show that all of these specimens belong to the same period of plastic activity. In the cast of the faces, in the elegant attitude of specimens numbered 2 and 3, and from treatment of the decorative designs on the back-slabs, we find a general agreement which we have not noticed in metal images belonging to the second period. To the same period may be relegated six metal images of Vishnu found at Sahibganj, in the southern portion of the Rangpur district of Bengal. Five of them were described by Dr. D. B. Spooner in the Annual Report of the Archæological Survey¹. None of them is inscribed but a comparison with the Baghaura image and the Sāgardighi images leaves no doubt about the fact that all of them belong to the 3rd period of plastic activity of the Eastern School. In one specimen we find that the main figure is holding the attributes in the order of G. P. S. C. and is attended by Sarasvatī with the vīṇā on the left and Lakshmī on the right. On the pedestal we find a miniature figure of Garuḍa kneeling and the donor in a recessed corner.² The next specimen, worth describing, shows holes in which jewels were inset on the back slab. Here also the position of the attributes, G. P. S. C., indicates that the image is of one Vāsudeva.
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In this case the attendant figurines differ, as each holds a lotus with stalk (N. S. 2250).³ Allied to this group, but of much finer execution are the small metal images discovered at Patharghata in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar. They were collected for the Indian Museum by the late Mr. Pūrṇa Chandra Mukherji. Here we find an image of Buddha in the vara-mudrā⁴, a figure of a Bodhisattva evidently that of Maitreya⁵ as we find a chaitya in his headdress, an image of Varuṇa⁶, and another of Pārvatī with Kārtikēya⁷. Out of these four or five specimens, at least three are inscribed and the characters belong definitely to the same period to which the inscribed image from Sāgardighi belongs. To this class belong two other images, one of which is a small image of Vishnu discovered at Sahibganj in the Rangpur District. The back slab of this image is profusely decorated and the main figure is attended by Sarasvatī and Lakshmī. Garuḍa is represented in front of the main figure on the pedestal and we find the donor and his wife kneeling on two recessed corners to the proper right⁸. The second specimen was discovered at Nālandā. It is an image of a Nāga exactly similar to the specimen dedicated during the reign of Devapāla⁹. The main figure wears a garland of human skulls and is attended by female figurines all of which are in an imperfect state of preservation.
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³ *Handbook*, etc., pp. 137-38.
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⁴ See pl. LXVII c.
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⁵ See pl. LXVIII c.
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⁶ See pl. XXXVIII b.
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⁷ See pl. IV d.
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¹ Annual Report of the Archl. Survey of India, Part II, 1911-12, pp. 152-58, pls. LXX-LXXI.
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² See pl. LXVII a.
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³ See pl. LXVII b.
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⁴ See pl. LXXI e.
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⁵ See pl. LXXI i.
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⁶ See pl. LXXIII d.
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⁷ See pl. LXXIII e.
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⁸ See pl. LXXIV a.
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⁹ See pl. I b.
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The majority of images of Vishnu discovered in the eastern provinces of Northern India, belong to the third and fourth periods of activity of the Eastern School. Though stray specimens have been discovered in Bihar, more than ninety per cent of them come from Bengal proper. Inscribed specimens are very rare and the more favourite form appears to have been that of Vāsudeva. Stereotyped forms produced by the artists of Eastern India in the 12th century are identical in type with the Buddhist images dedicated at Bihār¹ and Giriyek² during the reign of Rāmapāla and the image of Chaṇḍī³ discovered at Dacca which was dedicated in the third year of the reign of Lakshmaṇasēna. Few inscribed metal images of this century, *i.e.*, of the fourth period of activity of the eastern school have been discovered anywhere in Eastern India. But the unclean ones of the Nālandā collection may contain some specimens, which may have to be relegated, on the basis of the form of the characters of their inscriptions, to this particular period. The image of Buddha in the possession of Babu Saurīndra Narayan Sinha of Jhawakothi in Bhagalpur bears a short mutilated inscription on the pedestal⁴. This image⁵ is certainly later than the three groups described above. It is, however, earlier in date than the silver image⁶ discovered in the Dacca District, which is preserved in the Art Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta. The original of this image was given for cleaning to some local artist and the effect produced by the cleaning is far from pleasing. It looks like a new image and, but for the survival of the *kīrtimukha* ornament it would have passed for a clever forgery. The image was brought under the regulations of the Indian Treasure Trove Act after its discovery and we have therefore definite information about its find-spot. Some competent authorities are however of opinion that the specimen preserved in the Art Section of the Calcutta Museum is a clever cast of the original image. In this specimen we find the attenuation of the waist, the idealistic moulding of the torsos of the figures and the conventional arrangement of the draperies, which are the constant features of images produced during the fourth and the last period of activity of the Eastern School. The main figure is attended by two females which are evidently Lakshmī and Sarasvatī and there is a small figure of Garuḍa on the pedestal.
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¹ See pl. V *c*.
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² See pl. V *b*.
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³ See pl. VI *d*.
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⁴ See pl. LXXIII *b*.
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⁵ See pl. XVIII *a*.
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⁶ See pl. LXXI *g*.
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To this period belongs a unique metal plaque discovered in the Rangpur District which was presented to the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Parishad eight or nine years ago. This plaque is made of pure copper and was cast. On the obverse we find a circle inside a square. It contains a ten-petalled lotus, and each petal bears on it a figure of one of the incarnations of Vishṇu. The Matsya and Kūrma incarnations are indicated by full size four-armed figures of Vishṇu, while the remaining eight are to be recognised by their attributes. The reverse is divided into nine panels, the central one containing an image of Vishṇu⁷. This particular style of Vaishṇava worship has fallen into disuse in Bengal, most probably with the rise of Chaitanya and the introduction of the popular form of Vaishṇavism, at the beginning of the 16th century. The Tāntric form of Vishṇu worship, which was most probably introduced into Bengal by the Sēna kings, fell into disuse at this date. This metal plaque is the Tāntric *yantra* of Viṣṇu. Fine stone specimens of it have been collected by the Varendra Research Society and three of them have been described in their catalogue¹.
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⁷ Handbook to the sculptures, etc., pp. 144-45.
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¹ A Catalogue of the Archæological relics, etc., pp. 17-21.
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The result of the foregoing analysis is in keeping with that of dated and inscribed stone images from Bihar and Bengal. Inscribed images, which, on palæographical grounds, must be assigned to the end of the seventh or to the first half of the eighth century, show a distinct decline in ideals and execution of the artists of north-eastern India. A comparison of the copper-gilt image discovered at Nālandā² and the great metal Buddha from Sultanganj near Bhagalpur³ in the Birmingham Museum with the small image of the seated Buddha from Gaya⁴ bearing an inscription in Bhaikṣukī characters would reveal this fact. The metal image of Viṣṇu from Kumarpur⁵ in the Rajshahi district is slightly better in execution but it belongs to the same age as the Buddha from Gaya. There is as great a paucity of metal specimens as we find in the case of stone images in the period immediately preceding the reign of Dēvapāla.
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² See pl. LXVI a.
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³ V. A. Smith—A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, p. 171, fig. 118.
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⁴ See pl. LXVI c.
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⁵ See pl. LXVIII a.
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Suddenly, sometime in the ninth century, there took place a vast improvement in the ideals of artists and their mode of execution. The two inscribed metal images of the reign of Dēvapāla, one dedicated in the square of Dēvapāla (Dēvapāla-haṭṭe) and the other in the District (viṣaya) of Rājagṛiha, in the great city (pattana) by the potter Ujaka and the lady Śogukā of the same class (or caste), who were residents of the place,⁶ prove that this sudden transition from comparative crudity in plastic art of the north-eastern provinces of India must have taken place early in the Pāla period. The absence of dated specimens of the reign of Dharmapāla makes it difficult to say with anything approaching definiteness whether the change began in the reign of Dēvapāla or in that of his father. Further specimens of the period have been discovered at Nālandā alone. The special characteristics to be found in these two images of the reign of Dēvapāla are also to be found in a number of the images discovered recently at Nālandā, e.g., the four-armed Lokanātha,⁷ the little Tārā,⁸ the Shaḍakṣarī group⁹ and the fine Prajñāpāramitā.¹⁰ The last is as good as an object of art of the first period of activity of the Eastern School of Mediæval sculpture as the great Tārā dedicated by the Buddhist monk Guṇamati.¹¹ The paucity of materials in Eastern Bengal is also remarkable. The image of Sarvāṇī dedicated by the queen Prabhāvatī of the Khaḍga dynasty¹² belongs to the same period as the stone Buddha dedicated by the general Malluka¹ or the small metal Buddha from Gayā,² but it is earlier than the metal chaitya discovered at Ashrafpur³ in the Dacca District. The metal chaitya cannot be earlier than the tenth century. The four images in its four niches exhibit the same lassitude in the artist’s ideals as other tenth century stone images.
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⁶ I came to learn about the existence of the second specimen from Mr. J. C. French, I.C.S., in 1926 but could not include it among the illustrations. The photograph received from the Superintendent, Archæological Survey, Central Circle, bears the number "S1-372".
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⁷ See pl. LXIX a.
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⁸ See LXIX, b.
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⁹ See pl. LXIX c.
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¹⁰ pl. LXXI, a.
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¹¹ See pl. X c.
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¹² See pl. I c.
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¹ See pl. VII d.
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² See pl. LXVI c.
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³ See pl. LXXV b.
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Metal specimens which can be definitely assigned to the earlier part of the tenth century are very rare. No inscribed and dated specimens are known, but the Dacca Museum contains two specimens, which by their form and technique cannot be placed anywhere except in the tenth. One of them is a Bodhisattva from Bandarbazar⁴ in the Sylhet District and the other an eight-armed image of Chaṇḍī from Sonarang⁵ in the Dacca District. With the figure of the Bodhisattva, a Lōkanātha, we should compare the great four-armed Lōkanātha (I. M. No. 3962)⁶ and with the Chaṇḍī that of Muṇḍēśvarī (I. M. No. 3952).⁷ With the exception of the figures in the niches of the chaitya from Ashrafpur, no other metal figures show the same characteristics. Even the metal chaitya is certainly later than these two images and may belong to the end of the tenth while the date of the images would lie at the beginning.
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⁴ See pl. LXVI b.
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⁵ See pl. LXVIII b.
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⁶ See pl. XII a.
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⁷ Ibid c.
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With these slight indications it is extremely difficult to indicate the growth or decline of plastic activity in the tenth century, but the data are sufficient to denote that in metal casting also the progress of the plastic art followed the same outline as that of stone-carving.
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Specimens of metal casting which can be definitely assigned to the tenth century are comparatively rare, but there is a marked growth in the activities of the school in the eleventh. We do not know of any inscribed or dated metal images belonging to the second half of that century except the small image of Pārvatī and Kārtikēya (?)⁸ discovered at Bihar and now preserved in the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Parishad. As a specimen of the Eastern School it is extremely disappointing. It is impossible to place it between the Nālandā metal images of the reign of Dēvapāla and the Imadpur metal images of the reign of Mahīpāla I. With the reign of Mahīpāla we reach surer ground. The drawings of the Imadpur images are extremely useful. We find from them that there is a renaissance in metal casting exactly similar to that in sculpture, but here the absence of metal specimens prevents us from finding out whether the renaissance began with the revival of the political power of the Pālas or not. The Baghaura stone image of Viṣṇu shows that in the case of sculpture and stone carving the renaissance was coeval with the restoration of the Pālas to power but in the case of metal-casting we have to wait till the 48th year of the reign of Mahīpāla, when the Imadpur images were dedicated, which would correspond roughly with some year in the first quarter of the eleventh century A.D.
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⁸ See pl. III a-b.
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In the third period of the activity of the Eastern School we find a return to the normal in the ideals of the artist, a general standard prevailing throughout the different provinces of the Pāla Empire from Eastern Bengal to Gorakhpur, a sudden increase in the total output of specimens and an increase in the importance of the Bhāgavata sect of the Vaishṇavas. All of these characteristics are equally applicable to metal images of the period. The oldest metal Vaishṇava images of the Pāla period belong to this period. Their number also increases considerably. There is a greater variety of images of all other Hindu sects. The image of Śiva and Durgā in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston¹ belongs to the earlier part of the eleventh century, while the specimen from Bogra in the collection of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Parishad to the later part of the same.² The general difference in the artistic standard of the tenth and the eleventh centuries can be found by a comparison of the Imadpur images or in their absence of three Sāgardighi Vaishṇava images³ with the Lokanātha from Bandarbazar in Sylhet or the Chaṇḍī from Sonarang. Here one cannot resist coming to the conclusion that the artists of the north-eastern provinces once more returned to naturalism, correct symmetry of form and elegance.
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¹ History of Indian and Indonesian Art by Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy, p. 114, pl. LXXI, fig. 230.
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² See pl. LXIX g.
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³ See pls. LXVIII c, LXVIII c, and XXXVIII b.
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To this period must belong the six metal images of Vishṇu from Sahibganj in the Rangpur District,⁴ the Trailōkyavijaya,⁵ Varuṇa,⁶ Maitrēya⁷ and Buddha⁸ from Patharghata in the Bhagalpur District, the image of Śiva and Durgā from Gaur⁹ in the Maldah District, the twelve-armed Mahishamarddinī¹⁰ from Kēshabpur in the Dinajpur District and the beautiful miniature Tārā from Nālandā.¹¹ The generic equality of standard may be found by a comparison of the six-armed Lōkēśvara-Vishṇu¹² from Sāgardighi, the Trailōkya-vijaya¹³ from Patharghata and the miniature Gaṅgā from Nālandā.¹⁴
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⁴ See pls. LXVII a-b and LXXIV a.
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⁵ See pl. XXXVII c.
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⁶ See pl. LXXIII d.
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⁷ See pl. LXXI i.
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⁸ See Ibid e.
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⁹ Ibid b.
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¹⁰ See pl. LIII c.
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¹¹ See pl. LXIX b.
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¹² See pl. XXXVIII b.
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¹³ See pl. XXXVII c.
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¹⁴ See pl. LXXI d.
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Side by side with the decline in the political power of the Pālas, a general decline is noticeable in the plastic art of the opening decades of the twelfth century. Once more there is a disproportionate lengthening of the limbs, noticeable in stone as well as metal images and along with it a distinct attempt to subordinate plastic art to the stereotyped conventions of manuals of art and Iconography. In other words we find greater obedience being paid to standard works on art in the 12th than in the previous centuries. It is very wrong to assume that little liberty existed in mediæval Indian art for the expression of individual capacity of the artists. In the first period of the activity of the Eastern School the great advance in the artist's ideals and execution depended entirely on the freedom enjoyed by individuals for the expression of their personal genius. The modelling of the Tārā dedicated by the Buddhist monk Guṇamati¹ and the splendid Maitrēya² are conclusive proofs of the fact that individual genius enjoyed abundance of liberty in the expression of forms and ideas. In the renaissance of the 10th-11th centuries, the liberty remained unimpaired and therefore we find that in images of Viṣṇu, from different parts of the Pāla kingdom, rigidity of the conventional forms was applied only to the iconographical details necessary for the reproduction of a particular image. But in the 12th century the images became so stereotyped as to compel us to admit that individual liberty of expression had almost ceased to exist. This was the beginning of the modern plastic art of Bengal in which images are moulded according to strict rules and the faces are cast from certain standard moulds. These rules are rigidly followed in the making of clay images all over Bengal at the present day.
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¹ See pl. X c.
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² See pl. LXXI, i.
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A further change noticeable in the fourth period of existence of the Eastern School is the introduction of a good deal of foreign influence. This becomes more prominent in the Sēna period (1119-99). In the image of Tārā from Bihar dedicated in the 2nd year of the reign of Rāmapāla³ we find a peculiar mode of modelling of the torse which is noticeable in the 11th century sculpture of Orissa while it is absent in the plastic art of the United Provinces or of North-Eastern Central India of the same period. The abnormal development of the female bust, the stereotyped pose of figures and general expression of racial types in sculptures has so far been absent in the Eastern School. If we compare the treatment of the female bust in the first three periods of the existence of the Eastern School with that in the fourth then we are compelled to admit that a radical change has come over it. There is no reason to suppose that the type of the people inhabiting different parts of Bihar and Bengal had changed materially towards the close of the 11th century. Yet the distinct transformation in the modelling of the bust is undeniable as a factor or characteristic of the north-eastern sculpture of the 12th century. This is noticeable in all stone sculptures of the period.
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³ See pl. V c.
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In metal images the development of the characteristics of the fourth period of the Eastern School is synchronous with that of stone carving. The change which is noticeable for the first time in the copper-gilt image of Buddha⁴ in the collection of Mr. Saurīndra Narayan Sinha of Bhagalpur is to be found fully developed in the Sonarang silver image of Viṣṇu⁵ as well as in the beautiful miniature copper images of the same deity from Meherur in Rajshahi District, Vishnupur in the Bankura District, and from Nagar in the Faridpur District. The difference in the artist's ideal may be found out by a comparison of these three images and the Sonarang silver image with the metal images.
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⁴ See pl. XVIII a.
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⁵ See pl. LXXI g.
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of the same deity from Sahibganj in the Rangpur District¹ and Sāgardighi in the Murshidabad District.² The similarity of characteristics between images in metal and stone will be found by a comparison between the metal images mentioned above and the stone image from Kewar³ in Eastern Bengal, which is inscribed. The majority of the images of Viṣṇu in the Museum of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Pariṣad at Calcutta and Varendra Research Society at Rajshahi belong to the fourth period or the 12th century, while we can trace the degeneration of art after the 12th century in later images, viz., one of wood from Muradnagar in the Tippera District⁴ and another inscribed image of stone in the Rajshahi Museum.
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¹ See pl. LXVII a-b.
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² See pl. LXVII c.
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³ See pl. XVIII b.
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⁴ See pl. XLVII b.
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The special characteristics of the fourth period of the Eastern School are noticeable in other images of other sects also. The metal yantra used in the Tāntric worship of Viṣṇu from Rangpur,⁵ the images of Vaiṣṇavī from Gauḍa and the four-armed Durgā from Deulpotā in the collection of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Pariṣad, the images of the ten-armed Śiva on the seals of the Naihāṭī plate of Vijayasēna⁶ and the Sītāhāṭī plate of Vallālasēna, the two Vajra-Tārās from Majbari, District Faridpur⁷ now in the Dacca Museum and from Patharghata, District Bhagalpur now in the Indian Museum,⁸ and the Tārā from Tippera District in the Dacca Museum⁹ all belong to the fourth period of activity of the Eastern School.
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⁵ See pl. LXIX e-f.
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⁶ See pl. LIV f.
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⁷ See pl. LXXII c-d.
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⁸ See pl. LXXII a-b.
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⁹ See pl. LXXIV b.
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With the Muhammadan conquest of South Bihar and Western Bengal at the beginning of the thirteenth century, metal-casting ceases suddenly and no images belonging to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are known from any part of Bengal and Bihar. Metal images now worshipped in these provinces all belong to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and no cause can be assigned for the cessation of activities of artists in the case of metal-casting, because unlike stone images their products were in almost all cases easily portable.
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The section on metal-casting would not be complete without a reference to the numerous copper and mixed metal votive stūpas discovered in different parts of the eastern provinces of Northern India. The earliest of them, without doubt, is the beautiful miniature stūpa discovered by Sir Alexander Cunningham inside the stūpa at Nongarh near Kiul in the Monghyr District.¹⁰ This stūpa is, from its shape, much earlier in date than the stūpas, whether in stone or in metal, produced by the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture. It is made entirely of copper and possesses a little umbrella made of the same metal, stuck on the top of which is a thin rod of gold. The steatite and crystal caskets discovered at the same place have been photographed and I am indebted to Lieut.-Colonel A. Alcock, M.D., I.M.S., formerly Superintendent of the Natural History Section of the Indian Museum, for a photograph of this interesting collection; the whereabouts of which are not known at present. The next votive stūpa of metal was discovered in the village of Ashrafpur in the District of Dacca along with two copper plates of king Devakhadga of Eastern Bengal¹. This chaitya is an elaborate affair and the height of the drum proves beyond doubt that it belongs to the same period as the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture. Here we find a cruciform pedestal; on each face of which there is a little niche, supported by proportionately tall slender columns and each of these niches contains a seated male or female figure. Above this base there is an open lotus with twelve petals, over which is the drum of the stūpa. The four faces of the drum are decorated with four miniature niches, with peculiar hut-shaped roofs or lintels. These roofs are supported on elegant little lathe-turned pilasters and the appearance of these niches is exactly like that of the double-roofed thatched huts of the more well-to-do peasants of Bengal. Around the base of the drum, there is a raised band decorated with kīrtimukhas, rows of beads, and tassels; an ornament very much favoured by the artists of the Eastern School and which they continued to use till the establishment of the Muhammadan power in India². The niches on four faces of the drum are occupied by figures of Bodhisattvas and not Dhyāni-buddhas as we usually find on niches of chaityas made of stone. On the drum there is a small square abacus with a sloping top, which also reminds one of the huts or hut-shaped brick temples of modern Bengal. Each face of this abacus is occupied by a Dhyāni-buddha in his particular posture (mudrā). A copper rod protrudes from the conical roof or the top of this abacus, to which is attached a single parasol, with an edging of beads. A portion of the rod protrudes through the parasol. There are reasons to believe that the parasols were more than one in number. A medallion attached to the side of the parasol bears the creed in characters of the 9th century A.D.³ Among the metal chaityas discovered at Nālandā is a beautiful specimen very much corroded, which bears a single niche, roofed by a chaitya-window. The face, the drum and the abacus of this specimen are exactly similar to those of the Ashrafpur specimen, but over the abacus we find a thick rod of copper bearing three parasols one over the other. The rod ends in a peculiar symbol which bears some resemblance to the open lotus, which may as well be a representation of the Wheel of the Law (dharmmachakra)⁴. A large number of miniature stūpas have been discovered at Nālandā⁵, but the best specimen from the eastern provinces of Northern India is a little plain copper chaitya discovered by General Cunningham at Bodh-Gaya⁶.
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¹⁰ Cunningham, A. S. Reports, Vol. III, p. 161, pl. XLVII, 3.
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¹ Memoirs, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. I, pp. 85-91.
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² The same ornament is used in the so-called tomb of Sulṭān Ghiyāth-ud-Dīn Azam Shāh at Magrapara in the Dacca District.
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³ See pl. LXXV b.
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⁴ See pl. LXXV a.
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⁵ See pl. LXV d and f.
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⁶ Catalogue and Handbook, Part II, pp. 33 seq.
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The utensils of daily worship discovered at Nālandā are not very well preserved and the only other specimens of such utensils, which we possess, are the incense-burner and copper-stands discovered at Naihati in the Burdwan District of Bengal. This incense-burner and the stands were discovered at the same place with a copper plate grant issued in the 11th year of the reign of Vallālasēna of Bengal. In shape, this incense-burner is peculiar; a modified "S" rests on two round metal discs; from the smaller limb of the S, a stump rises, which supports a beautiful little cup¹. On each side of the stump we get some arabesque work in copper, the type of which has not been met with elsewhere in Bengal or Bihar. The cup rests on a little disc of the same metal, which has been carved to represent a lotus and the bottom of the cup itself is decorated with a pattern of the same flower, half-opened. This peculiar incense-burner was provided with a lid, which, however, is missing². Along with the same specimen were discovered four little beautiful stands of copper and two small conch shells of the type, which are called "water-conches" (*pāṇi-śaṅkha*) by the priestly class of Bengal³. Though the *pāṇi-śaṅkha* is still in use, stands of this particular shape have not been found anywhere. The modern Bengali Brāhmaṇa places the *pāṇi-śaṅkha* on a little tripod-stand made of brass or copper. These four stands are very simple in design. They consist of a round base and lathe-turned or plain round shaft, which bears on its top a small platter-shaped vessel, with a raised rim⁴. The *pāṇi-śaṅkha*s, discovered with this collection, are of the usual shape and bear the usual ornaments which we find on conch shells of this class. Conch shells of this class are manufactured in large numbers in Calcutta and Dacca at the present day. The last object of this unique collection is a little bowl of copper, the shape of which is exactly similar to that of the *tāmrakuṇḍa*⁵, used by the priests of Bengal at the present day. Its purpose is manifold and varies with the status of the owner. In small temples it is used mainly for throwing the water offered to the god. The use of water, specially the water of the Ganges, is variously indicated in Hindu worship in Bengal; for example, the priests throw this water into the *tāmrakuṇḍa* in lieu of flowers, or scent or sandal or incense or even food. This water is taken up on each different occasion with a little spoon called the *kuśikā* or *kuśi* and thrown into this *tāmrakuṇḍa* instead of being thrown on the head or the foot of image of Viṣṇu or Pārvatī or Śiva. In larger temples many different *tāmrakuṇḍa*s of this particular shape are used; for example, in the temples of Sītārām Rai at Muhammadpur in the District of Jessore, now in the possession of the Maharajas of Natore, I found one *tāmrakuṇḍa* of the size of a small bath tub, used for bathing idols; a smaller one was used for throwing sacrificial water while a third one was used for the decoration (*śṛṅgāra*) of the idols. The persistence of the shape of the *tāmrakuṇḍa* for 700 years is very interesting, as the cache to which it belongs must have been buried some time before the Muhammadan conquest of Northern Rādha at the latest.
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¹ See pl. LXXIII a.
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² See pl. LXXIV d.
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³ See pl. LXII e and LXIX d.
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⁴ See pl. LXXIV e.
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⁵ See pl. LXIV e.
II.—Jaina Images
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Jaina images are very rare in Bengal proper but they occur in large numbers in the Chhota Nagpur Division of Bihar and all over Orissa. In the province of Magadha proper very few Jaina images have been found, though most of the ancient Jaina holy places, like Pāvāpurī near Rajgir and Champānagar near Bhagalpur, are included in this province. In fact Magadha is the holiest place of Jainism as the majority of the Tīrthaṅkaras were either born or died in this province. Jaina images, usually to be found at Rājgir, Gaya, Pāvāpurī or Champānagar do not, generally or in the majority of cases, belong to the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture. Many of these Jaina images bear inscriptions in which the date of dedication and the names of the donors are recorded. In the majority of cases the inscriptions belong to the late mediæval period, *i.e.*, to the period which succeeded the Muhammadan conquest of Bihar and Bengal.
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The specimens of Jaina sculpture discovered in Bengal proper can be counted on the fingers. Such specimens are very rare in Northern Bengal. The Museum of the Varendra Research Society contains only one Jaina image,¹ which was discovered at Mandoil near Godagari, on the river Padma, in the district of Rajshahi. They are more common in Western Bengal or Rādha. One of them is now preserved in the Museum of the Baṅgiya Sāhitya Parishad at Calcutta.² This particular specimen was discovered in the village of Ujani, near Mangalkot in the Burdwan District. Mr. K. N. Dikshit discovered several Jaina images in the Bankura District, one of which was found in the village of Bahulara³ and another at Harmashra⁴ in the same District. All of these four specimens are, however, nude, proving that the Digambara sect of the Jainas was preponderant in Bengal.
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¹ *A Catalogue of Archæological relics, etc.*, p. 7, No. (B(a) 1)/15
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² *Handbook to the Sculptures, etc.*, pp. 7-8. See pl. LXXVII *c*.
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³ See pl. LXXVII *a*.
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⁴ See pl. LXXVII *b*.
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During the last twenty-five years I have had occasion to visit many of the important sites in Chhota Nagpur Division in the districts of Ranchi, Manbhum and Singhbhum; the antiquities of which do not appear to have been properly described. In these districts, which now support a thriving population on account of the prosperity of the coal industry, there are numerous stone-built temples and thousands of mutilated Jaina images lie scattered about the region. The temples of this style begin really from Barakar and Dhanbad and end in the jungle tracts of the Rewa State and the Orissa Feudatory States. Their position indicates that there must have been at one time a dense population in this part of the country who were worshippers of the Jinas; because in all of these places Jaina images abound, while Brahmanical temples and images are very few and far between. Buddhist images are never found in this area, and what Brahmanical images to-day or are worshipped, belong to the late mediæval or the Muhammadan period. In Muhammadan histories this tract is included in the very wide term Jhārkhaṇḍ, which was used to denote the jungle country. In the early days of British occupation, before the cession of the districts of Benares, Korā and Allahabad to the East India Company, the Chhota Nagpur Districts along with Sassaram and Palamau formed, what was known as the South-Eastern Frontier of the Hon'ble East India Company's territories, beyond which lay the territories of the Bhonsles of Nagpur. The Jaina images of the Chhota Nagpur district betray a distinct affinity to the specimens of the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture, but there is a good deal of difference among them on account of the material used. Flint, basalt, close-grained sand-stone and mica-schist are very rarely used. The images which are generally found in the Manbhum and Singhbhum districts are made of the very coarse-grained sand-stone, or the schistose rocks which are locally obtainable. The Jaina zone of influence appears to have extended from the south bank of the Ganges and the western bank of the Bhāgīrathī right up to the northern frontier of the jungle country, where the wild Gonds live and which is the province of Gondwana proper. All of these Jaina images are nude, i.e., they belong to the Digambara sect of the Jainas. The images of the jungle tracts (Garh-jat States) of Orissa belong to the same denomination. Such images were found in the majority of Orissa States and a large number of them were dedicated in the late Jaina temple on the top of the Khaṇḍagiri hill near Bhuvanesvar, where these images are still worshipped by survivors of the Jaina inhabitants of Orissa who are locally called "Sarāks", a corruption of the term Śrāvaka. The temples of the Chhota Nagpur frontier, i.e., from the Districts of Birbhum and Burdwan will be described in the following chapter.
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The Jaina images discovered in the Manbhum and Singhbhum districts include splendid specimens which were found in a village called Chhatra close to the town of Purulia, the headquarters of the district of Manbhum. In this village, the majority of inhabitants speak Bengali and the aboriginal inhabitants have also adopted Hinduism as their faith. Large ruins of Jaina temples exist in this village and their materials have been used in the construction of the modern temple of Śiva at this place. We find Jaina images used in the decoration of the front facade of this temple which could not have been built before the 17th century. The accompanying photograph will show a fine image of Varddhamāna's father and mother, imbedded in the plaster to the proper right of the doorway and another image of Śantinātha to the left.¹ A fine Jaina image lies in front of this temple, while several others are to be found scattered in the village. Among these specimens we find a large image of Pārśvanātha² the twenty-third and several of Ṛiṣabhadēva, the first patriarch. Chaturmmukhas or chaumuhas, as they are called by Jainas of the present day, were made in a peculiar fashion. Images of four patriarchs occupy the four sides of a miniature temple. In this respect, these chaturmmukhas differ from their prototypes of the ancient period, e.g., the four-fold images or *pratimā sarvvatō-bhadrikā* of the Mathurā School of Sculpture and from the modern and mediæval chaturmmukhas of Rajputana and Central India. They are more or less like the Buddhist stelæ or miniature temples of the Eastern School, specimens of which are described below, in the next chapter. Some of the Jaina images discovered at Chhatra are of a very big size. Attention may be drawn to a very large image of the first Tīrthaṅkara (*Rishabha*), attended by 71 others of the preceding and the forthcoming ages (*kalpas*), which is now worshipped as *Dharmmarāja* by the villagers of Chhatra.¹ Inscribed and dated images, made in Magadha or Bengal have been discovered in the south-eastern districts. Such are the images of Buddha and Tārā dedicated at Guneriya in the Gaya District and Itkhauri in the Hazaribagh District respectively. No inscribed or dated Jaina images or sculptures of the particular type, which we find in the south-eastern districts only, have been discovered. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to assign dates to any of these images, but from their execution it may be gathered that they belong rather to the 3rd and 4th periods of activity of the Eastern School than to the two preceding ones.
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