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War in Ancient India c6.s6.t2: The Gandhara Sculptures

War in Ancient India c6.s6.t2

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The Gandhara Sculptures

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The Gāndhāra sculptures may next be examined. Burgess identifies a figure holding Vajra or the thunderbolt, its form not apparently primitive, with that of Māra the tempter. Others identify it with Vajrapāṇi, the Bodhisattva, and Indra. There is, again, a figure in the Lahore Museum representing two soldiers, of which there is a Plate in the *Journal of Indian Art and Industry*.¹⁴⁹ Both are meagrely draped. They wear only loin-cloths. The knees and feet are left uncovered. In the one we notice a belt round the waist, a sheath with a sword the hilt of which is held in the left hand. On the back of the other soldier is seen a shield of almost oblong shape and also a sort of oval disc. But the face of this one is much mutilated. We noticed the part played by elephants in the Ajanta frescoes. There is a figure in the Mokalji's temple.¹⁵⁰ at Chitore representing an elephant pitted against another—a story often mentioned in literature. In the course of her observations on the Gāndhāra sculptures and early coins from Alexander’s time, Mrs. F. H. Andrews remarks: ‘It is in architectural, sculptural and mural decoration in India that the elephant is seen at its best.’¹⁵¹

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¹⁴⁹ Vol. VIII, Plate 10, Fig. 6. Burgess on the Gāndhāra Sculptures.

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¹⁵⁰ Smith: *A History of Fine Art*, p. 127.

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¹⁵¹ Journal of Indian Art, Vol. X.

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In South India there are numerous interesting and instructive sculptures, a systematic study of which would cover a large volume. Here an attempt is made to examine only a few of them to illustrate the Pallava, Choḷa and Vijayanagar art. Vivid representations of Pallava art are seen in Mahābalipuram (Chingleput District). There is fire and passion in the wonderful representation of Durgā slaying Mahiṣāsura.¹⁵² There is another relief exhibiting Arjuna’s penance to get possession of the magic weapon by which any powerful enemy could be easily humbled. The story is found in the Mahābhārata.¹⁵³

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¹⁵² Viśvakarma, Pl. XLV; Smith: Op. Cit., Pl. 87.

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¹⁵³ The Indian Ant. a special number on Māmallapuram.

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In the Choḷa period, there is also a wonderful representation of a battle between a general riding on an elephant and his adversary on horseback.¹⁵⁴ This is on the Begur stone dated about A.D. 934-38, in the Mysore territory, now in the Bangalore Museum. There is another bas-relief sculpture in the same Museum found in the Atakur stone dated about A.D. 949-50 representing a fight between a big hound and a mighty boar in which both are being killed by each other.

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¹⁵⁴ Smith: A History of Fine Art, p. 134.

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A beautiful sculptural representation of Būtuga slaying the Choḷa Rājāditya by stabbing him with a dagger, short but with a broad and curved blade of fine steel,¹⁵⁵ is noticed in a plate in *Epigraphia Carnatica* copied in Pura in the Mandya Taluk and of the date Śaka 1339.¹⁵⁶ Here one notices the high wavy sword with sharp points. There is another kind of sword resembling a flexible band, sometimes used as a belt apparently of leather. The weapon in No. 2 seems to be more rigid. Nos. 4 and 5 are copied from Varuṇa in the Mysore Taluk and are much earlier than the above, probably 960 A.D. Here the retainers are seen armed with cutlasses. There in the Middle Ages was a peculiar practice in South India of erecting Vīragals or memorial stones. Such memorial stones are even now found in great numbers in Southern India.

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¹⁵⁵ *Ep. Car.*, III, No. 41. (Maṇḍya).

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¹⁵⁶ *Ibid.*, Part i, p. 34.

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Perhaps the most vivid and lively representations of Vijayanagar art are those in the two temples at Tādpatri, Anantapur District—the Rāmeśvaram temple dedicated to Śiva, and the Cintatrāya temple to Viṣṇu. On the northern side of the Rāmeśvaram temple on the banks of the Pinākinī river, the Gopura is left unfinished from the middle. Here in the bas-relief on both sides of the two walls are seen demon soldiers, besides others wearing altogether different costumes. About a hundred varieties of dress are noticed here. In the other temple a furlong to the south, there is a remarkable representation of the whole story of the *Rāmāyaṇa* and also certain portions of the *Bhāgavata* finely sculptured. The reliefs are full of life and movement and exhibit fire and passion throughout. Except one or two figures the rest, several hundreds, are beautiful and present a freshness all their own. Chariots, war-horses, elephants, soldiers in battle array, actual operations in the field, all these afford remarkable subjects for study.

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Such a variety of design and beauty is noticed in a bas-relief of scenes from the Rāmāyaṇa representing the conquest of Ceylon and all the varied incidents of that Epic in the Hoysaleśvara temple, Halebid, and the Hazara Rāmasvāmi temple at Hampi.¹⁵⁷ It is worth noting that weapons of war like the axe, the knife and the dagger, are seen depicted on the Vīragals of this period.¹⁵⁸

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¹⁵⁷ Smith: Op. Cit., Plates 84 and 91.

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¹⁵⁸ Ep. Car., III, p. 34.

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Dr. Oppert refers to half a dozen temples in South India to prove the use of fire-arms in ancient India.¹⁵⁹ The Palni temple in the Madura District contains on the outer portion in an ancient stone maṇṭapa scenes of carved figures of soldiers carrying in their hands small fire-arms, apparently the small-sized guns mentioned in the Śukranītisāra. Bells are seen hanging from the belts worn round the waists of the soldiers. They wear slippers for their feet and a peculiar kind of cap on their heads. Again in the Śārṅgapāṇi temple at Kumbakonam in the front gate¹⁶⁰ of the fifth story from the top is the figure of a king sitting in a chariot drawn by horses and surrounded by a number of soldiers. Before this chariot march two sepoys with pistols in their hands. In the Nūrrūkkāl maṇṭapam of the Conjeevaram temple is a huge pillar on the north side of the maṇṭapa. Here there is a relief vividly representing a fight between two bodies of soldiers. Mounted horsemen are also seen. The foot-soldier is shown aiming his fire-arm against the enemy. Such things are also noticed in the Tanjore temple and the temple at Perur, in the Coimbatore District. In the latter there is an actual representation of a soldier loading a musket. To this last Fergusson assigns the eighteenth century A.D. But Dr. Oppert puts it very much earlier.

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¹⁵⁹ Dr. Oppert: Weapons, etc. of the Hindus.

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¹⁶⁰ The gopuram, it may be noted, belongs to the 18th century.

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From these sculptures in India it is interesting to turn to Java where the Indian tradition is copied wholesale. The Borobudur sculptures illustrate Jātaka scenes. They are ascribed roughly to the eleventh century A.D. There is a striking relief series Pl. I, fig. 5,¹⁶⁰ᵃ representing a battle in which two others are seen on each side, one wearing a curved sword in the right hand and a long shield, and the other a mace and a round shield resembling a wheel, all apparently made of iron. The story of the Rāmāyaṇa is also given, as in the Tādpatri temple from Rāma's going to the forest down to the killing of Rāvaṇa. There is also a wonderful sculpture of an ancient Hindu ship.¹⁶¹

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In the temple of Ankhor Vat, in Cambodia, the Kambojas who colonised it about the fourth century A.D. kept up the traditions of the Kashmir schools. The motifs in the various reliefs are stories and battle scenes as described in the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata.¹⁶² These are described in minute detail and with wonderful vigour. Perhaps they follow the technicalities of the Amarāvatī sculptures. Magic plays a prominent part in these reliefs. Indrajit showing the magical head of

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¹⁶⁰ᵃ Vol. I, Plate V (N. J. Krom and T. Van Erp). ¹⁶¹ Ibid. ¹⁶² Havell: Indian Sculpture and Painting, p. 137.

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Rāma to Sītā and slaying the Māyā Sītā before Rāma are life-like. There are two figures of the heads of Bhīmasena in Central Java. The heroic splendour and manly grace of the born fighter are wonderfully depicted. Havell aptly remarks: ‘We recognise a young Alexander, a fighter who knows his own strength and revels in it. All his desires and aims are human yet there is nothing low or brutal in his nature. He is a great natural hero and war-lord fit to lead and command a noble free-born race. To compare these with the head of the Buddha shows how far the artistic skill has advanced in Java and therefore in India. This figure has a lovely appearance, the portrait type of all that is pure, spiritual and holy in Indian thought and religion’. ¹⁶³ Again, in Ankhor Vat we find in a bas-relief straight two-handed iron swords worn by foot-soldiers. Students conversant with Alexander’s invasion of India know that these were in use in India in the fourth century B.C. We may add that this weapon was used as a sword of state by the kings of Siam. It justifies Ruskin’s words: ‘Whole eras of mighty history are summed and the patience of dead myriads are concentrated in the existence of a noble (national) art.’

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¹⁶³ Ibid., Plates 41 and 42.

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