Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t4: Some Other Centres of the Pāla Art
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t4
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Some Other Centres of the Pāla Art
v1.c28.s8.t4.1
Nālandā was one of the many art centres of the Pāla era. This art tradition survived for four centuries (8th-12th century AD) outlasting the Pāla kingdom itself and spreading across the international borders. The metal images were not only Buddhist but also Tantric, Jaina and Brāhmanical. The modelling was comparable to that of the Gupta Period images; the Pāla images were noted for ‘the lines, soft curves and appealing expressions’.
v1.c28.s8.t4.2
Nālandā metal Images (8th-9th Century AD) Analysis of Sound Metallic Cores unless stated otherwise
v1.c28.s8.t4.3
| | Percentage Composition | | | | Impurities |
| | Cu | Sn | Zn | Pb | |
| **Pure Copper Samples** | | | | | |
| 1. | 97.85 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.05 | Fe, Ni |
| *2. | 97. 14 | 0.08 | — | 0.04 | Fe, Ni |
| **High Tin Bronze** | | | | | |
| 3. | 75.54 | 23.68 | — | — | Fe, Ni, Sb |
| ** 4. | 76.98 | 16.19 | — | 2.78 | Fe, Ni |
| 5. | 78.75 | 15.60 | — | 2.55 | Fe, Ni |
| 6. | 80.84 | 15.09 | 0.05 | 3.06 | 1.3 %. Fe, Ni |
| 7. | 81.23 | 14.62 | 0.44 | 2.64 | Fe, Ni |
| 8. | 79.60 | 9.10 | — | 5.00 | 5.8 % Fe, Ni |
| 9. | 82.99 | 8.99 | 1.81 | 3.12 | 4.2 % Fe, Ni |
| 10. | 80.20 | 8.90 | — | 5.17 | 3.86 Fe, Ni |
| 11. | 82.15 | 8.70 | 0.06 | 5.93 | 2.7 % Fe, Ni, S |
| **Brass** | | | | | |
| 12. | 79.98 | 1.29 | 16.00 | — | Ni |
| 13. | 78.95 | 0.74 | 15.15 | 3.03 | 1.47 % Fe, Ni |
| 14. | 85.25 | 1.15 | 7.54 | 3.10 | 2.4 % Fe, Ni, As, Sb |
| **Minor Alloying** | | | | | |
| 15. | 93.07 | 1.93 | 1.91 | — | 2.1 % Fe, Ni |
| 16. | 91.62 | 1.19 | 2.61 | 2.22 | Fe, Ni |
v1.c28.s8.t4.4
* Corroded Metal ** Heterogeneous Core
v1.c28.s8.t4.5
There were many Buddhist monasteries in the medieval Bihar (AD 600-1200) but only four, having university complexes, enjoyed maximum popularity. Apart from Nālandā, the three others were Vajrāsana (Mahābodhi or Bodh-Gayā), Odantapurī or Uḍyantapurī (the flying city on the mountains — on a hill near the modern town of Bihar-Sharif) and Vikramśilā (Pātharghaṭṭā hill near Bhagalpur on the Ganges; most antiquities found in nearby Antichak).
v1.c28.s8.t4.6
Vajrāsana developed principally as a pilgrimage centre; but it has also yielded the famous polished sandstone throne or Vajrāsana, and an image from which ‘the emerald eyes were stolen by the Turushka soldiers’. Recently Mitra (1990) has described the ninth-tenth century AD images of Devī Cuṇḍā from Bodh-Gayā made of blackish green and bluish green stones in which metal eyes were inlaid. It would be worthwhile to analyse the constituent of these stones.
v1.c28.s8.t4.7
Odantapurī monastery on the hills was founded around AD 725 and was demolished by the Muslim invaders in AD 1199 when Govindapāla, the king, was using the place as his capital and a fort. (Mishra, 1984) The treasures were plundered and the library was burnt; so no detail has survived. Vikramśilā monastery was founded by Dharmapāla some time during his reign (AD 783-818). The Antichak site near Vikramśilā has shown many stone and bronze images, massive to tiny ones, of the early Mahāyāna, the Tāntric Mahāyāna and the Hindu pantheons, with sexo-yogic overtones. (Chaudhary, R., 1984)
v1.c28.s8.t4.8
Kurkihar (24º 49' N, 85º 15' E), 16 miles from Gayā was another centre for bronze casting. It has yielded the famous twelfth century AD gilt bronze Padmapāṇi. Ten cart load of idols of the Buddhist tāntrika period excavated in 1848 is now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Another rich hoard of 200 bronze objects (148 Buddhist, the rest Brāhmaṇical of fine workmanship, stūpas, bells; large number of crowned Buddhas) are now kept in the Patna Museum. The largest piece is the 5 ft standing Buddha, gilded and ornamented with inlaid silver. The 1930 excavation uncovered a partly exposed metal-smelting annexe proving that Kurkihar was a prolific centre of metal casting. Many dedicatory inscriptions were found bearing regnal years of the Pāla Kings. (Mitra, 1971, 1980: 89-90)
v1.c28.s8.t4.9
At Achutrajpur, Orissa, the ninth-eleventh century AD site has yielded a hoard of 95 Pāla bronze images, bronze stūpa, bell, spouted pots etc. Ratnagiri near Cuttack was a famous Buddhist site (5th-12th century AD) producing a rich hoard of bronze items apart from unparalleled surface treated chlorite or Khondalite sculptures.
v1.c28.s8.t4.10
Many Buddhist monasteries in Bengal (most of them now in Bangladesh: Rangpur, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Dacca etc.) flourished during the Pāla-Sen era and promoted the arts and crafts in stones and bronzes. Many bronze images of Buddha, Kuvera etc. have been found from the eighth-twelfth century AD site of Soampura, known as Paharpur, district Rajshahi, Bangladesh. A large monastery (built on 8th century AD) has been unearthed in 1955-57 at Mainamati, five miles west of Comilla. This site has shown silver coins (metal from Burma?), ‘an inspired orgy of terracotta art’ and large number of images of Buddha. (Mitra, 1971, 1980: 245-46) The Buddhist images found at Jhewari in Chittagong (10th- 13th century AD) site are marked by ruggedness and may be called provincial variations of the Pāla school. Bernet-Kempers (1933: 10-11 and 70-77) have shown in his critical study that the Javanese bronze have some resemblance with the Nālandā metal imagery. The Nālandā Copper Plate (AD 860) of Devapāladeva mentions that the kind Balaputradeva of Suvarṇadvipa built a monastery at Nālandā and requested Devapāla to assist in the maintenance of the monastery.