Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t2: Ancient Bronze and Brass Icons from Other Parts of India
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t2
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Ancient Bronze and Brass Icons from Other Parts of India
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Bronze and brass icons from ancient India have been studied by many archaeologists and art historians but their scientific investigations have been initiated only very recently. This is evident from the following tabulation (Table 20.6) of some of the key workers and the dates of their publications.
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We have already quoted Swarnakamal’s work (1980) extensively. Analysis figures of some Gāndhāra and Kashmir brasses are provided in Table 20.7.
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Table 20.6
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Some Authors on Ancient Indian Icons and the Dates of their Publications
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| Before 1955 : Mostly on Art and Architecture | Gangoly (1915), Bernet Kempers (1933), Jayaswal (1934), Ramachandran (1954) |
| 1955-69 Analytical work | Lal (1956), Prakash *et al.* (1965), Werner (1965), Lee (1967), Goetz (1969) |
| 1970-79 | Czuma (1970), Werner (1970, 1972), Pal (1975), Beguin *et al.* (1977), Sahai (1977), Bhattacharyya (1979), Riederer (1979), Uhlig (1979) |
| 1980 - | Swarnakamal (1980), Schroeder (1981), Lo Bue (1981a), Bisht *et al.* (1981-82), Beguin *et al.* (1982), Riederer (1982, 1984), Nieuwenhuysen *et al.* (1984) |
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Werner (1965) undertook the job of spectro-chemical analysis of 72 Indian bronzes, many of them belonging to the modern era and ‘greater’ India including Java, Burma etc. He was surprised to find that two Kashmir images (Nos. 3 and 4 in Table 20.7) belonging to seventh-eighth century AD were made of brass and concluded that the brass used for these icons was of ‘non-Indian origin’. He further commented that all Indian bronzes containing larger percentages of zinc (apart from the ‘imported’ Kashmir samples) were of modern origin. We have discussed how Swarnakamal (1980: 137-38) followed the erroneous conclusion of Werner, and landed himself into grievous errors regarding the dates of brass icons from Gujarat.
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The Gāndhāra (Kuṣāṇa), Mathurā and Amarāvatī traditions of stone and metal sculpture were readily imbibed into the Gupta era traditions on copper, bronze and brass icons. If the Maurya era may be termed as the renaissance period of Indian non-ferrous ore mining, we may consider the Gupta era as the golden chapter of metallurgy producing beautiful gold coins, the famous iron pillar, wootz and steel and the beautiful icons made of bronze and brass. The last tradition spread all over the country: to Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kashmir and the Buddhist monasteries of the Eastern India. By the sixth-seventh century AD, the brass revolution in India was in full swing. When Hiuen-Tsang toured across India during the first half of the seventh century AD, he found many brass objects and icons (chapter 18). Those were not only of Buddha but also of Viṣṇu, Śiva and Sūrya etc. (*vide* Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 in Table 20.7).
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Majumdar (1944, 1956) has outlined how the Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist missionaries spread cultural influence all across the South-East Asia during Analysis of Some Gāndhāra and Kashmir Brasses
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| Sl. No. | Item | Elemental Percentages | | | | Impurities | Reference |
| | | Cu | Sn | Zn | Pb | | |
| 1. | Gāndhāra Buddha (Body) in British Museum | 73.0 | 1.2 | 16.8 | 4.7 | Fe 1.2, Sb 0.2, As, Ni, Ag | Lo Bue (1981a : 38) |
| 2. | Gāndhāra Buddha (5th century AD) in Victoria and Albert Museum, London | 68.5 | 3.86 | 20.25 | 3.62 | | |
| **Kashmir Icons** | | | | | | | |
| 3. | Viṣṇu : 3-headed 4-armed, 7th century AD | 86.0 | ~ 1.0 | 14.0 | — | — | Werner (1965) |
| 4. | Śiva-Lokeśvara : 8th century AD | 82.0 | ~ 1.0 | 17.0 | — | — | Werner (1965) |
| 5. | Buddha | 73.1 | — | 13.2 | 10.4 | — | Uhlig (1979) |
| 6. | Sūrya (Cleveland Museum) | 78.1 | — | 18.7 | 2.75 | — | Lee (1967) |
| 7. | Sūrya | 85.1 | 5.62 | 4.04 | 4.44 | Fe, Ni, Ag, Co | Riederer (1984) |
| 8. | Buddha | 77.8 | 2.47 | 12.90 | 5.45 | Fe, Ni, Ag | Riederer (1984) |
| 9. | Viṣṇu | 79.8 | — | 17.34 | 1.91 | Fe, Ni, Ag | Riederer (1984) |
| 10. | Bodhisattva | 80.8 | — | 18.65 | 0.47 | Fe, Ni, Ag | Riederer (1984) |
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and after the Gupta Period: in Suvarṇabhūmi or Burma, Ligor in Malay Peninsula, Siam or Thailand, Kambuja or Kampuchia, Campā or Vietnam, and Indonesia. On the one hand bronze sculptures were made according to the Indian tradition (such as the third century AD bronze Buddha in Vietnam), and on the other India received precious metals such as silver, gold and tin from the South East Asian countries.
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The Gupta Period or Magadha bronze tradition reached Kashmir. A huge bronze Buddha was taken on an elephant’s back all the way from Magadha to Kashmir during Lalitāditya’s reign (first half of the 8th century AD). (Pal, 1975) Down South, the Amarāvatī school of bronze sculpture had been boosted by the brass tradition of the Sātavāhanas in the second century AD initiated by Nāgārjuna who might have lived in the Bhamragarh area of the Satmala Hills (Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Andhra Pradesh border, vide Beal, 1884, 1969: Book II, pp. 214-15). Not very far from this area, Sripura (modern Sirpur, 21° 20' N, 82° 11' E, 53 miles from Raipur) was the capital of Pāṇḍuvaṁśis of South Kosala during sixth-seventh century AD. This site has yielded many Brāhmaṇical and Buddhist bronze images. It was evidently a centre of bronze-casting; Droṇāditya was the name of one of the bronze-casters. One of the images obtained from this site was gilded; another had ‘large eyes inlaid with silver and lips of red copper’. A crystal stūpa, a gilt vajra and a Chinese copper coin (of the period AD 713-41) showed that it was a famous centre of pilgrimage. (Mitra, 1971, 1980: 103) We have indicated earlier the discovery and analysis of brass Buddha images from East Nimur, Madhya Pradesh, belonging to this period.
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Unfortunately very few bronze/brass images of the Gupta Period have been found in the Nālandā or surrounding Magadha areas. One such gold-plated bronze image of Manjuśrī has been obtained from Mahasthan, Bangladesh. It is quite possible that some of these were removed to other sites and some destroyed, melted and recast by invaders and vandals. Hiuen-Tsang saw and reported a large number of teou-shih or brass images all around India. He described the brass Maheśvara of Varanasi “100 feet (?) high, its appearance is grave and majestic, and appears as though really living”. Where is this statue now? Similarly the huge 80 ft (?) high copper Buddha in Nālandā described by Hiuen-Tsang is not to be found although a recently discovered stone inscription corroborates that a king Śrī Purnavarmā indeed had this image made and installed. Was it later shifted to Vikramśīlā monastery near Sultanganj and now known as the Birmingham Buddha? The brass plate vihāra made by king Harṣavardhana was recorded by Hiuen-Tsang’s biographer, Kwui Li. (Beal, 1914)