Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t3: The Art Tradition at Nālandā
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t3
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The Art Tradition at Nālandā
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Although Nālandā (25° 8' N, 85° 27' E, 85 km south-east of Patna) was educationally important during the second century AD when Nāgārjuna is said to have visited it, and the university was established in the year AD 425 (Sankalia), the icon-making tradition in Nālandā evolved slowly and grew to its full stature much later. After Hiuen-Tsang, I-Tsing came as a pilgrim-student from China and stayed there for ten years (AD 675-85).
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I-Tsing described that collective worship of the images by the students was a distinct feature of the Nālandā curriculum. "The morning bath is followed by the ablution of an image (of Buddha, Hariti, Avalokiteśvara, Bodhisattva etc.) made of gold, silver, copper or stone by the resident members; in individual apartments of a monastery, priests bathe an image everyday so carefully that no ceremony is omitted" (Takakusu, 1896, translating I-Tsing quoted by Akhtar, 1984: 126) Akhtar has commented (1984: 126-27) that this mode of worship was mainly responsible for the mass production of images at Nālandā. No site in the entire sub-continent has yielded as many bronze images as in the monastery complexes of Nālandā, Kurkihar, and Vikramśilā. At Nālandā, the sculptures were found mainly in the dwelling places indicating individual worship. The bronzes are often more ornately decked than their counterpart in stone.
v1.c28.s8.t3.3
During the first half of the eighth century, Nālandā continued to influence the rest of the country, but its real glory as far as bronze/brass sculpture is concerned, arose only during the later half. Lāmā Tārānātha, the historian of Tibetan Buddhism recorded (Chattopadhyaya, 1970) that a new school of Pāla art, founded during the reigns of Dharmapāla (AD 783-818) and Devapāla (AD 818-58), gradually spread to Kashmir, Nepal and Tibet. He wrote:
v1.c28.s8.t3.4
The nāga productions of Nāgārjuna’s time were rivalled by the creations of Dhīmān and his son Biṭapāla, natives of Varendra (Bengal) who lived during the reigns of Dharmapāla and Devapāla. Both father and son were skilled alike as painters, sculptors and bronze founders. Biṭapāla who remained in Bengal, was regarded as the head of the Eastern school of bronze casting.
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We should note the significance of Tārānātha’s reference to the earlier nāga (lead, zinc) or brass icon tradition of Nāgārjuna, which was now being supplemented by the Pāla artistes with tin-bronze casting. There must have been a renewed supply of tin from the Hazārībāgh mines or through the import of the material from Burma or the Malay Peninsula. The ninth century AD. text Sarveśvararasāyana refers to tin as vaṅga, the metal from Bengal, and describes the method for its purification. Table 20.8 shows that the Nālandā artistes used pure copper, brass as well as moderate and high-tin bronzes for casting images. Over 500 bronzes of Buddha and Buddhist divinities of Tantrayāna-Vajrayāna cult (a newly emerging Tāntric cult) and of Brāhmaṇical divinities have been recovered but only a few have been analysed for chemical content by Lal (1956: 55-56) who reports that “very little is known about their forging, casting, soldering, heat-treating etc.”
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The data presented in Table 20.8 shows that most samples analysed contain appreciable quantities of lead, which obviously rendered the alloys more fluid and better for casting. The lead percentage however did not exceed six as in some of the Gujarat samples. Several samples assay as much as 2-4 per cent in iron and most samples contain some nickel. Possibly the copper metal was smelted from local nickel-rich ore of Bihar at high temperature to include some reduced iron. Metallographic analysis would have thrown more light on this aspect. In a few samples arsenic and antimony were detected; there was zinc as trace impurity in some of the non-brass alloys. As much as 16 per cent zinc was noticed in a sample whereas tin content reached a higher figure of 24 per cent.
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A brick-built smelting furnace has been found near Temple 13 of Nālandā; it is made of four chambers in one square divided by short walls, each of the chambers provided with two flues for fire to burn and air to pass. The find of burnt metal pieces, slag of metal and similar objects within it shows that it was used for casting metal. (Ghosh, 1989: Vol. II pp. 305-06)
v1.c28.s8.t3.8
Nālandā has been the richest source of the well-known smooth images in black slate. Though an ecclesiastical site, Nālandā has shown many interesting metallic objects:
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Iron flat bars, chisels, swastikas, scissors, elephant goads, cattle branding stamps, armours, daggers, sword-hilts (the invaders were anticipated) bronze cups and jugs, metal inkpots, ornamental gold leaves and beads, gilded conches, bangles and rings, crucibles, ladles, censers, pottery bowls, clay moulds of seals, bone and ivory game pieces, glass beads and rings, rubies (from Burma?) for inlaying in bronzes etc.
v1.c28.s8.t3.10
Evidently Nālandā was not only a pilgrimage centre and an educational institution, it was also a centre of metallurgical and ceramic arts and crafts.