A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15: Chapter IX. Hindu Painting, Mediaeval and Modern

A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15

Language: English

c15.s1 Section II. Chinese Turkistan — 28 parts
c15.s2 Bibliographical Note — 2 parts
c15.s3 Section III. Tibet and Nepāl — 2 parts
c15.s4 Section IV. Kāngrā — 11 parts
c15.s5 Section V. Eighteenth-Century Painting, Chiefly Mythological — 53 parts
c15.s6 Section VI. Southern India — 8 parts
c15.s7 Section VII. Ceylon — 9 parts
c15.s8 Section VIII. The Modern Schools — 2 parts

Chapter IX. Hindu Painting, Mediaeval and Modern

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Within the limits of India proper the history of the art of painting comes to an abrupt stop at the close of the Ajaṇṭā series in A. D. 642. Between that date and the introduction of the foreign Persian style by order of Akbar, more than nine hundred years later, in or about A. D. 1570, we possess practically no direct knowledge of Indian painting, and are largely dependent for indirect knowledge on the recent discoveries in Chinese Turkistan, still accessible only in part. It is clear, as will be explained more fully in Chapter XIV, that the Hindu artists of the sixteenth century who so quickly mastered the Persian technique and made the foreign style their own, with Indian modifications, must have been prepared by training in indigenous methods. Indeed, concerning one artist of that time, Daswanth, the fact is on record that he had been painting all his life. But hardly a scrap of the work of the mediaeval Hindu schools, within the limits of India, prior to the reign of Akbar, has survived, and any opinion that we may form concerning its character must be based mainly upon more or less probable conjectures and inferences.¹

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¹ The only surviving specimens known to me are the Nepalese miniatures in MSS. published by M. Foucher (*post*, Sec. III) and the Tirumalai Jain paintings (*post*, Sec. VI of this chapter).

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The preservation of numerous specimens of Hindu pictorial art from 1570 is due to the introduction by Akbar of the practice of painting small pictures on paper, which were collected in albums or as book illustrations and preserved in royal and princely libraries, so richly stocked that the comparatively small remnant saved from destruction amply serves the purpose of the historian of art. I am not aware of any evidence that similar libraries filled with illuminated manuscripts had been formed before Akbar's time by either the Hindu princes or the Sultans of Delhi. Humāyun, Akbar's father, possessed a library which must have been incorporated in the Mughal imperial collections. Most of the mediaeval Hindu painting probably was executed in the form of 'Indian fresco' on the walls of temples and palaces. Work of the kind is extremely perishable, unless when applied to the walls of secluded caves such as those of Ajaṇṭā and Bāgh. The older Hindu palaces having almost all disappeared, and many hundreds of the ancient temples in Northern India having been destroyed by order of idol-hating Muslim sovereigns, no specimen of mediaeval Hindu fresco survives that can be called ancient.

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The only extant wall-paintings on a Hindu building of considerable age in Northern India are the decorations, dating from either the seventeenth or eighteenth century, on the old palace at Bikanīr in Rājputāna. The designs, representing a heavy thunderstorm with lightning playing through the clouds, and storks circling below, are said to be not only curious but beautiful. The work is described as displaying conspicuously Chinese feeling, a fact easily accounted for when we remember the long-continued influence of Chinese art on Persian painting and the Indo-Persian school, which will be discussed when the productions of that school come under consideration. Unfortunately, reproductions of the Bikanīr paintings are not available. The small illustration of the flower-like cloud forms in Sir George Watt's book is too trifling to be of use. The same conventional mode of depicting clouds is said to be found on the hide shields of Tonk and to recur over and over again on objects of various kinds throughout Rājputāna and Central India.¹

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¹ *Indian Art at Delhi*, pp. 162, 170 (woodcut), 180.

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The blank in the history of Hindu painting due to the non-existence of ancient pictures cannot be filled up from literary notices. The Hindus have never taken sufficient interest in art for its own sake to write treatises, practical, historical, or critical, on the subject. As already observed (*ante*, p. 8), the vast literature of India contains only two passages dealing directly with the history of art, namely, Abūl Fazl's notice of the introduction of Indo-Persian painting, which will be discussed in Chapter XIV, and the remarks recorded in 1608 by Tāranāth, the Tibetan historian of Buddhism. His notes, notwithstanding their vagueness, a feature characteristic of the author's work, give information of importance not recorded elsewhere, and may be considered conveniently in this place.

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Tāranāth's Chapter XXIV, entitled 'The Mode of Origin of Image-Making', professes to record a summary history of Indian Buddhist art, plastic and pictorial, from the earliest times to the author's day.² He treats of painting, sculpture, and bronze-casting together, apparently assuming the high antiquity of all the three arts as dating even from the remote age prior to 'the disappearance of the Teacher', that is to say, 500 B. C. in round numbers. He specially alludes to the superlative excellence of the earliest wall-paintings, which he ascribes to the gods, and declares that after the death of Buddha equally good work continued to be produced for several hundred years.

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² Schiefner, *Târanâtha's Geschichte des Buddhismus in Indien, aus dem Tibetischen übersetzt*, St. Petersburg, 1869.

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The succession was then carried on by the Yaksha, or spirit artists employed by Asoka [250 B. C.], and next by the semi-human Nāgas under the control of Nāgārjuna [*cir.* A. D. 200; Amarāvatī]. After Nāgārjuna it seemed as if the knowledge of art had vanished from among men; no regular succession of artists could be traced, although individuals of genius made exceptional efforts.

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But later [? in fifth or sixth century] appeared Bimbasāra of Magadha, an artist skilled equally in the use of brush and chisel (*Meissel- und Bildwerke*), who founded the 'Middle Country' [*scil.* Magadha] school, and produced works equal in merit to those of the gods [*scil.* pre-Asokan].

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Proceeding with the parallelism between the most ancient and the mediaeval works, the author tells us that the achievements of the Yakshas employed by Asoka were equalled by the paintings and other masterpieces wrought by Sringadhara, a native of Maru [Mārwār or Jodhpur in Rājputāna], the founder of the school of the ‘Ancient West’.¹

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¹ The ‘Ancient West’ school cannot possibly mean that of Gandhāra, as supposed by M. Foucher (*Iconographie bouddhique*, 1900, p. 184).

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The Nāga productions of Nāgārjuna’s time were rivalled by the creations of Dhīmān and his son Bitpālo, natives of Varendra [Bengal], who lived during the reigns of Devapāla and Dharmapāla. Both father and son were skilled alike as painters, sculptors, and bronze founders. Bitpālo, who remained in Bengal, was regarded as the head of the ‘Eastern’ school of bronze-casting. But his disciples in painting being numerous in Magadha [South Bihār], he was also held to be the chief of the ‘Later Middle Country’ school of that art, whereas his father was considered to be the head of the ‘Eastern’ school of painters.

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In Nepāl the earliest art resembled the work of the ‘Ancient West’ school. But later work in both painting and bronzes was more nearly related to that of the ‘Eastern’ school. The latest artists of Nepāl had no distinctive style.

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In Kashmīr, we are told, the earliest artists followed the style of the ‘Middle Country School of the Ancient West’. This obscure phrase, difficult to interpret, may refer to a Magadhan variation of the Rājputāna school of the ‘Ancient West’ founded by Sringadhara in the seventh century. May not the explanation be that Lalitāditya, the most powerful king of Kashmīr, who conquered Kanauj about a. d. 740, introduced into his ancestral kingdom artistic novelties from the conquered realm?

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The Kashmīr school, which subsisted until the author’s time (a. d. 1600), practised new fashions in both painting and sculpture (*Malerei und Bildnerei*) introduced by Hasurāja. It seems possible that he may be identical with Haṁsarāja, one of the ministers of Queen Diddā in a. d. 1000 (*Rājat.*, transl. Stein, Bk. vi, l. 350).

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Tāranāth sums up his sketch of art history by the observation that wherever Buddhism prevailed skilful imagers of the gods were found, but as Islam advanced they disappeared, and when Hinduism got the upper hand they were replaced by unskilful performers. In conclusion he notes that in Burma and the South the making of images continued, although no specimens from those countries had reached Tibet; and that in the South three artists named Jaya, Parojaya, and Vijaya had a large following.

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In the hope that future research may further elucidate the history of the various schools subsequent to Nāgārjuna as outlined by Tāranāth, I give his statements in tabular form with brief annotations.

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SCHOOLS OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE SUBSEQUENT TO NĀGĀRJUNA (*cir.* A. D. 200), ACCORDING TO TĀRANĀTH.

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At first sight the statements of the Tibetan historian seem to be wholly in the air and incapable of verification even in part. But closer examination throws some light upon them. The whole history (excluding the earliest ages) is comprised within the period of 1400 years lying between the age of Nāgārjuna, *cir.* A. D. 200, and the time of Tāranāth, A. D. 1600.

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The mention of King Śīla and the Pāla kings gives two clues to the chronology of that long interval. Śīla cannot well be the famous Harsha Śīlāditya of Thanēsar and Kanauj, who reigned from 606 to 647 and had no concern with Rājputāna. The reference to King Śīla in connexion with a school in Rājputāna almost necessarily implies that the sovereign referred to had local connexions with that country. Such a prince, exactly suitable, is found in Śīlāditya, one of the earliest Guhila Rāṉas of Mewār (Udaipur), who is known to have been alive in A. D. 646 (v. s. 703), and so to have been to some extent contemporary with Harsha Śīlāditya of Kanauj.¹ We know with sufficient precision the age of the schools Nos. III and IV, founded respectively by Dhīmān and his son, Bitpālo, and contemporary with the Pāla kings, Dharmapāla and Devapāla, who reigned from about A. D. 780 to 892.² If, then, we place School No. II, the 'Ancient West', in the middle of the seventh century, everything fits well together. We may, therefore, assume as a working hypothesis that King Śīla means Śīlāditya Guhila of Mewār, that the school of the 'Ancient West' originated in Rājputāna during the seventh century, and that it became the model of the earliest Buddhist art in Nepāl.

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¹ *Ind. Ant.*, 1910, pp. 188, 189.

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² V. A. Smith, 'The Pāla Dynasty of Bengal' (*Ind. Ant.*, 1909, p. 245).

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The historian's classification, it should be observed, applies alike to three distinct forms of art, namely, painting, stone sculpture, and bronze-casting. The only exception is that Bitpālo, as painter and sculptor, was reckoned the head of the 'Later Middle Country' (Magadhan) school, but as a bronze founder was held to belong to the 'Eastern' (Bengal) school of his father, Dhīmān.

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The ancient Indian artists, like Cellini and the other great craftsmen of the Renaissance, were able to turn from one material to another without difficulty, and to work with equal success as painters, sculptors, or bronze founders. Similar versatility was displayed by the Bhilsā ivory carvers, who executed some of the stone reliefs at Sānchī, and by the earlier craftsmen of the Maurya age, who readily applied to stone the skill previously acquired in working materials of a less permanent kind.

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The fact that a notable school of painting existed in Southern Rājputāna during the seventh century may have some bearing on the problem of the development of the art at Ajaṇṭā and Bāgh. Of course, painting must have been known in Rājputāna long before Sringadhara introduced an improved style. In his time the ruling clans were of foreign, Central Asian descent, and it may well be that his improvements were based on elements derived from Transoxiana or Western Turkistan. But all such speculations lack a basis of definite evidence, and must remain bare possibilities.

Section II. Chinese Turkistan

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The explorations carried on since 1896 by Dr. Stein, Professor Grünwedel, Dr. v. Le Coq, and other savants, in the vast regions of Chinese Turkistan, lying north of Tibet, to the west of China, and both north and south of the Taklamakān Desert ('Gobi' of the older maps), have revealed 'sand-buried' and other ruins full of the remains of ancient civilizations.³ Those remains, which include thousands of manuscripts written in many scripts and languages, known and unknown, also comprise multitudes of works of art, pictorial and plastic, which, by their characteristics, mark Chinese Turkistan as the meeting-ground of Hellenistic, Indian, Persian, and Chinese forms of civilization.

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³ The word 'Gobi' simply means 'desert' (Stein).

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The wide extension of Indian languages, literature, and art from the second century of the Christian era thus demonstrated has been a surprise to the learned world, but the huge mass of material collected is so unmanageable that many years must elapse before 'the most interesting subject', as Dr. v. Le Coq calls it, of the relations between the early civilizations of India, Persia, China, and the Far East can be worked out so as to admit of firmly established conclusions. The accumulations brought back by Dr. Stein from his second expedition, known to be full of fascinating material, some of which I have seen, have been hardly touched as yet; and the, perhaps, equally bulky and valuable collections of the recent German and French explorers have been only imperfectly examined. At present, therefore, it is not possible to present in a few pages a satisfactory abstract of the new knowledge concerning the diffusion of Indian art and learning in the Chinese Turkistan countries. The paintings seem to be assignable mostly to the seventh or eighth centuries, and so help to fill up the gap in the story of Indian painting between Ajaṇṭā and Akbar. In this section no more can be attempted than a slight indication of the extent to which Indian schools of painting, modified by external influences, penetrated Turkistan, and, through it, the Far East.

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The discoveries made by Dr. Stein during his first expedition to the south of the Desert having been published in considerable detail, a fair idea can be formed of the achievements of painters following Indian models more or less closely during the seventh and eighth centuries in Turkistan.

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Numerous fresco or distemper paintings on wood and plaster were found at a place called Dandān-Uiliq, which was abandoned soon after A.D. 791. All these works may be referred with confidence to the eighth century, and thus afford evidence of a sufficiently dated stage in the evolution of Indian painting when exposed to the influence of the Persian and Chinese schools. A few of the more striking examples are reproduced by permission.

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One of the best preserved paintings is that on a panel (D. vii, 5), 15 inches high and nearly 7 inches broad, which represents two sacred or princely personages, mounted, one on a piebald Yārkandi pony and the other on a camel (Fig. 214). The nimbus behind the head of each rider indicates either his high rank or his sacred character. The artists of the Mughal court in India were accustomed to give this emblem of sanctity to the emperors and even to members of their families, and in Khotan during the eighth century the same practice seems to have prevailed. The picture speaks for itself so clearly that detailed description is unnecessary, but the blending of Indian and Chinese features in the face of the horseman may be noted, and the free drawing of the camel deserves commendation. The horseman is repeated on D. x, 5 (Stein, Pl. LXII), but the identity of either figure has not yet been determined.

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The ugly picture on the obverse of panel D. vii, 6, measuring 12¾×8 inches, representing a three-faced, four-armed deity, supposed to be a Tantric form of Avalokitesvara, squatting on a chequered cushion supported by two white bulls, is purely Indian, and is so closely related to the modern Lamaist compositions that it might be described as the oldest extant Tibetan painting. The body and front face of the deity are dark blue, the face on the proper right, with a feminine expression, is white, and the demoniac face on the proper left is yellow. The outline is drawn in thick black lines, and the work has little aesthetic merit (Stein, Pl. LX).

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The reverse of the same panel offers a surprise by presenting a picture of a four-armed Buddhist saint or Bodhisattva in the guise of a Persian with black beard and whiskers, holding a thunderbolt (*vajra*) in his left hand. The combination on one panel of this almost purely Persian figure with the Indian image on the other side suggests questions, at present insoluble, concerning the forms which Buddhism may have assumed in Iranian lands. The art, seemingly of higher quality than that of the obverse picture, is certainly more pleasing. The four arms are a distinctly Indian feature (Plate LXI). The existence of this queer figure may help us in some measure to understand the introduction of Persian figures into the Buddhist pictures of Ajaṇṭā, which may yet be proved to be an Indian development of Central Asiatic Buddhist art. But that hypothesis at present lacks historical support.

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FIG. 214. Mounted princes or saints; wooden panel from Dandān-Uiliq. (Stein, *Ancient Khotan*, Pl. LIX, D. vii, 5.)

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The most interesting of the Dandān-Uiliq paintings is the fresco depicting some legend connected with a female water-sprite, probably the tale told by Hiuen Tsang of the minister who married the widow of the Nāga king in order to secure the flow of water over the lands of Khotan. However that may be, the design and execution of the composition are of considerable merit, and well illustrate the variety of elements combined in the mediaeval art of Khotan. The pose of the lady, whose figure in the original projects about 18 inches above the water, is plainly a reminiscence of some Hellenistic Venus, such as the de’ Medici or the Capitoline, and the vine-leaf guarding her modesty equally recalls the conventional fig-leaf. Her ornaments are Indian, her face Chinese. Thus in this one figure we can trace the meeting of the three civilizations, Greek, Indian, and Chinese. The seated figures are more Chinese in type than anything else. I do not perceive any Persian factors in this work (Fig. 215).

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Another painting (D. x, 4), more primitive in style, illustrates the story of the Queen of Khotan, a Chinese princess, who secretly introduced silk cocoons into her adopted country by concealing them in the folds of her head-dress. The central effigy of the princess, boldly sketched with a few etching-like strokes, will suffice as an example of the style (Fig. 216). It will be observed that the head of the princess, like the heads of the three other persons in the picture, is surrounded by a nimbus or halo, apparently affording clear evidence that in Khotan art of the eighth century, as

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[Figure: FIG. 215. Water-sprite, &c.; fresco at Dandān-Uiliq. (Stein, *Ancient Khotan*, Pl. II.)]

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in Mughal art of the seventeenth, the nimbus was given to persons of royal birth as well as to divinities and saints. The lady's features are Indian rather than Chinese.

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Further east, at Endere, between Niya and Cherchen, in ruins of somewhat earlier date than those at Dandān-Uiliq, Dr. Stein found a scrap of faded fresco on stucco with 'delicate and harmonious colouring', and an Indian-ink sketch on paper depicting a Bactrian she-camel suckling her calf, drawn in the fewest possible bold strokes with considerable spirit and vigour. A slight attempt to indicate the solidity or roundness of the body has been made by adding a wash of faint colour round the contours (Fig. 217). The drawing seems to have been executed with a brush, not a pen, and is free from conventionality.

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[Figure: FIG. 216. Chinese princess; fresco at Dandān-Uiliq. (Stein, *Anc. Khotan*, Pl. LXIII, D. x, 4, central figure.)]

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[Figure: FIG. 217. Bactrian camel; Indian-ink drawing on paper from Endere. (Stein, *Anc. Khotan*, Pl. LXXIX, E. i, 19, a; p. 438.)]

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The countries to the north of the great desert have proved to be equally fertile in finds of astonishing richness. At the ruined city of Idiqūt-i-Shahri the German explorers found the remains of Buddhist, Manichean, and Nestorian buildings and art associated in such a way as to show that for centuries the adherents of the rival creeds managed to live together. Ultimately, in or about the ninth century, the Buddhists were massacred by the Chinese, a fact of which Dr. v. Le Coq discovered terrible proof when he opened a chamber filled with the skeletons of monks and other signs of ruthless slaughter. At this site curious votive flags, both Manichean and Buddhist, were found, with designs painted on plaster applied to long strips of cotton, in the manner still practised by Tibetan Lamas.

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At Yār-Khoto, to the west of Turfān, paintings on silk, described as being exquisitely wrought and harmoniously coloured, were obtained. Dr. Stein has brought home from his second expedition a large quantity of similar silk designs obtained in a walled-up temple near the Kan-su border, many of which are in the finest condition.¹ The Yār-Khoto pictures are both Manichean and Buddhist, the latter never failing to retain a distinctly Indian character. At the Bäsäklik monastery Dr. v. Le Coq discovered wall-paintings executed on a surface of plaster composed of loam and chopped straw.

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¹ A series was exhibited in the Indian Court of the Festival of Empire, 1911, and described by Dr. Stein in the *Catalogue of the Court*, pp. 14–26.

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The pictures at Chiqqan Kōl and Toyoq are in the archaic Indian style, whereas in other places the Indian features have been much modified by Chinese and Persian influence. It is evident that the Turkistan paintings range over a long time, and that, when their sequence shall have been worked out, much light will be thrown upon the development of the pictorial art of Asia, including India.

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Students of Chinese and Japanese painting have been aware for some years past that the specially Buddhist forms of art in China were derived from India through Khotan, and passed on through Korea to Japan, the principal agent in the transmission to Korea, and so to Japan, having been Wei-ch’ï I-song, son of Bajna of Khotan. Bajna was one of the numerous foreign artists in the service of the Chinese Emperor, Yang-ti (a.d. 605–17), and had been preceded at the imperial court by two Indian monks, with names something like Kabōdha and Dharmakuksha. Both Bajna and his son, according to Chinese critics, worked in a foreign, that is to say, Indian manner, and enjoyed high repute as Buddhist artists. The marked Indian element in early Japanese art is thus amply accounted for.²

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² Hirth, *Ueber fremde Einflüsse in der chines. Kunst*, pp. 34, 38, 39, 43–60.

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Although the descent of the specially Buddhist varieties of the art of the Far East from India, and more particularly from Indo-Greek prototypes in Gandhāra on the north-western frontier, is abundantly proved, the evidence does not warrant the larger inference drawn by Mr. Anderson that ‘a previously undeveloped art’ in China was dependent upon importations from India for its growth and development.³ The earliest extant Chinese painting, the fourth-century picture by Ku K’ai-chih in the British Museum, does not show the slightest trace of either Indian or Greek influence. Buddhist pictures form but a single subdivision of Chinese painting, the subjects of which, according to Professor Giles, may be classified under seven heads, namely—(1) history, (2) religion (including Buddhism and Taoism), (3) landscape, (4) flowers, (5) birds, (6) beasts, and (7) portraiture.⁴ Excepting the Buddhist designs under the second head, China learned nothing, and had nothing to learn from ‘the land of the Brahmans’. I am disposed to agree with Mr. Binyon, who finds in China ‘if not the parent art of Asia, its earliest mature flower in painting’.¹

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³ Anderson, *Descriptive and Hist. Catal. of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Pictures, in the B. M.* (1886), p. 482.

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⁴ *An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art*, 1905, p. 7.

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¹ *Painting in the Far East* (1908), p. 48.

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Mr. Griffiths thought that he could discern marks of Chinese influence in the paintings at Ajaṇṭā; and he may be right, although such marks are not very distinct, and may, perhaps, be explained as derived from the common stock of Asiatic art. However that may be, the art of Ajaṇṭā certainly produced no effect upon the general development of painting in China; and in Japan the only conspicuous instance of imitation of the Ajaṇṭā style is the wall-painting in the temple of Hōriūji at Nara, supposed by some critics to date from A. D. 607, but according to others about a century later.²

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² A tracing (No. 148, Anderson’s *Catal.*) is in the B. M. Mr. Okakura favours the later date.

Bibliographical Note

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Hedin, Sven.—*Through Asia* (1898). Stein, Dr. M. Aurel.—*Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan*, 8vo (1903); *Ancient Khotan*, 2 vols., 4to (1907). Grünwedel, Prof. A.—‘Bericht über archaeologische Arbeiten in Idikutschari und Umgebung im Winter 1902–1903,’ mit 31 Tafeln; München, 4to (1906). (*Abhandl. d. k. Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss.*, I. Kl., Band xxiv, Abt. 1.) v. Le Coq, Dr.—‘Bericht über Reisen und Arbeiten in chinesisch Turkistan’ (*Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie*, Berlin, 1907, pp. 299–322); ‘Origin, &c., of the First Royal Prussian Expedition to Turfan’ (*J. R. A. S.*, 1909, pp. 299–322, with bibliography).

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Other references in footnotes.

Section III. Tibet and Nepāl

I. Tibet

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The art of Tibet is so closely related to that of Nepāl that the paintings of both countries may be grouped together. The style is a combination of Indian and Chinese characteristics, traceable back to the earlier style of Turkistan, specimens of which have been cited in Section 2 of this chapter (*ante*, pp. 308–12). Nepāl probably imitated Indian painting before Tibet was sufficiently civilized to do so. According to Tāranāth (*ante*, p. 305) the earliest Nepalese school followed the model of the school of the ‘Ancient West’ founded by Sringadhara of Mārwār in the seventh century, while subsequent Nepalese artists inclined rather to favour the methods of the Bengal ‘Eastern’ school of the ninth century. No specimens assignable to either of those periods are now known to be extant, except possibly the miniatures in two MSS. examined by M. Foucher, which may belong to the ‘Eastern’ school. The latest Nepalese artists before Tāranāth’s time in A.D. 1600 are said to have had ‘no special character’. All the existing specimens of Nepalese painting, with the exception of the miniatures in the MSS., apparently are later than the seventeenth century. Most of the extant Tibetan pictures are believed to be not older, but it is not possible to determine exact dates. I have not been able to obtain good examples of Nepalese painting; Tibet, however, supplies a considerable number of works deserving of respectful notice.

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Painting is still extensively practised by Tibetan Lamas for the purposes of their ritualistic worship and as a source of income. Usually the compositions are depicted on long narrow banners of either silk or cotton. They may be painted either directly on the fabric or on a coat of plaster applied to it. Pictures on paper also exist. The silken banners obtained by Dr. Stein from a walled-up temple near the Chinese frontier, and dating from the seventh or eighth century, closely resemble those now made by the Lamas, who follow strictly prescribed ritual rules. The Lamas also execute frescoes on the temple walls, some of which, according to travellers, are remarkable compositions.

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Tibetan painting is generally more a matter of skilled craftsmanship than of fine art. The canonical process of manufacture has been fully described by Godwin Austen, who explains in detail the way in which a figure of Buddha is built up. The draughtsman, who hardly deserves to be called an artist, starts by drawing a long vertical rectangle, within which are inscribed a medial perpendicular line and sundry horizontal parallels at prescribed distances. The different organs of the body are then plotted out for insertion at certain intersections of the lines. For example, the face is plotted from the starting-point determined by the intersection of the medial perpendicular with the transverse line No. 17. The remaining parts of the body are worked out in a similar way, and other sacred objects, such as a *stūpa* (*chorten*, or *dāgaba*) are imaged on like principles.¹ Travellers tell us that the monks of the Greek communities at Mount Athos manufacture the sacred ikons in an equally mechanical fashion. It is obvious that such a practice is fatal to the development of creative art in the representation of objects of worship.

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¹ 'On the System of outlining the Figures of Deities and other Religious Drawings, as practised at Ladak' (*J. A. S. B.*, Part I, vol. xxxiii (1864), p. 151, with plates). 'Il est de règle, quand il s'agit de personnages, qu'on commence toujours par les yeux, qui, aussitôt terminés, doivent être purifiés au moyen de prières et de formules d'exorcisme de peur que quelque démon ne vienne à en prendre possession; c'est ce qui explique que tous les peintres sont des Lamas' (de Milloué, *Bod-Youl ou Tibet*, p. 295).

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The examination of specimens of Tibetan ritualistic paintings confirms the expectation formed from knowledge of the mechanical process enjoined, and reveals very slight artistic merit in most of them. They are redeemed from contempt chiefly by the colouring, which is often rich and harmonious, shades of indigo blue in particular being combined with black in a very effective manner. The execution of details, too, is often finished with characteristic Indian minuteness.

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I dissent strongly from the enthusiastic praise bestowed upon Tibetan art by Mr. Havell. The banner of Buddha Amitābha (his Plate XLIX),² described as 'splendid in drawing, colour, and composition', strikes me as a hard, lifeless piece of formalism, in which the features of the principal figure are barely indicated. The assertion that the hideous, sprawling, eight-armed deity and his attendants which form the subject of Mr. Havell's Plate LI are 'full of spirituality and the most refined artistic feeling' seems to my judgement to be wholly without justification. In the small figure of Asoka at the top of the same plate (enlarged as Plate L) the critic sees 'shining through Chinese and Tibetan superstitions, a reflection of the spirituality of the art of Ajantā, and some of the true sentiment of Indian art which inspired the sculptures of Boro-Būdūr'. My eyes see formal, mechanically drawn contours, a featureless face, and fingers like hooks. But the colouring, as usual, is harmonious and pleasing.

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² *Indian Sculpture and Painting.*

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The British Museum possesses a considerable collection of Tibetan banner-paintings on silk, mounted on rollers, kept partly in the Print Room, where the best of those brought by Col. Iggulden are preserved, and partly in the Ethnographical Department. Most of the pictures are distinctly Chinese in style, with little trace of Indian influence on the art, as distinguished from the subjects. But a few are more Indian than Chinese. One such is No. 1905/(5·20), 63 (measuring 2 feet 3 inches × 20 inches), with an embroidered border. The central figure is a seated Buddha of Indian style in the 'earth-touching' pose. The numerous minor figures in the scenes covering the field are, however, Chinese. An unpleasant Tantric Bodhisattva of little artistic value is depicted on No. 1905/(5·20), 57. The most characteristically Tibetan specimen, combining Indian with Chinese peculiarities, is No. 1905/(5·20), 62, which possesses considerable beauty as a scheme of colour, dark indigo blue predominating. The central figure is a horrible and repulsive Yama, or Death, wearing a garland of skulls. The field is mostly occupied by a series of scrolls in dark tints, of distinctively Tibetan form. In the upper section three small figures, a seated Buddha in Chinese costume, with on each side a Bodhisattva, or Tibetan Lama, wearing a tall, conical head-dress, are tolerably well executed. The painting does not look old, and its merit lies mainly in the colouring.

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The Tibetan pictures on cotton exhibited on the screen in Room VIII of the Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, include only one of any aesthetic interest, No. 2451 from the Schlagintweit collection, but even that is not of high quality.

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The considerable collection of Tibetan drawings and paintings, presented by Mr. Brian Hodgson to the Institut de France and still preserved there, has had the good fortune to have been described by two eminent scholars, M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire and M. A. Foucher. M. St. Hilaire, who formed a higher estimate of the artistic quality of a set of ten numbered paintings in the collection than M. Foucher can accept, criticized them generally in the following terms :—

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'Mais les monuments de sculpture et de peinture que nous venons de passer en revue sont très loin d'être dénués de mérite ; le dessin en est quelquefois très pur, les attitudes des personnages sont élégantes et naturelles. Il y a même, quoique plus rarement, une onction profonde dans la physionomie du Buddha et des principaux Bhikshous. . . . La composition est ordinairement régulière, quelquefois vaste et très bien ordonnée, comme l'atteste la description que j'ai donnée plus haut du troisième tableau tibétain.'

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No. 3, alluded to in the passage quoted, depicts various Buddhas and a crowd of worshippers. It is marred by the debased sensuality of the uppermost scene representing a Dhyānī-Buddha holding his Sakti, or female counterpart, in close embrace.

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Plate LXII. Buddha, with worshippers on earth and in clouds. (‘Tibet, No. 5’, Institut de France.)

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The Buddhism of Tibet has travelled far from the chaste asceticism of Gautama. The sculptures of Mathurā prove that similar corruption had invaded the Buddhist church in very early times. M. St. Hilaire considered No. 9, a large work measuring 1¼ metre in length by 70 cm. in breadth, to be ‘d'un travail presqu'aussi délicat que celui du numéro 3’. No. 10, which includes representations of devil-dances performed by Lamas wearing horrible masks, like those in the Gandhāra relief (*ante*, Plate XXX), is also commended.

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M. Foucher has kindly selected No. 5 as being one of the best and most suitable for reproduction (Plate LXII). It depicts Buddha in the ‘earth-touching’ pose surrounded by a host of worshippers on earth and in the clouds, and is framed in a pretty border. The figures of the adoring Lamas are numbered, I do not know why. Similar numbers are inserted in other pictures. I cannot think very highly of the picture as a work of art, apart from the colouring, which is, of course, lost in a photograph.

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The most interesting department of Tibetan, as of Mongolian, pictorial art is that of portraiture. The painted portraits should be compared with the bronze statuettes described *ante*, pp. 198–200. Excellent specimens of this branch of Tibetan art, which is less conventional than the pictures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, are included in a packet of twenty-four ‘Pictorial Illustrations of Tibetan Buddhism’ in the Hodgson collection of the Institut de France. By the kindness of M. A. Foucher, who made the selection, I am able to offer two unpublished reproductions of these remarkable works, depicting holy Lamas, one of whom is ‘paisible’, and the other ‘terrible’.

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The portrait of the ‘paisible’ Lama is charming. His countenance shows something of the ‘onction profonde’ detected by M. St. Hilaire, and it is easy to believe that a young Tibetan saint bred in a monastery may look exactly like this presentment. The accessories are treated with delicate good taste, and the effect of the coloured original must be pleasing (Plate LXIII).

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The picture of the ‘terrible’ Lama is more curious than beautiful. He is seated on a tiger-skin, and seems to have evoked by his incantations the fearsome demon, perhaps Yama, or Death, with a chaplet of skulls, who appears on the right. The magician apparently is terrified by the success of his spells (Plate LXIV). All these Tibetan pictures represent fingers and toes with odd exaggeration. The flower-like cloud forms are the same as those already noticed in the wall-paintings of the Bikanīr palace (*ante*, p. 304).

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The valuable collection of objects illustrative of Buddhism formed by Prince E. Ukhtomskij, and now preserved at the Museum of the Emperor Alexander III, St. Petersburg, includes many Tibetan and Mongolian pictures, of which select specimens, including portraits, have been engraved in outline as illustrations of the Catalogue in Russian prepared by Prof. A. Grünwedel. The kindness of the author of the Catalogue and of Prince Dy. H. Ukhtomskij permits me to reproduce two of those illustrations, belonging to a miscellaneous class, and Prof. Grünwedel has supplied me with explanations in English.

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PLATE LXIII. Portrait of young Lama; Tibetan School. (Hodgson Collection, Institut de France.)

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PLATE LXIV. Portrait of a Lama evoking a demon; Tibetan School. (Hodgson Collection, Institut de France.)

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The first chosen is Mongolian rather than Tibetan, but the religion and art of Mongolia are so closely connected with those of Tibet, and through Tibet with India, that the picture will not be out of place here. The figure of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva seated on the clouds in the corner is quite Indian, the rest of the composition is on Chinese lines. The 'White-bearded Old Man', originally a Mongolian tutelary deity of the earth, the foe of all evil-doing, becomes Kshitipati ('Lord of the Earth') in Indian Buddhism; is identified in China with the genius of long life; in Japan with one of the eight gods of happiness; and now in Mongolia, at Urga and other places, with St. Nicholas of Moscow (Fig. 218).

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[Figure: FIG. 218. 'The White-bearded Old Man'; the Mongolian tutelary deity of the earth; Indian *Kshitipati*. (No. 114 in Grünwedel's *Catalogue of the Ukhtomskij collection*.)]

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The second illustration (Fig. 219) is one of a set of thirty block-prints used by Tibetan Lamas as patterns for 'pouncing', or stencilling, sacred pictures on *kakemonós*, or silken strips. To the upper left of the picture we see Buddha Sākyamuni, clad in Indian fashion, expounding to four disciples the story of the dead sea-monster whose bones lie on the shore. Once upon a time, in a previous birth, the Buddha had been that monster and got his living by devouring men and other creatures. The boat with its occupants shown below was rushing into the monster's jaws, when one of the crew invoked the holy name of Buddha. The abashed monster allowed his prey to escape, preferring to die of starvation rather than incur the guilt of despising the sacred name. The boat then came safely to land, as shown in the upper part of the composition. Ancient art frequently repeats an object or person in two or three situations in a single picture, and this block-print follows the old traditional practice. This queer Tibetan legend may possibly prove to be the key to the enigmatic medallion at Bharhut (Cunningham, *Stūpa of Bharhut*, Plate XXXIV, 2), hitherto unexplained, which represents a gaping sea-monster in the act of swallowing

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[Figure: FIG. 219. The Repentant Monster. (No. 1, p. 32, Grünwedel's *Catalogue of Ukhtomskij collection*.)]

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a boat with three men, while a second boat with a similar crew appears to be drifting to like destruction.¹ As a work of art, the interest of the sketch reproduced lies chiefly in its freedom from the formal conventionalism of most Tibetan pictures. The Ukhtomskij collection includes many examples of orthodox paintings on regulation lines.

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¹ M. Foucher suggests that the monster may be Rāhu, the eclipse demon.

II. Nepāl

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Very little can be recorded concerning the pictorial art of Nepāl, which, as known to us, is only a modern variety of the Tibetan school.² The extant specimens are all Buddhist, and seem to possess little aesthetic value. The Hodgson collection in Paris includes ten pictures, two of which have been reproduced by M. Sylvain Lévi in his learned work, 'Nepāl'. The first of his plates is a reduced copy of No. 6, a large pen-and-ink drawing, 2 m. 85 cm. long and 1 m. high, believed to have been prepared to the order of Mr. Brian Hodgson. The subject is a religious procession in honour of Matsyendra (*alias* Padmapāni or Avalokitesvara), marching round the walls of a town in the valley. The drawing is carefully executed and shows a knowledge of linear perspective presumably due to European teaching, but as a specimen of Indian art it is of no interest. M. Lévi's second and larger folding plate reproduces in six sections a photograph of the illustrated manuscript giving the sacred legend of Nepāl. This work, too, possesses little merit as art.

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² Originally the art may have been practised in Nepāl earlier than in Tibet, but if it was, no specimens have been brought to light, save the miniatures in MSS.

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The Nepalese Buddhists are fond of constructing magic circles (*maṇḍala*) crowded with figures of Buddhas, worshippers, monks, lotus-plants, and other sacred persons or

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FIG. 220. A magic circle, Nepalese School. ('Nepāl,' No. 7, Hodgson Collection, Institut de France.)

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things, believing that the maker or user of such a picture will have a claim on the protection of all the influential beings and lucky objects depicted. No. 10 of the Hodgson collection is such a magic circle, filled with more than 200 figures.

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Another magic circle, No. 7 of the Hodgson collection, selected by M. Foucher, is reproduced in Fig. 220. The design is delicately executed, showing good draughtsmanship of minute details, but otherwise the work is not interesting.

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The silken magic circle in the British Museum (MS. Add. 8898) is accompanied by a description from the competent pen of Col. Waddell. The composition, as a whole, is ugly and barbarous, not worth copying, though the floral border is pretty.

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The only relics of an ancient school of Nepalese painting are the miniature illustrations of two manuscripts, Add. 1643, Cambridge, and A. 15, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, which have been minutely studied and in large part reproduced by M. Foucher.¹ Unfortunately, the age of the manuscripts and miniatures is not quite certain, but probably both date from the eleventh century. The older document, that at Cambridge, cannot be later than a.d. 1015; the Calcutta manuscript may be some fifty years posterior in date. The miniatures, numbering 85 in Add. 1643, and 37 in A. 15, equal in height (0m·055) the narrow strip of palm-leaf on which the text is written, and each depicts a holy place, a sacred personage, or an incident in Buddhist legend. Most of them being plainly labelled, they are of high archaeological and historical value, but from the purely aesthetic point of view are not of much account.

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¹ Similar miniatures are executed in Tibet (de Milloué, *Bod-Youl ou Tibet*, p. 237), but I am not in a position to cite examples. Good specimens, dating from the seventeenth century, or earlier, are inserted in a manuscript of the *Kah-gyur* ('Tibétain 10') in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Blochet, 'Inventaire,' *Revue des Bibliothèques*, 1899, p. 265).

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Fig. 221. Jambhala of Ceylon; min. No. 18 of MS. Add. 1643, Camb. (Foucher, Pl. IX, 2)

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The technique is simple. The outlines were drawn in red ink and filled in with colour washes, only the five canonical colours being used—white, blue, red, yellow, and green. The designs evidently transmit an ancient tradition, and are the production of an art long stereotyped; but, notwithstanding the mechanical monotony of treatment, M. Foucher holds that these little paintings, although not masterpieces, cannot be regarded as merely vulgar daubs. They have been drawn and coloured by illuminators 'très suffisamment maîtres de leurs moyens'. If they date from the eleventh century, they may represent the 'Eastern' school of Dhīmān, which according to Tāranāth was favoured in Nepāl at about that time.

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The labels indicate that the artist or artists had a surprising knowledge of distant countries, implying an active communication between the most widely separated Buddhist lands. The paintings include representations of images or buildings, not only in every part of India, but in Northern China, Java, and Ceylon. For instance, one of the miniatures in the Cambridge MS. (Foucher, Plate IX, 2) depicts the obese 'Jambhala of Ceylon' (*Sinhaladvīpe Jambhalaḥ*), the popular god of riches (Fig. 221), in a form not quite identical with, but closely resembling Dr. Coomaraswamy's bronze statuette (*ante*, Fig. 196), which could be identified with certainty from M. Foucher's photograph, here reproduced by permission, as a sample of the style of these curious little paintings.

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S<sc>t</sc>. H<sc>ilaire</sc>.—*Journal des Savants*, 1863, pp. 111, 112, 175–88. F<sc>oucher</sc>, A.—‘Catalogue des peintures népalaises et tibétaines de la collection Brian-Hodgson’ (*Mémoires Acad. des Inscriptions*, 1ère sér., t. xi, p. 34). This article corrects certain errors of detail in St. Hilaire’s description. *Étude sur l’Iconographie bouddhique de l’Inde* (Paris, 1900, 1905). G<sc>rünwedel</sc>, P<sc>rof</sc>.—*Catalogue* (in Russian, *Obzor sobrania predmetov lamaskago kulta Z. Z. Uchtomskago*) *of Prince Ukhtomskij’s collection*; St. Petersburg, 1905; being No. VI (2nd fasc.) of *Bibliotheca Buddhica*. *Mythologie des Buddhismus in Tibet und der Mongolei*; being a Guide (*Führer*) to the same collection. <sc>de</sc> M<sc>illoué</sc>, L.—*Bod-Youl ou Tibet (Le Paradis des Moines)*, Paris, 1906. *Petit Guide Illustré au Musée Guimet*, Paris, 1905.

Other references are given in the footnotes. Students wishing to go more deeply into the subject may consult various works on Tibet, Nepāl, and Buddhism. I notice in the *Catalogue of the Library of the Director-General of Archaeology, India*, p. 222, a catalogue by J. Deniker and E. Deshayes of ‘Œuvres d’art et de haute curiosité du Tibet . . . collection G.’ sold in Paris, in 1904.

Section IV. Kāngrā

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The fort of Kāṅgrā, or Nagarkōt, to the north of the Panjāb, renowned for centuries as one of the most nearly impregnable strongholds of India, but reduced to a mass of ruins by the earthquake of 1905, guarded the capital of a small Hill State, governed by independent Hindu Rājās for many ages until 1621, when it

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F<sc>ig</sc>. 222. Rāmdayāl, &c., goldsmiths of Kāṅgrā, at work (black and white).

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fell before the arms of the Emperor Jahāngīr.¹ In the secluded and beautiful valley of Kāṅgrā a distinct school of painters has survived to this day, representing ancient Hindu tradition grafted on the technique of the Mughal or Indo-Persian school. The works of the local artists are so numerous that two hundred and fifty examples were shown at the Delhi Exhibition of 1902–3. A considerable collection is preserved in the Central Museum, Lahore, from which my illustrations are taken.

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¹ The effects of the earthquake are described with numerous illustrations by Dr. Vogel in *Ann. Rep. Arch. S., India*, for 1905–6, pp. 11–27. A fine lithograph of the Kāṅgrā Fort is in the Honourable C. S. Hardinge’s *Recollections of India*, London, 1847. Restoration work is in progress (1910).

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The subjects, both religious and secular, are varied. The kindness of Mr. G. Wathen, Curator of the Lahore Museum, has supplied me with photographs of seven works selected by him as the best, and coloured sketches of the same prepared by Mrs. Wathen indicate the effect of the originals. A detailed list of the seven pictures is given in the note at the end of this section. The forest scene is not a success, the monkeys being ridiculous, and curiously like the illustrations of the advertisements of a well-known brand of soap. The portrait of the European officer is an ill-drawn failure, and that of the Mahārājā is stiff and poorly executed.

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FIG. 223. Snake-charmer, by Kapūr Singh of Amritsar (ochre-coloured garments).

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The oldest picture is that of the string of seven camels laden with tents and other baggage, which probably dates from the eighteenth century, and is good. In my judgement the best of the set is the black-and-white drawing of five Kāngrā goldsmiths or *sunārs* at work, two of whom are shown using the primitive blowpipe commonly employed in Eastern lands. Dr. Coomaraswamy praises this work as ‘full of close observation and curiously modern in effect’. The first clause of the criticism is just, but the second has not much force, as the drawing does not seem to be very old (Fig. 222).¹ The realistic portraits of the snake-charmer (Fig. 223) and the Jogī (Fig. 224) also are excellent. Both are the work of Kapūr Singh, an artist resident at Amritsar, outside the Kāngrā District. They are said to be only about thirty years old, and thus afford proof that until a very recent time artistic skill of considerable excellence still existed. Mr. Wathen informs me that the paintings now executed are of very poor quality. Presumably, if adequate patronage were available, the indigenous capacity could be stimulated and work equal to the old produced. Dr. Coomaraswamy mentions ‘a mauve iris, drawn with a faithfulness and grace which recall a Ruskin flower or leaf study'¹; and Mr. C. H. Read's fine collection includes a replica of the subject, also capitally executed, which may be assigned to the Kāngrā school. I do not know of any other example of the school in European collections.²

First 104 of 220 passages. Read on

Linked texts (15)

Jātaka — Pāli
Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Rājataraṅgiṇī — Kalhaṇa, Sanskrit
Rāmacaritamānasa — Tulsīdās 1574, Hindi
Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā — Sanskrit
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Meghadūta — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Sāñcī
Bharhut
Bikaner (desert theris)
Bagh
Ajanta
Tonk
Kariyamāṇikka-Perumāḷ temple at Vijayamaṅgalam inscription of Rājakēsarivarman Vīra-Pāṇḍya — Tamil