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A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13: Chapter VII. Mediaeval and Modern Sculpture

A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13

Language
English

Contents

Chapter VII. Mediaeval and Modern Sculpture

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THE Gupta period, discussed in Chapter VI, may be regarded as one of transition between ancient and mediaeval art, as it was between the polities of ancient and mediaeval India. From the seventh century we find in sculpture few traces of the kindly, human spirit and naturalistic treatment which distinguished the ancient schools, mainly devoted to the service of Buddhism; and we pass into a world of art which scorns to represent the daily life of men and women, concerning itself almost exclusively with either asceticism of the self-contained *yogī* type or the weird imaginings of the later Hindu mythology, including that of the Mahāyānist Buddhists, almost indistinguishable from that of the Brahmans. The beautiful story-telling reliefs of Boro-Būdūr in Java form a delightful exception to this generalization, and carry on the spirit of the old Bharhut and Sānchī artists with a delicacy and refinement of style peculiar to themselves. The Jain sculpture is so strictly conventional that it may be almost left out of consideration. The spirit of mediaeval sculpture is chiefly expressed in Brahmanical and Buddhist works, which alike exalt the ascetic ideal and reflect the teachings of Puranic and Tantric literature.

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Buddha no longer appears as the sympathetic human teacher moving about among his disciples and instructing them in the Good Law. His image is now generally made to conform to the ideal of the passionless *yogī*, as described in the *Bhagavad-Gītā*:—

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‘Who fixed in faith on Me,
Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not,
And grieves not, letting good or evil hap
Light when it will, and when it will depart,
That man I love! Who, unto friend and foe
Keeping an equal heart, with equal mind
Bears shame and glory; with an equal peace
Takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain; abides
Quit of desires, hears praise or calumny
In passionless restraint, unmoved by each;
Linked by no ties to earth, steadfast in Me,
That man I love!’¹

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¹ *Bhagavad-Gītā*, Bk. XII, transl. Edwin Arnold.

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The representation of ‘passionless restraint’, however true to Hindu nature, affords a strictly limited field for the exercise of the sculptor's powers, and there is necessarily much monotony in the images, whether of Buddha or other personages, which are devoted to the expression of the ascetic ideal.

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Another dominant note in mediaeval sculpture is struck by the endeavour of the artists to express violent superhuman emotion or demoniac passion, as represented by the whirling dances of Śiva, the strivings of Mārīchī, the struggling of Rāvaṇa beneath his mountain load, and many other compositions, both Brahmanical and Buddhist.

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Multitudes of sculptures are simply the formal images of innumerable gods and goddesses, adorned with all the attributes and accessories prescribed by various scriptures.

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The artists undertake to reproduce literally in stone or bronze the descriptions of the deities as given in the books, with little regard to aesthetic considerations, and no form is regarded as too monstrous for plastic representation. The result too often is merely grotesque and absurd, when looked at by anybody who is not steeped in the notions of Hindu symbolism, but occasionally is horrible. Additional limbs and heads are put on as prescribed, whether or not they disturb the balance of the composition or excite a feeling of disgust at monstrous growths which call loudly for amputation. Such forms, of course, have their meaning for the Hindu or Mahāyānist Buddhist instructed in the mysteries of his faith, and may be used by him as aids to devotion, but from the artistic point of view they are, as stated in the Introduction, in my judgement, indefensible.

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Mediaeval sculpture, consequently, often arouses a feeling of repulsion, and seldom even attempts to be beautiful. It has, however, undeniable merits. The works of the artists frequently display high technical skill, great mastery over intractable material, and in the larger compositions, especially those of the western caves, bold imagination and a knowledge of the effects of light and shade. The best specimens of the ascetic type are endowed with serene dignity and convey the impression of perfect repose with extraordinary skill. In the modelling, although realistic representation of the muscles is deliberately avoided, the capacity of the artists to give details, if they were so minded, is attested by the hands, which in many cases are shaped with the utmost delicacy and expressiveness. The energy of passion is sometimes rendered with masterly power, and occasionally, but rarely, facial expression is vividly exhibited. The Purī group of the mother and child (Fig. 137) is an almost unique example of a representation of ordinary human sentiment.¹

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¹ Compare the Ajaṇṭā picture in Chap. VIII, Sec. 3.

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The sculpture of the early Indian schools makes an appeal far more universal than that of mediaeval times, which demands from the spectator a certain amount of recondite knowledge of the ideas underlying the later mythology. Its enthusiastic admirers never weary of extolling its 'idealism', and of glorying in the fact that it is so peculiarly and exclusively Hindu as to be often unintelligible to the ordinary well-educated critic. The feelings which prompt such eulogies appear to be largely influenced by the desire now much in fashion to exalt everything Hindu beyond measure—a desire which recently found its extreme expression in an absurd octavo volume entitled *The Superiority of the Hindu*. But the mediaeval sculpture of India, in so far as it fails to appeal to critics who are not saturated with the peculiar notions of Hindu metaphysics and religion, confesses itself to rank below the highest art, which, whether in literature or sculpture, is able to touch the emotions and win the sympathy of cultivated students of every age and clime.

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While resisting the extravagant claims put forward by some recent writers on behalf of Indian mediaeval art, I gladly recognize the fact that the authors alluded to have constrained everybody interested in the subject to reconsider current opinions and have proved that form of art to deserve on its merits a place higher than European critics had been wont to allow it.

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The Brahmanical (including later Buddhist) art, as evolved during the seventh, eighth, and subsequent centuries, continues to this day. No clear line of demarcation can be drawn between mediaeval and modern sculpture, although, unfortunately, modern work of any considerable degree of excellence is very rare. This chapter, therefore, deals with both mediaeval and modern art as being essentially one, the outcome of the Brahmanical reaction by which Buddhism was slowly strangled.

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Admirers of Hinduism regard the change from the old sympathetic humanist Buddhist art to the 'idealist' representations of Puranic and Tantric mythology as pure progress. I am not able to agree with that view. But nothing would be gained from emphasizing this difference of opinion by prolonged controversial argument, which fails to touch the fundamental divergence of sentiment.

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In order to prevent any possible misapprehension, it may be well to add that the contrast between early and mediaeval sculpture discussed in the preceding pages relates to the figure sculpture only. In the more purely decorative elements no such contrast is to be observed, the main difference between the early and the later decorative designs being that the foreign factors gradually diminished in importance. Much of the mediaeval decorative work is supremely good, and can be admired frankly and unreservedly by anybody.

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The selection of mediaeval sculptures reproduced in this long chapter will, it is hoped, be adequate to enable every reader to form his own judgement concerning the merits of the compositions as works of art. Their merits as aids to Hindu or Buddhist devotion are quite another matter. The subject is treated in nine sections, and within each section the examples are given in the order of time. The bronzes and brasses of Southern India and Ceylon being numerous and important are discussed apart from the stone sculptures. The section on Java is necessarily very brief, but could not be omitted with propriety.

Section II. North-Eastern India

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The mediaeval sculpture of the north-eastern provinces naturally falls into two main territorial divisions, namely, (1) Bihār, both North and South, with certain adjoining districts of Bengal and the Agra Provinces, which collectively formed the dominions of the Pāla dynasty for more than four centuries from about A.D. 775 to 1193, the date of the Muhammadan conquest; and (2) Orissa, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, which never was included in the Pāla realm.

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The Pāla kings having been devout Buddhists to the last, Buddhism continued to be the dominant religion in their territories long after it had become either extinct or moribund in most parts of India; and the Buddhist monasteries of Bihār, especially the wealthy foundation at Nālandā (modern Bargāon), were crowded with thousands of monks, who cultivated with success the arts required for the decoration of the sacred buildings. In consequence, a large proportion of the sculpture in Bihār and the neighbouring regions is Buddhist. The later Buddhism, as we have occasion to remark more than once, was of the Mahāyāna or 'Great Vehicle' kind, delighting in the use of images, and closely related to Hinduism. The Brahmanical faiths, of course, never died out, and their votaries contributed their share to the art production.

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During the first half of the seventh century, when the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang recorded his invaluable notes, the Buddhists of Orissa outnumbered the Brahmanical Hindus, but notwithstanding that fact, Buddhist sculpture is rare in the province, and the extant specimens, often of a high class, are mainly Brahmanical. From the point of view of the historian of art, as already observed, religious distinctions in the mediaeval period are unimportant, sculptors making use of the style of their own age and country, irrespective of the creed to the service of which their works were dedicated.

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In Bihār the Muslim onslaught at the close of the twelfth century overthrew Buddhism suddenly, and scattered all over India those few monks who survived the indiscriminate massacres committed by the iconoclast armies of Islam. The rich monasteries of Sārnāth near Benares soon shared the fate of the communities in Bihār, and layers of ashes in the ruins testify to this day the violence of the conquerors. Hindu art of all kinds, Buddhist included, was practically stamped out in the north-eastern provinces by the Muhammadan conquest. It lingered, however, in Orissa longer than in Bihār, and some of the best Orissan work dates from the thirteenth century. The conquest of Orissa was not completed until Akbar's time, in the sixteenth century, but it may be said that from the fourteenth century the history of art in all the north-eastern provinces is concerned only with Muslim forms.

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In quite recent days a slight revival of Hindu art may be discerned. Practically the history of Hindu sculpture in Bengal, Bihār, and Orissa closes with the thirteenth century. Room can be found for only a few examples to illustrate the schools of both Bihār and Orissa.

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The innumerable ancient sites in Magadha or South Bihār and the neighbouring districts, a region much of which is familiar to me, are full of well-executed images, mostly dating from the times of Pāla rule, between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The destruction due to Muhammadan hatred of images has been less complete than in the upper provinces. Mediaeval Buddhism in its Tantric forms approximated so closely to the Brahmanical Hinduism that even a skilled observer may sometimes hesitate to decide as to the religion for the service of which the image was destined—the Buddhist Tārā, for instance, is not easily distinguishable from the Hindu Lakshmī. Although the style of the sculptures is always dominated by the formalism of ritual prescription, artists of exceptional ability and skill could make their powers more or Plate XL. Sūrya, the Sun, driven in 7-horsed lotus-car by the legless Aruṇa, the Dawn; 5½ feet high; in black carboniferous shale or clay slate; excavated in Rājmahāl Hills, Santāl Parganas, Bengal, about 1840; probably of 12th cent.: No. 929, Ind. Sec., V. & A. Museum (dimensions are: group, 5½× 2¾ feet; central figure, 3 feet 10¼ inches in height). Publ. No. 1020, Pl. CXLIII, vol. xiii, *J. I. A. I.*

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Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which stands 5½ feet high, and is in nearly perfect preservation (Plate XL). The god is represented standing in a lotus-shaped chariot drawn by seven horses, and driven by the legless Aruna, the Dawn.

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FIG. 129. Mārīchī, goddess of Dawn; from Kurkihār; Lucknow Museum. (A. S. photo., No. 27; *Ann. Rep. A. S., India*, 1903-4, Pl. LXII, 4.)

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The artist, like the sculptor of Mārīchī, has concentrated his attention on the effigy of the god, reducing the chariot, horses, and charioteer to the position of minor accessories, in such a way that a casual spectator might fail to perceive their significance. The body of the principal figure is carefully modelled with considerable regard to realism, and the same commendation may be bestowed on the two female attendants with fly-whisks. The decorative framework is skilfully treated, and the whole composition produces an imposing and pleasing effect to which a small photo-graph cannot do full justice. The mechanical execution of the carving is perfect, and the design is more restrained than that of much Hindu sculpture of the same

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FIG. 130. Buddha; from near Rājgir; ? 12th cent. (*J. A. S. B.*, Part I, vol. lxiii (1894), Pl. II.)

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period. The material is a black carboniferous shale, or clay slate, well adapted to the sculptor's purpose, and the twelfth century may be assigned as an approximate date. The Rājmahāl Hills, where this remarkable work was excavated, lie to the south of Monghyr, and, although outside the limits of Bihār, were doubtless subject to the Pāla rulers of that province.

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One more illustration of the mediaeval art of Bihār may suffice—a beautifully modelled and exquisitely finished seated Buddha in black Monghyr stone found by Mr. Grierson near Rājgīr (Fig. 130). The standing figures are the Bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Vajrapāṇi. The seated goddesses are the two forms of Tārā, the Green and the White. The composition as a whole is a compendium of the symbolism of Mahāyānist Buddhism. As a work of art its interest lies chiefly in the careful modelling of the principal figure. The script of the inscription, the usual ‘Buddhist creed’, indicates that the work is approximately contemporary with the Rājmahāl Sun-god.

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It may be well to mention the existence of other excellent specimens of the mediaeval Bihār style, without detailed description or illustration. (1) Mr. Marshall notes as the most beautiful of the later finds at Sārnāth, dating from the eleventh or twelfth century, a tiny figure of Avalokiteśvara, 3½ inches high, the carving of which, though somewhat stereotyped in character, is said to be executed with a delicacy and refinement which would do credit to a Chinese artist¹; (2) the large Buddha called Mātā Kunwar at the famous site near Kasiā, Gorakhpur District²; (3) a fine Vishnu at Devathala, Dinājpur District, Bengal³; and (4) sundry Buddhist sculptures from Kurkihār and Bishanpur, especially a remarkable relief of a Bodhisattva teaching, as described and illustrated by Dr. Stein⁴. The list might be largely extended from the collections in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, the Provincial Museum, Lucknow, and at other places.

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¹ *J. R. A. S.*, 1908, p. 1093, not reproduced.

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² Martin (Buchanan-Hamilton), *Eastern India*, ii, 357, with sketch.

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³ Cunningham, *A. S. Rep.*, vol. xv, Pl. XXVII.

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⁴ *Ind. Ant.*, xxx (1901), pp. 85, 90, 91, with photographic plates.

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The mediaeval sculptures of Orissa are chiefly associated with the Brahmanical temples of three localities—Bhuvanesvar, Koṇārak, and Purī—all in the Purī District, and ranging in date from perhaps the ninth century to the thirteenth. The peculiarities of the architecture have been noticed in Chapter II. The oldest sculptures, usually in sandstone, are at Bhuvanesvar; the best statues, mostly in chlorite, are at Koṇārak.

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The temples and shrines at Bhuvanesvar, said to be five or six hundred in number, are usually richly decorated, and so offer a wide field for selection, limited to some extent by the fact that many of the sculptures are grossly obscene, constituting, it is said, a complete set of illustrations of the Sanskrit *Kāmaśāstra*, or erotic treatises.⁵ The few decent examples for which space is available are selected for their purely aesthetic merits.

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⁵ Such sculptures are supposed to be a protection against evil spirits, and so serve the purpose of lightning conductors.

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The sculptures, both decorative and statuary, are well represented in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, by a series of 128 casts taken in 1869, under the supervision of the Principal of the Calcutta School of Art at the time. ‘The Orissa carver of those days,’ Dr. Anderson observes, ‘went direct to nature for his designs, and the results of his labours in combining groups of animals with foliage show that he must have been a keen observer. They are extremely pleasing pieces of art, not only on account of the beauty of their execution, but by reason of their truthfulness to nature.'¹

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¹ *Catal. Archaeol., Coll. I. M.*, Part II, p. 221.

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In justification of this criticism a few examples from Rājendralāla Mitra's work may be given, beginning with a scroll on the Parasurāmesvara temple, one of the oldest, possibly dating from the eighth or ninth century (Fig. 131).

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Another scroll, including birds, &c., is from the small Rājarānī temple of later date (Fig. 132).

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FIG. 131. Scroll on Paraśurāmeśvara temple, Bhuvanesvar. (*Antiquities of Orissa*, No. 13, Pl. VII.)

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FIG. 132. Scroll with birds, &c., Rājarānī temple, Bhuvanesvar. (Ibid., No. 18.)

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A frieze of antelopes from the Muktesvara temple, perhaps of the ninth century, illustrates the successful realistic treatment of animal forms (Fig. 133).

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The Great Temple is supposed to date from the tenth century. Some of the minor accessory figures on it are pleasing, the sculptor having more liberty for the exercise of his fancy and taste in treating them than he had when modelling the canonical images of the gods. Two specimens are given of such minor figures, one from the Great Temple, and the other from the Baitāl Dēwal, an edifice in the Dravidian style of about the same period (Figs. 134, 135).

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The chlorite Bhagavatī, 7 feet high, on the tower of the Great Temple (Fig. 136), is an excellent example of the numerous elaborate and carefully carved statues of deities modelled according to strict rule. Such images are exhibitions of the skill of the stone-cutter rather than of creative sculpture.

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FIG. 133. Antelope frieze, Mukteśvara temple, Bhuvanesvar. (*Antiquities of Orissa*, No. 55, Pl. XXVII.)

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FIG. 134. Panel on tower of Great Temple, Bhuvanesvar. (Ibid., No. 46, Pl. XXVI.)

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At the famous temple of Jagannāth, Purī, built about A. D. 1100, a well-executed group representing a Hindu mother with her baby (Fig. 137) offers a welcome change on gods and goddesses. Human sentiment is painfully rare in Indian mediaeval sculpture. This group seems to me to be of great merit.

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The unfinished temple at Konārak, dedicated to the Sun, and erected between A. D. 1240 and 1280, was designed to simulate a gigantic solar car drawn by horses. Eight great wheels, each 9 feet 8 inches in diameter, accordingly are carved above the plinth, and remarkable statues of seven horses stand outside. The wheels, the most perfect of which is shown in Fig. 138, are carved with wonderful patience and admirable skill.

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FIG. 135. Dancing girl on Baitāl Dēwal, Bhuvanesvar. (Ibid., No. 59, Pl. XVIII.)

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FIG. 136. Bhagavatī, Great Temple, Bhuvanesvar. (Ibid., No. 63, Pl. XIX.)

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Fig. 137. Mother and child; temple of Jagannāth, Purī. (Photo. 383, *I. M. List.*)

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Fig. 138. A wheel, Konārak. (A. S. photo., No. 155.)

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Two of the detached colossal horses are shown in Fig. 139, and one of them on a larger scale in Fig. 140. It is the best preserved. Another, placed outside the southern façade, is described by Mr. Havell as 'one of the grandest examples of

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[Figure: FIG. 139. Two horses; Koṇārak. (Photo. 355, I. M. *List*.)]

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[Figure: FIG. 140. A colossal horse; Koṇārak. (A. S. photo., No. 158.)]

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Indian sculpture extant'. While the force and vigour of these remarkable works are undeniable, few critics will be able to accept fully Mr. Havell's judgement that

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'here Indian sculptors have shown that they can express with as much fire and passion as the greatest European art the pride of victory and the glory of triumphant warfare; for not even the Homeric grandeur of the Elgin marbles surpasses the magnificent movement and modelling of this Indian Achilles, and the superbly monumental horse in its massive strength and vigour is not unworthy of comparison with Verrocchio's famous masterpiece at Venice'.

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Such language will be considered extravagant by most people.¹

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¹ Mr. Havell freely admits the defects of the statues in 'equine anatomy'. Verrocchio died in A.D. 1488. His masterpiece is the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni. Mr. Fry so far agrees with Mr. Havell as to describe the horse published by that author as 'a superb colossal figure', possessing 'in the highest degree the qualities of great monumental design' (*Quart. Rev.*, 1910, p. 236).

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The elephant colossi are much more satisfactory to my taste than the horses. One, shown in Fig. 141, renders with mastery the character of the creature.

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[Figure: FIG. 141. Colossal elephant, Koṇārak. (Photo. 351, I. M. *List*.)]

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The recent explorations carried out under Mr. Marshall's direction have revealed many finely executed chlorite statues in addition to those previously known. Two of the most noticeable of these discoveries are here reproduced. The image of Vishnu standing, equipped with all his canonical attributes, and attended by earthly and heavenly worshippers (Fig. 142), may be fairly credited with no small degree of beauty, notwithstanding the hieratic style and the four arms. The flying figures are good, and the carving is perfect.

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The effigy of Bāla-Krishṇa, the god as a boy in a swing, on the contrary, is ugly (Fig. 143), and chiefly of interest as a *tour de force* in stone-cutting. Nobody but a Hindu would think of making such chains in stone. The trefoil arch may be noted.

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FIG. 142. Vishṇu; Konārak. (*J. R. A. S.*, 1907, Pl. VIII, 1.)

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FIG. 143. Bāla-Krishṇa; Konārak. (Ibid., Fig. 2.)

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Orissan art practically ceases with Konārak, for want of encouragement. A small tract by Mr. Havell proves that the artist families have never died out altogether, nor have they wholly lost their ancient skill. The author holds, and gives reasons for holding, that 'there are carvers still to be found, whose work, in spite of all the discouraging conditions which surround them, is hardly inferior in artistic perception and technical skill to that of their predecessors'. He considers the men of Orissa to be superior to the north-western workers in sandstone, because they have 'not hampered themselves by the limitations of a wood-carver's technique, but have fully realized the technical possibilities of their material for producing bold effects of light and shade suitable for architectural work'. I have no doubt that some of the living Orissan stone-carvers possess artistic feeling and could produce sculpture of considerable merit, if they received adequate patronage. At present their abilities are usually frittered away on pretty trifles in soapstone.¹

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¹ ^1 E. B. Havell, *Stone Carving in Bengal*, thin quarto, 16 pp., 5 plates (Bengal Secretariat Dépôt, Calcutta, 1906).

Section III. Tibet and Nepāl

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The plastic art of both Tibet and Nepāl is Indian in origin and essentially one. According to Tāranāth the style of the ancient Nepalese school was based on that of the 'Eastern Painters in Bengal', who may be assigned to the eighth century. Nothing at all so old seems to be now in existence. No example of either Tibetan or Nepalese artistic sculpture in stone has come to my notice. The plastic art of both countries is represented by images mostly of copper or bronze, small in size and comparatively recent in date, none, perhaps, being more than three or four centuries old. The better examples seem to come chiefly from Tibet, but the labels in collections are not always very precise. Indian civilization having reached the valley of Nepāl many centuries before it penetrated the plateau of Tibet, the presumption is that the almost complete identity of style in the two countries must be the result of Tibetan copying of Nepalese models.

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M. de Milloué gives a summary account of Tibetan fine-art work in copper, which I translate for the benefit of Indian readers unacquainted with French:—

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'Copper is found both native and in the form of pyrites in Tibet, where it is wrought with uncommon perfection. Several localities are well known for their famous foundries, which supply the whole of the Buddhist East with statuettes of divinities. Lhasa has a special reputation for small figures in gilt copper, which are esteemed the more the smaller they are. Its productions are easily recognized by their graceful and somewhat arch (*mièvre*) style. The statuettes made by the monks and craftsmen of Tashilumpo are equally esteemed. Most of the bronze statuettes come from the workshops of the Tsang and Khams provinces. The bronzes from the region last named are famous for the perfection of their execution in details and their wonderful *patina*, qualities especially noticeable in the examples which go back to the sixteenth or seventeenth century, notwithstanding the impurity of the metal. Tsiamdo, Jaya, Bathang, and Lithang seem to be the principal centres of this art industry, which possesses an eminently religious character.'²

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² ^2 *Bod-Youl ou Tibet* (Paris, 1906), p. 130. Tsang and Khams lie to the east.

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A special characteristic of Tibetan art is the abundance of realistic, highly individualized portrait statuettes of holy Lamas and other Buddhist saints. How far such reputed portraits are actual likenesses and how far merely typical forms it is impossible to say. They may be authentic portraits transmitted by tradition through contemporary paintings. The Tibetan artists are, I believe, usually Lamas.

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A good example of such a traditional portrait is the seated image of the 'Dalai Lama of the Third Rebirth’, also known as the ‘Apostle of the Mongols’, whom he converted to Buddhism in the sixteenth century (1543-89). The original is in the large collection formed by Prince E. Ukhtomskij, now in the Museum of H.I.M. Alexander III, St. Petersburg, which has been carefully catalogued by Professor Grünwedel, to whom I am indebted for the photograph of the Apostle reproduced in Fig. 144.¹ The presentment is thoroughly realistic, and possibly may be from the life. No criterion seems to exist by which the age of such images can be determined.

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¹ See Prof. Grünwedel’s *Mythologie des Buddhismus in Tibet und der Mongolei, Führer durch die Sammlung des Fürsten E. Ukhtomskij* (Leipzig, 1900), cited as *Guide*; and his illustrated Catalogue of the collection in Russian (*Bibliotheca Buddhica*, No. vi, 2 fasc., St. Petersburg, 1905). The terrible Tibetan name of the Apostle is *mKʻas-grub-bSod-nams-rgya-mtso*.

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FIG. 144. The Apostle of the Mongols; bronze in Ukhtomskij Collection. (From a photo. supplied by Prof. Grünwedel = *Guide*, Abb. 54.)

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FIG. 145. Gilt bronze statuette of Tsong-kapa, about 5 inches high; Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. (From a photo. by permission of H. Balfour, Esq., Curator.)

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The Prince's collection contains many equally good portrait statuettes. One notable portrait is that of the Lama reproduced in *Guide*, Abb. 72. An ancient image in Chinese crackled porcelain vividly represents in Indian pose a follower of the teacher known as Bhaisajya-guru, or Man-la, the ‘Buddha of Medicine’ (*Guide*, Abb. 94).

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Other artistic examples of the same portrait class are in the Musée Guimet, among which may be specially noted the bronze images of Padmasambhava and Tsong-kapa, the founder of 'Yellow Lamaism' (*Petit Guide Illustré*, pp. 143, 144).¹ A reproduction of a statuette of Tsong-kapa from an original in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, is here given (Fig. 145). Portraits of this kind do not come from Nepāl, so far as I know.

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¹ The illustrations in Prof. Grünwedel's publications and the *Petit Guide Illustré* of the Musée Guimet being executed by the half-tone process it is not possible to utilize the permission to reproduce them kindly granted.

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The effigies of Buddhas and deities, although similar in style to the human portrait statuettes, are necessarily more conventional. They are often gilt and decorated with turquoises. The goddess Tārā in her various forms is, perhaps, the favourite, but many deities are represented.² In Plate XLI illustrations are given of three—an unnamed teacher; the Bodhisattva Manjusrī; and his consort, Sarasvatī, goddess of music and poetry. The last-named object, which is gracefully and freely modelled, closely resembles the best Nepalese work.

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² The well-executed nearly black bronze Tārā in the Pitt-Rivers Museum holds in her left hand a *phallus* of amethyst-colour glass.

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It would be easy to multiply similar examples. The British Museum collection includes several specimens of good quality, which have not been utilized because the collection awaits arrangement and at present is not conveniently placed for study. The illustrations given are fairly representative of the style, and enable the reader to form a good idea of the Lamas' remarkable skill in modelling, portraiture, and finish.

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Nepalese bronze statuettes of any considerable artistic excellence seem to be much less numerous than the Tibetan. The coppersmiths in Nepāl are more inclined to exercise their craft upon elaborate utensils used in worship than on images, and it is not easy to find Nepalese statuettes deserving of notice. Berlin has none, and it cannot be said with certainty that any of the Pitt-Rivers specimens come from Nepāl. Mr. Havell has reproduced (his Plate XLIV) a cleverly modelled four-armed figure, supposed, rightly or wrongly, to be Kuvera or Jambhala, the god of riches, which is an effective, though ugly, 'personification of materialism and the worldly life.' A Tibetan gilt bronze image of the same deity, fairly well executed, is in the Pitt-Rivers Museum. It has only two arms, and is about 5 inches high. The wasp-waisted Tārās, which Mr. Havell admires vastly, present mere parodies of the human form which can be described as idealized superhuman bodies only by extremely enthusiastic critics. More or less similar specimens are described and illustrated by Dr. Coomaraswamy in the *Burlington Magazine*, May, 1910.

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Many of the Tibetan and Nepalese images are purely commercial products of no artistic value. Others, although elaborately executed, are too monstrous and grotesque to deserve rank as works of art.

Section IV. North-Western India and Rājputāna

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In the Panjāb and the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh thousands of Hindu temples and other edifices must have been destroyed by the Muslim conquerors during the seven centuries intervening between the raids of Mahmūd of Ghaznī and Plate XLI. Bronze images of Tibetan deities and saints.

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A. A teacher, gilt bronze, about 4 inches high; Pitt-Rivers Museum. (From a photo., by permission of H. Balfour, Esq., Curator.)

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B. The Bodhisattva Manjuśrī, patinated bronze, about 6 inches high; Pitt-Rivers Museum. (From a photo., by permission of H. Balfour, Esq., Curator.)

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C. The goddess Sarasvatī, Ukhtomskij Collection. (From a photo. supplied by Prof. Grünwedel.)

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the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. The detailed records of the devastation wrought at Kanauj, Mathurā, Benares, and many other notable cities fully justify the assertion that the buildings and monuments destroyed must have been numbered by thousands. Mediaeval sculpture, consequently, is scarce in the territories strongly held by the Musalman powers.¹ The more considerable remains are to be found only in regions lying remote from the track of the Muslim armies, such as Khajurāho in the Chhatarpur State of the Central India Agency, and the more inaccessible parts of Rājputāna and the Central Provinces.

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¹ The case of the Bulandshahr District, U. P. illustrates what happened. ‘As might have been expected from its nearness to Delhi, the Muhammadans have made a clean sweep of the district, and razed to the ground every building, secular or religious, that had been erected by its former Hindu rulers’ (Growse, *J. A. S. B.*, Pt. I, vol. lii (1883), p. 280).

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Plate X (*ante*) gives some slight indication of the sculptured wealth of the greater temples at Khajurāho erected during the tenth and eleventh centuries by the kings of the Chandēl dynasty. I visited the temples many years ago and can testify that the crowd of figures is far more numerous than would appear from the photograph. But this ‘peuple de pierre’, as M. Le Bon calls it, was designed for the purpose of architectural decoration in the mass, not as an assemblage of individual works of fine art; and it is doubtful if any single image or group could be excerpted which would deserve illustration on its own aesthetic merits. Very many of the figures, like those in Orissa (*ante*, p. 190), are disgustingly indecent. Nobody having thought it worth while to photograph the sculptures in detail, it is impossible to reproduce examples, even of the decent ones.

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The group of mediaeval temples at Khajurāho is the largest and most important in Upper India. At minor sites we find the same lack of individual works of artistic distinction and, as a rule, the same absence of detailed record. The temples of Mount Ābū in Rājputāna undoubtedly exhibit masses of sculptured decoration of the most marvellous richness and delicacy, as sufficiently exemplified in Plates VI and VII, *ante*. But there does not seem to be anything deserving of isolation from the mass for study as a separate work of art. I do not know of any detachable mediaeval sculptures of Upper India comparable in artistic interest with the Chola panels at Gangaikondapuram (Figs. 159, 160, 161, *post*), or even with the chlorite statues of Konārak (Figs. 142 and 143, *ante*), except in the less-known parts of Rājputāna, where the researches of Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar have recently disclosed an unexpected wealth of sculpture, especially between Sirōhi and Jodhpur.

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The Tower of Victory, over 120 feet in height, at Chitōr in Rājputāna, built in the fifteenth century to commemorate the military successes of a local chieftain, is covered from top to bottom, inside and out, with an infinite multitude of images, representing, so far as may be, all the denizens of the Hindu pantheon, with their names attached, and constituting an ‘illustrated dictionary of Hindu mythology’. Besides the effigies of the more ordinary deities, there are images representing the seasons, rivers, weapons, and other things as yet unpublished. Whenever this series of sculptures shall be reproduced it will be invaluable as a key to Brahmanical iconography, but is not likely to contribute much to the history of art.¹ The better class of art in Rājputāna dates from an earlier period, ending with the twelfth century.

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¹ Cousens, *Progr. Rep. A. S. W. I.*, 1900–1, p. 9.

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If the description recorded by Mr. Garrick, Sir A. Cunningham's assistant, can be depended on, certain relief sculptures at the Mokaljī temple on the famous rock of Chitōr possess high merit as works of art. The darkness of the chamber in which they are placed unfortunately frustrated attempts to photograph them. The temple, originally erected in the eleventh century, was reconstructed in the fifteenth century during the reign of Mokaljī (a. d. 1428–38). The pillars bearing the reliefs evidently belong to the earlier building.² The bas-reliefs, sixteen in number, are carved on octagonal bands of the eastern pair of pillars supporting the principal chamber of the temple, eight scenes on each pillar. The first scene on the southern column of the pair, according to Mr. Garrick,

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² Ibid., 1903–4, p. 38.

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‘depicts five human figures, of which two are large and three small; one of the former represents a woman carrying a water-jar on her head, and a man standing before her with hands joined in an attitude of adoration. The minor figures are much broken. This sculpture, along with the others of this set, is remarkable for the elaborate detail and technical excellence of its workmanship, the woman's hair being most minutely delineated. . . . The third carving is very well modelled and proportioned, and depicts two standing figures, male and female. . . . The fifth scene is filled with vigorous action, and consists of a musical festival; six male figures play six musical instruments . . . the sixth and last figure of this interesting group is seen full to the front, blowing a flute (*mūralī* or *bansī*) in a very animated position as if he were dancing. . . .’

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On the northern column of the pair—

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‘the seventh scene is in all probability the most interesting of the whole series, and in its half a dozen figures gives us both a duel and an execution. The upper pair of men fight with shields and sabres, and their armour, accoutrements, &c., even to the knobs and bosses on their shields, are most carefully delineated, and show that the manufacture of these articles has altered as little during the last eight centuries as that of the musical instruments figured elsewhere. The lower portion of this comprehensive and instructive scene shows a pair of kneeling figures bound hand and foot, while an executioner holds his knife to the neck of the male figure to our left; but the female with him may possibly be a mere witness, though it is pretty clear from the general distribution of action in this trio that she awaits her turn for immolation.’³

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³ Garrick, in Cunningham's *Archaeol. Survey Reports*, vol. xxiii, pp. 120–3. Mr. Garrick's tour took place in 1883–4.

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I cannot attempt to interpret these curious scenes. Perhaps the Archaeological Department may be able to arrange for their reproduction with the help of modern appliances for the use of artificial light.

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Mokaljī's temple, as a whole, is decorated with an extraordinary wealth of sculpture, very effective in the mass, but not of quality sufficiently high to permit of small excerpts appearing to advantage. In order to give some notion of the powers of Rājputāna sculptors in the first half of the fifteenth century, two specimens from the later sculptures of the temple, one in high relief, with the images almost detached, and the other, a frieze in lower relief (Figs. 146, 147), are presented. The elephants

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FIG. 146. Sculptures on a wall of Mokaljī's temple, Chitōr. (Photo. 2278, A. S.)

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FIG. 147. Elephant-fight frieze from same temple. (A. S. photo. 2281.)

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have been set to fight with a barrier between them. The earlier sculptures described by Mr. Garrick seem to be far superior in quality.

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The most artistic object discovered by Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar during his rambles in Rājputāna—so fruitful in additions to historical knowledge—is the face looking out from a stone window in a wall of an old temple of the Sun at Vasantgaṛh in the Sirohī State (Fig. 148). Mr. Bhandarkar supposes it to date from the seventh century,¹ but, whatever its exact age, it is a beautiful work, and unique, to the best of my knowledge. The surrounding ornament is in an excellent style. This sculpture may be accepted with considerable confidence as an example of the work of the

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¹ *Progr. Rep. A. S. W. I.*, 1905–6, pp. 51, 52.

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[Figure: FIG. 148. Face in wall of temple, Vasantgaṛh. (A. S. photo. 2671.)]

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school of the 'Ancient West' founded by Sringadhara of Mārwār (Jodhpur). In Chapter IX, Section I, reasons will be given for believing that Sringadhara lived in the middle of the seventh century.

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An ancient town called Osia in the Jodhpur or Mārwār State possesses no less than twelve old temples, mostly referred by Mr. Bhandarkar to the eighth century. In one of these, No. 9, known as the shrine of Devī, is the image of Kuvera, the god of riches, which may be compared with the effigies of the same deity in Gandhāra and elsewhere (Fig. 149). As a work of art it does not rank high.²

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² Ibid., 1906–7, p. 36.

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A beautifully wrought figure of Vishnu in the Mathurā Museum, about 26 inches in height, and presumably produced in the local workshops (Fig. 150), may be compared with the Konārak Vishnu (*ante*, Fig. 142). The two images, while largely in agreement, differ in a multitude of details.¹ The Mathurā figure, which evidently is ancient, is not likely to be later than the tenth century, the temples of the city having been burnt by Mahmūd of Ghaznī at the close of A.D. 1018.

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¹ At Panthia near Mandhātā, the ancient Māhishmatī, on the Narbadā, there are twenty-four different forms of Vishnu duly labelled and distinguished by variations in the attributes and position of the hands.

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FIG. 149. Kuvera; Temple No. 9, Osia. (Photo. No. 2831.)

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Curious bearded images, seemingly portraits, occur in some of the Rājputāna temples. One of the most remarkable is the bust reproduced in Fig. 151, which adorns a pillar or pilaster of the temple of Undesvara Mahādeva at Bijolia in the Mewār or Udaipur State, supposed to have been erected not later than the middle of the twelfth century. The beard is treated in the Egyptian manner.¹ Portrait statuary is more common in Rājputāna than elsewhere.

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¹ *Progr. Rep. A. S. W. I.*, 1904–5, p. 53.

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FIG. 150. Statuette of Vishnu; Mathurā Museum. (A. S. photo. 48 of 1908–9.)

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The two unrivalled Jain temples on Mount Ābū, the earlier built by Vimala Sāha in A. D. 1031, and the later by Tejpāl in A. D. 1230 (*ante*, p. 32, and Pls. VI and VII), have each at the entrance a chamber known as the 'elephant room'. Each of these rooms contains ten statues of elephants, said to be sculptured in every detail with exquisite care, which formerly carried riders. All the riders in the later building have disappeared, but inscribed slabs still existing record that the figures included portrait images of the founders, Vastupāla with two wives, and Tejpāl with his one wife, Anūpama. Some of the riders in Vimala Sāha’s ‘elephant room’ appear to exist still, but I am not in a position to illustrate them.¹

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¹ *Imp. Gaz.*, s.v. Ābū.

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[Figure: Fig. 151. Portrait bust; Bijolia, Mewār. (A. S. photo. 2411.)]

Section V. Western India

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The most important and characteristic examples of mediaeval sculpture in the west of India are to be found in the cave temples, which, small and great, number nearly a thousand. But for the purpose of illustration it will suffice to reproduce a few select specimens from the shrines at Bādāmī, Elūra (Ellora), and Elephanta, with two sculptures from temples of later date. The cave sculptures of interest range in date from the sixth to the eighth century. The best works in the structural temples may be assigned to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

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The works of art are shared by all the three indigenous Indian religions—Brahmanical Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The Jain sculpture is so extremely formal and conventional that it possesses little interest, and the slight notice which it demands will be reserved for the concluding section of this chapter. The Buddhist and Brahmanical works are both numerous and very much alike in spirit and style. The spirit of the new art will be most easily understood from study of the Brahmanical, or apparently Brahmanical, sculptures, to which the few illustrations for which there is space will be restricted. In those days Buddhism was a dying Plate XLII. Deities in Vaishnava cave, Bādāmī. (Photo. 940, I. O. *List* = Pl. XXVI, *A. S. W. I.*, vol. i.)

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faith, slowly perishing by absorption into the enveloping mass of Hinduism. The Brahmanical works of art exceed the Buddhist, not only in number but in merit. To Mr. Havell and Dr. Coomaraswamy the compositions in the cave temples are ‘examples of the finest period of Hindu sculpture, from about the sixth to the eighth century, when orthodox Hinduism had triumphed over Buddhism’; but most European observers experience difficulty in appreciating the artistic qualities of those compositions. They are commonly so strange and monstrous, and very often so ugly, that an effort is needed to treat them seriously as fine art. Mr. Fry, commenting on Mr. Havell’s book, is more appreciative than many writers: ‘The free and picturesque composition from Ellora,’ he says, ‘representing “Ravana under the mountain of Kailāsa”, complicated though it is, is held together by the dramatic beauty of movement of the figures of Siva and Parvati. The same dramatic vitality is apparent in the struggle between Narisinha and Hiranya-Kasipu, also from Ellora. Indeed, all the Ellora sculptures here reproduced appeal to the European eye by a relatively greater observance of the laws of co-ordination, and by an evidence of dramatic force which indicates that Indian art did not always convey its meaning in a strange tongue.’¹ To be judged fairly the sculptures should be seen in the mass and among their solemn surroundings. They undoubtedly suffer grievously by being excerpted in bits and reproduced in illustrations a few inches square. While fully conscious of the difficulties inherent in the attempt to illustrate the colossal and fantastic creations of the cave sculptors within the limits of an ordinary page, I have tried to select fairly a small number of examples generally recognized as among the best.

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¹ *Quart. Rev.*, 1910, p. 235.

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The cave temples at Bādāmī in the Bījāpur District, Bombay, exhibit among other decorations long sculptured story-telling friezes, extremely curious, but so clumsily executed as hardly to deserve the name of works of art. They date from the closing years of the sixth century.² From an artistic point of view the bracket figures of a god and goddess on the top of a pilaster, as shown in Plate XLII, are by far the best things at Bādāmī. They have the great merit of not being ugly, and are within measurable distance of being beautiful, but lack the vitality of the early Buddhist art, or even of the nearly contemporary Gupta art in Northern India.

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² Described, and illustrated with other sculptures, by seven plates in *Ind. Ant.*, vi, pp. 354–66. They are of much interest for reasons other than aesthetic.

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The repulsive nature of the subjects often chosen by the cave sculptors is well exemplified by the Bhairava and Kālī group in the *Das Avatār*, or ‘Ten Incarnations’ temple at Elūra (Ellora), dating from about A.D. 700 (Pl. XLIII), described by Dr. Burgess as follows:—

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‘Beginning on the north side with the Saiva sculptures—the first from the door is Bhairava or Mahādeva in his terrible form; and a more vivid picture of the terrific a very diseased imagination only could embody. The gigantic figure lounges forward holding up his elephant-hide, with necklace of skulls (*muṇḍmālā*) depending below his loins; round him a cobra is knotted, his open mouth showing large teeth, while

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Plate XLIII. Bhairava; Dasāvatār Cave, Elūra. (Photo. 1371, I. O. *List* = Pl. XXII. 2, *A. S. W. I.*, vol. v.)

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with his *triśūla* [trident] he has transfixed one victim, who, writhing on its prongs, seems to supplicate pity from the pitiless; while he holds another by the heels with one of his left hands, raising the *damru* [small drum] as if to rattle it in joy, while he catches the blood with which to quench his demon thirst. To add to the elements of horror, Kālī, gaunt and grim, stretches her skeleton length below, with huge

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FIG. 152. Siva dancing; in Lankeśvara-Kailās temple. (*A. S. W. I.*, vol. v, p. 32, Pl. XXIX, 2; from a drawing by H. Cousens.)

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mouth, bushy hair, and sunken eyeballs, having a crooked knife in her right hand, and reaching out the other with a bowl, as if eager to share in the gore of its [*sic*] victim; behind her head is the owl [one species is called Bhairava], the symbol of destruction, or a vampire, as fit witness of the scene. On the right, in front of the skeleton, is Pārvatī; and higher up, near the feet of the victim Ratnāsura, is a grinning face [Figure: A. Das Avatār Cave, Elūra, *cir.* 700 A.D. B. Kailās temple, Elūra, *cir.* 775 A.D. PLATE XLIV. Rescue of Mārkaṇḍeya by Śiva. (*A. S. W. I.*, vol. v, Pl. XXIV; from drawings by H. Cousens.)]

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drawing out its tongue. Altogether the group is a picture of the devilish; the very armlets Bhairava wears are ogre faces.’ ¹

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¹ Fergusson and Burgess, *The Cave Temples of India*, p. 346 (1880).

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[Figure: FIG. 153. Vishnu taking the third stride; Cave 16, Elūra. (Photo. supplied by Prof. Macdonell.)]

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‘The religion which finds expression in imagery so truly devilish is not a pleasant subject of contemplation, and no amount of executive skill or cleverness in the production of scenic effect can justify, on aesthetic grounds, such a composition, which is frankly hideous. Its claim to be considered a work of art rests solely upon its display of power in a semi-barbaric fashion. The horror of the subject and its treatment is not redeemed by any apparent ethical lesson. Indeed Puranic and Tantric Hinduism (including late Buddhism) concerns itself little with ethics. The earlier Buddhism, as a religion, busied itself mainly with morals, and consciously aimed at ‘the welfare and happiness of all creatures’, a noble ideal which found its utterance in art. In Brahmanical Hinduism of all varieties each man seeks at the most his own personal salvation, and so Brahmanical art seldom exhibits a trace of human sympathy, a defect dearly purchased by its much praised idealism.

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A subject rarely represented in sculpture, the rescue by the god Siva of his worshipper Mārkaṇḍeya from the clutches of the messenger of Yama, god of death, appears twice at Elūra, and is treated with less grimness than the Bhairava group. The earlier composition in the Das Avatār Cave (Plate XLIV, Fig. A) is more vigorous than that at the Kailās (Fig. B), half a century or more later in date. The two groups may be considered to be favourable specimens of the cave sculpture in its milder forms.

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