Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vatsyayana's Kamasutra c8.s7.t3: Sculpture
Social Life in Ancient India: Studies in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasūtra c8.s7.t3
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Sculpture
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Sculpture flourished as much as painting in the age of Vātsyāyana as is fully borne out by the numerous sculptural records that have come down to our time from that period. Vātsyāyana himself bears ample testimony to it: *takṣaṇa*, carving on wood or stone was one of the sixty-four arts and every *nāgaraka* had in his house implements for working at it; similarly in every house there was a lathe and other arrangements for turning which, likewise, had its place among the sixty-four *kalās*. Vātsyāyana does not expressly mention an image of a god, but from what he says of the household temple where the gods were worshipped, of the worship offered and the gifts made to the deity to whom one was particularly devoted,¹ it is apparent that such images were familiar objects in his days. The *Lalitavistara* speaks of the numerous images of the gods that came down from their pedestals to do obeisance to the child Buddha when he made his appearance in the *Devakula*, the quarter of the palace occupied by the gods.² Besides these images for worship, representations in wood and stone of human beings, both male and female, *puruṣapratimā* and *strīpratimā*—were used by the class for whom Vātsyāyana wrote, for decoration and as appertenances of love. Stands for placing images, or *piṇḍolikās*, are mentioned by Vātsyāyana, and life-size statues in wood or stone evidently stood on them in every *nāgaraka's* house, as Vātsyāyana speaks of very familiar uses made of them by lovers who often gave an indication of their passion for a lady by slyly kissing or embracing a statue in her sight. Similar other uses of portrait-statues in the harems of kings have been indicated by Vātsyāyana.³ In Bhāsa's *Pratimā nāṭaka* (Act III) we read of the life-like representations of past kings ranged round a room as in a museum.
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¹ See *Kāmasūtra*, p. 224 (*sūtra* 3); इष्टदेवतोपचारः—p. 311 (*sūtra* 20); देवतांनां पूजोपचारप्रवर्तनम् etc.—p. 340 (*sūtra* 25).
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² अच्युतस्य देवप्रतिमा etc.—*Lalitavistara*, viii, 119.
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³ *Kāmasūtra*, p. 289 (*sūtra* 3); p. 290 (*sūtra* 5); p. 203 (*sūtra* 14) also चित्रकर्म; प्रतिमायाश्च शुभ्र' संकान्तकमालिखनं च।—p. 111 (*sūtra* 31).
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The demand for beautiful dolls and play-things of which the girls in Vātsyāyana's age appear to have been very fond, offered a vast field for the exercise of the plastic art. Vātsyāyana advises a young man trying to win the affection of a maiden to present her with dolls (*duhitṛkā*) made of wood, horn, ivory, cloth, wax, plaster or earth. Erotic pairs of human figures made of wood might also be presented; such erotic pairs (*mithunam*) cut of the leaves of trees were also sent by sweethearts to each other. Playthings liked by girls are miniature cooking utensils, small temples of the gods (*deva-kula grhaka*), toy animals like goats or rams and playthings made of earth, split bamboo or wood, such as cages of birds. Small *vīṇās*, stands for images, ear ornaments made of wax or whatever other objects of art might be demanded by the girl of his choice, must be presented by the man courting her either openly or in secret.¹
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¹ Ibid, pp. 202-3 (*sūtras* 12-14); p. 208 (*sūtra* 4).
Linked texts (1)
- Kāmasūtra — Vātsyāyana Mallanāga, Sanskrit