5.7: South Asia (I)
- Page ID
- 68315
South Asia
Indigenous traditions & cross-cultural interaction inspire much art and architecture from the region
4th century B.C.E. – 1799 C.E.
A beginner's guide
A brief history of the art of South Asia: Prehistory – c. 500 C.E.
Art is a wonderfully tangible pathway to past cultures. In the large collar of a tiny terracotta dog from Harappa, in present-day Pakistan, we learn about people and their dogs four thousand years ago. In beds made of stone inside rock-cut viharas (monastic houses) in the hillside of Ajanta, in India, we glimpse the lives of Buddhist monks in the first century B.C.E. And in pieces of furniture fashioned from ivory and bone found in Begram in Afghanistan, we get a taste of the luxury and artistic skill that people — much like you and I — cherished nearly two millennia ago.
A few considerations
South Asia (according to the modern designation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), includes the following countries:
|
|
In this brief introduction to the art and cultures of South Asia from prehistory to c. 500 of the Common Era, we refer to these countries to aid in geographically orienting you to the material culture discussed. It is important to remember, however, that over the course of history, the sovereign nations of South Asia experienced both distinct and shared histories, and these often do not correspond to modern-day borders.
Material culture refers to art, architecture, written records, and everyday objects used by a culture.
The artifacts, coins, and written records of empires and kingdoms that emerged and dissolved throughout history help us anchor the boundaries of people who shared a common lifestyle, language, and religion. In the study of prehistoric artifacts, other factors — such as shared technologies and ritual practices — help us recognize patterns of living that indicate geographically coherent cultures and societies.
Topography too (marked in yellow in the map above) influenced cultural and political histories. The Hindu Kush mountain range (in Afghanistan), the Himalayas (in Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Pakistan), the Thar desert (in northwestern India), the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Lakshadweep Sea that surround the Indian peninsula, and the Palk Strait between India and the island nation of Sri Lanka, all played important roles in shaping the histories and the art histories of South Asia.
Prehistory
Archaeology can help us understand much about prehistoric civilizations. A stone tool, discovered in Isampur in India (see inset in the map below), for instance, confirms human settlement in the region as early as 1.1 million years ago.
Prehistory refers to a time before written records.
Some of the earliest portrayals of ancient peoples in South Asia are found in the Bhimbetka caves, dated c. 9000 B.C.E., in central India. The paintings show figures dancing and humans hunting (see inset in the map above), as well as a person being hunted or attacked by an animal. Excavated tools, pottery, and figurines of animals and humans found in Balochistan, Pakistan, also tell us about the interests and activities of people from c. 7500 – 2500 B.C.E. In the inset in the map above is an artifact from Balochistan that is thought to represent a fertility or cult goddess. From a time relatively more recent — c. 20,000 B.C.E. — is a limestone pebble with a face incised on it (inset in map above) from the archaeological site of Aq Kupruk II in the Balkh province of Afghanistan. The pebble poses interesting questions — who made it? And why?
The Indus Valley Civilization
Between 2600 and 1900 B.C.E., several settlements (see map 2 above) thrived around the river Indus which extends from the Tibetan plateau and flows into the Arabian Sea. These settlements — Indus cities have been excavated in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan — are known collectively as the Indus Valley Civilization.
Large sites such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa in Pakistan have revealed highly efficient urban-planning, well-designed homes and neighborhoods laid out on a grid pattern, granaries, and public buildings all built with uniformly sized bricks. The Indus people were skilled in the management of natural resources; the site of Dholavira in Gujarat, India for instance, had a sophisticated system of water management. A complex writing system was also in use in this period, although sadly, the Indus script remains undeciphered.
Miniature terracotta figurines of a range of animals including the rhinoceros, birds, and dogs, and bullock drawn carts with drivers (see below) have been excavated from Indus sites. Whether they represent votive images or are simply children’s toys is as yet undecided. Board games, jewelry made of shells and beads, and stone and bronze figurines have also been discovered as have many steatite seals. These seals may have been used in trade and ritual and are distinguishable by their engravings of animals, humans, possibly divine beings, and, on occasion, unicorns!
The Vedic period
By c. 1300 B.C.E., speakers of Sanskrit (known as the Aryas) had settled in the northwest region of the Indian subcontinent. The Rigveda, the earliest of four Vedas (Sanskrit for “knowledge”) — a compendium of sacred scriptures on ritual, liturgy, and moral principles — is dated to this period. [1] The Vedas were a significant influence on the development of the Hindu religion. Like the material artifacts from the Indus Civilization above, the Vedas also carry glimpses of life in the Vedic period. We learn of the people who lived in the region prior to the arrival of the Aryas, as well as details on societal relationships, daily life, and the worship of gods and goddesses from Vedic hymns.
Scholars have been able to discern the eventual movement of people to the Gangetic plains of India (see map 5 below) from the three later Vedas — the Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda. [2] Another important set of sacred texts, collectively known as the Upanishad, were composed sometime between the seventh and the fifth centuries B.C.E., and served as an elucidation of the Vedas. [3]
Buddhism
The Magadha region (roughly centered around Bihar and northeastern India, see map 5 below) would become a place of socio-religious debate and the birthplace of two major religions — Buddhism and Jainism — that were born in critical reaction to Vedic traditions. Some scholars have suggested that existing spiritual traditions in Magadha — the belief in rebirth and karma, for instance, was absorbed into Brahmanism (a precursor to Hinduism), Buddhism, and Jainism. [4]
Born Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini, in present-day Nepal, the exact date of the Buddha’s birth is not known, but scholarly consensus dates his death around c. 400 B.C.E. [5] The Buddha’s teachings offered people a new path to salvation that was different from the ritual-based practices of the Vedic religion. You can read about Brahmanic Hinduism and Buddhism, including the life of the historic Buddha, jatakas, and the Buddha’s teachings here.
Buddhist monastic sites were adorned with narrative panels that celebrated the life of the Buddha — first in aniconic form and later in iconic form — as well as with a wealth of sculptural representations of men, women, animals, architecture, plants, and nature spirits, including yakshis (female goddesses), yakshas (male gods), and mithuna (couples) in a nod to pre-Buddhist traditions of reverence for fertility spirits.
According to tradition, on his death, the Buddha’s cremated remains were distributed amongst nine clans. These relics came to be deposited in stupas (burial mounds) where they were then worshipped by the Buddha’s followers. By the early centuries of the Common Era, Buddhist sites were found throughout India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (see map 4).
Jainism
The founder of the Jain religion, Mahavira, is believed to be a contemporary of the Buddha. Like Buddhism, Jainism offered a path to salvation that was unencumbered by ritual. In Jain tradition, the twenty-four Jinas (Sanskrit for “victor”) who have overcome karma (the sum of a person’s actions) through a life of spirituality and goodness serve as role models for Jains and the path to salvation. Mahavira was the twenty-fourth and final Jina.
Jinas are often shown in the meditative posture — either seated or standing — and emphasize austerity, immobility, and asceticism. Jain sacred imagery also involves images of nature deities as well as gods and goddesses such as Indra and Saraswati who are important deities in Hinduism. Images of the Jina may have the srivatsa (an ancient symbol) marked on their chest (see image on right, above), which distinguishes them from sometimes visually congruent images of the Buddha.
The Mauryas
In c. 326 B.C.E., Alexander of Macedonia invaded the Indian subcontinent. Alexander reached as far as the river Beas in present-day Punjab, India (see map 3) before he was forced to acquiesce the exhaustion of his army and their wish to return home. Alexander’s incursions had a lasting impact on South Asian history. One of his generals, Seleucus Nicator, would become the ruler of the Seleucid Empire which stretched from Anatolia to Afghanistan and Pakistan, including parts of the Indus Valley. Seleucus’s ambitions for more territory was curbed, however, by Chandragupta of the Maurya dynasty.
A treatise on war and diplomacy composed by the minister Kautilya in Chandragupta’s court offers a remarkable glimpse into the Mauryan kingdom and its policies. Along with rules for military regiments and economic strategy, this treatise, the Arthashastra, details policies on the exemption of taxes in times of disaster, guidelines for the use of state resources for the care of elephants and horses, and the protection of natural resources such as forests.
Much of Chandragupta’s life is misted by legend. What is certain is that he was a formidable ruler and warrior and that the Maurya kingdom under his rule was a prosperous one. Chandragupta’s son Bindusura maintained his father’s territorial gains, but his life too is poorly documented in contemporary accounts. According to tradition, Chandragupta converted to Jainism at the end of his life.
We have far more information about Chandragupta’s grandson, the emperor Ashoka. Ashoka too was a formidable ruler, but he vowed to rule, later in life, through non-violent means in adherence with the teachings of the Buddha. Ashoka helped spread Buddhism across the entire Indian subcontinent with the installation of pillars that proclaimed dhamma (Buddhist law). In addition to Buddhist philosophy, these edicts also detailed state provisions on social welfare for both people and animals.
Ashokan edicts have been found (see map 3) in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, and often in the language associated with the people who lived in those areas. Pillars were inscribed in Prakrit in the Kharoshthi and Brahmi scripts, Greek, and Aramaic, as well as in bilingual scripts. While we have not found Ashokan edicts in Sri Lanka, it is believed that Buddhism also spread to the island during Ashoka’s reign in the third century B.C.E. More edicts are likely to be discovered in the future; a team of archaeologists at UCLA is using geographic modeling to help accomplish just that.
Buddhist Monastic Sites
A now broken Ashokan pillar at the great stupa at Sanchi, a Buddhist complex associated with the patronage of the emperor, was retained when the stupa was expanded to twice its size and faced with stone in the first century B.C.E. Stupas are quintessential monuments to the memory of the Buddha and are burial mounds for the relics of other important persons. Stupas were often built in the midst of large monastic settlements known as samgha(s).
As Buddhism spread, monastic complexes were established in sites in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. The stupa of Jetavanaramaya is located in one of the oldest known samghas in Sri Lanka, and dates to the third century C.E. It is believed, however, that the oral Buddhist canon was written down during the reign of Sri Lankan king Vatthagamini (29 – 17 B.C.E.). [6] Other examples of well-known and early Buddhist sites include Amaravati, Bharhut, and Nagarjunakonda in India, Takht-i-bahi in Pakistan, and Mes Aynak in Afghanistan (see map 4).
Monastic sites often show multiple phases of construction spanning centuries, indicating the sustained patronage and popularity of Buddhism. Nagarjunakonda, in particular, also preserves a record of the expanding footprint of monastic complexes with its multiple stupas, prayer halls, temples, and housing accommodations.
Buddhist sites regularly received the patronage of both Buddhist and Hindu kings, as well as that of ordinary people, including Buddhist monks and nuns, merchants, and travelers. Sanchi is remarkable for the information it preserves on ordinary people. Inscribed on the great stupa are 631 donative inscriptions that tell us about the people — from merchants to monks to nuns — who contributed to the reconstruction and beautification of the stupa in the first century B.C.E. [7]
The stupa’s four extraordinary gateways (torana), once carried six images each of yakshis. These figures served as architectural brackets and as symbols of fertility — in obeisance to the auspicious quality associated with images of women on sacred structures. [8]
Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, Sanchi, and countless other Buddhist monastic complexes were built at crossroads and close to trade-routes across the Indian subcontinent. This allowed monasteries to be of service to weary travelers and adhere to the Buddha’s instruction on the importance of sharing his teachings far and wide.
Buddhist samghas (monastic complexes) were also established in rock-cut caves. There are a large number of Buddhist rock-cut monastic caves in India — ranging from elaborately decorated to simply appointed. Caves hold a special significance in Buddhist tradition; according to Buddhist belief, when the Hindu god Indra went to visit the Buddha, he found him meditating in a cave.
Some of the most elaborate rock-cut caves are found at Ajanta and are dated to the fifth century of the Common Era, while a less embellished but no less stunning (rock-cutting is no easy task!) monastic complex can be found in the Barabar caves, dated to the third century B.C.E., in Bihar. The facade of the Lomas Rishi cave (image below) displays one of the earliest known representations of the “chaitya-arch” — an ornamented ogee shaped arch that replicated wooden construction in stone and became a commonly used feature in Buddhist rock-cut architecture in India. While the cave complex at Barabar belonged to an ascetic community known as the Ajivikas rather than the Buddhists, nearby inscriptions indicate that this community enjoyed the patronage of emperor Ashoka.
On occasion, rock-cut caves and sculpture preserve glimpses of older architectural traditions. In the caves of Karle, Maharashtra, for instance, we find the original wooden beams from the first century B.C.E.; the use of wood (see inset in map 4, above) in the ceiling ribs was a purely decorative choice that imitated the style of wooden Buddhist chaityas (Buddhist chapels).
The adornment of rock-cut caves followed the same temporal progression of representing the Buddha — i.e., from aniconic (as emblems) to iconic (in human form). Whereas earlier Buddhist sites employed anionic symbols such as parasols, footprints, and even stupas to signify the presence of the Buddha, in time, representational imagery of the Buddha became the norm. The image below from Sanchi stupa shows an episode from the Buddha’s life known as the Great Departure. It represents the moment when the Buddha left his life in the palace for good.
The parasols (shown in pink) indicate the Buddha’s movement from left to right. Once the Buddha disembarks at his destination and the horse returns to the palace, the Buddha’s absence on the horse is signaled by the absence of the parasol. The parasol remains with the Buddha who is now signified by a set of footprints. Also note how as the Buddha proceeded quietly into the night, the attendants helped carry the horse!
In general, in earlier rock-cut sites, we find stupas made of solid-rock serving as aniconic emblems of the Buddha and the focus of devotion. In later rock-cut chaityas, an image of the iconic Buddha was attached to the solid stupa (see image above), or the stupa was replaced altogether by the image of the Buddha. You can read about the complex ways in which the Buddha was portrayed in art here.
Despite the popularity of Buddhism in the centuries around the start of the Common Era, other religions continued to thrive. Two important Sanskrit Hindu epics — the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, for instance, are thought to have been composed in c. 300 B.C.E. — 300 C.E. and 200 B.C.E. — 200 C.E. respectively. [9]
The Kushans
Between the second century B.C.E. and the third century C.E., the Kushan empire became a dominant force in the northwestern part of the subcontinent. The Kushans were active in both sea and land trade and had capitals in Kapisa (near Kabul, Afghanistan), Peshawar, Pakistan and in Mathura, India. Kushan territory under the rule of the third emperor Kanishka (2nd century C.E.) also included, in addition to north India, what is today parts of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Two types of iconic Buddha images were produced during the Kushan period — the Gandharan and the Mathuran Buddhas — distinguishable by both style and medium. Just as Mathuran Buddhas followed the style of local sculptural traditions, in Gandhara, images of the Buddha followed a Greco-Roman aesthetic, thanks in part to the presence of plentiful Hellenistic imagery and Macedonian and Parthian influences in the region.
Kushan emperor Kanishka is considered second only to Ashoka for his contribution to Buddhism. He is credited with the building of an enormous stupa (reportedly somewhere between 295 and 690 feet high) with multiple stories and thirteen copper umbrellas. Only the foundation of the building — itself 286 feet long — survives today in Shahji-ki-Dheri, outside Peshawar, Pakistan. [10] A gold coin has survived that was minted during Kanishka’s reign and likely shows that ruler.
Hundreds of ivory and bone furniture pieces, figurines, and a large number of practical and extravagant wares, produced in South Asia and as far away as China, Rome, and Roman-Egypt, dated to the Kushan period, have been discovered in Begram, Afghanistan. These objects tell us about the kinds of goods that travelled the Silk Road in the first and second centuries. By the second century, Buddhism had also travelled and spread farther east to Central Asia and China via these same routes. The earliest known translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese is dated to the second century C.E.
The golden age
By the early centuries of the first millennium, the Vedic religion had evolved into the Hindu religion. While a core tenet of Hinduism — the concept of the Brahman (omnipresent consciousness) — had already been formulated in the Upanishads, many of the gods and goddesses that we see in Hindu art are found in the Puranas (ancient stories) that were composed in this period.
The rise of the Gupta dynasty (c. 320 – 647) marked an important time for art, architecture, and literature. It was also a period of strong global trade; scholars believe that the Gupta sculptural and temple-building style can be found in the early medieval remnants of Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture in Southeast Asia. A coin shows king Samudragupta, one of the Gupta dynasty’s most successful rulers and one who greatly expanded the dynasty’s power and territories. The inclusion of a goddess on the reverse side of the coin implies divine kingship in an effort to suggest that the king’s rule was mandated by the gods.
Some of the most celebrated writers and composers of drama, poetry, and prose, lived in this period — Kālidāsa and Bānabhatta, among them. The number zero was invented as were Arabic numerals, which were referred to by Arabs as hindisat (“the Indian art”). This was also the era of great scientists; the astronomer Aryabhata in the sixth century calculated the solar year at 365.3586805 days and theorized that the earth rotated on its own axis. [11]
It was also during the Gupta period that a new type of Buddha image — the Gupta Buddha emerged. Buddha images in this period continued to be produced in Mathura, but also in Sarnath and in Nalanda (see map 4). Each area had access to quarries of a specific type of stone which have helped art historians determine where an image may have been produced.
Hindu art and architecture also flourished in the Gupta period. One of the most famous religious sites associated with the Guptas is the Udayagiri complex of rock-cut caves in Madhya Pradesh (see map 5). The Udayagiri Caves are made up of twenty caves, nineteen of which are dedicated to Hindu gods and date to the fourth and fifth centuries. There is also one Jain cave that is dated to the early fifth century.
Throughout the Gupta period, regional kingdoms led by independent rulers prospered. In most instances, there was also an easy relationship between the Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain religions; as an example, the famous Buddhist rock-cut caves at Ajanta in Aurangabad enjoyed the patronage of the Hindu Vakataka dynasty.
In contemporaneous South India, the culturally cohesive region known as Tamilakam (see map 5) produced a valuable set of texts known as Sangam (old Tamil for “academy”) literature. These texts were composed in the old Tamil language and are rich in information on ancient South Indian kings, religious devotion, temple building, daily life, and even grammar.
Structural Hindu temples were also built in this period, although the choice of brick and other more perishable construction materials has meant that most have not survived. An exception is the brick temple at Bhitargaon in Uttar Pradesh (north India) which is dated to the mid-fifth century (see above). The style and the skill of the architects and builders of Bhitargaon, as well as of Deogarh — a sixth-century structural stone temple also in Uttar Pradesh — suggests that a highly developed tradition of temple building was present by this point in time.
In fifth century Sri Lanka, a ruler named Kassapa built an extraordinary palace fortress atop a hill in his new capital. The site gets its name — Sigiriya — after “lion rock,” thanks to its enormous gateway in the form of a lion, of which only giant paws built from brick survive (see inset in map 6). Kassapa’s palace once included gardens and lakes and dozens, perhaps hundreds of mural figures of women that have been interpreted by scholars as either apsaras (heavenly beings) or ladies-in-waiting. Roughly 22 figures remain today.
Also at Sigiriya is a gallery known as the mirror wall (once a wall with polished plaster) as well as 685 instances of graffiti dating between the eighth and the tenth centuries. [12] Aside from its association with its patron king, Sigiriya is an important site in the history of Buddhism and is mentioned in the Sri Lankan Buddhist chronicle the Culavamsa.
Trade and exchange
Before we move on to the next section of this three-part introduction to South Asia, a word is necessary on the region’s long history of contact and exchange with other parts of the world. The Gupta period enjoyed trade with Southeast Asia and even older networks of trade existed along the Silk Road and in the Indian Ocean. Scholars have also suggested that trade brought beads and precious stones from the Indus Valley to Mesopotamia as early as the third millennium B.C.E.
In the first century of the Common Era, a Greek sailor wrote the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea — a text that provides remarkable details on thriving trade by sea and by land in the Indian Ocean. We learn of routes, the best times to travel, the monsoon winds and their impact on sea travel, the commodities that were traded, the money exchanged, and more.
The Roman historian Pliny the Elder similarly records valuable information in his Historia Naturalis from the year 77 C.E. He reported, for instance, on which pirate-filled ports to avoid in western India and wrote somewhat sardonically of his disdain for his fellow Romans’ obsession with pepper and luxury goods.
Buddhist sites also acknowledge the cosmopolitan milieu of ancient South Asia. At a rock-cut cave in Karle (see map 4), inscriptions dating to the early second century C.E. record gifts of stone pillars by yavanas (foreigners). Roman coins from the first and second centuries have also been found in Nagarjunakonda, as well as near the ancient port town of Muziris in Kerala. In addition, Roman amphorae have been found in the archaeological site of Arikamedu in Tamil Nadu (see map 5).
As Pliny tells us, much also travelled abroad. The most famous of all objects to travel to Rome was an ivory figurine of a woman. A little under ten inches tall, this astonishing figurine with hair and jewelry much like that of the women carved on the toranas at Sanchi somehow survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 C.E. and was discovered in the ashes of Pompeii.
Notes
[1] Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997), 37.
[2] R.U.S. Prasad, The Rig-Vedic and Post-Rig-Vedic Polity (1500 B.C.E. – 500 B.C.E.) (Delaware: Vernon Press, 2015), 107.
[3] Patrick Olivelle The early Upanisads: annotated text and translation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 12.
[4] Johannes Bronkhorst, Greater Magadha: studies in the culture of early India (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 15 – 54.
[5] Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997), 40.
[6] Vidya Dehejia, “On Modes of Visual Narration in Early Buddhist Art,” The Art Bulletin 72, no. 3 (1990): 376.
[7] ibid., 379.
[8] Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997), 65 – 66.
[9] Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: an Alternative History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 693.
[10] Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997), 85.
[11] ibid., 96 – 97.
[12] Joanna Williams, “Construction of Gender in the Paintings and Graffiti of Sigiriya,” in Representing the Body: Gender Issues in Indian Art, Vidya Dehejia ed. (New York: Kali for Women, 1997), 56.
Additional resources
British Museum’s Virtual tour of Amaravati stupa
Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India before Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Frederick M. Asher, “Visual Culture of the Indian Ocean: India in a polycentric world,” Diogenes 58/3 (2011): 67 – 84.
Ute Franke, “Baluchistan and the Borderlands,” in Encyclopedia of archaeology, Deborah M. Pearsall ed. (San Diego: Elsevier/Academic Press, c2008).
J. Mark Kenoyer, T. Douglas Price, and James H. Burton, “A new approach to tracking connections between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia: initial results of strontium isotope analyses from Harappa and Ur,” Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013): 2286 – 2297.
Paul J. Kosmin, Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014).
Yasodhar Mathpal, Prehistoric rock paintings of Bhimbetka, Central India (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1984).
Partha Mitter, Indian Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Jan Nattier, A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Traditions: Texts from the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms Periods (Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, 2008).
Patrick Olivelle and Mark McClish, ed. and trans.,The Arthaśāstra: selections from the classic Indian work on statecraft (Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2012).
Monica L. Smith, Thomas W. Gillespie, Scott Barron and Kanika Kalra, “Finding history: the locational geography of Ashokan inscriptions in the Indian subcontinent,” Antiquity 90 (April 2016): 376 – 392.
Submerged, burned, and scattered: celebrating the destruction of objects in South Asia
A photograph by artist Ketaki Sheth depicts a little girl, wearing a lacy floral dress and standing upon the shoulders of a man, perhaps her father, to get a better view of the surrounding crowd that carries a large sculptural image of the Hindu god Ganesha. Sheth captures a moment of stillness during an otherwise boisterous and energetic occasion: the artist brings us above the crowd and into the clouds that backlight the richly adorned body of the elephant-headed deity—remover of obstacles and son of Shiva and Parvati—on his way toward a body of water for ritual immersion during the annual festival of Ganesha Chaturthi.
Impermanence and belief
The practice of ritually submerging, and thereby destroying, sculptural images of Ganesha during Ganesha Chaturthi represents one of several religious and cultural acts in South Asia which complicate ideas about the value and permanence of material objects. Makers involved in these practices produce objects and artistic depictions with the knowledge that the products of their creative labor are temporary and will be intentionally destroyed or deteriorate over time. In some cases these practices of ritual destruction resonate with ideas about the cyclical nature of time as described in concepts like samsara. In other cases the destruction of an object is symbolic of the removal of evil and the restoration of good in the universe. In still other cases, we find beautifully wrought material objects whose impermanence is embedded in their form and function, much like disposable paper plates.
These examples challenge us to push against the preciousness of objects—an approach that we encounter so often in the study of art—and to rethink the way we value the permanence / impermanence of material things. This call to rethink our valuation of objects is also critical to the decolonizing of the discipline of art history; privileging objects of durable and precious materials over ephemeral works of art (such as things made from unfired clay, paper, or cotton fiber) is in many ways a legacy of British colonial rule on the subcontinent that sought to promote a Eurocentric view and valuation of objects and artistic practices.[1]
For the Ganesha images created in celebration of Ganesha Chaturthi, their destruction is a joyous celebration. Occurring in August or September of each year according to the Hindu lunar calendar, the ritual immersion of Ganesha marks the deity’s birth and symbolic return to the earth. [2] According to legend, Ganesha was created from clay by the goddess Parvati and was given an elephant’s head after his father, the god Shiva, inadvertently beheaded him. Ganesha Chaturthi celebrates the moment when the deity received his elephant head, and his ritual immersion in water each year following ten days of rites is a significant event that bestows blessings on devotees.
Immersion as purification
It is not surprising that worshippers laboriously carry sacred sculptural images or murtis of Ganesha to local bodies of water for ritual immersion. Water is a symbolic purifier in South Asia and used in numerous religious and cultural practices connected with worshipping Hindu gods and goddesses as well as honoring holy figures, saints, and sacred architecture in Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, and Sikh beliefs. For the Hindu devotees participating in ritual immersion festivals like Ganesha Chaturthi, the water itself is sacred and ultimately connected to the holiest river in India, the Ganga.[3]
Historically, artists made disposable or perishable murtis of the god from unfired clay or low-fired terracotta decorated with natural pigments. [4] These images would slowly dissolve in water and eventually be reincorporated into the ecosystem. However, over the last several decades increasingly larger Ganesha images made from synthetic paints, gypsum plaster (plaster of Paris), and plastic ornaments have become popular, and the heavy metals and toxins associated with these raw materials have leached into India’s waterways, creating dangerous amounts of pollution. [5] Recently, the Government of India’s Central Pollution Control Board established rules requiring that devotees use Ganesha murtis made from biodegradable materials (like terracotta) and have encouraged that ritual immersion practices occur in specially-designated water tanks.
In addition to annual events like Ganesha Chaturthi, the making of temporary, perishable objects and artistic depictions appear on a daily basis in many parts of India through the creation of decorative floor paintings known by various names including alpana, kollam, and rangoli. [6] Typically made by female members of a household or community using rice flour, chalk, powdered pigments, or flowers, the symmetrical forms of these temporary paintings symbolize divine power. They are intended to sanctify a space, and have ancient origins in goddess worship. [7] For special festivals some women create particularly elaborate floor paintings that last for several months or even up to a year. There are many, however, who treat this practice as a daily ritual with the intention that the painting will be swept clean and remade each morning—the epitome of intangible cultural heritage. [8]
Destroying the demon king
A particularly dramatic example of the ritual destruction of objects occurs with sculptural effigies of the demon king Ravana and his demon armies which are burned and physically torn apart during multi-day performances of the Ramacharitamanas, the Hindi version of the story of Rama which is especially popular throughout North India and famously performed in the city of Ramnagar. [9] This performance, known locally as Ramlila, narrates the story of Rama, an earthly form or avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, who is the beloved king of the city of Ayodhya and husband to Sita, an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi. The Ramacharitamanas, similar to the Sanskrit Ramayana, describes the adventures of Rama, his brother Lakshmana, and Sita during their fourteen-year exile from Ayodhya. The story culminates in a series of battles between Rama and the powerful demon king, Ravana, who has abducted Sita and held her captive at his palace in Lanka.
In the final days of the Ramlila performance, sculptural depictions of Ravana and other demons made from bamboo and paper are set ablaze to symbolize their mythological destruction. The most dramatic moment in the Ramlila performance occurs on Dussehra, an important Hindu festival celebrated throughout India, when participants destroy sculptural depictions of Ravana, sometimes 75-feet tall and filled with firecrackers, to mark Rama’s victory over the demon king and the ultimate victory of good over evil.
In other parts of India, Dusshera is celebrated as a way to mark the goddess Durga’s victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura, understood by devotees as a mythological act that restores dharma to the universe. Worshippers celebrate Dusshera by creating elaborate temporary altars or pandals for Durga, many of which are then submerged in water on Dusshera, marking the culmination of nine nights of celebration known as Navratri. The pandals made for the worship or puja of Durga are most famously created in Bengal where families, neighborhoods, community organizations, and businesses commission elaborate pandals that incorporate depictions of iconic architecture and motifs from popular culture. [10]
A photograph by artist Raghu Rai depicts the ritual immersion of Durga during a Dusshera celebration in Kolkata. In Rai’s image we see a larger-than-life murti of Durga being carried with bamboo poles to the Ganga by several human figures—a scene that parallels depictions of Ganesha Chaturthi. These human devotees work together to hoist the goddess into the river. We see Durga’s many arms clearly holding the weapons she uses to vanquish Mahishasura and her lion mount or vahana with its mouth agape seated nearby. A nineteenth-century painting of a similar moment suggests earlier practices of this form of ritual immersion. While the focus in the painting is on the elaborately adorned murti of Durga and the human devotees who carry her pandal in procession, in the foreground of the scene appears loose brushstrokes that hint at water, perhaps a subtle indication of the immersion to come.
Flowers and cups
The practice of ritually submerging or destroying images is not limited to depictions of gods, goddesses, or demons, but even applies to the floral garlands that adorn many sacred images. The practice of alankara or adorning a murti includes dressing the deity in strands of marigolds, roses, and jasmine flowers. Floral offerings are also used in worship at other religious sites in India including Sufi shrines, Sikh temples, and Christian churches. These flowers are most often tossed into water after their use in religious rites. Once blessed by the divine these floral offerings need to be disposed of in the holiest way possible, either scattered in a sacred river like the Ganga or immersed in a local body of water.
With increased scrutiny over environmental repercussions of such ritual practices, entrepreneurs and designers have begun to collect these discarded flowers and upcycle them into new products. Textile artist Rupa Trivedi and her team at Adiv Pure Nature have created a way to reuse flowers discarded by the Siddhivinayak Hindu temple and the Haji Ali Sufi shrine in Mumbai to create contact-dyed garments and home textiles. In these textiles the temporary floral offerings are made more permanent by imprinting their natural pigments onto cotton and silk fibers. By using water throughout the mordanting and dyeing process, Trivedi maintains the sacred connection to water that is so pivotal to ritual immersion. While Trivedi’s textiles give new life to floral offerings that would otherwise decompose into the earth, it is striking that textiles as a medium epitomize intangibility and impermanence: textiles are objects that break apart through wear and tear, fade under excessive exposure to sunlight, and deteriorate when subjected to bacteria, fungus, or invasive insects.
Perhaps the most pervasive example of the regular destruction of impermanent, temporary objects occurs through the culture of food. Ceramic artists all over South Asia produce small vessels from low-fired terracotta to be used for drinking spiced tea known as masala chai or yoghurt beverages known as lassis which are sold at roadside stands and eateries. While many vendors of chai and lassi have taken to glass, paper, plastic, and styrofoam substitutes, there are still some who prefer to use traditional clay cups. The potters who make these hand-thrown vessels do so with the knowledge that these objects will have short lives: they will be thrown to the ground or crushed underfoot after the chai or lassi has been drunk.
Much of the value of these objects lies in their impermanence and the easy way they return to the earth. While some chai or lassi cups may enter into museum collections—quintessential repositories of permanent objects—their most potent cultural value and circulation is in their temporary use and ultimate demise. As such these vessels remind us that not all tangible cultural heritage is in need of preservation, and sometimes a community requires, even celebrates, the destruction of cultural objects.
Notes:
- For an expanded discussion of colonial valuation of “fine arts” vs. “craft” within the context of unfired clay sculpture see Susan Bean, “The Unfired Clay Sculpture of Bengal in the Artscape of Modern South Asia,” in Rebecca M. Brown and Deborah S. Hutton, eds., A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture (West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2011), 604–628.
- Ganesha Chaturthi occurs every year on the day of Ananta Caturdasi in the month of Bhadrapada (according to the Chandramana calendar).
- For more on the sacred nature of the Ganga and its connection to other bodies of water in India, see Diana Eck, India: A Sacred Geography (New York: Random House, 2012), 131–188.
- Clay has been a material of ritual importance on the subcontinent for millennia. See Bean, “The Unfired Clay Sculpture of Bengal,” 609.
- For further discussion of the environmental implications of ritual immersion of synthetic Ganesha images see Dinesh C. Sharma, “Idol immersion poses water pollution threat” in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (October 2014, Vol. 12, No. 8): 431; and M. Vikram Reddy and A. Vijay Kumar, “Effects of Ganesh-idol immersion on some water quality parameters of Hussainsagar Lake” in Current Science, Vol. 81, No. 11 (10 December 2001): 1412–1413.
- There are comparable ornamental patterns made on the walls of homes. See for example, Asimakrishna Dasa, Evening Blossoms: The Temple Tradition of Sanjhi in Vrndavana (New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 1996).
- See for example, Stella Kramrisch, “The Art Ritual of Women,” in Unknown India (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1968); and Pupul Jayakar, The Earthen Drum: An Introduction to the Ritual Arts of Rural India (New Delhi: National Museum, 1980).
- Tibetan Buddhist monks are famous for creating similar temporary paintings in the form of sand mandalas. For example, see monks creating a mandala at the Rubin Museum.
- For more on the Ramlila of Ramnagar, see Richard Schechner and Linda Hess, “The Ramlila of Ramnagar” in The Drama Review: TDR, September 1977, Vol. 21, No. 3, Annual Performance Issue (September 1977): 51–82; and “Ramnagar Ramlila: All about the 200-yr-old cultural extravaganza.”
- For more on Durga Puja pandals and their makers see Bean, “The Unfired Clay Sculpture of Bengal in the Artscape of Modern South Asia,” 604–628; Tapati Guha-Thakurta, “From Spectacle to ‘Art’” in ArtIndia Vol 9, Issue 3 (Quarter 3, 2004): 34–56; Krishna Dutta, Image-Makers of Kumortuli and the Durga Puja Festival. New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2016; and Geir Heirestad, “The Durga Puja Business,” in Caste, Entrepreneurship and the Illusions of Tradition: Branding the Potters of Kolkata (Anthem Press, 2017), 1–6.
Beliefs made visible: Buddhist art in South Asia
Video \(\PageIndex{1}\): Video from the Asian Art Museum.
Bodh Gaya: center of the Buddhist world
Video \(\PageIndex{2}\): Video from the Asian Art Museum.
Beliefs made visible: Hindu art in South Asia
Video \(\PageIndex{3}\): Video from the Asian Art Museum.
Discovering Sacred Texts: Hinduism
Video \(\PageIndex{4}\)
Additional resources:
Three Hindu gods
The Hindu preserver
Vishnu is one of the most popular gods of the Hindu pantheon. His portrayal here is standard: a royal figure standing tall, crowned and bejeweled, in keeping with his role as king and preserver of order within the universe. He carries a gada (mace) and chakra (disc) in his hands. The other two hands, which would have held a lotus and conch, are broken. On his forehead he wears a vertical mark or tilak, commonly worn by followers of Vishnu. In keeping with his iconography as the divine king, he is heavily bejeweled, wears a sacred thread that runs over his left shoulder and a long garland that comes down to his knees.
He stands flanked by two attendants, who may be his consorts Bhu and Shri, on a double lotus. The stele has a triangular top unlike earlier examples which were usually in the shape of a gently lobed arch. On either side of his crown are celestial garland bearers and musicians, the Vidyadharas and Kinnaras. A kirtimukha, or auspicious face of glory, is carved on the top centre of the arch.
The sculpture is typical of workmanship of the Pala dynasty of twelfth-century Bengal. The heart-shaped face with stylized arched eyebrows, long eyes that are slightly upturned at the ends, the broad nose, and the pursed smile are all characteristic.
A temple image of the Divine Couple: Shiva and Parvati
Shiva is a powerful Hindu deity. He has a female consort, like most of the gods, one of whose names is Parvati, “the daughter of the mountain.” Shiva and Parvati may appear as a loving couple sitting together in a form called Umamaheshvara. In this example two separate bronze images have been designed as a group. Both Shiva and Parvati wear elaborate jewelry. Shiva is the more powerful deity and so he is depicted with four arms and is the taller figure. In his hands he holds his weapon, the trident, a small deer and a fruit. His fourth hand is raised in reassurance (abhayamudra). Like other images of Shiva he wears two different earrings. Parvati holds a lotus in one hand and a round fruit in the other.
Bronze-casting in the eleventh century was highly developed in Tamil Nadu in the far south of India. However, these two bronzes are unusually large for the Deccan in the same period.
The erect frontal pose of these two figures contrasts with the relaxed, naturalistic posture of many images from Tamil Nadu of the Chola period.
The Hindu creator god
It is often said that there is a trinity of Hindu gods: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer. But while Vishnu and Shiva have followers and temples all over India, Brahma is not worshiped as a major deity. Brahma is the personified form of an indefinable and unknowable divine principle called by Hindus brahman. In the myth of Shiva as Lingodbhava, when Brahma searches for the top of the linga of fire, Brahma falsely claimed that he had found flowers on its summit, when in fact the Shiva linga was without end. For this lie he was punished by having no devotees. There are very few temples dedicated to Brahma alone in India. The only one of renown is at Pushkar, in Rajasthan.
Brahma can be recognized by his four heads, only three of which are visible in this sculpture. In two of his four hands he holds a water pot and a rosary. Brahma originally had five heads but Shiva, in a fit of rage, cut one off. Shiva as Bhairava is depicted as a wandering ascetic with Brahma’s fifth head stuck to his hand as a reminder of his crime. Brahma is commonly placed in a niche on the north side of Shaiva temples in Tamil Nadu together with sculptures of Dakshinamurti and Lingodbhava.
Suggested readings:
T. R. Blurton, Hindu art (London, The British Museum Press, 1992).
© Trustees of the British Museum
Ganesha Jayanti, Lord of Beginnings
The remover of obstacles
The elephant-headed Ganesha is renowned throughout India as the Lord of Beginnings, and both the placer and the remover of obstacles. It is for this reason that he is worshipped before any new venture is begun, when his benediction is essential. Temporary statues are created every year for the Ganeshchaturthi festival in Mumbai, and are placed in public or domestic shrines before being immersed in water at the end of the celebrations.
February 3, 2014 was the Hindu festival of Ganesha Jayanti, Ganesha’s birthday. The main annual Ganesha festival, Ganeshchaturthi, is celebrated from August to September, but this is another significant time for worshipers of Ganesha.
Different traditions celebrate Ganesha Jayanti (Ganesha’s birthday) on different days. It is usually observed in the month of Magha (January to February) on the fourth day of Shukla paksha, the bright fortnight or waxing moon in the Hindu calendar, particularly in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. The celebrations of Ganesha Jayanti in the month of Magha are simple, with devotees observing a fast. Before worship, devotees take a bath of water mixed with til (sesame seeds) after smearing a paste of the same substance on their body.
Domestic shrines and temples are decorated for the occasion. Special offerings are made to the permanent Ganesha images which are worshipped daily. In some places Ganesha is symbolically worshipped in the form of a cone made of turmeric or cow dung. Food offerings of ladoos (sweet balls) made of til and jaggery (sugar) are offered with great devotion. In some households and temples small images of Ganesha are placed in cradles and worshipped.
The practical reason for making offerings prepared of til and jaggery or applying sesame paste to the body is that when this festival is celebrated it is mid-winter and the body requires high energy supplements. The devotees consider their beloved Ganesha as human and offer preparations of sesame and sugar to provide energy and keep the body warm.
The Ganesha Jayanti festival (Magha shukla Chaturthi) is publicly celebrated in a relatively small number of places, where specially created clay images of Ganesha are worshipped and immersed in the sea or river after 11 or 21 days. During this month the devotees go on a pilgrimage to one of the many Ganesha temples across India. In Maharashtra there are eight places which are particularly sacred to Ganesha, known as Ashtavinaykas (Ashta means eight and Vinayaka is one of the many names of Ganesha) and the pilgrimage is known as Ashtavinayaka yatra. These are at Morgaon, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar, Ranjangaon, Siddhatek, Pali and Mahad.
Manisha Nene, Assistant Director, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS)
Suggested readings:
P.B. Courtright, Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings (Oxford, 1985).
P. Mitter, Much Maligned Monsters: A history of European reactions to Indian Art (University of Chicago Press, 1992).
R.L. Brown, Ganesha: Studies of an Asian God (Albany, 1991).
P. Pal, Ganesh the benevolent (Bombay, Marg, 1995).
© Trustees of the British Museum
The making and worship of Ganesha statues in Maharashtra
Video \(\PageIndex{6}\): The elephant-headed Ganesha is one of the most popular Hindu gods — the creator and remover of obstacles. The main stone sculpture in the display was carved from schist around 800 years ago and was originally positioned on the outside of a temple in the eastern state of Orissa (recently renamed Odisha). The display brings this sculpture together with other more recent depictions of Ganesha created for different purposes. Among these are the temporary statues created every year for the Ganeshchaturthi festival in Mumbai, which are placed in public or domestic shrines before being immersed in water at the end of the celebrations. © Trustees of the British Museum. Created by British Museum.
Introduction to Islam
by DR. ELIZABETH MACAULAY-LEWIS
Origins and the life of Muhammad the Prophet
Islam, Judaism and Christianity are three of the world’s great monotheistic faiths. They share many of the same holy sites, such as Jerusalem, and prophets, such as Abraham. Collectively, scholars refer to these three religions as the Abrahamic faiths, since Abraham and his family played vital roles in the formation of these religions.
Islam was founded by Muhammad (c. 570-632 C.E.), a merchant from the city of Mecca, now in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Mecca was a well-established trading city. The Kaaba (in Mecca) is the focus of pilgrimage for Muslims.
The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, provides very little detail about Muhammad’s life; however, the hadiths, or sayings of the Prophet, which were largely compiled in the centuries following Muhammad’s death, provide a larger narrative for the events in his life. Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. in Mecca, and his early life was unremarkable. He married a wealthy widow named Khadija. Around 610 C.E., Muhammad had his first religious experience, where he was instructed to recite by the Angel Gabriel. After a period of introspection and self-doubt, Muhammad accepted his role as God’s prophet and began to preach word of the one God, or Allah in Arabic. His first convert was his wife.
Muhammad’s divine recitations form the Qur’an; unlike the Bible or Hindu epics, it is organized into verses, known as ayat. During one of his many visions, in 621 C.E., Muhammad was taken on the famous Night Journey by the Angel Gabriel, travelling from Mecca to the farthest mosque in Jerusalem, from where he ascended into heaven. The site of his ascension is believed to be the stone around which the Dome of the Rock was built. Eventually in 622, Muhammad and his followers fled Mecca for the city of Yathrib, which is known as Medina today, where his community was welcomed. This event is known as the hijra, or emigration. 622, the year of the hijra (A.H.), marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar, which is still in use today.
Between 625-630 C.E., there were a series of battles fought between the Meccans and Muhammad and the new Muslim community. Eventually, Muhammad was victorious and reentered Mecca in 630.
One of Muhammad’s first actions was to purge the Kaaba of all of its idols (before this, the Kaaba was a major site of pilgrimage for the polytheistic religious traditions of the Arabian Peninsula and contained numerous idols of pagan gods). The Kaaba is believed to have been built by Abraham (or Ibrahim as he is known in Arabic) and his son, Ishmael. The Arabs claim descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. The Kaaba then became the most important center for pilgrimage in Islam.
In 632, Muhammad died in Medina. Muslims believe that he was the final in a line of prophets, which included Moses, Abraham, and Jesus.
After Muhammad’s death
The century following Muhammad’s death was dominated by military conquest and expansion. Muhammad was succeeded by the four “rightly-guided” Caliphs (khalifa or successor in Arabic): Abu Bakr (632-34 C.E.), Umar (634-44 C.E.), Uthman (644-56 C.E.), and Ali (656-661 C.E.). The Qur’an is believed to have been codified during Uthman’s reign. The final caliph, Ali, was married to Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter and was murdered in 661. The death of Ali is a very important event; his followers, who believed that he should have succeeded Muhammad directly, became known as the Shi’a, meaning the followers of Ali. Today, the Shi’ite community is composed of several different branches, and there are large Shi’a populations in Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain. The Sunnis, who do not hold that Ali should have directly succeeded Muhammad, compose the largest branch of Islam; their adherents can be found across North Africa, the Middle East, as well as in Asia and Europe.
During the seventh and early eighth centuries, the Arab armies conquered large swaths of territory in the Middle East, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Central Asia, despite on-going civil wars in Arabia and the Middle East. Eventually, the Umayyad Dynasty emerged as the rulers, with Abd al-Malik completing the Dome of the Rock, one of the earliest surviving Islamic monuments, in 691/2 C.E. The Umayyads reigned until 749/50 C.E., when they were overthrown, and the Abbasid Dynasty assumed the Caliphate and ruled large sections of the Islamic world. However, with the Abbasid Revolution, no one ruler would ever again control all of the Islamic lands.
Additional resources:
The Birth of Islam on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
World Religions in Art: Islam (from the Minneapolis Museum of Art)
Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:
Indus Valley Civilization
An Indus Seal
Incised on this small stone (less than two inches across), we see a large figure seated on a dais surrounded by a horned buffalo, a rhinoceros, an elephant, and a tiger. Beneath the platform is a small antlered deer that is one of a pair. Although the deer on the right has broken off at some point, enough of its antler remains to determine that the deer has its head turned away from the center and, like its partner, was looking out towards the edge of the seat. An inscription (as yet untranslated), has been carved into the very top of the seal, with one symbol apparently displaced to the space between the elephant and the tiger. The stone seal, which would have been pressed onto a soft base such as clay to create a positive imprint, is dated to c. 2500–2400 B.C.E. and was found in the archaeological site of Mohenjo-daro, in what is now Sindh, Pakistan.
Imprints of an ancient civilization
Mohenjo-daro was one in a series of settlements that is collectively known as the Indus Valley Civilization. Named after the Indus River, this early civilization encompassed a vast swath of present-day Pakistan and northwestern India. Mohenjo-daro had an estimated 40,000 residents and was a well-planned settlement with efficient urban facilities that included street drainage, a sewage system, and large civic buildings. Residents also had access to well-water and many had baths in their homes.
Seals numbering in the thousands have been discovered in excavations of Indus cities as well as in sites in the Persian Gulf in southwest Asia. Seals from the Gulf region have similarly been found in Indus cities. The finds suggest active trade and exchange between these areas in the third millennium B.C.E.
Seals often feature a single, large animal such as buffaloes, rhinoceroses, and elephants. The animals are always shown in profile and sometimes standing alongside feeding troughs. Unicorns (that is, animals with a single horn), are also seen on Indus seals, as are trees and animals with a single body and multiple heads. On the rear of the seals is a single and centered rounded projection (see above) with a bored hole with which the seal could be strung.
Reading Indus seals
The seals include inscriptions in the form of pictograms that unfortunately we cannot yet read; the Indus Valley script is yet to be deciphered. Scholarship has been able to determine, however, that most seals were likely important components of trade. Clay sealings (the positive imprints of the seals) have revealed traces of rope that suggest that they may have been used to brand fastened bundles of merchandise. It has also been theorized that the inscriptions on the seals indicate ownership and that the animals are emblems that referenced particular persons and merchant guilds.
Lord of the beasts
The figure’s frontality and symmetry demands deference, as does its impressively large and deeply curved horned headdress. The face is long, with a prominent nose, deeply set eyes, and a closed mouth. The figure wears what looks like several necklaces over the chest as well as bangles and bracelets along the length of the arms. There appears to also be a belt at the waist with a tassel, but it is unclear what, if anything, is worn below the waist. The legs are elongated and, even folded at the knee, occupy the length of the seat. The right arm falls gracefully towards the knee, but does not touch it. Based on other examples of this general type of seated figure, we can imagine that the left hand was similarly positioned.
The figure has been described by scholars variously as male, female, with multiple heads, and not. It is also most frequently described as the Pashupati seal, after an epithet for the Hindu god Shiva that means “lord of beasts.” The figure’s apparent mastery over wild animals is thought to be implied by the type of animals — that is, the buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant, and the tiger — included in the seal.
The pair of relatively smaller stylized deer below the figure appear to be different in conception from the other animals. But questions remain: Is this a narrative scene that shows deer gathered at a site? Or are the deer meant to be understood as designs on the dais? The other animals, in contrast, are far more prominent and their importance to the seal’s messaging is evident. They are powerful animals and as if to emphasize this point further the tiger is shown rearing, with its mouth open (while the seated figure appears unfazed).
An early form of Shiva?
Early scholarship [1] posited that the figure in the seal was an ancient Vedic form (named Rudra) of the Hindu god Shiva. This theory was based in part on the following:
- The animals in the seal imply the figure’s dominion over animals and that an epithet of Rudra – Pashupati, the lord of animals – is similarly an epithet of Shiva.
- The figure is seated in a yogic pose (in particular with heels together) and an aspect of Shiva is known as Yogisvara – the supreme yogi (practitioner of yoga).
- A supposition that the figure has three faces as opposed to just one and Shiva is sometimes represented in sacred art with three or more faces.
The substantial chronological gap between the date of the seal (third millennium B.C.E.) and the date of the Vedas (second millennium B.C.E.) should also be noted, although this does not necessarily preclude the inclusion of older traditions in the sacred Vedic texts. There are other major points to be considered, however, that complicate an identification of the figure as a type of proto-Shiva.
- The link between the seal’s iconography and the Vedic themes that have been used to support the Pashupati and Rudra-Shiva thesis are indeterminate. [2]
- Yoga was likely known and practiced for centuries before it was codified into a series of prescribed mental and physical exercises in the second century B.C.E., but it is unclear if the figure in the seal is in fact an early representation of the practice of yoga.
- The presence of lateral faces on the figure is not accepted by all scholars; it is uncertain if the sharp protuberances on either side of the figure’s head indicate facial features. In addition, representations of Shiva with three or more faces have so far only been dated to the much later (medieval) period; see the multiple faces of Shiva as Sadashiva carved in the sixth century here, for example.
Iconographic symbolism
It is evident from the figure’s controlled and meditative bearing that we are witnessing a type of principled self-discipline and asceticism that calls for reverence. Taken with the careful design of the seal — in particular, the primary place of importance given to the main figure, their throne-like dais, regal adornment and frontal pose, and the subsidiary positioning of powerful animals — it is clear, that the seal would have held great symbolic and reverential import for its owner.
Although our inability to read the inscription on the seal undermines our understanding of the intended purpose and meaning of the seal, its iconography bring us a step closer to understanding the people of the Indus Valley Civilization and their rich spiritual culture.
Notes:
[1] See “Male god, the proto-type of the historic Shiva,” in Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, vol 1, edited by John Marshall (London: Arthur Probstain, 1931), pp. 52–56.
[2] See Doris Srinivasan, “The So-Called Proto-Siva Seal from Mohenjo-Daro: An Iconological Assessment, Archives of Asian Art 29 (1975/1976), pp. 47–58. Based on a study of pre-Indus and Indus period material culture, Srinivasan has forwarded the alternate possibility that the figure represented on the seal may be a “divine bull-man” and that the inclusion of the animals on the seal is indicative of an invocation for a successful hunt. Srinivasan, ibid., p.57.
Additional resources:
Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997).
John Marshall, ed., Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, vol 1, edited by John Marshall (London: Arthur Probstain, 1931).
Romila Thapar, Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
Doris Srinivasan, “The So-Called Proto-Siva Seal from Mohenjo-Daro: An Iconological Assessment, Archives of Asian Art 29 (1975/1976), pp. 47–58.
More on the Indus Valley Civilization
Pasupati seal at the National Museum, New Delhi
Art of the Magadha dynasties
The powers that arose in the Magadha region influenced India for centuries afterward.
4th century B.C.E. – 7th century C.E.
The Pillars of Ashoka
A Buddhist king
What happens when a powerful ruler adopts a new religion that contradicts the life into which he was born? What about when this change occurs during the height of his rule when things are pretty much going his way? How is that information conveyed over a large geographical region with thousands of inhabitants?
King Ashoka, who many believe was an early convert to Buddhism, decided to solve these problems by erecting pillars that rose some 50 feet into the sky. The pillars were raised throughout the Magadha region in the North of India that had emerged as the center of the first Indian empire, the Mauryan Dynasty (322-185 B.C.E). Written on these pillars, intertwined in the message of Buddhist compassion, were the merits of King Ashoka.
The third emperor of the Mauryan dynasty, Ashoka (pronounced Ashoke), who ruled from c. 279 B.C.E. – 232 B.C.E., was the first leader to accept Buddhism and thus the first major patron of Buddhist art.[1] Ashoka made a dramatic conversion to Buddhism after witnessing the carnage that resulted from his conquest of the village of Kalinga. He adopted the teachings of the Buddha known as the Four Noble Truths, referred to as the dharma (the law):
Life is suffering (suffering=rebirth)
the cause of suffering is desire
the cause of desire must be overcome
when desire is overcome, there is no more suffering (suffering=rebirth)
Individuals who come to fully understand the Four Noble Truths are able to achieve Enlightenment, ending samsara, the endless cycle of birth and rebirth. Ashoka also pledged to follow the Six Cardinal Perfections (the Paramitas), which were codes of conduct created after the Buddha’s death providing instructions for the Buddhist practitioners to follow a compassionate Buddhist practice. Ashoka did not require that everyone in his kingdom become Buddhist, and Buddhism did not become the state religion, but through Ashoka’s support, it spread widely and rapidly.
The pillars
One of Ashoka’s first artistic programs was to erect the pillars that are now scattered throughout what was the Mauryan empire. The pillars vary from 40 to 50 feet in height. They are cut from two different types of stone—one for the shaft and another for the capital. The shaft was almost always cut from a single piece of stone. Laborers cut and dragged the stone from quarries in Mathura and Chunar, located in the northern part of India within Ashoka’s empire. The pillars weigh about 50 tons each. Only 19 of the original pillars survive and many are in fragments. The first pillar was discovered in the sixteenth century.
Lotus and lion
The physical appearance of the pillars underscores the Buddhist doctrine. Most of the pillars were topped by sculptures of animals. Each pillar is also topped by an inverted lotus flower, which is the most pervasive symbol of Buddhism (a lotus flower rises from the muddy water to bloom unblemished on the surface—thus the lotus became an analogy for the Buddhist practitioner as he or she, living with the challenges of everyday life and the endless cycle of birth and rebirth, was able to achieve Enlightenment, or the knowledge of how to be released from samsara, through following the Four Noble Truths). This flower, and the animal that surmount it, form the capital, the topmost part of a column. Most pillars are topped with a single lion or a bull in either seated or standing positions. The Buddha was born into the Shakya or lion clan. The lion, in many cultures, also indicates royalty or leadership. The animals are always in the round and carved from a single piece of stone.
The edicts
Some pillars had edicts (proclamations) inscribed upon them. The edicts were translated in the 1830s. Since the seventeenth century, 150 Ashokan edicts have been found carved into the face of rocks and cave walls as well as the pillars, all of which served to mark his kingdom, which stretched across northern India and south to below the central Deccan plateau and in areas now known as Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. The rocks and pillars were placed along trade routes and in border cities where the edicts would be read by the largest number of people possible. They were also erected at pilgrimage sites such as at Bodh Gaya, the place of Buddha’s Enlightenment, and Sarnath, the site of his First Sermon and Sanchi, where the Mahastupa, the Great Stupa of Sanchi, is located (a stupa is a burial mound for an esteemed person. When the Buddha died, he was cremated and his ashes were divided and buried in several stupas. These stupas became pilgrimage sites for Buddhist practitioners).
Some pillars were also inscribed with dedicatory inscriptions, which firmly date them and name Ashoka as the patron. The script was Brahmi, the language from which all Indic language developed. A few of the edicts found in the western part of India are written in a script that is closely related to Sanskrit and a pillar in Afghanistan is inscribed in both Aramaic and Greek—demonstrating Ashoka’s desire to reach the many cultures of his kingdom. Some of the inscriptions are secular in nature. Ashoka apologizes for the massacre in Kalinga and assures the people that he now only has their welfare in mind. Some boast of the good works that Ashoka has done, underscoring his desire to provide for his people.
The Hinayana period
The pillars (and the stupas) were created in the Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) period. Hinayana is the first stage of Buddhism, roughly dated from the sixth c. to the first century B.C.E., in which no images of the Buddha were made. The memory of the historical Buddha and his teachings was enough to sustain the practitioners. But several symbols became popular as stand-ins for the human likeness of the Buddha. The lotus, as noted above, is one. The lion, which is typically seen on the Ashokan pillars, is another. The wheel (cakra) is a symbol of both samsara, the endless circle of birth and rebirth, and the dharma, the Four Noble Truths.
Why a pillar?
There are a few hypotheses about why Ashoka used the pillar as a means for communicating his Buddhist message. It is quite possible that Persian artists came to Ashoka’s empire in search of work, bringing with them the form of the pillar, which was common in Persian art. But it is also likely that Ashoka chose the pillar because it was already an established Indian art form. In both Buddhism and Hinduism, the pillar symbolized the axis mundi (the axis on which the world spins).
The pillars and edicts represent the first physical evidence of the Buddhist faith. The inscriptions assert Ashoka’s Buddhism and support his desire to spread the dharma throughout his kingdom. The edicts say nothing about the philosophical aspects of Buddhism and scholars have suggested that this demonstrates that Ashoka had a very simple and naïve understanding of the dharma. But, as Ven S. Dhammika suggests, Ashoka’s goal was not to expound on the truths of Buddhism, but to inform the people of his reforms and encourage them to live a moral life. The edicts, through their strategic placement and couched in the Buddhist dharma, serve to underscore Ashoka’s administrative role as a tolerant leader.
Edict #6 is a good example:
Beloved of the Gods speaks thus: Twelve years after my coronation
I started to have Dhamma edicts written for the welfare and happiness of the people, and so that not transgressing them they might grow in the Dhamma. Thinking: “How can the welfare and happiness of the people be secured?” I give my attention to my relatives, to those dwelling far, so I can lead them to happiness and then I act accordingly. I do the same for all groups. I have honored all religions with various honors. But I consider it best to meet with people personally.
[1] The details and extent to which Emperor Ashoka was a practicing Buddhist is a topic debated by scholars, though it is widely accepted that he was the first major patron of Buddhist art on the Indian subcontinent. For more discussions as to whether or not Ashoka was a “secular” ruler, see Akeel Bilgrami, ed.,Beyond the Secular West (Columbia University Press, 2016); Charles Taylor and Alfred Stepan, eds., Boundaries of Toleration: Religion, Culture, and Public Life (Columbia University Press, 2014); and Ashis Nandy, “The Politics of Secularism and the Recovery of Religious Tolerance,” Alternatives XIII (1988), pp. 177-194. For more on Ashoka’s relationship with the Buddhist community and doctrine, see Alf Hiltebeitel, “King Asoka’s Dhamma,” in Dharma (University of Hawai’i Press, 2010), pp. 12-18 and John S. Strong, The Legend of King Asoka: A Study and Translation of the Asokavadana (Princeton University Press, 1983).
Lion Capital, Ashokan Pillar at Sarnath
Site of Buddha’s First Sermon
The most celebrated of the Ashokan pillars is the one erected at Sarnath, the site of Buddha’s First Sermon where he shared the Four Noble Truths (the dharma or the law). Currently, the pillar remains where it was originally sunk into the ground, but the capital is now on display at the Sarnath Museum. It is this pillar that was adopted as the national emblem of India. It is depicted on the one rupee note and the two rupee coin.
The Pillar
The pillar is a symbol of the axis mundi (cosmic axis) and of the column that rises everyday at noon from the legendary Lake Anavatapta (the lake at the center of the universe according to Buddhist cosmology) to touch the sun.
The Capital
The top of the column—the capital—has three parts. First, a base of a lotus flower, the most ubiquitous symbol of Buddhism.
Then, a drum on which four animals are carved representing the four cardinal directions: a horse (west), an ox (east), an elephant (south), and a lion (north). They also represent the four rivers that leave Lake Anavatapta and enter the world as the four major rivers. Each of the animals can also be identified by each of the four perils of samsara. The moving animals follow one another endlessly turning the wheel of existence.
Four lions stand atop the drum, each facing in the four cardinal directions. Their mouths are open roaring or spreading the dharma, the Four Noble Truths, across the land. The lion references the Buddha, formerly Shakyamuni, a member of the Shakya (lion) clan. The lion is also a symbol of royalty and leadership and may also represent the Buddhist king Ashoka who ordered these columns. A cakra (wheel) was originally mounted above the lions.
Some of the lion capitals that survive have a row of geese carved below the lions. The goose is an ancient Vedic symbol (Veda means knowledge in Sanskrit and the Vedas refers to the canonical collection of hymns, prayers and liturgical formulas that make up the earliest of the Hindu sacred writings. Many of the Buddhist symbols and practices derive from these early texts). The flight of the goose is thought of as a link between the earthly and heavenly spheres.
The pillar reads from bottom to top. The lotus represents the murky water of the mundane world and the four animals remind the practitioner of the unending cycle of samsara as we remain, through our ignorance and fear, stuck in the material world. But the cakras between them offer the promise of the Eightfold Path, that guide one to the unmoving center at the hub of the wheel. Note that in these particular cakras, the number of spokes in the wheel (eight for the Eightfold Path), had not yet been standardized.
The lions are the Buddha himself from whom the knowledge of release from samsara is possible. And the cakra that once stood at the apex represents moksa, the release from samsara. The symbolism of moving up the column toward Enlightenment parallels the way in which the practitioner meditates on the stupa in order to attain the same goal.
Additional Resources:
This sculpture at the Archaeological Museum Sarnath
Lion Capital of Asoka Wikipedia entry
The Great Stupa at Sanchi
Video \(\PageIndex{7}\): Video from the Asian Art Museum
Can a mound of dirt represent the Buddha, the path to Enlightenment, a mountain and the universe all at the same time? It can if its a stupa. The stupa (“stupa” is Sanskrit for heap) is an important form of Buddhist architecture, though it predates Buddhism. It is generally considered to be a sepulchral monument—a place of burial or a receptacle for religious objects. At its simplest, a stupa is a dirt burial mound faced with stone. In Buddhism, the earliest stupas contained portions of the Buddha’s ashes, and as a result, the stupa began to be associated with the body of the Buddha. Adding the Buddha’s ashes to the mound of dirt activated it with the energy of the Buddha himself.
Early stupas
Before Buddhism, great teachers were buried in mounds. Some were cremated, but sometimes they were buried in a seated, meditative position. The mound of earth covered them up. Thus, the domed shape of the stupa came to represent a person seated in meditation much as the Buddha was when he achieved Enlightenment and knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. The base of the stupa represents his crossed legs as he sat in a meditative pose (called padmasana or the lotus position). The middle portion is the Buddha’s body and the top of the mound, where a pole rises from the apex surrounded by a small fence, represents his head. Before images of the human Buddha were created, reliefs often depicted practitioners demonstrating devotion to a stupa.
The ashes of the Buddha were buried in stupas built at locations associated with important events in the Buddha’s life including Lumbini (where he was born), Bodh Gaya (where he achieved Enlightenment), Deer Park at Sarnath (where he preached his first sermon sharing the Four Noble Truths (also called the dharma or the law), and Kushingara (where he died). The choice of these sites and others were based on both real and legendary events.
“Calm and glad”
According to legend, King Ashoka, who was the first king to embrace Buddhism (he ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent from c. 269 – 232 B.C.E.), created 84,000 stupas and divided the Buddha’s ashes among them all. While this is an exaggeration (and the stupas were built by Ashoka some 250 years after the Buddha’s death), it is clear that Ashoka was responsible for building many stupas all over northern India and the other territories under the Mauryan Dynasty in areas now known as Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
One of Ashoka’s goals was to provide new converts with the tools to help with their new faith. In this, Ashoka was following the directions of the Buddha who, prior to his death (parinirvana), directed that stupas should be erected in places other than those associated with key moments of his life so that “the hearts of many shall be made calm and glad.” Ashoka also built stupas in regions where the people might have difficulty reaching the stupas that contained the Buddha’s ashes.
Karmic benefits
The practice of building stupas spread with the Buddhist doctrine to Nepal and Tibet, Bhutan, Thailand, Burma, China and even the United States where large Buddhist communities are centered. While stupas have changed in form over the years, their function remains essentially unchanged. Stupas remind the Buddhist practitioner of the Buddha and his teachings almost 2,500 years after his death.
For Buddhists, building stupas also has karmic benefits. Karma, a key component in both Hinduism and Buddhism, is the energy generated by a person’s actions and the ethical consequences of those actions. Karma affects a person’s next existence or re-birth. For example, in the Avadana Sutra ten merits of building a stupa are outlined. One states that if a practitioner builds a stupa he or she will not be reborn in a remote location and will not suffer from extreme poverty. As a result, a vast number of stupas dot the countryside in Tibet (where they are called chorten) and in Burma (chedi).
The journey to enlightenment
Buddhists visit stupas to perform rituals that help them to achieve one of the most important goals of Buddhism: to understand the Buddha’s teachings, known as the Four Noble Truths (also known as the dharma and the law) so when they die they cease to be caught up in samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death.
The Four Noble Truths:
life is suffering (suffering=rebirth)
the cause of suffering is desire
the cause of desire must be overcome
when desire is overcome, there is no more suffering (suffering=rebirth)
Once individuals come to fully understand The Four Noble Truths, they are able to achieve Enlightenment, or the complete knowledge of the dharma. In fact, Buddha means “the Enlightened One” and it is the knowledge that the Buddha gained on his way to achieving Enlightenment that Buddhist practitioners seek on their own journey toward Enlightenment.
The circle or wheel
One of the early sutras (a collection of sayings attributed to the Buddha forming a religious text) records that the Buddha gave specific directions regarding the appropriate method of honoring his remains (the Maha-parinibbāna sutra): his ashes were to be buried in a stupa at the crossing of the mythical four great roads (the four directions of space), the unmoving hub of the wheel, the place of Enlightenment.
If one thinks of the stupa as a circle or wheel, the unmoving center symbolizes Enlightenment. Likewise, the practitioner achieves stillness and peace when the Buddhist dharma is fully understood. Many stupas are placed on a square base, and the four sides represent the four directions, north, south, east and west. Each side often has a gate in the center, which allows the practitioner to enter from any side. The gates are called torana. Each gate also represents the four great life events of the Buddha: East (Buddha’s birth), South (Enlightenment), West (First Sermon where he preached his teachings or dharma), and North (Nirvana). The gates are turned at right angles to the axis mundi to indicate movement in the manner of the arms of a svastika, a directional symbol that, in Sanskrit, means “to be good” (“su” means good or auspicious and “asti” means to be). The torana are directional gates guiding the practitioner in the correct direction on the correct path to Enlightenment, the understanding of the Four Noble Truths.
A microcosm of the universe
At the top of stupa is a yasti, or spire, which symbolizes the axis mundi (a line through the earth’s center around which the universe is thought to revolve). The yasti is surrounded by a harmika, a gate or fence, and is topped by chattras (umbrella-like objects symbolizing royalty and protection).
The stupa makes visible something that is so large as to be unimaginable. The axis symbolizes the center of the cosmos partitioning the world into six directions: north, south, east, west, the nadir and the zenith. This central axis, the axis mundi, is echoed in the same axis that bisects the human body. In this manner, the human body also functions as a microcosm of the universe. The spinal column is the axis that bisects Mt. Meru (the sacred mountain at the center of the Buddhist world) and around which the world pivots. The aim of the practitioner is to climb the mountain of one’s own mind, ascending stage by stage through the planes of increasing levels of Enlightenment.
Circumambulation
The practitioner does not enter the stupa, it is a solid object. Instead, the practitioner circumambulates (walks around) it as a meditational practice focusing on the Buddha’s teachings. This movement suggests the endless cycle of rebirth (samsara) and the spokes of the Eightfold Path (eight guidelines that assist the practitioner) that leads to knowledge of the Four Noble Truths and into the center of the unmoving hub of the wheel, Enlightenment. This walking meditation at a stupa enables the practitioner to visualize Enlightenment as the movement from the perimeter of the stupa to the unmoving hub at the center marked by the yasti.
Video \(\PageIndex{8}\)
This video/animation shows the perspective of someone circumambulating the Mahastupa in Sanchi, the soundtrack plays monks chanting Buddhist prayers, an aid in medition. Circumambulation is also a part of other faiths. For example, Muslims circle the Kaaba in Mecca and cathedrals in the West such at Notre Dame in Paris include a semicircular ambulatory (a hall that wraps around the back of the choir, around the altar).
The practitioner can walk to circumambulate the stupa or move around it through a series of prostrations (a movement that brings the practitioner’s body down low to the ground in a position of submission). An energetic and circular movement around the stupa raises the body’s temperature. Practitioners do this to mimic the heat of the fire that cremated the Buddha’s body, a process that burned away the bonds of self-hood and attachment to the mundane or ordinary world. Attachments to the earthly realm are considered obstacles in the path toward Enlightenment. Circumambulation is not veneration for the relics themselves—a distinction sometime lost on novice practitioners. The Buddha did not want to be revered as a god, but wanted his ashes in the stupas to serve as a reminder of the Four Noble Truths.
Votive Offerings
Small stupas can function as votive offerings (objects that serve as the focal point for acts of devotion). In order to gain merit, to improve one’s karma, individuals could sponsor the casting of a votive stupa. Indian and Tibetan stupas typically have inscriptions that state that the stupa was made “so that all beings may attain Enlightenment.” Votive stupas can be consecrated and used in home altars or utilized in monastic shrines. Since they are small, they can be easily transported; votive stupas, along with small statues of the Buddha and other Buddhist deities, were carried across Nepal, over the Himalayas and into Tibet, helping to spread Buddhist doctrine. Votive stupas are often carved from stone or caste in bronze. The bronze stupas can also serve as a reliquary and ashes of important teachers can be encased inside.
This stupa clearly shows the link between the form of the stupa and the body of the Buddha. The Buddha is represented at his moment of Enlightenment, when he received the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths (the dharma or law). He is making the earth touching gesture (bhumisparsamudra) and is seated in padmasan, the lotus position. He is seated in a gateway signifying a sacred space that recalls the gates on each side of monumental stupas.
Additional resources
The Stupa from the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Kushan period
A Buddha from Mathura
Seated Buddha with Two Attendants is an early example of the Buddha shown in anthropomorphic (human) form. The historic Buddha, born a prince named Siddhartha Gautama, is believed to have lived and preached in the fifth century B.C.E. When he died, his relics and the stupas that came to symbolize the Buddha became the primary focus of devotion for his followers.
The Buddha was not shown in human form in early Indian art, but rather, in aniconic (symbolic) form. Stupas were adorned with visually engaging stories that celebrated the Buddha with symbols—footprints, thrones, and parasols, for example—that signified the presence of the Buddha and commanded the respect that the Buddha himself would receive.
The reasons for avoiding anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha in those early centuries may have centered on the belief that the Buddha—who had lived 550 lifetimes and had achieved nirvana (liberation from the cycle of karmic rebirth)—was freed of the human form. By the turn of the common era, however, Buddhist beliefs had changed. The Buddha was deified, and with the development of the anthropomorphic Buddha, devotees were given a new focus for their ritual practices in shrines and monasteries.
Seated Buddha
Smiling, the Buddha sits cross-legged and rests a closed fist on his left knee. Layers of cloth gathered on his left arm and shoulder fall gracefully down his back, while the curved indentation across his chest and across his calves suggests the lightness of his robe. The Buddha holds his right hand up in abhaya mudra—a gesture of protection and reassurance. Wheels (marked on the palm of his hand and on his feet) and lotuses on his feet announce the Buddha’s divinity. Other signifiers of his godliness, such as the ushnisha (cranial protuberance, see image below) and urna (auspicious mark on the forehead) have been lost over time. The ushnisha would have been covered by a tightly twisted hair–bun and centered above the Buddha’s head, while the urna was likely once a small rock crystal. The historic Buddha’s life as a prince prior to his enlightenment is referenced by his elongated ears, which were caused by the heavy jewelry that he once wore.
Although the mottled red color of the stone in the Seated Buddha is striking, our attention is focused on the sculptors’ meticulous carving. A close look at the Buddha shows carefully outlined fingers on his left hand and a beautifully detailed thumb and fingernail, a realistic portrayal of the knees and wrists, and a softly modeled stomach. The face is also particularly compelling, and we can almost see the Buddha’s chin lift as he smiles.
The Buddha’s Attendants
Gods and goddesses in Indian art are often accompanied by attendants, and here the Buddha has two. The artists have employed a technique known as hierarchic scaling to emphasize the Buddha’s importance because the smaller scale of the attendant figures highlights his monumentality. Imagine how the Buddha would tower over his attendants if he were to stand! The attendants mirror one another in their stances and adornment, and they both carry a chauri (fly-whisk) in their right hand in a gesture that indicates their service to the Buddha. Subtle differences in their facial features and in their headdresses suggest individual personalities.
This type of representation of the Buddha appears to have been popular in the second century C.E. Comparing the Seated Buddha to similar stelae from the same period helps us determine its missing parts. Looking at a stele known as the Katra stele (after Katra, an archaeological site in Mathura, India) and another titled Stele with Bodhisattva and Two Attendants in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums, we can see that the upper portion of the Seated Buddha may have once had a large halo and flying celestial beings. Halos (referencing rays of light) and celestial beings signify divine radiance and the attendance of a heavenly retinue.
Inscriptions and dates
On the face of the carved dais are rampant leogryphs and a pair of attendants who flank a pillar. The Buddhist character of the pillar is evident by the wheel (the wheel symbolizes the Buddha’s teachings) that is shown in profile at its summit. The pillar and the wheel represent the Buddha and his teachings, and are flanked by attendants just as the figure of the Buddha is above.
The relief panel is framed by two lines of text in Sanskrit. [1] Inscriptions such as these record donors’ gifts for posterity and include the date of the donation. These dates followed the regnal years of the king who was in power at that time. The inscription on the Seated Buddha mentions the dedication of the image during the fourth year of the Kushan dynasty (c. 2nd century B.C.E.—3rd century C.E.) king Kanishka. Although scholars continue to refine the year in which Kanishka ascended the throne, the current consensus suggests that the image would have been dedicated in c. 132 C.E. Seated Buddha is one of only a few Buddha images that has been dated with an inscription to this early period in the common era. Having this frame of reference is invaluable because it helps scholars date stylistically similar images to this period.
Gandhara and Mathura
The sandstone from which Seated Buddha was carved was preferred by the artist workshops of Mathura, a city in northern India. Mathura and the Gandhara region (in present-day Pakistan) have yielded the earliest known anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha. Both Gandhara and Mathura were under the rulership of the Kushan kings at the turn of the common era and were important political centers; the Kushans’ winter capital was located in Mathura and their summer capital in Gandhara.
Gandhara Buddha
The anthropomorphic form of the Buddha in Gandhara and Mathura developed simultaneously and yet resulted in remarkably distinct styles. [2] The Gandhara region’s encounter with Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E. and its history of Indo-Greek rulers in the centuries thereafter meant that a classical and Hellenistic (Greek) style of art and architecture was a part of the Gandhara region’s artistic vocabulary. Buddhas from Gandhara show a familiarity with Greco-Roman styles of sculpture; this is apparent in the comparison below, for example, in the drapery, hair, facial features, and musculature of the Gandhara Buddha.
Mathura Buddha
As opposed to their Gandharan counterparts—with their inward-looking meditative expressions—Buddhas produced contemporaneously in Mathura look directly at us, as we see in the Seated Buddha. Their heads are smooth and topped with the kaparda (Sanskrit for a braided and coiled hairstyle) in striking contrast to the stylized hair of the Buddhas of Gandhara. They are also most often depicted wearing monastic robes (known as sangati) with one shoulder left bare.
Artists in Mathura were inspired by the regional style of sculptures. Art historians have suggested that one inspiration for the Mathura style of the Buddha may be images of yakshas (male fertility spirits). A comparison of a standing yaksha image with a standing sculpture known as the Bala Bodhisattva reveals shared commonalities in their monumental size, columnar character, emphatically frontal attitude, and broad shoulders.
Artists would have refined existing sculptural forms (like that of the Yaksha figure) to create the newly popular anthropomorphic form of the Buddha. Although Bala Bodhisattva is identified not as the Buddha but rather as a bodhisattva (a being who is on the path to enlightenment) the iconographic treatment of the Buddha and bodhisattvas is identical in this early period.
Images produced in Mathura in the Gupta period (c. 4th–7th centuries C.E.), like this Standing Buddha, would develop the Mathura style of the Kushan period even further. The Buddha’s facial features are softer, the folds on his robe (which will cover both of his shoulders) are a cascade of looped strings, his hair is beautifully coiled, and his eyes lower, looking inward.
Standing Buddha from the Gupta period and Seated Buddha with Two Attendants from the earlier Kushan period illustrate the development of the Buddha image in early history. Both images were produced in Mathura from the same stone and both represent a standard type of Buddha image from their respective eras. They are apt examples of how artistic processes and styles change over time.
Notes:
[1] In particular, a type of “Buddhist Sanskrit.” See Gérard Fussman cited under References.
[2] The question of which style of Buddha came first (i.e., the Buddha from Mathura or Gandhara) and hence represents the earliest type of anthropomorphic Buddha image has been a long debated issue. See Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Alfred Foucher cited below.
Additional resources:
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, “The Origin of the Buddha Image,” The Art Bulletin 9, no. 4 (1927): 287–329.
Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997).
Alfred Foucher, “The Greek Origin of the Image of Buddha.” In Alfred Foucher, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and other Essays in Indian and Central–Asian Archaeology (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1997), pp. 111–137.
Gérard Fussman, “Documents épigraphiques kochans (V). Buddha et Bodhisattva dans l’art de Mathura: deux Bodhisattvas inscrits de l’an 4 et l’an 8,” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient (1988), pp. 5–26.
Prudence R. Myer, “Bodhisattvas and Buddhas: Early Buddhist Images from Mathura,” Artibus Asiae 47, no. 2 (1986): 107–142.
Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, History of Early Stone Sculpture At Mathura, ca. 150 BCE–100 C.E. (Leiden: Brill, 2007).
Ju-Hyung Rhi, “From Bodhisattva to Buddha: The Beginning of Iconic Representation in Buddhist Art,” Artibus Asiae 54, no. 3 / 4 (1994): 207–225.
Gupta Period
The Gupta Period
During the Gupta period (c. 320 – 647 C.E., named for the Gupta dynasty) there were tremendous advances in poetry, prose, and drama as well as important discoveries in mathematics and astronomy. This was the age of some of the most celebrated creatives in Indian history, including the fifth century writer Kālidāsa whose works would influence generations of writers. This was also the period in which the fifth century astronomer Aryabhata theorized that the earth rotated on its own axis and calculated the solar year at 365.3586805 days.
The Puranas, a compendium of religious literature considered sacred to both the Hindu and Jain religious traditions and consisting of stories and the genealogies of the gods, folk tales, and traditional lore, grew in prominence during the Gupta years. While it is difficult to date the Puranas because they contain anonymous texts compiled over many centuries both before and after the Gupta period, we know that Puranic stories were a popular religious and cultural reference during the Gupta years from the depiction of Puranic episodes in art and architecture. Kālidāsa’s poetry and plays also frequently engaged with episodes from the Puranas.
The Guptas were ambitious rulers and by the end of the fourth century claimed dominance over a vast swathe of northern India (see map above). They maintained a capital at Pataliputra, the same ancient center used by the formidable, and earlier, Mauryan empire (4th – 2nd century B.C.E.) and that of the emperor Ashoka Maurya (3rd century B.C.E.).
The gold coin above shows Chandragupta II — one of the earliest and most successful Gupta rulers — who reigned from c. 380 C.E. to 415 C.E. Chandragupta is regally dressed, as is his horse, and he holds a bow as his sash flies behind him. This type of iconography emphasizes the emperor’s identification as a conqueror and the inclusion of a goddess (on the reverse side of this coin, not shown) implies divinely mandated rule. Fa Hsien, a Buddhist pilgrim from China, who was in India during the reign of this king wrote with admiration about the prosperity of the empire, describing it as a charitable place with hospitals, rest-houses, and medicine for those in need.
The Golden Age of Indian Culture?
Although Gupta overlordship was significant throughout the empire in the early years and later, local rulers were allowed a fair bit of autonomy in their territories. It is important therefore to not conflate the innovations and achievements of the Gupta period with the Guptas, and to acknowledge the contributions of regional dynasties. This is particularly important when works of art and architecture dated to the Gupta period are missing contextual information. Rather than assigning the Gupta dynastic label to these works of art and architecture, art historians use methods of connoisseurship to understand the artists, patrons, and provenance of these works. In the process, we are able to better understand the artistic developments of the period as a whole.
The Gupta period was termed the “Golden Age of Indian Culture” by some early observers who assigned the vast quantity and sophisticated quality of art from that period to the sponsorship of the Guptas. The term “Golden Age” was based on the desire of these writers for an ideal or classical style of art (using the art of ancient Greece as an example), and the opinion that art after the Gupta period was less classical and too decadent to be tasteful. The artistic developments of regional kingdoms in the Gupta era problematizes this Eurocentric perspective. The fifth and sixth century rock-cut temples at Ajanta and Elephanta, in the domain of the Vakataka and Kalachuri rulers respectively, are prominent sites that point to a richer and more complex art history of the Gupta period.
That is not to say that the Gupta rulers themselves were not important patrons of art and architecture. The Udaigiri complex of rock-cut caves in Madhya Pradesh (a large state in central India) is a an exceptional site with inscriptions that indicate sponsorship from the Gupta court. Nineteen of the site’s twenty caves are dedicated to Hindu gods and date to the fourth and fifth centuries; one cave is dedicated to the Jain religion and is dated to the early fifth century.
Varaha, the man-boar avatar
A sculptural panel at Udaigiri (in cave number 5) depicts the Hindu god Vishnu in his man-boar form avatar known as Varaha. The panel shows Varaha rescuing Bhudevi (goddess of earth) from a cosmic flood, a story that is recounted frequently in Hindu religious literature, including the Puranas. Varaha is shown here as a hero posing regally with the goddess as she dangles from his tusk. An audience of gods, sages, and people — most in crowds of organized rows — witness the event with awe.
Scholars have suggested that the Guptas may have been especially attached to the Varaha avatar of Vishnu. A remarkable sculpture — this time showing the Varaha avatar in the form of a boar (not a man-boar as at Udaigiri cave number 5) — is found in Eran, another site in Madhya Pradesh. Eran has a number of temples dated to the Gupta period and its association with the Guptas is well-established by way of inscriptions.
Eran’s Varaha is colossal – nearly twelve feet in height – and is shown again with the goddess holding on to his tusk. The artists cleverly included the witnesses of the miracle on Varaha’s body itself which is covered almost entirely by rows of spectators. Additional figures are also carved on his ears and snout.
The Gupta Buddha
The aniconic tradition of representing the Buddha was abandoned by this stage in favor of depictions of the deified Buddha and the Gupta period boasts some of the most impressive examples. Scholars have suggested that the style of the Gupta Buddha evolved out of the Gandhara and Mathura style of Buddhas. The Gandhara and Mathura Buddhas were distinct versions of the Buddha image developed during the Kushan empire (2nd century B.C.E. – 3rd century C.E.) in the Gandhara and Mathura regions respectively. Kushan-ruled territories became part of the Gupta empire and it is certainly possible that the aesthetic style of Buddha images produced in those areas inspired the development of the Gupta Buddha.
The process by which the amalgamation of features from both the Gandhara and Mathura styles led to the Gupta image was surely a complex and involved process that developed over centuries. In addition, while Gupta period artists appear to have inherited the developments of the Kushan empire in many aspects, they likely also gained from the developments of art produced in other regions and kingdoms — both previous and contemporaneous. It is helpful to also remember that artists and therefore styles of art may have been itinerant at various points in history.
Gupta period Buddhas are characterized by covered shoulders, a head full of tight curls that cover even the ushnisha, and ornately carved halos. Images of the Jina (the 24 great teachers and perfected beings of the Jain religion) from this period are closely similar to Buddha images, especially in the rendering of a head of tight curls. The Jina’s posture and adornment follows the iconographic prescriptions of Jain sacred imagery and emphasize immobility and austerity.
“Gupta” as a style
While using the Gupta dynastic label to categorize all art produced in the Gupta period is, as we have seen above, problematic, there are certain developments in style and iconography from the Gupta period that are important to note, such as the tendency to render deities as life-sized or larger and the consistent use of hierarchic scaling. See the Varaha panel at Udaigiri above, for example.
Workshops in the Gupta period also employed signature styles. Images of the Buddha from the Mathura region, for instance, were produced in mottled red sandstone. The Mathura workshops also preferred to render the folds of the Buddha’s robes as looped strings as opposed to the thick folds preferred by Gandharan workshops in the Kushan period. Buddha images from the region of Sarnath, on the other hand, were made from a yellowish-tan sandstone and are shown wearing smooth robes.
Scholars believe that portable Gupta period Buddhas, carried by pilgrims back to their homelands, played a role in the development of the Buddha image in the art of East and Southeast Asia. The Gupta Buddha would also influence later images of the Buddha in South Asia — such as those that were produced in the territory of the Pala dynasty (c. 700 – 1200) in eastern India. The Pala period saw the Buddha image develop even further and is notable for its inclusion of ornate crowns.
Gupta period sculpture and painting
In addition to its prolific production of Buddha images, the Gupta period is also known for its Hindu and Jain sacred imagery fashioned from terracotta, stone, and metal. Surviving terracotta examples include sculptural plaques that were meant to adorn the walls of temples.
The terracotta panel above shows the Hindu god Krishna (also an avatar of Vishnu) killing the horse demon Keshi. Krishna pushes the horse-demon back with his leg and sticks his elbow in Keshi’s mouth to stop the demon’s advance. If there is any doubt as to the aftermath of this encounter, the dead Keshi lies at the bottom of the panel.
Painting too was likely a popular art-form in the Gupta period, although sadly, few examples have survived. If the mural paintings at the Buddhist rock-cut caves of Ajanta are any indication, painting techniques by the fifth century were highly developed. Ajanta’s paintings are also priceless for the clues that they contain on the artistic achievements of the period; we only need look at the accessories and clothes worn by the protagonists of the murals as well as at the architectural spaces that they occupy to better know the style of jewelry, textiles, and secular architecture that was popular at that time.
Temple architecture
Most Gupta-period architecture that survives in-situ is religious in nature and is built from stone and brick. A modest temple structure known as number 17 at the sacred complex at Sanchi – famous for its great stupa, and believed to date to the early fifth century, gives an idea of the early style of Indian temple architecture.
Temple number 17 is flat-roofed, mostly unadorned, and has an attached portico marked by four pillars topped with lion capitals. The temple is quite different from another fifth century brick-temple at Bhitargaon that sits at the center of a square plan and would have once had an impressive shikara (pyramidal roof). Although the temple is heavily reconstructed today, it still preserves some of its sculptured terracotta panels, providing a glimpse of its original grandeur.
Another Gupta period temple, the sixth century Dasavatara temple at Deogarh (above), also sits at the center of a plinth (an architectural feature that becomes increasingly common in temple building). Like Bhitargaon, Deogarh features sculptured panels, although here, three large niches containing sacred imagery associated with the god Vishnu receive special prominence — each one featured on its own wall. The panels may have originally been located within an ambulatory that is now missing.
By the end of the sixth-century, hastened by military incursions and the loss of territories, the Gupta empire fell into decline. Nevertheless, the Gupta period’s formative developments in art, architecture, and religious iconography would have a lasting impact on the art and architecture of South and Southeast Asia.
References:
Frederick Asher, “Historical and Political Allegory in Gupta Art.” In Essays on Gupta Culture, ed. Bardwell Smith (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), pp. 55 – 57.
Catherine Becker, “Not your average boar: the colossal varaha at Eran, an iconographic innovation,” Artibus Asiae 70, no. 1, “To My Mind”: Studies in South Asian Art History in Honor of Joanna Gottfried Williams. Part II (2010): 123 – 149.
Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (London: Phaidon Press, 1997).
Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: an Alternative History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Partha Mitter, Indian Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Ju-Hyung Rhi, “From Bodhisattva to Buddha: the Beginning of Iconic Representation in Buddhist Art,” Artibus Asiae 54, no. 3 / 4 (1994): 207 – 225.
Bardwell L. Smith, Essays on Gupta Culture (Columbia: South Asia Books, 1983).
The Caves of Ajanta
by AJANTA SHAH
Hidden away in the hills of northwest India, some 200 miles from the busy streets of Mumbai, emerges a magnificent jewel of art and religion: the Ajanta Caves.
The caves, cut into the face of a mountain, form a horseshoe shape around the Wangorah River. They are an example of one of Indian’s unique artistic traditions known as rock cut temples. Ajanta consists of thirty caves, each dedicated to the life of the Buddha.
Each cave is filled with sculpture, wall murals, and ceiling paintings. Though much of this site has collapsed, what remains at Ajanta has allowed a glimpse into the artistic traditions of ancient India.
Monasteries and sanctuaries
The caves at Ajanta date from the second century B.C.E. to 650 C.E. and were cut into the mountainside in two distinct phases. Discovered by chance in 1819 by British soldiers on a hunt, the Ajanta Caves have become an icon of ancient Indian art, and have influenced subsequent artists and styles. The caves at the site are not numbered chronologically. Instead, their numbering is based on location, beginning with cave 1 on the north side of the horseshoe. All of the caves at Ajanta fall into the category of Vihara (monasteries with residence halls), or Chaitya-grihas (sanctuaries/stupa monument halls). Nevertheless, each cave has its own unique characteristics, making it difficult to write about Ajanta as a whole.
The Ajanta caves are engulfed in darkness. In fact, this lack of light is crucial to the experience at Ajanta; demanding the viewer’s time while intensifying a sense of the mysterious. There may have been dim artificial lighting created by oil lamps in the past. However, even today, the majority of the caves remain almost completely dark and without the help of artificial lighting, the caves remain in their original state.
Cave 1 is a magnificently painted Vihara (monastery), filled with wall murals, sculptures, and ceiling paintings, that date back to the fifth century. Originally, Cave 1 also had a porch which led to the main hall, however it has since collapsed.
The main hall of Cave 1 is a square in plan, with aisles along all four sides. Adjacent to these aisles are doorways leading to fourteen small chambers. Cave 1 contains twenty painted and carved pillars. Above the pillars are reliefs depicting tales from the life of Buddha (Jatakas). Located at the rear of the hall is a large shrine of the Buddha. The walls were originally covered in paintings, but today there are only nine surviving images, the most famous being the Bodhisattva Padmapani (Padmapani in Sanskrit literally translates into “one who holds the lotus”).
Avalokitesvara
This painting can be found to the left on the main shrine. It depicts one of the most beloved bodhisattvas, Avalokitesvara. The term “bodhisattva” refers to a person that has been awakened by the Buddhist spirit. According to Mahayana doctrine, Alavokitesvara postponed his ascension into Buddhahood until he assisted every being in achieving Nirvana. Avalokitesvara takes the largest numbers of forms across Asia. Originally, a masculine form, Avalokitesvara is also known as the feminine Guanyin in China, and Kuan Yin in Japan.
In the painting, his tan body, darkened only by the locks of curly hair, is delicate and elegant. He is adorned with pearls, amythyst, and other attributes of traditional Indian jewelry. On his head sits a magnificent crown, which at some point was most likely colored in extreme detail, but over time has faded. His eyes are lowered in a meditative state. His calm, spiritual face sets the tone and mood of the room. In his right hand, he holds a lotus blossom, which may represent his spiritual awakening.
Ceiling painting
If you look up from the beautiful wall paintings you see the geometric designs and motifs that adorn the ceiling. There are also images of peacocks, subtly decorated in blue paint made from lapis lazuli. One of the panels shows a decorative vegetable motif that looks similar to our modern day green bell pepper. In addition to this, there is a creature with a bull’s head whose body transforms into swirling curvaceous lines that blend into the floral decoration of the next panel.
The ceiling paintings are so beautiful that one of the panels, which depicts a running elephant surrounded by flowers, was chosen as the official logo of India’s Department of Tourism. The elephant is shown playfully galloping, as his trunk swirls close to his body.
The painting techniques at Ajanta are similar to European fresco technique. The primary difference is that the layer of plaster was dry when it was painted. First, a rough plaster of clay, cow dung, and rice husks were pressed on to the rough cave walls. This was then coated with lime paste in order to create a smooth working surface. The dark outlines of the figures were then added followed by a pallete of only 6 colors. The pigments the artists used came from natural resources: red and yellow ocher, crushed green malachite, blue lapis lazuli, etc.
In 1983, UNESCO World Heritage Centre selected the Ajanta Caves to be a part of their preservation endeavors. Today, the caves at Ajanta remain one of the most visited architectural sites in India. They are a living representation of one of the grandest artistic styles in Indian art and history.
The Cave of Shiva at Elephanta
On Gharapuri island on the west coast of India, not far from the city of Mumbai, is the rock-cut complex of monuments popularly known as Elephanta. Visitors travel by boat from Mumbai and then climb a hill either by train or by over a hundred stairs to reach the caves of Elephanta. A large reconstructed stone elephant (below) from Gharapuri that is believed to have inspired the references of Portuguese colonists to the island as a ilha do elefante (the island of the elephant) [1], is found today at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum.
Elephanta island has multiple Hindu caves and Buddhist monuments, as well as excavated caves that were left incomplete. This essay focuses on one particularly remarkable rock-cut cave that is an early example of an unconventional and innovative religious program in stone. The cave temple is dated to the sixth century and is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.
In Hinduism, god transcends form. But an emphasis on an underlying omnipotent and universal spirit (Brahman) allows for the existence of a large pantheon of deities. Each deity can, in turn, have many embodiments and a range of iconographic representations are employed in Hindu sacred art to tangibly portray the gods.
The cave of Shiva at Elephanta has at least ten distinct representations of Shiva; two of these – Shiva as Ardhanarishvara, in which Shiva and the goddess Parvati are joined as one, and Shiva as Gangadhara, in which Shiva is shown bearing the force of the river goddess Ganga’s descent to earth, are referenced below. Shiva’s manifestation as Sadashiva wherein the manifold aspects of Shiva are depicted on multiple faces is also discussed, as is the cave’s Shiva linga. Like Sasashiva, and the many other forms of Shiva at Elephanta, the linga references the all-pervading nature of the deity, but does so in the form of an aniconic (non-representational) symbol.
The resources that it must have taken to conceptualize, excavate, and execute this cave suggests a considerable investment on the part of its patron or patrons. Scholars have suggested that the cave may have been sponsored by Krishnaraja I (who ruled from c. 550 – 575 C.E), a known Shiva devotee and ruler of the Kalachuri kingdom that was active in the region in the sixth and seventh centuries. Krishnaraja’s coins have been found at the site, but the extent of the Kalachuris’ direct involvement with the cave remains unresolved.
A pillared hall with a shrine at the end
The interior of the cave measures approximately 130 x 130 feet.[2] Its pillared hall is lit by natural light from just three openings — one each at the east, the north, and the west ends of the cave. The openings at the east and the north sides of the cave serve as entrances with sunken courtyards and impressive porticoes. The opening on the west opens to a small open-air corridor that leads to a side shrine.
As we enter the cave from the eastern entrance, we encounter an impressive row of tall pillars and a large square shrine situated near the far west end of the cave (see image below). The pillars have fluted tops and cushion capitals and four small seated figures at each corner of their plain rectangular bases. At a height of about sixteen feet, carved beams with brackets that rest on the pillars’ capitals travel east to west in the cave’s ceiling. [3] With the exception of the nine large bas-reliefs (illustrated in the plan above) and the guardian figures on the shrine and on the cave’s south wall, the walls of the cave and of the shrine are undecorated.
The entire cave and everything in it can be seen as one large sculptural piece that embraces both the character of the hill from which it is carved and the design of built structures that were likely in vogue in the sixth century. The inclusion of the pillars in the cave gives the impression that they are weight-bearing columns that reinforce the roof as they would in a built structure, and that they are aided in that task by the ceiling beams.
A shrine for Shiva linga
The shrine near the far west end of the cave is carefully subtracted from the hill to appear free-standing. But the shrine, along with the Shiva linga within it, is a part and parcel of the hill. A short set of stairs on all four sides of the shrine leads to four open doorways and there is enough space within the shrine to allow the devotee room to circumambulate the linga. When devotees pray to the linga, they are praying to an aniconic representation of Shiva and acknowledging the sacred generative aspect of the universe.
Each of the shrine’s four entrances are flanked by majestic guardian figures who are as tall as the shrine. Some of these figures are accompanied by smaller attendants and hierarchic scale is employed to indicate the relative importance of the larger figures.
The guardians are shown wearing elaborate crowns and jewelry including earrings, armbands, necklaces, and belts. Each pair of guardians at each entrance is also shown in the tribhanga (three-bent pose) in such a way that they appear to balance one another. The figure to our left in the image above, for example, leans to their left whereas the figure to our right leans to their right. The resulting effect is subtle but provides a remarkable quality of naturalism to the enormous stone figures.
It is difficult to know for certain what the guardians once held in their hands. The extensive damage, particularly to the lower half of these figures and the cave’s bas-reliefs, was caused by artillery training conducted by Portuguese forces in the sixteenth century.
The many faces of Shiva
If we enter the cave again, this time via the northern entrance, we again encounter the same pillared hall. But as we move further into the cave, a centerpiece in shadow at the far end of the cave comes into view. Here we find a deeply recessed, nearly 21 foot tall, three-headed Shiva known as Sadashiva (see above). A fourth head at the rear and a fifth head at the top is implied. Again, tall guardian figures and attendants flank either side of the icon just as they do at the four entrances of the shrine dedicated to the aniconic linga.
We only see a part of Sadashiva, that is, from the chest upwards, and the suggestion is that the god is emerging from the mountain. The artists have carved the image with such skill that the broad shoulders of the central face appears to seamlessly carry the heads shown in profile. The faces each acknowledge an aspect of Shiva — the image at the center is calm and welcoming while the face to the viewer’s left shows Shiva’s ferocious aspect. His fierceness is emphasized by a twisted mustache, frowning expression, skulls and snakes in his matted hair, and earrings in the form of snakes. The face on the viewer’s right is meant to signify a gentler aspect of Shiva. This face is shown with soft curls, wearing a sweet-tempered smile, and carrying a lotus.
Theatrical opposites
The cave continues exploring Shiva’s various aspects in bas-reliefs that are carved in deeply framed niches that are as tall as the height of the cave. Eight sculptural panels — two each at the three entrances into the cave and two flanking the Sadhashiva are carved facing one another. Each representation of Shiva is large and impressive and the scenes are filled with subsidiary figures — divine and otherwise — who witness and participate in each episode. The subsidiary figures, even the gods, are rendered much smaller than Shiva.
The eight bas-reliefs are as follows:
Architectural historian George Michell has suggested that Elephanta’s artists intentionally wove an exploration of the active and passive moods of Shiva in the sculptural program of the cave’s bas-reliefs. [4] Michell’s theory is compelling; in the chart above, purple is used to denote the bas-reliefs that celebrate Shiva’s dynamic, energetic, and vigorous moods and the color blue is used to denote calmer episodes. This oppositional formula also extends to the iconic Sadashiva with its fierce and gentle aspects, as well as to the linga and Sadashiva as unmanifested and manifested representations of Shiva respectively.
The bas-reliefs that flank Sadashiva at the south wall are somewhat different in their antithetic message. To the viewers’ left we find Shiva and the goddess Parvati joined as one, in a manifestation known as Ardhanarishvara. As is common in representations of Ardhanarishvara, which translates literally to Shiva as half-woman, the deity is presented as a composite male and female figure. Fused at the exact center, the male half of the body is shown leaning on Shiva’s vahana (vehicle), the bull.
In the panel on the right, we see a representation known as Shiva Gangadhara, that is, Shiva as the bearer of the river Ganga. The river Ganges (also known as Ganga) is personified here as a three-headed goddess in the process of descending to earth via Shiva’s matted hair. By supporting goddess Ganga’s descent, Shiva softens the considerable force of the river’s descent to our world, which would otherwise shatter. Art historian Vidya Dehejia has pointed out that the goddess Parvati, conceivably annoyed at her husband’s role in the episode, is shown by the artist as moving away from Shiva in a subtle foreshadowing, perhaps, of disconcert. [5]
In Hinduism, images of the gods are embodiments of the gods and to enter a temple is to enter the home of god. Devotees are happy to take the pilgrimage necessary to see and to be seen by god in an act of darshan (auspicious sight). At Elephanta, in this grand cave temple with Shiva’s manifest and unmanifest forms and his fierce and pleasant selves, the intention appears to have been to offer the devotee much more. With each theatrical introduction to Shiva, the devotee is offered again and again the opportunity to honor and to know their god in a multitude of profound ways.
Footnotes:
[1] J. Gerson da Cunha, The origin of Bombay (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, c1993), p. 20.
[2] Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 443.
[3] Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1997), p. 125.
[4] George Michell, “The Architecture of Elephanta: An Interpretation.” In Elephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp. 23 – 24.
[5] Dehejia, p. 129.
Additional resources:
Carmel Berkson et al., ELephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983).
J. Gerson da Cunha, The origin of Bombay (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, c1993).
Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1997).
Wendy Doniger, “The Myths Depicted at Elephanta.” In Elephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983).
Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981).
George Michell, “The Architecture of Elephanta: An Interpretation.” In Elephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983).
Elephanta Caves, UNESCO World Heritage Site
3D tour of the Shiva cave at Elephanta
Elephanta: Spirituality set in stone
Shiva as the lord of yogis
Shiva dances
Shiva and Parvati play a game of dice at home on mount Kailasa
Shiva subdues Ravana as the demon shakes mount Kailasa
Shiva impales the demon Andhaka
Shiva and Parvati marry
The Cave of Shiva at Elephanta
On Gharapuri island on the west coast of India, not far from the city of Mumbai, is the rock-cut complex of monuments popularly known as Elephanta. Visitors travel by boat from Mumbai and then climb a hill either by train or by over a hundred stairs to reach the caves of Elephanta. A large reconstructed stone elephant (below) from Gharapuri that is believed to have inspired the references of Portuguese colonists to the island as a ilha do elefante (the island of the elephant) [1], is found today at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum.
Elephanta island has multiple Hindu caves and Buddhist monuments, as well as excavated caves that were left incomplete. This essay focuses on one particularly remarkable rock-cut cave that is an early example of an unconventional and innovative religious program in stone. The cave temple is dated to the sixth century and is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.
In Hinduism, god transcends form. But an emphasis on an underlying omnipotent and universal spirit (Brahman) allows for the existence of a large pantheon of deities. Each deity can, in turn, have many embodiments and a range of iconographic representations are employed in Hindu sacred art to tangibly portray the gods.
The cave of Shiva at Elephanta has at least ten distinct representations of Shiva; two of these – Shiva as Ardhanarishvara, in which Shiva and the goddess Parvati are joined as one, and Shiva as Gangadhara, in which Shiva is shown bearing the force of the river goddess Ganga’s descent to earth, are referenced below. Shiva’s manifestation as Sadashiva wherein the manifold aspects of Shiva are depicted on multiple faces is also discussed, as is the cave’s Shiva linga. Like Sasashiva, and the many other forms of Shiva at Elephanta, the linga references the all-pervading nature of the deity, but does so in the form of an aniconic (non-representational) symbol.
The resources that it must have taken to conceptualize, excavate, and execute this cave suggests a considerable investment on the part of its patron or patrons. Scholars have suggested that the cave may have been sponsored by Krishnaraja I (who ruled from c. 550 – 575 C.E), a known Shiva devotee and ruler of the Kalachuri kingdom that was active in the region in the sixth and seventh centuries. Krishnaraja’s coins have been found at the site, but the extent of the Kalachuris’ direct involvement with the cave remains unresolved.
A pillared hall with a shrine at the end
The interior of the cave measures approximately 130 x 130 feet.[2] Its pillared hall is lit by natural light from just three openings — one each at the east, the north, and the west ends of the cave. The openings at the east and the north sides of the cave serve as entrances with sunken courtyards and impressive porticoes. The opening on the west opens to a small open-air corridor that leads to a side shrine.
As we enter the cave from the eastern entrance, we encounter an impressive row of tall pillars and a large square shrine situated near the far west end of the cave (see image below). The pillars have fluted tops and cushion capitals and four small seated figures at each corner of their plain rectangular bases. At a height of about sixteen feet, carved beams with brackets that rest on the pillars’ capitals travel east to west in the cave’s ceiling. [3] With the exception of the nine large bas-reliefs (illustrated in the plan above) and the guardian figures on the shrine and on the cave’s south wall, the walls of the cave and of the shrine are undecorated.
The entire cave and everything in it can be seen as one large sculptural piece that embraces both the character of the hill from which it is carved and the design of built structures that were likely in vogue in the sixth century. The inclusion of the pillars in the cave gives the impression that they are weight-bearing columns that reinforce the roof as they would in a built structure, and that they are aided in that task by the ceiling beams.
A shrine for Shiva linga
The shrine near the far west end of the cave is carefully subtracted from the hill to appear free-standing. But the shrine, along with the Shiva linga within it, is a part and parcel of the hill. A short set of stairs on all four sides of the shrine leads to four open doorways and there is enough space within the shrine to allow the devotee room to circumambulate the linga. When devotees pray to the linga, they are praying to an aniconic representation of Shiva and acknowledging the sacred generative aspect of the universe.
Each of the shrine’s four entrances are flanked by majestic guardian figures who are as tall as the shrine. Some of these figures are accompanied by smaller attendants and hierarchic scale is employed to indicate the relative importance of the larger figures.
The guardians are shown wearing elaborate crowns and jewelry including earrings, armbands, necklaces, and belts. Each pair of guardians at each entrance is also shown in the tribhanga (three-bent pose) in such a way that they appear to balance one another. The figure to our left in the image above, for example, leans to their left whereas the figure to our right leans to their right. The resulting effect is subtle but provides a remarkable quality of naturalism to the enormous stone figures.
It is difficult to know for certain what the guardians once held in their hands. The extensive damage, particularly to the lower half of these figures and the cave’s bas-reliefs, was caused by artillery training conducted by Portuguese forces in the sixteenth century.
The many faces of Shiva
If we enter the cave again, this time via the northern entrance, we again encounter the same pillared hall. But as we move further into the cave, a centerpiece in shadow at the far end of the cave comes into view. Here we find a deeply recessed, nearly 21 foot tall, three-headed Shiva known as Sadashiva (see above). A fourth head at the rear and a fifth head at the top is implied. Again, tall guardian figures and attendants flank either side of the icon just as they do at the four entrances of the shrine dedicated to the aniconic linga.
We only see a part of Sadashiva, that is, from the chest upwards, and the suggestion is that the god is emerging from the mountain. The artists have carved the image with such skill that the broad shoulders of the central face appears to seamlessly carry the heads shown in profile. The faces each acknowledge an aspect of Shiva — the image at the center is calm and welcoming while the face to the viewer’s left shows Shiva’s ferocious aspect. His fierceness is emphasized by a twisted mustache, frowning expression, skulls and snakes in his matted hair, and earrings in the form of snakes. The face on the viewer’s right is meant to signify a gentler aspect of Shiva. This face is shown with soft curls, wearing a sweet-tempered smile, and carrying a lotus.
Theatrical opposites
The cave continues exploring Shiva’s various aspects in bas-reliefs that are carved in deeply framed niches that are as tall as the height of the cave. Eight sculptural panels — two each at the three entrances into the cave and two flanking the Sadhashiva are carved facing one another. Each representation of Shiva is large and impressive and the scenes are filled with subsidiary figures — divine and otherwise — who witness and participate in each episode. The subsidiary figures, even the gods, are rendered much smaller than Shiva.
The eight bas-reliefs are as follows:
Architectural historian George Michell has suggested that Elephanta’s artists intentionally wove an exploration of the active and passive moods of Shiva in the sculptural program of the cave’s bas-reliefs. [4] Michell’s theory is compelling; in the chart above, purple is used to denote the bas-reliefs that celebrate Shiva’s dynamic, energetic, and vigorous moods and the color blue is used to denote calmer episodes. This oppositional formula also extends to the iconic Sadashiva with its fierce and gentle aspects, as well as to the linga and Sadashiva as unmanifested and manifested representations of Shiva respectively.
The bas-reliefs that flank Sadashiva at the south wall are somewhat different in their antithetic message. To the viewers’ left we find Shiva and the goddess Parvati joined as one, in a manifestation known as Ardhanarishvara. As is common in representations of Ardhanarishvara, which translates literally to Shiva as half-woman, the deity is presented as a composite male and female figure. Fused at the exact center, the male half of the body is shown leaning on Shiva’s vahana (vehicle), the bull.
In the panel on the right, we see a representation known as Shiva Gangadhara, that is, Shiva as the bearer of the river Ganga. The river Ganges (also known as Ganga) is personified here as a three-headed goddess in the process of descending to earth via Shiva’s matted hair. By supporting goddess Ganga’s descent, Shiva softens the considerable force of the river’s descent to our world, which would otherwise shatter. Art historian Vidya Dehejia has pointed out that the goddess Parvati, conceivably annoyed at her husband’s role in the episode, is shown by the artist as moving away from Shiva in a subtle foreshadowing, perhaps, of disconcert. [5]
In Hinduism, images of the gods are embodiments of the gods and to enter a temple is to enter the home of god. Devotees are happy to take the pilgrimage necessary to see and to be seen by god in an act of darshan (auspicious sight). At Elephanta, in this grand cave temple with Shiva’s manifest and unmanifest forms and his fierce and pleasant selves, the intention appears to have been to offer the devotee much more. With each theatrical introduction to Shiva, the devotee is offered again and again the opportunity to honor and to know their god in a multitude of profound ways.
Footnotes:
[1] J. Gerson da Cunha, The origin of Bombay (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, c1993), p. 20.
[2] Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 443.
[3] Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1997), p. 125.
[4] George Michell, “The Architecture of Elephanta: An Interpretation.” In Elephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983), pp. 23 – 24.
[5] Dehejia, p. 129.
Additional resources:
Carmel Berkson et al., ELephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983).
J. Gerson da Cunha, The origin of Bombay (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, c1993).
Vidya Dehejia, Indian Art (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1997).
Wendy Doniger, “The Myths Depicted at Elephanta.” In Elephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983).
Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981).
George Michell, “The Architecture of Elephanta: An Interpretation.” In Elephanta – The Cave of Shiva (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983).
Elephanta Caves, UNESCO World Heritage Site
3D tour of the Shiva cave at Elephanta
Elephanta: Spirituality set in stone
Shiva as the lord of yogis
Shiva dances
Shiva and Parvati play a game of dice at home on mount Kailasa
Shiva subdues Ravana as the demon shakes mount Kailasa
Shiva impales the demon Andhaka
Shiva and Parvati marry