Asian Art and Architecture: Art & Design 382/582

Design List

113 Stupa Railing Bharhut Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

114 Maya’s Dream Bharhut Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

115 Chulakoka Devata Bharhut Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

111 Chaitya griha Bhaja Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

111 Vihara, cave 13 Bhaja Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

112 Indra, Small Vihara Bhaja Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

Plato’s Cave Surya, Small Vihara Bhaja Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

Plato’s Cave Small Vihara Bhaja Shunga 185 - 72 BCE

116 Great Stupa Sanchi Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

Plato’s Cave East Torana Sanchi Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

Plato’s Cave Doorguardian, East tor Sanchi Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

119 Shalabhanjika, East tor Sanchi Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

109 Chauri bearer Didarganj Maurya c 50 BCE - 50 CE

Plato’s Cave Ivory Sri [Pompeii] Vidisha (?) Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

117 Two Yakshi (ivory) Vidisha? Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

118 Crossbars, No. Torana Sanchi Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

120 Monkey Jataka Sanchi Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

Plato’s Cave Kasyapa Conversion, E T Sanchi Early Andhra c 50 BCE - 50 CE

The Shunga dynasty came to power in the Ganga plain through the overthrow of the Maurya. Pushiyamitra Shunga was a general in the service of the last Maurya Emperor, who usurped his throne. Buddhist texts also depict this Brahman general as anti-Buddhist and the leader of some sort of persecution of Buddhists. This is not well-understood today. There is some evidence of destruction of an early stage of Stupa One at Sanchi to suggest the possibility of such a persecution. But the general record of the Shunga period is one of a flourishing of Buddhist monument building throughout the subcontinent, north and south. The Shunga dynasty’s conventional dates are 185 to 72 BCE. We designate the cultural production of the period all over India by the period of its rule, following the model in later traditional Puranic accounts, though the Shunga’ rule extended only across the central Ganga region, not the vast area claimed by the Maurya.

The Satavahana or Andhra Empire ruled a good deal of the Dekkan plateau and some of central north India from the middle of the first century BCE to early fourth century CE. This area was constantly shifting, however, and many other, smaller regional dynasties ruled during this time, in various regions. Still it is the Andhras whom the Puranic lists credit as the major rulers of the era and so we name period after them. (Lee produces a date for the Andhra dynasty of 220 BCE to 236 CE.) For the purpose of looking at design it is useful to distinguish two cultural periods during their rule: Early Andhra of c 50 BCE to c 50 CE and Later Andhra of c 50 to 320 CE.

The art of the Shunga and Early Andhra periods is representative of the shravakayana phase of early Indian Buddhism, that completes the first half millennium of the Buddhist era, that the Buddha in early texts is reported to have said would be closest to the Dharma he offered. Besides offering the Vinaya rules for the monks discipline, the Sutra explanation of the Bhikkhus path toward enlightenment, there are the Jataka tales of the Buddhas past lives and his last life, as the Bodhisattva, Siddhartha. To the emblematic imagery the Maurya period we now have added specifically Buddhist narratives of the life of the Buddha in all his past lives, as a model for monastic and lay followers.

This was a world from which the Buddha has passed away, where the Sangha is encouraged provide both (1) the Arhat model for Buddha-like renunciation and meditation toward enlightenment and (2) a field for lay devotees to recognize the value of the Arhat model and to support it while contemplating their own movement in that direction.

In Lee 113 we see the set up in Calcutta, where there is one arched gateway (torana) and nearly a quadrant of the railing. The torana, reaching 20’, is double the height of the fence and has three cross bars. The railing itself is composed of uprights and cross bars fitted together in mortise and tenon fashion, based on the much more common forms of wood joinery. It is in monumental stone representation of fine wood craft. The uprights carry three sets of elliptical-sectioned cross-bars and a capping stone. This railing and its gateways are covered with a rich encrustation of decorative and narrative reliefs.

The stupa that stood within the railing was round in outline and so the fence curves to suit it. There was originally a gate in each of the four cardinal directions. The outside of the fence is relatively plain, except for decorative borders, but the inside is decorated with a profusion of floral and figurative roundels and a set of nearly life-sized figures. The capping stone of the railing and some of the roundels of the cross-bars carry narrative as well as decorative imagery. It was a very important "discovery" for the study of Buddhism in the Western world in the 19th century, as its many of these scenes carried label inscriptions were among the first proofs of what its imagery represented.

114 Maya’s Dream Bharhut Shunga (19") 185 -72 BCE

Maya’s Dream is typical of the narrative style at the site. It shows us the consistency of the Shunga period style across the vast sub-continent. The relief here is relatively low (bas relief), with each element depicted as a raised silhouette within a closed outline with rounded edges. We see Maya lying on her side, in a conceptual representation. That is, we see each element in a way that signifies its attributes typically rather than optically. Her face, shoulders, hips and legs are all shown full front, though she is lying on her side. Both feet are visible; there is no foreshortening or other optical perspective used. The same is more or less true for the other figures with her, the elephant of her dream and the cot on which she sleeps, are seen from above and the side.

This conceptual view, is a very effective one for telling the story, and one that achieves a fairly jovial effect. The artists have taken advantage of the flattened-out nature of the style, to create a set of rhythmical textures and forms that are quite esthetically engaging. There are the repeated imbrications on the girdles and headdresses. There is the contrast between the smoothness of the bodies and the rich textures articulating the details of dress and furniture. There is a linear rhythm set up in softly irregular contours of the separate elements as each figure or object as it stands out from the flatness of the ground. And then there is the wonderful flatness of the elephant’s bulk and the overall composition of contours within the roundel shape.

Indeed India is one of the few places in the world where the static implications of a square or circular composition is regularly rendered successful y. And we can see how this is done here, as the otherwise static frame is animated by the circular orientation given to the design within it by the separate contours and the device, common at the site, of shifting the horizontal axis by a few deft degrees. The inscription identifying the scene is seen just above it. Maya, the Bodhisattva’s (Buddha-to-be’s) mother dreams of a white elephant descending from the heavens to enter her side.

115 Chulakoka Devata Bharhut Shunga (7’) 185 -72 BCE

Full standing figures, like the one inscribed Chulakoka Devata, are all on the inside of the railing, facing in towards the stupa. They are represented as local deities and royalty present and venerating the stupa. This one is slightly smaller than life-sized (at a bit over 4 1/2’). She is a Yakshi-like deity (devata) portrayed in the same high style feminine attire we have we have just seen: rich bangles encircling her arms and legs, a diaphanous dhoti falling in elaborate pleats between her legs, multi-stranded girdle and necklaces, and embroidered and plaited sashes in her hair and around her waist. She wears heavy earrings.

Chulakoka Devata stands on the back of a smaller figure, an elephant, holding onto a tree. Her left leg and arm each encircle the tree, as she reaches up with her right arm to grasp one of its branches. The motif of the young woman grasping the tree and sending it into blossom is called a shalabhanjika. It is a symbol of female fecundity. Indeed, this is the very pose, holding onto a tree branch, in which the Buddha’s mother stood while giving birth in the Lumbini grove. Above the devata’s head we see a blossoming Ashoka tree.

The style of the composition is typically Shunga. Her entire form, indeed the entire relief, is cut to emphasize the flatness of the block from which it stands out. The relief is several inches deeper here than in either of the reliefs we have seen previously, but the style of the rounded off contour drawing is maintained. But it is more than this. The elephant, the goddess, and the tree are each rendered with an interest in enjoying the flatness of its uppermost surface. The elephant shows its flatness off to fine caricatural effect, the tree’s leaves and flowers take on peculiarly insistent rhythms. And the goddess? It is the flattening out of her calves and the sashes that maker her form so enjoyable. There is a star tattoo in her belly to emphasize its flatness and her breasts are shown as if she were leaning against a glass plate. Or we may look at the sweep of her pose, the swinging "S" curve of her arms around the tree, echoed by her leg and then the elephant’s trunk. The total is a simple style, but a very sophisticated one.

The most literal translation of chaitya is heap or pile. And that is a fairly accurate description of a stupa, the reliquary burial mound in which the remains of a great being, such as a Buddha or Arhat, would be placed. A structure housing such a stupa or chaitya would be a chaitya griha (a chaitya hall).

What is most interesting about the chaityahall at Bhaja is that is it a giant sculpture. It is a careful reproduction of a structural stupa hall, chiseled out of the living rock of a mountainside. So careful is the reproduction of the wood, brick, and plaster building upon which it is modeled, that one can—"""""as with the, Ajivaka cave, Lomas Rishi—recreate the model in some detail.

What we see in Lee’s illustration 111 is Bhaja’s caves 11, 12., and 13: a pair of two-story monastic dormitory’s and the chaityagriha they enclose. The hall is a tall barrel-vaulted room encircled by a simple colonnade and outer ambulatory. It ends in a semicircular apse, that handsomely echoes and amplifies the form of the reliquary mound it was created to enshrine.

The stupa, the reliquary mound itself, is composed of a cylindrical (medhi) base, and a domical upper section (anda) capped by a cube of vedika railings. (As we will see, this was originally topped by an parasol (chattra). The base has an elegant molding below and a rail carved in relief at the top. The stupa represents the burial mound erected over the Buddha’s relics, and it is thus specifically a symbol of the parinirvana, Buddhism’s ultimate goal. At the same time it is more generally a symbol of the Buddha himself by depicting the resting place of all that was left of it, a few fragments of bone and ash. Because it had actual relics embedded in it, this was not only a symbol, but an actual talisman of the Buddha and the Parinirvana.

The griha that houses the stupa simulates a palatial hall with an arched roof supported by pillars and decorated with rich railings, window grills, and arches of interlocking mortise and tenon joinery. The plain octagonal pillars slant in, as if to withstand the outward thrust of the arches, as they to depict the form of contemporary wooden structures. People are represented standing on some of the balconies. A large female figure stands out from the pylon on one side. She seems to be a Yakshi, like the others, in attendance at the chaitya hall. The hall is composed of simple relationships. It is 26 1/2 feet wide, just that tall, and more-or-less twice that deep, (59 feet). The stupa, and the hall’s lower story are half the height of the hall.

No longer present at the hall is the original facade, that once closed off most of the broad opening. Though there are large holes in the platform where a structural facade was anchored and small holes across the great arch indicating where and how it was anchored to the rock. Other structural additions are found in the surviving teak arches of the hall. Elements of the design that the original excavators could not maintain in the progress of their excavation, they added in structural materials. So, some beams are represented in the stone of the cliff and some in attached wood. The finished design would have been whitewashed and possibly painted, so that it would all blend together as one fabric.

Our date for the hall is based in part upon the style of the architectural representation and the writing in the inscriptions found on the beams and in part on carbon-14 tests of the wood.

The layout reveals the structure’s use. The stupa is to be approached and circumambulated as an object of veneration. The hall’s form not only amplifies the stupas shape but establishes an inner and outer circumambulatory as well as a handsome setting. The rite is called pradakshina, going around to the right. It is more appropriate to the lay devotees, seeking merit for their expression of devotion, than to the monk, whose appropriate activity was disciplined living and meditation in search of enlightenment.

Flanking the stupa hall on both sides are sixteen vihara dormitory’s, rectangular halls with flat roofs lined on all sides by small cells for individual monks or pairs of monks. These spaces also are decorated with reliefs of railings and arches. We will find this contrast of rectangular dormitories and arched worship halls a regular feature among the rock-cut sangharama (monasteries).

112 Indra, Small Vihara (cave 19) Bhaja Shunga (60") 185 -72 BCE

According to Lee the image of "Indra over the court of an earthly king" and the accompanying Surya (Sun) god image represent the pre-Hindu, Vedic, culture from which Buddhism developed. Indra, the Vedic warrior chieftain and bearer of the thunder bolt, is shown here mounted on his elephant, and accompanied by an attendant, as they fly over a scene composed of worship trees and a king in his court. Indra is shown wearing a great turban and bulbous earrings and garlands. The attendant is a bit smaller and seated behind, carrying his standards and banners. The king sits in a wicker throne, entertained by musicians and dancers. The trees are special ones surrounded by railings and decorated by garlands. One even appears to be producing maidens as if fruit. Indra flies above the scene, an elephant goad that may symbolize a thunderbolt in his hand, as his storm cloud-elephant uproots a tree.

The style of the relief is distinctively conceptual, with relatively linear and stiff depictions. The relief is low. The figures are depicted by rounding off the contours of their outlines. It is a style that seems in many ways to be based on turning drawing or painting into sculpture. Few items overlap. There is no attempt to show perspective. Lee calls this style archaic. He means that it seems to go with the early stage in the development of visual imagery. We shouldn’t suppose that it is a primitive image. Indeed it is such an engaging one that there is hardly a book on India’s art that will do without it.

As Lee points out in his discussion the Indra scene, is located in the porch of Vihara 19 at Bhaja, where it is one of two non-Buddhist subjects, flanking an entrance. [Though it is the entrance to one cell, not the vihara, as he says.] So, what is the meaning of such a non-Buddhist god in a Buddhist monument, where there is no image of the Buddha itself? The meaning is found by putting the image back into its context, both its physical context and its social context.

If we pull back from the Indra scene we see that it is one of a pair of images flanking a monk’s cell. It is the cell closest to the light. The Surya scene, of another great Vedic sky god lies on the opposite side of the door. Indeed both reliefs represent scenes of their respective deities approaching the doorway. If we look at the doorway to the inner vihara we will see doorguardians doing more or less what we see here. The fact is, our Indra is not an isolated image of the non-Buddhist god, but part the depiction of a pair of Vedic deities being subordinated to a Buddha.

As the attendants in the reliefs are shown flanking their more important deities, so these deities are the smaller figures flanking the Arhat who lived within the cell. We need to remember that the monks in some of the cells at Bhaja would have been considered fully realized arhats; they were not just monks but actual Buddhas themselves. As there were 500 arhats alive at the moment of Shakyamuni’s parinirvana, so there were in the first generation’s after his passing a good number of monks considered arhats. At Bhaja itself, in excavation 18, nearby there were fourteen stupas under an escarpment, several of which had inscriptions on them naming the Arhat whose relics were in them.

What we see in the Indra scene, then, is not a Buddhist veneration of a Vedic deity, but a subordination of a Vedic deity the Buddha’s Dharma. An important lesson here is the way in which Buddhism saw the contemporary Indian tradition. It didn’t reject it or ignore it, it was a variation of it which more or less accepted its claims—a world of supernatural as well as natural beings, where reincarnation and karma were problems to be solved—but offered an interpretation of those ideas wherein salvation was available anyone who followed the path of the Buddha’s model. Indra and Surya were neither particularly revered or denied, they were deemed examples of prestigious beings who were ultimately subordinate to those on the path of enlightenment.

Bhaja is the site of a monastic complex or Sangharama (Sangha residence) : it is composed of both vihara and chaitya. And like most Buddhist monastic complexes it is located outside major habitation centers, but along a major trade route. In this case it is located a mile or so south of the great trade route linking the Arabian Sea ports around modern Mumbai (Bombay) at the top of the Dekkan with southern India. It was about a hundred miles inland.

The monks needed seclusion from the cities and even villages to pursue their meditation and other disciplines with as little distraction as possible. And yet they also need access to the lay community that could feed and otherwise support them materially while they focused their attention on the meditation path to enlightenment.

It was D. D. Kosambi who first noted with care the fact that the great Sangharama were not merely located away from population centers, but that they were located at strategic points along the major trade routes. Kosambi worked out two explanations for this phenomenon. The first was that traders were among the Buddhist main patrons. The second was that in trade route sangharama the monks would not only be in a convenient place to receive support from passing traders, but they would also be in a place that traders of all types cold benefit from their presence. Trade in the early years of the common era was a hazardous occupation, as many Buddhist tales make clear. Governments were relatively wean and decentralized, and protection from robbers outside of the cities where an army was garrisoned was not likely. A large monastic complex, by contrast was an ideal site to stop and store goods while during ones travels.

The Early Andhra Period

The Early Andhra period sees a shift in the artistic style in the direction of a more complex and refined sculptural style as represented at the long-lived, royally patronized site of Sanchi, in central India. Sanchi lies a half a days walk south of Vidisa, beside the great trade route running from the Ganga to the ports on the Arabian sea. It would have been down this road that Ashoka’s son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta would have passed as they left their mother’s home on their way south to become Buddhist missionaries in Lanka. Under the title of Chaityagiri (or Chaitya hill) the sangharama there is referred to in the Lankan historical chronicles.

Sanchi was thus already in existence in Maurya times, and fragments of highly polished stone as well as a inscribed Ashokan pillar and capital, almost identical to the examples at Sarnath, are located at there. At some time in the Shunga era a second stupa was built on the path leading up to the hill top, while the first stupa was doubled in size to about 112’ in diameter while a set of railings was built around it with openings in the four cardinal directions. The diameter of the railings stretched to around 140’. A number of smaller stupas and viharas were built around the site from this time on. The great stupa is conceived of as a hemisphere. The curve of its outer elevation is more or less exactly that of its radius, with the top of the harmika (high place) created upper railing falling on this line. At just under 70’ the tip of the chattra may is not quite equal to the radius of the railing, though this may be an accident of the sites restoration.

The great stupa is a stone-faced, solid rubble mound articulated with sandstone details at several points. It has a cylindrical base and a semicircular dome, leveled off near the top for a square of railing out of which rose a triple parasol (chattra). On the north it has a double staircase that rises to an upper pradakshina path with its own miniature railing. Originally the stupa was finished with a smooth layer of plaster and likely color. We have an idea of the relics placed into the three larger stupas of the site from treasure hunting excavations of the 1840’s. The stone casket found in the Shunga stupa down the hill (#2 at the site) was inscribed with the names of 8 of Shakyamuni’s closest deciples, and the casket found in Andhra period stupa 3 was inscribed with the names of Maudgalyayna and Sariputra, the Buddha’s two chief deciples. Thus the casket found in the great stupa, though uninscribed has been supposed to hold the only relics which could be more prestigious, those of the master itself.

The symbolism of the stupa we have already mentioned, what we have not considered is the process by which they are used. As the symbols of the Buddha, whose relics are often included, and of the parinirvana, the stupa was an object of for veneration of the Buddha and the Dharma that the Buddha represented. Indeed there are three possible relics that may energize a stupa: (1) the remains of a Buddha, (2) things that have been directly associated with a Buddha such as its begging bowl or the site of a major life event, and (3) bits of Dharma in the form of fragments of scripture.

The stupa could be used in three ways by Buddhists. Pilgrims visiting the stupa could offer veneration for the Buddha and the Dharma by bringing it the sort of gifts one would bring to any great being such as garlands or music and dance, and by doing the circumambulation that subordinated themselves to it and brought them within its precinct and to its upper level. Lay devotees expected to gain merit toward an improved next life and eventual enlightenment from such attention.

A second means of benefit came from the reading of the stories of the Buddhist lore that decorated such an elaborate stupa as Sanchi’s. This could bring merit, but more important it could bring enhanced understanding of the Dharma. The third opportunity came with the creation of the stupa and its augmentation or maintenance, for which donors also expected to gain merit toward a better future existence, but could also expect the direct reward of community recognition in this very life.

The individual crossbars of the railings of the great stupa, for instance, carry the inscriptions of those who paid for them. Just what order the gateways of the stupa were created in is not yet clear, but it seem agreeable to most specialists to date their creation as a set the last decade preceding and the first following the turn of the common era. An inscriptions on the inside of the middle crossbar of the southern gateway’s inner side says that it is the work of the foreman of the artists of the Andhra ruler Sri Satakarni. Another inscription, on a scene on the eastern upright of that gateway records that it is the "creation " of the ivory carvers of Vidisa. Whether they did the actual carving or paid for it is not clear.

The gateways are called torana (arches). They stand about 30’. Each has a pair of uprights supporting three crossbars, more or less matching the three levels of rails below. They are almost entirely covered heraldic and narrative imagery.

Some of the imagery is, like that at Bharhut, devoted to depicting supernatural beings in perpetual attendance at the site. These include doorguardians at the entrances.

The female figures acting as brackets in the form of shalabhanjika, mature females bringing trees into blossom with the touch of their feet while they hold onto an upper branch are another example. Compared to the figurative imagery of the Shunga period we can see a more fully developed mass. The legs here are fully modeled and the breasts if exaggerated are a mark of this same development. The full effect in the undeniable sensuosity of the imagery which is read much more as the organic being it represents than the slab of stone in female form seen at Bharhut.

And yet this piece too has its richly textured rhythms in the ribbed girdle and anklets and the wonderful mango tree above her head. And, if we have the opportunity of seeing the figure in profile or from the rear, we can also see how much of the slabness of the stone is still maintained in the simplicity of the full front pose and the rendering. She does not "pivot in space" as Lee says, according to my view. but he is right to point out archaic elements in her depiction, as we can see in the angular cut off of her hair in back or the slabbing off or her fanny.

Though Lee has placed the chauri bearer from Didarganj, near Pataliputra (Patna) as into the Maurya period, most Indian specialists have more recently attributed it to the Early Andhra period. The reasons for this shift are revealing of both how little precision we have for much or our early dating and of how they are arrived at. It was the piece’s polished finish, once universally supposed to be "Maurya Polish" that was the original justification for its earlier date. The majority of its other stylistic features are common from the Maurya period through the Early Andhra. These being its massive proportions, its generally naturalistic form and the rigid and simple symmetry that some have described as a back profile attached to a front profile and its decoration of dhoti and associated jewelry.

What has changed since that time has not been as detailed or rigorous a set of new understandings as one might wish, though it has been enough to convince specialists, given how little evidence we have to go on. High polish is not seen as a characteristic that, though characteristic of a good deal of Maurya material, cannot be limited to Maurya period discovery or invention or exclusive use. Some pieces with it are now recognized as possibly earlier, and a good number of unquestionably later pieces evidence it as well. The 19th century supposition was a useful attempt to sort out material based on characteristics definitely associated with a particular time. Later precision has allowed us to move beyond it.

The piece itself is exquisite. It was "discovered" in recent times washed up near the Ganga at Didarganj. Its previously buried condition is the likely cause of its preservation in such fine condition. Preserved as finely as she is, we can see how many of her more abraded and weathered brothers and sisters may once have appeared. The dhoti of thin cotton is shown clinging to her body as a lower garment revealing form. The actual wrapping of the garment is clearly indicated with its gathering of folds falling handsomely in front. The dhoti is further supported by an elaborately constructed girdle with lotus bud clasps connecting five separate strands of cauri shells. The belt covers the dhoti, whose front gathers are pulled over it.

Barefoot, she wears a great metalwork anklet on each leg. She wears a pearl or beaded necklace in channivira form dipping down between her breasts to accentuate and separate them. Her earrings are thick tubes, most likely intended to indicate hollowed out gold. There are more beads in her hair. It is the large forehead decoration that has been taken to indicate her Early Andhra date. This is an ornament seen prominently at Sanchi, but not known earlier. Taken along with the accentuated massiveness of the images breasts and equally fleshy and naturalistic effect of the belly and the modeling in general, the work seems more closely allied to Sanchi than it does to such works as the Besnagar Yakshi with whom Lee illustrates her and most pervious scholars placed her as well.

The chauri (yak or horse-tailed fly whisk) in her right hand is an indication of her role as an attendant to some more important figure, possibly still to be washed up at Didarganj (?). This arm is further emphasized by the swag of fabric running across her arm, which was apparently a shawl, that draped down behind and rose similarly over the left arm hanging at her hip. She is quite possibly one of a pair of attendant figures, with a symmetrical pair holding a chauri in its left hand.

And thus far I’ve said nothing of the exquisite finish of her face that preserves the crisp detail that once probably marked much of the art of the time, but has since been lost to the wear and tribulation of history and the vulnerability of even stone. All convexity, cheeks, lips, eyes, nose. And what to say of her voluptuous hips, belly and breasts? She is a picture of the luxurious ideal of the time.

The 10" ivory image found in the ruins of Pompeii is unquestionably a product of this same era, and likely the same workshops. Her decoration, demeanor and jewelry is more or less the same an that on the torana shalabhanjika. The style of depiction is identical. Her forehead ornament is like the one on the Didarganj chauri bearer. She has a pair of supporting figures of smaller scale supporting her on two sides. A recent cleaning has revealed the letters "S" and "i", indicating that she was likely intended to be Sri, the Indian goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, who is fond in another form on the gateways.

Could this be an actual work by the ivory carvers of Vidisa? It seems possible. As it may also suggest more strongly that their style was closely related to that on the gateways and that the same artists may have indeed worked themselves on them as well.

The pair of women coming through the torana on the ivory plaque found in the Begram treasure hoard is close to both the ivory Sri and the figures on the Sanchi toranas. The hoard was found along the trade route connecting India with the famous Silk Route running from China to the east to Rome to the west. It is a good indication not only of how Indian art traveled to the outside world, but of how designs were circulated within the subcontinent.

Our images of the torana crossbars is too small to read well, but we can see the richness of the imagery compiled there and recognize how an available monk or lay devotee could use them to instruct others.

One element that is readable is the triratna signs that we can see rising above both East and Southern gateways. The difficulty again is that for all of our confidence that these are triratna symbols, we cannot be sure which elements of the visual image correspond with which of the three jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.

My best estimate is that the wheel like shape below stands for the Dharma, a this was so often referred to as the wheel of the law. In this case the three-pointed shape at the top may refer to the Sangha (the outer two prongs) holding the Buddha (the inner floral shape) within it. The inner shape corresponds in form to the srivatsa, an aniconic representation of Sri, the wealth deity, and thus possibly also an alternative image of the Buddha, whose wealth is the Dharma.

Far fetched and contorted? Yes. But also possible. Though it is also quite possible my attempt to over analyze a sign that represents the triratna as a whole. Or maybe it is just a beautiful bit of abstract decoration, as the elephants or winged lions perched on the same crossbars.

On the inside of the middle cross-bar is found a representation of scenes surrounding the Buddha’s enlightenment. On the left we see Sujata coming through a single arched torana to present the meal that the Buddha consumed before his climactic meditation. From the right we see monsters of Mara’s host to the middle we find a humorous caricature of one of his enticing daughters and Mara himself, facing in toward the empty seat beneath the tree, that symbolizes the presence of Siddhartha at the moment that he is becoming the Buddha.

Once again it is a non-iconic (aniconic) presentation.

The Monkey (Mahakapi) Jataka, the story of the Buddha’s previous life as the king of a band of monkeys, doesn’t hesitate to represent him before his enlightenment. In this case the scene has a more complex perspective, which include a number of overlaps and an amazingly large cast of characters. The subject is a hunting scene in which the King of Benares comes with his army to capture a monkey whose skin his queen covets. Simultaneous depiction allows us to see the King of Benares, marked by his great turban, coming on his horse below and then seated beneath a tree above. The monkey king, is seen more than once also. First he is seen making a bridge of his body to help his fellow monkeys escape across the river. Then he too is shown under the tree, in conversation with the king.

The scene is a complex one with trees on both sides of the river that divides the panel and numbers of warriors, hunters, musicians and dancers accompanying the King and as many monkeys, deer, birds, fish and crocodile on the animal side.

[We’ll do a fuller analysis in class]

Census:

9 monkeys (including two images of the Monkey king)

2 deer

6 fish

1 tortoise

2 views of king of Benares

8 in the retinue of musicians and warriors

3 hunters

This is what we call aniconic imagery. The Buddha’s story is being told, but the Buddha appears only in the guise of the invisible man. The explanation seems to be that since one of the prime philosophical positions of early Buddhism was the absolute disappearance of the Buddha, it would be inappropriate to depict him. But the fact is, no explicit explanation for this has been found in the texts. ]

replace by Great Departure

What we see in the drawing is a pretty close equivalent of the style we have seen in relief and sculpture in the round. Figures within compact outlines with very few overlaps set into a rich ground of trees and bits of architecture. A cast of voluptuous women and turbaned men in the same dress and more or less the same level of representational realism. There is even a certain suggestion of the play of rhythmically repeated patterns contrasting smooth human flesh. As Lee points out, the paintings themselves are not simple outlines but modeled in light and shade.

Lee’s suggestion that the painters were more complex in their conceptualization of multiple figures in space is an interesting one. His suggestion that painters were, therefore, rated above sculptors in the hierarchy of artists is more problematic. This was true in China, where he has specialized, but it is not known to be a factor in India. Indeed the very idea that the same artists did not do both painting and sculpture is one that would be difficult to prove.