The University of Nalanda c18: Chapter XII. As Revealed from Its Finds

The University of Nālandā c18

Language: English

Chapter XII. As Revealed from Its Finds

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EXCAVATIONS at Nālandā have brought to light such unusual finds that they make a very interesting and instructive study. The finds consist of inscriptions—copper and stone, images—bronze, stone and plaster; architectural specimens such as stūpas, niches, walls, drains, etc.

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The importance of epigraphical finds has been dealt with in its proper place. So also the iconographical value of various images has been discussed, while speaking about "Ritualism." Here we propose to discuss the value of the different kinds of sculptures, from the point of view of art and Nālandā's contribution to its development and also to take note of the various Nālandā-buildings, as architectural models.

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Nālandā, as shown in earlier chapters, occupied a unique position in the development of Indian thought. Its position in the development of Indian art was no less unique. Native artists, by the time Nālandā came into prominence had so assimilated the various elements—Pre-Maurian, Graeco-Bactrian, Persian, Mathurā, Amrāvati and the like, that they could carve out an image of Buddha, which was independent of all the previous productions.¹ This was during the time of the Guptas.

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¹ See Coomaraswamy, His. of Ind. and Indo. Art, p. 74.

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But if Nālandā inherited a rich and varied legacy, it left to the posterity a style of art that was at once indigenous and one of the best specimens of Indian art. Religion, consisting of ritualism was the root cause of the birth of this school of art. From agnostic atheism, Buddhism had passed on to partial theism in the shape of Mahāyāna. Besides Buddha, Vajrapāṇi, Hāritī and other gods and goddesses had entered into the Buddhist pantheon.¹ With the advent of Tantrayāna, in about the seventh or eighth century, Buddhism became thoroughly theistic. This Tantrayāna, advocate as it did, the worship of godheads, could not be imbibed by the devotee unless he could visualize them as positive entities. This desire for the outward manifestation of the godheads brought forth the creative instinct, which found expression first in colours, then in stone and finally in bronze. But the artist—the religious artist—it appears, confined himself primarily to the representation of the mood in which he imagined the deity to be. Hardly do we meet with floral representations—except for the lotus stalk and the flower. Scenes from Buddha's life do not attract him so much as before, though we have got a beautiful specimen of this kind in a bronze stūpa.²

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¹ See Grunwedel, Buddhist Art in India, p. 94.

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² See pl. XVI and A. S. I. A. R., 1927-28. pl. XLIV.

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Each image and its bodily posture of hands, feet etc., have a spiritual significance.³ "Vajraparyaṅka attitude", says Bhattacharyya, "signifies meditation; the Ardhaparyaṅka and Lalitāsana signify serenity; the Ālīḍha heroism; the Pratyālīḍha destruction and loathsomeness, and the dancing attitude in Ardhaparyaṅka signifies wrath and horror." The Yabyum image (that is, representation of a god and goddess in close embrace) has a deep spiritual significance. "It signifies that the god, the embodiment of Śūnya represents perfection, having attained Śūnya (Karuṇā) and therefore the highest stage of Nirvāṇa."⁴

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³ We do not mean that the early representations of Buddha and others had no spiritual significance. For, as Coomaraswamy (Intro. to Ind. Art, Introduction, p. vii) says, "Indian Art has always an intelligible meaning and a definite purpose."

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⁴ Bhattacharyya, Buddhist Iconography, p. 164.

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Now this art, which mainly embraces images of godheads from man-size statues to the tiny ones in stone, and bronze is called the Pāla Art, because the majority of the images [Figure: BRONZE & GOLD FIGURES OF THE BUDDHIST PANTHEON (FROM KURKIHAR, NEAR GAYA)]

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that have been discovered bear the name of one or the other of the Pāla Kings.¹ But we may as well call it "The Nālandā Art", for its origin was due to a system of religion which flourished at Nālandā. The chief characteristics of this art have been well described by Chatterji thus: "It is an art generally of stately repose and contemplative calm, although the dynamic and the demoniac are not wanting. But the essential tone of the entire school may be said to be stative. Pāla art lacks the vastness and the dynamic quality—the epic imagination and the vigour and nobility of execution—of the Pallava bas-relief art at Mahābalipuram; neither does it possess the super-majesty of the Śiva panels at Elephanta. Not being of the vast proportions of these latter, Pāla sculpture cannot attain to their height. The Pāla sculptors again did not care much for the life around them. The devotee's contemplation of the deity whom he passionately adores:—this evidently was the inspiration of the artist. . . . Then, again, in Pāla art, there was not the frank delight in flesh and in the pleasures of the flesh . . . Woman's beauty evidently did not move the Pāla artists so much, although some exquisitely modelled Lakṣmīs and Tārās² and other female divinities attest the power of the Pāla sculptor in this line; and rarely, very rarely indeed, do we find an erotic scene. . . ."³ Commenting on the iconographic interpretation of the Pāla images, the same writer observes, " His (the artist's) purpose seemed to be to prepare a plastic commentary on the Śāstras (i.e., the Sādhanas); yet it was not wholly so. His hand could transform the conventional image of a god or goddess, into something of a living divinity, with an ineffable smile and an aspect of infinite kindliness, which is characteristic of Indian art at its best; or into an avenging god, who is the embodiment of terror. . . Even when the goddess is slaying the demon, she has a look of pity in her face. And here too there is nothing of the dynamic in the act; the violent action is not suggested, but it is of the deity, appearing at a certain stage in the act of killing the demon and making a pause in it, as if to give a vision of herself to her worshipper. A contemplative repose with the suggestion of infinite grace¹—a figure such as would present itself before the ecstatic vision of a devoted worshipper—this is what shines through Pāla sculpture in its most common form."²

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¹ See French, The Art of the Pāla Empire, pp. xi-xiii.

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² See pl. V; also French, o.c., pl. XII for a sand-stone figure of Tārā, showing infinite grace and beautiful poise of the body.

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³ This is perfectly true, in spite of the fact that we meet with representations of the divinities in close embrace as in Yabyum image. But, the artist's aim in these sculptures, as we said above, is to suggest the attainment of Śūnya and not physical pleasure.

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¹ See the figure of Nāgārjuna from Nālandā, pl. XIV.

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² Chatterji, *The Pāla Art of Gauda and Magadha*, *Modern Review*, XLVII, p. 86. Other characteristic features of the Pāla Art, noticed in bronze figures are: The loops of a fillet with which the crown is tied, or which is merely an ornament and secondly, European pose or *Pralambāsana* in the images of Bodhisattvas besides Buddhas. *Cf.* Kempers, o.c., pp. 50 and 28 respectively

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Other features not referred to are the delicacy of carving and high relief. Perhaps the material—which consisted of black basalt, stone, and bronze—enabled the artist to work out fine details and give a lasting polish to his products.³

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³ *See* the image of Bodhisattva from Nālandā, now in the I.H.R.I., Bombay, pl. II.

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Such was the Art of Nālandā.

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The area directly influenced by the Art of Nālandā in India may be comparatively smaller than that either by the Gupta in the fifth or Rāshtrakuta or Pallava in the sixth century onwards.⁴ But, after becoming generally common in Magadha (the modern province of Bihar), it spread in the east to Java, Sumatra, Cambodia, China, and in the north to Nepal and Tibet. The following quotation from Taranath will bear out the truth of our latter statement: "In the time of King Dharmapāla, there lived in Varendra (Northern Bengal) an exceedingly skilful artist named Dhimān, whose son was Bitpālo; both of these produced many works in cast-metal as well as sculptures and paintings which resembled the works of the Nāgas. The father and son gave rise to distinct schools. In painting, the followers of the father were called the Eastern School; those of the Magadha were called followers of the Madhyadeśa School of painting. So in Nepal, the earlier schools of art resembled the Western School; but, in the course of time, a peculiar Nepalese School was formed, which, in painting and casting, resembled the Eastern types.”¹

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⁴ With regard to the influence of Pāla Art, Grousset (referred to by Kempers. o.c., p. 77) says in an article in the "Etudes d' Orientalisme āla memoire de Raymonde Linossier" that this school had an influence not inferior to that of the art of Gāndhāra and of the Gupta Empire."

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¹ Taranath, o. c., p. 280.

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FIGURE OF NAGARJUNA (?) (FROM NALANDA)

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With regard to its spread in Java, Kempers, who has made a detailed study of the bronzes found at Nālandā and at Java, establishes the theory almost conclusively.

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Explaining, first, the causes of Nālandā’s artistic influence over the Malay Archipelago, he says that Nālandā, in the beginning, brought to bear its cultural influence over the Archipelago, for “among the constituent parts of Hindu-Javanese culture, one of its essential features, Mahāyāna Buddhism originates from Nālandā.”² In support of this remark, he cites epigraphical evidence. “For in the Malay inscription of Crīvijaya found at Talang Toewo and dated in the year 684 A.D,” he says, “there occur some terms which are of a distinctly Mahāyānist character. M. G. Coedes³ has proved that they belong to the sphere of the Vajrayāna or Tantrayāna which arose at Nālandā from the Yogācāra school at a time not long anterior to that of the inscription of Talang Toewo.” “So we may take it for established,” says Kempers, “that Nālandā has exercised a great influence on the religious life in Malay Archipelago,” and further (because of the close epigraphical similarities of the Pāla and Java inscriptions) that relation between the Nālandā monastery and the Archipelago must have been continuous.⁴

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² See Kempers, Nālandā Bronzes, p. 3.

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³ Coedes, B. E. F. E. O., XXX, 1930.

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⁴ Kempers, o.c., pp. 4-5.

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Having thus proved that Mahāyāna of Java was from Nālandā, he proceeds to ascertain by a detailed examination of various images found at Nālandā and Java, the syllogistic conclusion whether or not, the Java temples show the artistic influence of Nālandā, as the Java temples were Mahāyānist.¹

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He takes, first, the different kinds of images of Buddha, and says that the Buddhas in Bhūmisparśamudrā of Java conform in main with those of Nālandā, but the type of the standing Buddha of Nālandā² is not represented in Hindu-Javanese art.³ So also the images of Maitreya, found at Nālandā, seem to agree with the representations in Magadha as well as in Java.⁴

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After examining many other images of the Buddhist pantheon—Vajrapāṇi, Avalokiteśvara, Jambhala, Tārā etc.—with regard to the influence of Nālandā and Pāla Art over the Hindu-Javanese, Kempers says, “The Hindu-Javanese bronzes in general have not developed from Pāla art, but the Pāla images have enriched the art of Java with a number of motifs and types.”⁵ At the same time he rejects the theory of Dr. Bosch that the bronzes found in Monastery I (at Nālandā) could have been found in Central Java and therefore their character seems to be purely Hindu-Javanese,⁶ but asserts that “the bronzes of Nālandā while partly exhibiting a distinct resemblance to some bronzes from Java, belong to Pāla art.”⁷

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No paintings have been discovered at Nālandā. Evidently they must have been destroyed by fire. But the libraries of Nepal and Tibet possess MSS. of Prajñāpāramitā,

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(1) Ibid., p. 7.; also Stutterheim, Ramalegenden, pp. 211-5 referred to by Kempers.
(2) See pl. I,
(3) Kempers, o.c., p. 23.
(4) Ibid., p. 31.
(5) Ibid., p. 74.
(6) Summarised from Kempers, o.c., p. 10.
(7) Ibid., p. 7. Jayaswal, reviewing the book of Kempers, says that, according to Mañjuśrī-Mūlakalpa, there was a school of art-processors who discussed the mysteries and implications of icons, and that several artists travelled to the Islands (i.e., the Indian Archipelago) and decorated monuments and monasteries. See J. B. O. R. S., XIX, p. 416.

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which have beautiful delineation of the goddess in colours and lines.¹

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¹ For one of the few remnants of the Pāla paintings, see French, o.c., pl. XXIII. It is of a Bodhisattva (Simhanāda), dated the 15th year of the reign of Gopāla II.

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It may be that these Dhīmān and Bitpālo—the sculptors and painters mentioned by Taranath—were teachers of arts and crafts at Nālandā, for the greatest number of cast models are found from Nālandā excavations.

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Of the remains of Nālandā buildings, chief architectural specimens are the *stūpas*, the monastery-buildings, and the niches. Among *stūpas*, the most noteworthy is *Stūpa* No. 3 and we have already described its peculiarities elsewhere. Unfortunately, none of the repaired *stūpas* is in its complete shape. Hence it is difficult to say of what type the tops of these *stūpas* were—whether they resembled in shape the one at Sāñchī or the one at Sāranāth. Probably they resembled the one we have at Sāranāth, namely, of a cylindrical type. *Stūpa* No. 3 does not give us a clear idea even of the ground structure, because so many smaller *stūpas* intervene, that it is difficult to say how the main *stūpa* was constructed. However, the *stūpa* at the northern extremity of the site which is being excavated, certainly, belongs to the cylindrical type, for the cylindrical mass of brickwork rising above the paved quadrangular one, is clearly visible.

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Like the Dhāmekha *stūpa* at Sāranāth,² *Stūpa* No. 3 at Nālandā contains numerous niches. However, the most wonderful thing is that we have got a beautiful flight of stairs to take us up to the highest level.

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² For its architectural details we have drawn upon Coomaraswamy, His. of Ind. and Indo. Art, p. 75.

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Perhaps, the smaller *stūpas* strewn about the *Stūpa* No. 3 and the *stūpa* at the northern extremity may give us some idea of the finished *stūpa*-style at Nālandā. Some have a square base, and then rise cylindrically; others rest on square bases, then rise in a straight rectangular fashion, but, in the middle, become cylindrical. But all are very beautifully decorated with figures of Buddha, Avalokiteśvara and with arched niches also containing images of Buddha.¹ One of the varieties of stūpa-style, that is complete is revealed in a bronze stūpa, that has been recently discovered. It has a square pedestal with seated figures of Buddha; the second storey contains other representations from Buddha's life. After this, it becomes globular, while right on the top, we have got a Tee.² Before we pass on to other architectural peculiarities, we shall refer to one of the small votive stūpas. As the A. S. R. says, "It is of unusual interest; because this little stūpa contains on its side a shrine which is roofed over with a perfect little vault in brick. Thus supplying us with an instance of a Hindu vault of arch construction."³

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¹ See A. S. I. A. R., 1927-28, pl. VII, (a), (b), (d) and Ibid., 1926-27, pl. VII (a).

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² See pl. XVI.

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³ See Ibid., 1926-27, p. 131.

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In monastery buildings, we only select some of the details of construction, for, otherwise, they have nothing peculiar about them, majority of them being rectangular having cells and verandahs. Among these manifold details of construction, we begin with the bricks. The bricks discovered at Nālandā are so big as 15" by 10" by 3", quite a contrast to our modern ones that A. S. R. has a special comment on them.⁴ Even if there were no other evidence, perhaps the bricks would have enabled us to place Nālandā in the later Gupta period, for they are the exact prototype of similar bricks found in buildings which are known to be Gupta.

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⁴ Ibid., 1923-24, p. 25.

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Another thing, though of little architectural importance, is the manner in which the joints are soldered. Hardly any plaster is visible. Again the width of the staircase unearthed in M. Nos. 1 and 4 and the exquisite polish on the staircase of the Stūpa No. 3 are but manifestations of the love of grandeur, beauty and symmetry of the architects of the Nālandā buildings. But, if these small details are an index of the architects' aesthetic sense, their sense of sanitation and hygiene are evident from the numerous drains that have been discovered in various monasteries. These drains, wonderfully enough, bear resemblance, on one hand, to those *paccā* built drainage-system of Mohenjo-daro and Harappā and on the other, to those of the present day.

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BRONZE STUPA FROM MONASTERY No. 1 NALANDA

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The walls of monasteries too are worth noting. Their breadth and solidarity are unusual. Here we see the designer's sense of economy as well as of beauty. In Monastery No. 1 that part of the wall which is open to the public gaze is smoothly polished, while the other is left in its crude form.

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However, of all the architectural specimens that Nālandā presents to us, its arched niches are of the greatest importance.¹ They have drawn the attention of all the art critics. They present, as Havell remarks,² several varieties. None of them, however, conforms to the varieties he has pointed out, *viz.*, lotus-leaf and pipal leaf, lotus-leaf with *Makara*, lotus-leaf and *Makara*, lotus-leaf and pipal-leaf.³ Of those varieties cited and illustrated by Havell, about four in all appear to be in the shape of a pipal-leaf.⁴

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¹ See pl. XVII.

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² Havell, *Indian Architecture*, p. 55.

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³ *Ibid.*, pl. XXIX. The majority of them, however, are in the shape of a lotus-leaf. (*See A. S. I., A. R.*, 1927-28, pl. VII).

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⁴ Havell, o. c., pl. XXX-B.

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Havell, from the recovery of some architectural and sculptural finds at Nālandā remarked, "They (the Universities of Nālandā and Takṣaśilā) were schools of art and crafts."⁵ How much more true will this remark appear when Nālandā has yielded within the course of a decade hundreds of sculptures in bronze, and stone and some of the most unique specimens of arched niches! It is almost impossible to have so many sculptures without a regular school of arts and crafts.

The University of Nalanda c18: Chapter XII. As Revealed from Its Finds

Chapter XII. As Revealed from Its Finds

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