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History of Indian and Indonesian Art c7: Part II: Maurya, Śuṅga, Early Āndhra and Scytho-Parthian (Kṣatrapa)

History of Indian and Indonesian Art c7

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Part II: Maurya, Śuṅga, Early Āndhra and Scytho-Parthian (Kṣatrapa)

Maurya Period, 320—185 B. C.

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Candragupta Maurya, of whose origins little is known, displaced the last king of the Nanda dynasty about 320 B. C. and made himself master of Pāṭaliputra, the capital of Magadha. His more famous grandson Aśoka (272—232) B. C., whose early faith may have been Brāhmaṇical, Jaina, or possibly Magian, early in life became an ardent Buddhist; Aśoka first made Buddhism a kind of state religion, and sent Buddhist missionaries to other parts of India and to Ceylon, and westwards as far as Syria and Egypt. His monolithic pillar and rock edicts inculcating the practice of the Dhamma, or (Buddhist) Law of Piety are well known; he is credited with the erection of 80000 *stūpas*, and countless monasteries; excavations have shown that his famous palace at Pāṭaliputra formed a large and magnificent group of buildings. The empire included the whole of northern India from east to west, Afghānistān and Kaśmīr, and the Dekkhan, only the far south remaining independent. The later Mauryas ruled till about 184 B. C., when the Śuṅga dynasty succeeded; but the kingdom had already begun to break up soon after the death of Aśoka, when the power of the Āndhras in the Dekkhan was already developing.

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For this age we have abundant literary sources of all kinds. A general picture of Indian civilisation can be drawn from the *Jātakas* and *Sūtras*, with some reserves from the Epics, in greater detail from the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya, and from western sources, particularly Megasthenes. A few capital cities were now acquiring increasing importance, amongst which Taxila, Ayodhyā, Ujjain, Vidiśā, and Pāṭaliputra are most prominent; but the village is still the typical centre of Āryan life. All the crafts were practised, eighteen of the most important, amongst which that of the painters is mentioned, being organised in gilds (*seṇi*); the term *kammāra* was already in use as a designation of the higher craftsmen. Carpenters, iron-smiths and potters occupy their own villages, the former travelling up and down the Ganges with timber ready out for building. The more pretentious houses were built of wood with squared beams, sometimes of several storeys supported by pillars and well provided with balconies. City walls were of burnt or unburnt bricks. The arts of glass-making and cutting of hard stones had in previous centuries attained great perfection, unequalled at any later period. Fine materials of cotton, wool, linen and silk were woven, and the art of printing on cotton was practised. Stone begins to come into use both in architecture and for sculpture in relief and in the round, the special characteristic of the Aśokan work being the fine finish and polish of the surface, conspicuous even in the case of the excavated monastic halls¹.

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¹ The official art of Aśoka seems to have somewhat the same relation to the older Indian tradition that Mughal painting and architecture have to Rājput at a later period. The distinction is not so much between a native and a foreign art as between a folk art and a court art. The same kind of distinction can be traced in Persia (Sarre, p. 29).

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In religion, the Vedic rituals persist, and there must have existed Persian and Hindū modes of fire-worship; but the deities are now beginning to be conceived as worshipful persons (*Bhagavata*), rather than as elemental powers. Āryan philosophies, Aupaniṣadic and Bauddha, are undergoing great modifications in the process of adjustment to popular necessity, with a resulting development of devotional theism and the fusion of Dravidian with Āryan conceptions.

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To some extent a distinction can be drawn in the art of this period between an official or court art, and a purely indigenous art. Probably the most important examples of the latter are the famous free-standing stone figures from Besnagar and Pārkham, etc. of colossal size (figs. 8, 9). Although of archaic aspect, and designed from a frontal viewpoint, with flattened sides, they represent a relatively advanced art and imply a long anterior development and practise, if only in the handling of wood. Magnificently conceived, they express an immense material force in terms of sheer volume; they are informed by an astounding physical energy, which their archaic "stiffness" by no means obscures. There is no suggestion here, indeed, of introspection or devotion; this is an art of mortal essence, almost brutal in its affirmation, not yet spiritualised. But this is the material that must later on be used to serve the ends of passionate devotion (*bhakti*) to spiritual and unseen powers, and for the exposition of cosmic theory in terms of an elaborate theology; this same energy finds expression in the early Kuṣāna Buddhas and survives even in the more refined creations of the Gupta age.

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Mr. Jayaswal has attempted to prove that the Pārkham statue inscription identifies it as representing Kuṇika Ajātaśatru of the Śaiśunāga dynasty, who died about 459 (Pargiter) or 618 (Jayaswal) B.C.; and to show that two other massive figures discovered at Patna about a hundred years ago represent Udayin Nanda face are executed with extraordinary precision and accuracy; not only is great technical skill displayed in this respect, but the art itself is of an advanced and even late type with quite realistic modelling and movement. In other extant or now lost examples the crowning member consisted of similar lions, or of a single bull (fig. 14), horse, elephant or wheel, with the abacus variously ornamented, in one case with flying *haṁsas* in low relief, in another with lotus and palmette motifs. All the inscriptions are finely cut, and with the exception of two in Kharoṣṭhī are in Brāhmī characters. It may be inferred from the existence of these edicts, and from the inscribed bricks of the Morā and Gaṇeśra sites at Mathurā, and those of Tissamahārāma in Ceylon, that writing and reading had by this time become a fairly general accomplishment¹.

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¹ Inscribed bricks at Mathurā, Vogel, 15; in Ceylon, Parker, 1.

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Architectural remains of Aśoka's reign in polished sandstone include a monolithic rail and fragments of inscribed capitals at Sārnāth; the altar (Bodhi-maṇḍa) at Bodhgayā, with four pilasters, exactly as represented in the Bhārhut relief (fig. 41), and similar to the altar in the verandah at Bhājā; the capital from Pāṭaliputra²; a railing (?) pillar with inscription from the Arjunpura site, Mathurā, now lost; the oldest parts, subsequently enclosed, of various *stūpas*; foundations of *caitya*-halls at Sāñcī and Sonārī; and the excavated *caitya*-halls in the Barābar hills, Bihār, dedicated to the use, not of Buddhists, but of the Ājīvikas. Of the latter, the Sudāma cave, dated in the twelfth year of Aśoka's reign consists of a circular chamber and an antechamber with side entrance; the two chambers are separated by a wall which, except for the narrow doorway, completes the circle of the inner shrine, and the upper part of this wall has overhanging eaves representing thatch. The remarkable plan of this cave is repeated in the somewhat later Buddhist cave at Kondivte, Salsette, in Western India, where, however the circular shrine or *garbha-gṛha* is occupied by a solid *stūpa* which leaves only a narrow passage for circumambulation within the screen; other examples at Junnār and Guṇṭupalle. The Lomas Ṛṣi cave, undated, and apparently unfinished, but certainly Maurya, has a similar plan, but the shrine chamber is oval, and the entrance façade is carved, in imitation of wooden forms, in the shape of an ogee arch above heavy sloping jambs, and the pediment is decorated with a frieze of well designed elephants (fig. 28). At least four other Maurya cave shrines or monasteries are found in the same district. All are excavated in the hardest rock, but are exquisitely finished and polished like glass inside. The forms are evidently those of contemporary structural buildings in indigenous style³.

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² Waddell, 5, pl. II.

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³ For the Barābar caves and related later types mentioned see Fergusson, 2, pp. 130, 158, 167, 175; Jackson, 2; Banerji-Sastri.

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(fig. 67) and Varta Nandin, later kings of the Nanda dynasty reigning about 400 B. C. The archaic aspect of the statues themselves lends plausibility to these views, which have been tentatively accepted by several scholars, and by myself in previous works. But in view of more recent criticisms it is impossible to adhere to Jayaswal's views, and it is necessary to revert to the opinion that the statue represents a Yakṣa and must date from the third century B. C.¹ A seated figure in the same early style, with an inscription designating it, or rather her, as a Yakṣī, is in *pūjā* at Mathurā under the name of Manasā Devī². The colossal standing female figure from Besnagar, sometimes called the Earth goddess, may be either a Yakṣī or a human figure. Another and more perfect example of the same school of art is represented by the large female *caurī*-bearer (fig. 17) recently found at Patna³. The upper part of a colossal male figure from Barodā near Pārkham is even more massive and archaic than any of the other figures; the complete statue must have been over twelve feet in height⁴. Whatever the actual age of this group of four large sculptures in the round, they illustrate and adequately establish the character of the indigenous school in and before the Maurya period. With this group must be associated the Besnagar *kalpa vṛkṣa* (fig. 10).

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¹ Jayaswal, 1 and 2; discussion in J. R. A. S., 1920, pp. 154—56. Criticism by Chanda, 1. The two Patna figures are probably the tutelary Yakṣas of the city of Nandivardhana, as suggested by Gangoly, O. C., in the Modern Review, Oct. 1919, and are to be dated in the second century.

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² A. S. I., A. R., 1920—21, pl. XVIII; and Chanda, 5, p. 165.

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³ Spooner, 11.

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⁴ Vogel, 6, 1909—10, p. 76 and pl. XXVIII, a.

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The official art of Aśoka's reign is mainly represented by the monolithic pillars (*stambha*, *lāṭ*) on which the edicts are engraved⁵. Of the numerous extant examples the finest is that of Sārnāth erected on the traditional site of the First Turning of the Wheel of the Law (fig. 12). The shaft is of plain polished sandstone, circular in section and slightly tapering; the capital consists of four addorsed lions, which originally supported a *Dhamma-cakka* or Wheel of the Law, resting on an abacus bearing in relief an elephant, horse, bull and lion separated by four small *dhamma-cakkas*, below which is the inverted lotus forming the "bell"⁶. As in other typical examples of Aśokan art the cutting and polishing of the sur- It may be remarked that the ground plan of a church exhibited by a cave of the Sudāma type corresponds to that of a circular shrine preceded by a hall of assembly or approach (such as in later times would be called a *maṇḍapa* or porch) and that in fact it exactly reproduces that of the Sudhamma-sabhā of the Bhārhut relief (fig. 43). It is natural to suppose that simplest form of such a shrine consisted of the circular cella alone, and that the porch was later added to accommodate worshippers, the very narrow passage surrounding the *stūpa* at Kondivte being explained by the fact that circumambulation would be made in single file. By elimination of that part of the shrine wall which separates the cella from the porch the apsidal form of the familiar *caitya*-halls is immediately obtained¹.

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⁵ For Aśoka pillars see Smith, 5; Oertel; Marshall, 8, pp. 619—622 and figs. 27, 28; Sahni and Vogel, p. 28 and pl. IV.

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⁶ It is impossible to regard the Aśokan lotus or "bell" capital as a copy of a Persian form; the resemblances are by no means sufficient to justify the designation "Persepolitan" (cf. Diez, p. 11). The two types are to be regarded as parallel derivatives from older forms current in Western Asia. Northern India as we now realise had long formed a part of the Western Asiatic cultural complex; inheritance of common artistic traditions, rather than late borrowing, affords the key to Indo-Persian affinities. Octagonal columns are essentially Indian (Ganguly, 3).

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¹ It is quite possible and even probable that the circular and apsidal plans of early Christian church architecture were of eastern origin, and perhaps even of Indian origin so far as the apsidal form is concerned. Where practically a whole monastic system was copied, as happened in the case of Coptic Christianity, the adoption of an architectural formula may well have taken place. See also page 149. The question is briefly discussed by Stein, 7, p. 536, note 16. In Gandhāra there is a circular domed temple near Chakdana. For Indian influences in western architekture see also Beylié; Dalton, pp. 77 ff.; Pullé (pp. 111, 112); Rivoira pp. 114 ff. and 347).

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Aśoka's palace at Pāṭaliputra (modern Bankipore, near Patna) was described by Megasthenes as no less magnificent than the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana; it was still standing at the beginning of the fifth century A. D., when Fa Hsien tells us that it was attributed to the work of genii, but when Hsüan Tsang visited the city in the seventh century the palace had been burnt to the ground and the place was almost deserted. Recent excavations have revealed the remains of a great hall with stone pillars, which seems to have been planned on the model related to that of the pillared halls of the Achaemenid kings of Persepolis. Sandstone capitals with acanthus ornament have also been found. There exist also massive pier-like foundation of timber, the purpose of which has not been explained. Minor antiquities included some fragments of polished sandstone sculpture, and a few very fine terracottas, now in the Museum at Patna² (fig. 22).

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² For Aśoka's palace see Waddell, 5, 6; Spooner, 7, 11; Fergusson, 2, fig. 117; and A. S. I., A. R., 1917—18, pt. 1. For the terracottas see pp. 20, 21.

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A number of interesting sculptures (Fig. 18, 19) of late Maurya or early Śuṅga date, known only by fragments, most of which have been found at Sārnāth establish a well-marked stylistic group. These sculptures consist for the most part of broken heads, usually of moderate dimensions, but of quite extraordinary actuality, and not quite like anything else in Indian art. They can hardly be anything but parts of portrait figures, and presumably portraits of donors. They are characterised not only by their marked individuality, but by the type of headdress, which consists in most cases of a fillet, with a bay wreath or mural crown in other cases; the material, except in the case of the Mathurā examples, is polished buff sandstone¹. Similar to the Sārnāth examples are a life-sized head from Bhīṭā² and two fragmentary heads from Mathurā, reproduced in figures 20 and 21.

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¹ Hargreaves, 2, p. III, and pls. LXV—LXVIII, and A. S. I., A. R., 1914—15, pt. 1, pl. XVIII; Sahni and Vogel, p. 32 (B 1 in the Sārnāth Museum).

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² Marshall, 3, pl. XXXI, 7.

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Some other fragments of similar date are reliefs with lyrical themes. A fragment from Sārnāth representing a grieving woman appears to be a spandril filler belonging to a larger composition³. Another from Bhīṭā (fig. 13), decidedly advanced in its knowledge of pose and movement, represents a woman reclining, with a man fanning, and apparently massaging her limbs⁴. Fragments of a Maurya ribbed polished stone umbrella (*chatta*) have been found at Sāñcī.

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³ Sahni and Vogel, p. 204 (C (b) 28 in the Sārnāth Museum); Gangoly, O. C., *Ein neues Blatt früher indischer Kunst*, Jahrb. d. as. Kunst, 1924.

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⁴ Marshall, 3, pl. XXXI, 8.

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In this connection reference may be made to two carved perforated circular stone plaques found at the Bhiṛ mound site, Taxila, and of very early Maurya or pre-Maurya date; of these Sir John Marshall remarks that "For jewel-like workmanship and exquisite finish these two objects are unsurpassed by any other specimens of stonework from ancient India". These plaques, which I believe to be large earrings — they are not larger or heavier than many of those represented in the early reliefs — are elaborately decorated in concentric circles, one zone consisting of a spirited series of elephants recalling those of the Sudāma cave pediment, another with a kind of palmette ornament alternating with mountains (?) and figures perhaps representing the Earth goddess; these zones being separated by narrow bands of cable and cross and bead ornament. The material is polished Chunār sandstone, the diameter of the plaques four inches in one case, two and three eighths in the other⁵. A similar disc in hard fine-grained soapstone, two and three quarter inches in diameter was obtained by Cunningham at Saṅkīsa (fig. 134): here the outermost decorated circle is composed of radiating bud-forms like those of a modern *campākālī* necklace, the next zone repeats the same form on a smaller scale, while the inner zone has alternating representations of fan-palms, the nude Earth goddess (?), and taurine symbols. The centre is sunk, but not perforated, a fact apparently fatal to the earring interpretation suggested above⁶.

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⁵ A. S. I., A. R., 1920—21, pl. XVII, 29, 30. Similar object from Basāṛh, Bloch, 1, p. 100, fig. 16 (7).

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⁶ Cunningham, 4, vol. XI, pl. IX, 3.

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No less important is a considerable group of Maurya and Śuṅga terracottas of which examples have been found in the lowest, or nearly the lowest, levels at several widely separated sites, extending from Pāṭaliputra to Taxila (figs. 16, 23, 57, 60). These moulded plaques and modelled heads and busts represent in most cases a standing female divinity, with very elaborate coiffure, dressed in a tunic or nude to the waist, and with a *dhotī* or skirt of diaphanous muslin. Despite the garment, especial care is taken to reveal the mount of Venus in apparent nudity, a tendency almost equally characteristic of the stone sculpture in the Śuṅga, Āndhra and Kuṣāna periods. In some cases the figure stands on a lotus pedestal and in two examples from Basāṛh (fig. 16) there are shoulder wings; the arms are generally akimbo, and there are often symbols represented in the space at the sides of the plaque. These types may have behind them a long history; they may have been votive tablets or auspicious representations of mother-goddesses and bestowers of fertility and prototypes of Māyā-devī and Lakṣmī. Other plaques, often in high relief, represent male and female couples like the *mithuna* and Umā-Maheśvara groups of later art¹.

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¹ These terracottas have been found at Basāṛh, Spooner, 8: Taxila, Cunningham, 4, vol. XIV, pl. IX; A. S. I., A. R., 1919—20, pl. XI, 9, 10, and 1920—21, pl. XVI, 9, 15, 17; Bhīṭā, Marshall, 3, pl. XXII, 8; Nagarī, Bhandarkar, D. R., 6, pl. XXIV, 17, 21; Mathurā, a series in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Pāṭaliputra A. S. I., A. R., 1915—16, pt. 1, p. 14, and 1917—18, pt. 1, pl. XVI; Kosām, Banerji, 4; and Saṅkīsa, Cunningham, 4, vol. XI, p. 29, and pl. IX, 4. These terracottas may range in date from the fifth century B. C. to the first A. D. The more primitive types from Pāṭaliputra and Mathurā, especially in respect of the two lateral masses or horns of the headdress, closely approximate to some very ancient examples from Mohenjo-Daro: cf. A. S. I., A. R., 1917—18, pt. 1, pl. XVI, 1, 4, with *ibid.* 1923—24, pl. XXXI e. For *mithuna* see Gangoly.

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The technique of these terracottas is stylistic and almost always accomplished; although made from moulds, few or no duplicates are met with, and there is great variety of detail. In some cases the figure is endowed with real grace, foreshadowing, as Sir John Marshall remarks, the free and naturalistic developement of the succeeding century. A much more refined type of terracotta found at Pāṭaliputra, and in particular the smiling child from that site, seems at first sight to belong to another and far more advanced school (fig. 22); but not only are similar types of headdress recognizable, a careful comparison with the less individualised types reveals an ethnic relation, and the refinement and sensitiveness that at first might suggest the working of some external influence may be only the result of local conditions.

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We have already referred to the foundations of probably Aśokan *caitya*-halls traceable at Sāñcī, Sārnāth, Sonārī, and probably also in the Kistna-Godāverī delta. Besides these, remains of Brāhmaṇical temples have been excavated at at least two sites. At Nagarī near Chitor, the ancient Madhyamikā, an inscription of from 350—250 B. C. refers to a temple of Saṁkarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva at a place called Nārāyaṇa-vāṭa; this is the erliest known inscription indicating the existence of a Vaiṣṇava cult, and also the earliest known Sanskrit inscription. Aśvamedha and Vājapeya sacrifices are also mentioned. The original shrine was no doubt of wood, but continuous Vaiṣṇava worship seems to have been conducted here from the third century B.C. to the seventh A. D.; the excavations revealed remains of a rectangular enclosure with walls nearly ten feet in height at the site now known as Hāthī-Bāḍa, evidently the *pūjā-śilā prakāra* of the inscription¹. What would appear to be the earliest known depiction of a specifically Brāhmaṇical shrine is the pavilion with an ornamented basement, and enshrining figures of Skanda, Viśākha and Mahasena, found on a coin of Huviṣka².

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¹ Bhandarkar, D. R., 6.

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² Gardner, p. 151 and pl. XXVIII, no. 24.

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It is only after about 800 B. C. that we can trace or infer any contemporary contact of Āryan India with Persia. From the evidence of Indian art, Maurya to Gupta — Aśoka's capitals and palace, certain terracottas, fire-altars on seals and coins, pointed caps, and so forth — a "Zoroastrian period of Indian history" has been inferred, and a "semi-Mithraic Buddhism" spoken of³. Elements of sun- and fire-worship are certainly indicated in early Buddhist art; we find the worship of a flaming pillar, and later, Buddhas, Śivas and kings (coins of Kaniṣka) with flames rising from their shoulders, while the nimbus is of solar origin and must have originated either in India or Persia. Magian ideas may have played a part in the development of the Buddhist holy legend, and of the Bodhisattva iconography; and were still current in the Pañjāb and Rājputāna in the sixth century A.D. It is interesting too to remark that the doctrine of the passing on from king to king of a divine royal glory, which is the essential element of the later Javanese-Cambodian-Cam Devarāja cult, is also Avestan. Kadphises II used the style "Maheśvara"; does this signify that he claimed to be a descent of Śiva? A Semitic origin of the Kharoṣṭhī script about the fifth century B. C. can hardly be doubted; an Aramaic inscription, too, of about the fourth century B. C. has been found at Taxila⁴. During a great part of the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era the Indus formed the eastern boundary of Persian dominion. It has been argued too that the Nandas, Mauryas and Licchavis were all of Īrānian extraction. It is certain that during this period contacts with Persia were easy.

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³ Spooner, 11; Maisey, pp. 124, 216, etc. Cf. C. H. I., p. 87.

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⁴ Marshall, 6, p. 75; Barnett and Cowley, in J. R. A. S., 1915.

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Many of the parallels referred to, however, seem to indicate a common Aryan *Weltanschauung*, such as Hertel has adumbrated⁵, rather than contemporary borrowing. It may be taken for granted that Persian influences were actually felt in India in and after the Maurya period; but there is no reason to infer that any of these parallels or borrowings connote a religious, social or political dependence of Northern India on Persia⁶.

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⁵ Hertel, J., *Die arische Feuerlehre*.

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⁶ Marshall, in A. S. I., A. R., 1915—16, pt. I, p. 15.

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ŚUṄGA, ĀNDHRA AND INDO-PARTHIAN OR KṢATRAPA PERIOD, CA. 200 B. C. TO A. D. 20

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(Śuṅgas, Āndhras, Kānvas, Satraps of the Western Ghāṭs, Mathurā, and Ujjain; Indo-Greek and Indo-Parthian rulers in the Pañjāb, Afghānistān and Bactria.)

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The history is too complicated to be noticed here in any detail. Puṣyamitra Śuṅga, the immediate successor of the last Maurya king ca. 185 B. C. was a zealous Hindū, perhaps with Magian tendencies, and may have gone so far as to persecute Buddhists and destroy monasteries; his dominions included Magadha and extended southwards to the Narmadā, northwards to Jālandhar in the Pañjāb. Puṣyamitra repelled the Greek invader Menander, the Milinda of Buddhist tradition, about 175 B. C.; but was defeated by Khāravela about 161 B. C. The Kānvas (73—28 B. C.) succeeded the Śuṅgas. The dominant power in the Pañjāb and Mathurā, ca. 70 B. C. — 20 A. D. was Scythian (Śakas of Seistān)¹. Meanwhile the Āndhras, who already in Maurya times were a powerful Dravidian people possessing thirty walled towns in the Kistna-Godāverī delta (later Veṅgī), and had extended their domains across India as far as Nāsik and Ujjain, ruled the Dekkhan; the dynasty lasted for four and a half centuries and was only succeeded by the Pallavas in the East in the third century A. D. A relief figure of Śātakarṇī, third king of the dynasty, accompanies the important Āndhra inscription at Nānāghāṭ, near Pūna². Most of the Āndhra kings seem, by their names, to have been Brāhmaṇical Hindūs, but they are best known by their benefactions to Buddhist communities; to them are due most of the cave temples and monasteries of the Western Ghāṭs, the Ghaṇṭaśāla, Bhaṭṭiprolu, Guṇṭupalle and Amarāvatī *stūpas* and other structures in the east, and probably the Sāñcī gateways.

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¹ The Śaka invasion of the Indus delta, ca. 75 B. C. may represent the historical foundation of the Jaina story of Kālakācārya; cf. C. H. I., p. 532.

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² C. H. I., p. 530; Bühler, Arch. Surv. Western India, IV. The inscriptions refer in part to Brāhmaṇical ceremonies performed for Āndhra rulers at an enormous cost in priestly fees "which testify eloquently to the wealth of the realm and the power of the Brāhman hierarchy at this date". The royal statues represent Simuka, founder of the line, Śātakarṇī and his queen, and three princes. So far as I know the statues have never been published.

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In eastern India the Kaliṅgas recovered the independence they had lost under Aśoka. The Jaina king Khāravela, about 161 B. C. took Pāṭaliputra, the Śuṅga capital (see pp. 37, 43). Other events were taking place in the North-west. About 250 B. C. Parthia and Bactria broke away from the Seleukid Empire and set up as independent Greek principalities. Yavana ("Greek") princes of the two houses of Euthydemus and Eucratides reigned in Bactria, Kābul, and the Pañjāb west of the Indus, the leading names being those of Demetrios of Bactria (ca. 175 B. C.); Menander (Milinda) of Kābul (160—140 B. C.) who invaded India, reaching Mathurā, Saket, Madhyamikā (= Nagarī, Chitor) and perhaps Pāṭaliputra, then the Śuṅga capital, and is claimed as a convert by Buddhist tradition; and Antialkidas of Taxila, (ca. 140—130 B. C.) whose ambassador Heliodora professed himself a Bhāgavata and dedicated a monolithic column at Besnagar in honour of Vāsudeva (= Kṛṣṇa). Meanwhile the nomad Śakas or Scythians had attacked both Bactria and Parthia and the Hellenistic Bactrian kingdom came to an end about 130 B. C. but numerous princes with Greek names continued to rule as Parthian Satraps in Afghānistān and the western Pañjāb; amongst these, the best known are Maues (ca. 95—58), Azes I and Azes II (ca. 58—18 B. C.) and Gondophares (ca. 20—48 A. D.). At the same time Śaka princes ruled in Taxila and Mathurā (e. g. Soḍāsa) and established a dynasty in Western India, known as that of the Western Satraps, which lasted until the time of Candragupta, ca. 390. The Indo-Greek kings of the Pañjāb are known almost exclusively by their coins, which are at first in a purely classical style, and subsequently Indianised, and by small objects, none of which are of a Buddhist or Hindū character. A temple with Ionic pillars, but not otherwise Greek, excavated at Taxila, may date from about 80 B. C.¹ Many authors are inclined to believe that the development of Graeco-Buddhist (Gandhāran) sculpture had begun towards the end of the first century B. C., but at present no positive evidence for or against this view can be adduced². Others attach considerable importance to the indirect influence of Hellenistic art in Bactria, of which however we have no knowledge, and find evidence of it in the evolution which is certainly traceable at Sāñcī³. The subject of the Western Asiatic motifs in Maurya and later Indian art, and of Īrānian (Magian) elements in Indian culture and art from the Maurya to the Gupta period have been referred to above. Objects in the Scythian animal style have been found at Taxila⁴.

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¹ Cunningham, 4, vol. II, p. 129; vol. V, pp. 69—72 and pls. XVII, XVIII.

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² See next Chapter; and references in Coomarasnamy, 16.

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³ Marshall, 5 and 8, p. 644.

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⁴ A. S. I., A. R., 1920—21, pt. I, pl. XXIV, b and c.

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Only the more important monuments of the period can be discussed. The old *vihāra* (monastery) at Bhājā⁵ near Pūna in the Western Ghāṭs is the oldest, or if not the oldest in point of time, at any rate the oldest in respect of its sculptures. The plan, though irregular, is similar to that of most excavated *vihāras*; there is an outer verandah separated by a wall with two doorways and a barred window, from an inner hall, surrounded, in this case on two sides only, by excavated cells. The verandah roof is hollowed out to form half of a barrel vault, the two gable ends and flat inner wall with cornices supported by alternate *stūpas* and caryatides. At the west end, a group of three cells is divided from the verandah by a pilaster and pillar, with a frieze below. The pillar has a lotus capital surmounted by addorsed sphinx-like creatures, with bovine bodies and female busts. The slender outer pillars of the verandah are all broken. The cave is most remarkable, however, in respect of its unique reliefs; these include the aforesaid frieze, five armed figures in niches on the east side of the hall and on the verandah wall, and the two reliefs at the east end of the verandah, separated by the cell doorway. On the left side is represented a royal personage driving in a four-horsed chariot (fig. 24); he is accompanied by two women, one a *chatra*-, the other a *caurī*-bearer. Figures on horseback form an escort, and of these the female rider in the inner angle of the verandah is clearly provided with some kind of stirrups, of which this appears to be the earliest known instance in the world¹. The chariot is being driven across the backs of very grossly proportioned nude female demons, who seem to be floating face downwards in the air. I see no reason to question the original identifications of this scene as representing Sūrya with his two wives driving through the sky and dispelling the powers of darkness.

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⁵ Fergusson, 2; Burgess, 5, 8; Jouveau-Dubreuil, 1; Marshall 8.

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¹ Also at Sāñcī (Marshall, 5, p. 138) and at Pathaora near Bhārhut (Cunningham, 2, pl. XX). But a majority of riders in the early periods, and even in Kuṣāna and Gupta sculptures, are represented without stirrups. For bits and bridles see Hopkins in J. A. O. S., XIX, pp. 29—36.

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The relief on the right side is even more elaborate (fig. 27). A royal personage, with one attendant seated behind him bearing a standard, is riding on an enormous elephant which is striding over a broad landscape, and holds aloft in its trunk an uprooted tree. The elephant and its two riders are designed on a scale enormously greater than that of the landscape, and blotting out the greater part of it: an elephant forming part of the normal landscape is not much larger than the foot of the great elephant. Almost certainly, as former writers have suggested, this is Indra, riding upon his elephant Airāvata². In his character of god of rain, and bearer of the *vajra* (= lightning) Indra is a hostile and dangerous power, especially in the Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva legends, which were already well known at this time. Moreover, nothing is more characteristic of the Vedic descriptions of Indra than the insistence upon his great size: "he surpasses in greatness heaven, and earth, and air", "were the earth ten times as large, he would be equal to it", and he is a warrior of irresistible power. And if it is only in the Epics that he is said to ride upon Airāvata in battle, it is easy to see how this connection arose: Indra is the power of the storm, he rides upon the clouds, the Maruts are his allies; in the *Mahābhārata*, "*airāvatas*" = lightning clouds; and in later poetry clouds and elephants are so constantly associated as to be practically synonymous¹.

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² Similar figures appear on a medallion at Bhārhut, where too the elephant holds a tree in it strunk (fig. 48), on the Sāñcī *toraṇas*, and on the Kuḷū *loṭā* (Marshall, 8, fig. 22), but moving in calm and orderly progression. As regards these and other examples, it should be observed that not every rider in a four-horsed car necessarily represents the Sun, nor every rider on an elephant, Indra. The *triśūla* standard with floating banner seems to be used as royal insignia without specific religious significance.

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¹ Cf. *Kathāsarit Sāgara*, *l. c.*, *taraṅga*, LV: "Then the mast elephant of the wind began to rush, showering drops of rain like drops of ichor, and rooting up trees". The elephants in Māyā-Devī and Gaja-Lakṣmī compositions must likewise be regarded as rain-clouds. Cf. Hopkins, p. 126.

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Whatever the iconographic significance, the relief deserves close study from every point of view. The princely rider is his own driver; the attendant behind him, wearing an enormous collar and crenellated drawers, carries a scythe-shaped standard the shaft of which terminates in a trident, and what appear to be two spears. Both are seated on a richly embroidered cloth which covers the whole back of the elephant. Below the uprooted tree are falling figures.

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The remainder of the landscape is unaffected by the storm. Below the falling figures is a sacred tree enclosed by a *vedikā*, and hanging on this *caitya-vṛkṣa* are three human figures, suspended in each case from a sort of inverted funnel, similar to those by which the garlands are attached to another sacred tree shown below; both trees are crowned by parasols, probably indicative of an indwelling spirit. It can hardly be doubted that this is a representation of human sacrifice². Below, on the left, is a court scene, occupying the remaining space down to the foreground. The king, designated by a royal umbrella (*chatra*), is seated on a wicker throne (*moṛhā* or *bhadrāsana*), a *caurī*-bearer at his side; before him are dancers and musicians. On his right is the second, railed, parasol-crowned, and garlanded, *caitya-vṛkṣa*; and further to the right a more confused jungle scene, in which appear an armed man and a horseheaded fairy³. On the whole the costume and accessories are not unlike those of the Bhārhut reliefs, but the turbans and jewelry are much larger and heavier.

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² "dryads are vegetal divinities that eat human flesh and have to be appeased with offerings" (Hopkins, p. 7). Cf. *Sutasoma Jātaka* (illustration at Degaldoruwa, Ceylon, Coomaraswamy, 1, fig. 152.)

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³ This horse-headed fairy recalls the Yakkhiṇī Assa-mukhī of the *Padakusalamāṇava Jātaka* (Nr. 432), "who dwelt in a rock cave in a vast forest at the foot of a mountain, and used to catch and devour the men that frequented the road". The same or a similar fairy appears at Sāñcī on a medallion of the railing of Stūpa 2, and at Bodhgayā on a railing relief (Foucher, 5, pl. 1, figs. 8 and 9). At Bhājā it hardly seems that so small a detail on so large a composition can refer directly to the *Jātaka*; more likely the Yakkhiṇī is represented simply as a forest goblin, as a type, and not as an individual; just as she appears amongst the peaks of Mt. Govardhana on the later Maṇḍor stele (fig. 166). Another "Assamukhī" appears on the ancient railing found at Pāṭaliputra (Waddell, 5, pl. 1). Cf. the Yakkhiṇī mare of *Mahāvaṁsa*, Ch. X.

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The composition rises immediately from the wall surface, without a frame, and it is carried a little way over the angle of the jamb of the doorway. This earliest Indian landscape is a mental picture without any attempt at the representation of visual appearances as a whole, though realistic in detail; it shows great knowledge, but not a *study* of nature. The question of perspective in a modern sense does not arise, because, as in Indian and Eastern landscape at all times, the various elements are successively presented in half-bird's-eye view, with the horizon practically out of the picture; the "atmosphere" is not supposed to be seen in lateral section, but forms an ambient including the spectator and the whole picture¹. To one accustomed to the convention, a three-dimensional effect is more obvious than in a modern painting; there is no crowding, or overlapping of planes, and the mutual relations of the parts are unmistakable.

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¹ For a discussion of "vertical projection", which appears in western art only at a much later date, see Dalton, pp. 163, 229, 230.

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The whole approach, like that of early Indian art generally, is realistic, i. e. without *arrière pensée* or idealisation. The main interest is neither spiritual nor ethical, but altogether directed to human life; luxury and pleasure are represented, interrupted only by death, and these are nothing but practical facts, endorsed by the inherently sensual quality of the plastic language. The art of these reliefs expresses a philosophy older than the Great Enlightenment.

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These are not personal deities conceived in the manner of Hindū theism, but powers personified only in the way that they are personified in the Vedic hymns. Both reliefs are the creation of a wild and fertile, not to say an uncanny imagination. The forces of Nature are regarded only in the light of their relation to human welfare, and over all there hangs the dread of the tiger-haunted forest, the power of the storm, and the marvel of the sun that journeys through the air. None of this mystery appears in the orderly reliefs of Bhārhut and Sāñcī, and only some trace of it in the far less accomplished art of the Oṛissan caves. What the true meaning of these reliefs in a Buddhist *vihāra* may be, is hard to determine; the *vihāra* must be Buddhist, but the sculptures are not Buddhist. This is rather, a sample of the kind of non-Buddhist art which the Buddhists had to adapt to their own edifying ends; and it reminds us that much must have been going on outside the limited range of Buddhist art properly so called.

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From the fact that the relief is high and the forms rounded, Sir John Marshall has assigned a late date to the cave (first century B. C. in place of the third or second century of former authors)². The developed relief at Sāñcī does, indeed, represent an emancipation from an earlier compression, and tends to visual realism and conscious artistic grace; but the relief at Bhājā is a quality of volume and expansion, quite distinct from plastic modelling, and due, like the volume of the Pārkham statue, to pressure from within; at the same time both style and detail are related to those of the Maurya-Śuṅga terracottas.

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² Marshall, 8: the earlier dating adopted above was originally proposed by Fergusson (2) and is endorsed by Jouveau-Dubreuil (1).

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Very near to the old *vihāra* at Bhājā there is a group of rock cut *stūpas*, and a large excavated *caitya*-hall (fig. 29), which, together with *caitya*-halls at Beḍsā (figs. 32, 33), Kondāñe, Piṭalkhorā, and Ajaṇṭā (cave X) may be dated about 175 B. C. These *caitya*-halls are excavated copies of wooden structural buildings as clearly appears in the literal imitation of timbered construction; occasionally wood was combined with the stone, forming a screen of concentric ribs within the arch of the entrance, or applied to the stone ceiling to represent rafters, and in one or two cases part of the original woodwork has survived. Another feature derived from wooden construction is the inward slope of the entrance jambs, which is most marked in the earliest examples (fig. 29), and becomes much less conspicuous as the style develops.

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The *caitya*-hall is really a Buddhist church, and like a Christian church, consists of a nave, apse and aisle, the latter separated from the nave by pillars, the apse containing in place of the altar, a solid *stūpa*, the whole excavated in the living rock or built of wood and brick. The aisle is continued round the apse, thus providing for circumambulation (*pradakṣiṇā*) and corresponding to the outer hall or verandah of structural temples. Except at Bhājā there is very little sculpture associated with the earliest *vihāras* and *caitya*-halls.

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The *caitya*-hall at Nāsik (fig. 31), and the Nahapāna *vihāra*, Cave VIII, may be dated near the middle of the first century B. C. The façade of the *caitya*-hall is divided horizontally into two storeys, the lower with an arched door, the upper with a great "*caitya*"-window; beside the door is a Yakṣa guardian. The inscription states that the villagers of Dhambika gave, i. e. paid for¹, the carving over the doorway, which is more than usually elaborate. By this time the "batter" of the doorway jambs, so conspicuous in the earlier caves, is greatly reduced, and is hardly noticeable; but the internal rafters are still supplied in wood. The Nahapāna cave (*vihāra*) pillars, supported by pots above pyramidal pedestals, are crowned by large bell capitals, which support another member, consisting of an inverted pyramid and addorsed bulls, a form to which the later pillars at Kārlī (fig. 34) closely approximate; the railing of the architrave is quite plain, affording a contrast to that of Cave III, which is covered with lotus rosettes, and is supported by a narrow frieze of animals².

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¹ Many of the old Buddhist monuments were erected by public subscription.

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² For Nāsik see Fergusson, 8, vol. 1, pp. 140, 183; Jouveau-Dubreuil, 1, vol. 1, Chs. 1 and 2; Marshall, 8, p. 637. In dating the early caves I follow Marshall, except as regards Bhājā. For the dating of the excavations in Cave III see Nilakantha Sastri in J. R. A. S., 1926, p. 665.

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The *caitya*-hall, No. 9, at Ajaṇṭā, must be of about the same age.

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The largest of all the early Buddhist churches, and indeed, one of the most magnificent monuments in all India, is the great *caitya*-hall at Kārli (figs. 34, 35), which may be dated near to the beginning of the Christian era. The general dimensions are in excess of a hundred and twenty four by forty-five feet in area, and forty-five in height, comparable in size with those of an average Gothic cathedral. The *stūpa* is of the high cylindrical type with two rail courses; the original wooden umbrella is still preserved. As at Nāsik the façade consists of two stages; there is a lower wall pierced by three doorways, and an upper gallery, over which is the usual enormous horse-shoe window, in which remains of structural woodwork, consisting of concentric arches forming a pediment, are still preserved. The great pillars separating the nave from the aisles have "Persepolitan" capitals, more elaborate than those which already appear at Pitalkhorā and Beḍsā, and having the effect, as Fergusson remarks, of a frieze and cornice; from these rise the wooden ribs attached to the domed stone of the roof, one of the last instances of this peculiar vestigial use of woodwork in combination with the solid stone. The lower storey of the screen or façade, in the spaces between the doorways, is decorated with sculptures of two periods. Those evidently representing donors, are pairs of human figures, of enormously massive type, and very grandly conceived; those representing Buddhas, which have been cut into the screen and side walls of the porch at a later date (Gupta) are far less vivid. The setting back of the entrance into the face of the rock forms an outer porch, the sides of which are sculptured in architectural façades of several storeys, the lowest supported by huge elephants, the second decorated with sculptured figures like those of the screen. Numerous mortice holes in the rock show that as usual the entrance was preceded by some kind of wooden antechamber or porch, and further outside stands one of the two original monolithic *dhvaja-stambhas* with a capital of four lions which once supported a wheel (*dhamma-cakka*)¹.

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¹ For Kārlī see Fergusson, 1, vol. 1, pp. 140 ff.; Jouveau-Dubreuil, 1; Marshall, 8, p. 637.

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The five groups of caves near Junnār (48 miles north of Pūna) include a very interesting circular *caitya*-hall, in which a plain *stūpa* is surrounded by a ring of twelve pillars, the central area being domed, the circular "aisle" half domed, almost literally realizing the form of the double-roofed circular temple (the Sudhamma Sabhā) of the well-known Bhārhut relief (fig. 43). Later, and probably coeval with the Kārlī church is the *caitya*-cave at Mānmoda hill (fig. 30); two Nāgas are represented above the finial of the *caitya*-window, and the semicircular pediment is occupied by a standing figure of Māyā Devī with the two elephants and four worshippers, standing in niches consisting of seven petals of an expanded lotus².

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² For all the Western caves see Fergusson, 2; Burgess, 1, 2, 5, 8; Marshall, 8.

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At Nānāghāt, 50 miles N. W. of Pūna, there are important inscriptions, proofs of the westward extension of the Āndhra power early in the second century B. C., and reliefs, including one of Śātakarṇi, probably the third king of the Āndhra dynasty and contemporary of Khāravela of Kaliṅga, affording an early example of the common Indian practise of placing figures of donors in the shrines due to them¹.

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¹ Burgess, 5, p. 65; C. H. I., pp. 530, 600, etc.

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The most famous monuments of the post-Mauryan and pre-Kusāṇa period are the Bhārhut (Nāgoḍh State) and Sāñcī (Bhopāl State) *stūpas* and their railings and gateways. Before describing these specific examples of typical Buddhist architecture (the Jains also erected *stūpas*, but no Hindū examples are known, though the technical term *stūpī* is applied to the finial of a structural Hindū temple), we must briefly describe their nature.

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The *stūpa* ("tope", or *dāgaba*), originally (pre-Buddhist) a funeral mound, becomes a symbol of the last great event of the Buddha's life, viz. the Parinirvāṇa, and usually enshrines relics of the Buddha (authentic relics have been discovered at Taxila), sometimes of other teachers, contained in reliquaries, which may be of crystal, gold, or other material. The early *stūpas* are of brick or brick and rubble, the later usually enclosed in a masonry casing; others are monolithic, e. g. those in excavated *caitya*-halls, where their character is purely symbolic. A *stūpa* usually rests on a basement of one or more square terraces (*medhi*) or is at least surrounded by a paved square or circle for circumambulation, the terraces being approached by stairs (*sopāna*); it consists of a solid dome (*aṇḍa* or *garbha*) with a triple circular base, and above the dome a cubical "mansion" or "god's house" (*harmikā*, Sim. *deva-koṭuwa*), from which rises a metal mast (*yaṣṭi*) the base of which penetrates far into the *aṇḍa*; and this mast bears a range of symbolical parasols (*chatra*) and at the top a rain-vase (*varṣa-sthala*, corresponding to the *kalasa* of a Hindū shrine)². The form undergoes stylistic development; at first there is no drum, but later on the circular base becomes a cylinder, and the dome is elevated and elongated, and the base terraces are multiplied. The Chinese pilgrims speak of certain *stūpas* as towers; but a high wooden structure like Kaniṣka's at Peshāwar (see p. 53) must have been something more like a Chinese pagoda, and called a *stūpa* only because it enshrined relics.

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² As described in the *Divyāvadāna*, quoted Foucher, 1, vol. 1, p. 96. The *harmikā* is not, and never was, a "relic box".

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The railing (*vedikā*) is identical in nature with the wooden fence that protected any *caitya*, for example the *caitya-vṛkṣas* so often represented in old Indian art; it consists of a plinth (*ālambana*), uprights (*thaba*) with lateral sockets for the reception of the horizontal "needles" (*sūci*), and a coping (*uṣṇīṣa*). The railed enclosure has four angled entrances; and above these are often erected high and elaborate single, double or triple arches (*toraṇa*), both railing and arches alike closely imitating wooden prototypes.

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The Bhārhut brick *stūpa*¹, stone railing and entrance archways, of which all that now survives is to be found in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, most likely dates from about 150 B. C., in the Śuṅga period. The Bhārhut reliefs are usually accompanied by contemporary descriptive inscriptions. Inscribed figures of guardian Yakṣas and Yakṣīs, Nāgarājas, Devatās, etc., constituting an extensive iconography, are found on the *toraṇa* posts (figs. 37—39); *Jātakas* (*Vessantara*, fig. 47), and scenes from the life of Buddha; a group of floral, animal and monster motifs; and lotus rosettes often enclosing heads of men or women, are represented on the railing medallions and coping. It is very important to remark that in the scenes from the life of Buddha (Incarnation, Nativity, Enlightenment, etc) the Master is never represented in human forms², but only by symbols, of which the *caitya*-tree (Bodhi-druma = *aśvattha*, *pippala*, Ficus religiosa), umbrella (*chatta*), and feet (*pāduka*) (cf. Rāma’s sandals, by which he is represented as ruler at Ayodhyā during the period of exile) and wheel (*Dhamma-cakka*) are the most usual. Beneath the Bodhi-tree is an altar or throne (Bodhi-maṇḍa, *vajrāsana*). The inscriptions make it certain that these symbols represent the actual presence of Buddha; Elāpatra kneeling before the tree and altar, Ajātaśatru kneeling before the *pāduka* altar, are both “worshipping Buddha”. In later art the empty throne will be occupied by a visible image. On the other hand, in all *Jātaka* scenes, the future Buddha (Bodhisattva) is visibly represented (fig. 47).

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¹ Cunningham 2: for theories relating to the iconography see Waddell, 2, 3.

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² For apparent exceptions to this rule, at Bodhgayā and Sāñcī, see p. 33.

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