The Arts of Buddhist India in the Boston Museum Author(s): John Rosenfield Source: Bulletin of the Museum of Fine

Arts, Vol. 63, No. 333 (1965), pp. 130-167 Published by: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4171435 Accessed: 17/11/2010 18:29
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The

Arts

of

Buddhist

India

in the BostonMuseum

redesigning and renovation of the Indian galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts has brought the collection into new and vital focus. Cleaned and displayedin strikinginstallations,works which had been familiarto generations of Bostoniansnow standout with revived interestand importance.The collection has in every sensebeen placedin a crispand bright new light. For over thirty yearsthe assemblingand interpretationof these works were guided by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, an outspoken, versatilegenius who combined early training in the science of geology with an ever increasingdevotion to philosophy and metaphysics.Coomaraswamy laid some of the solid foundation stones of Indian art history in his articles in the Museum's Bulletin, in his History of Indianand Indonesian Art, and in his essays on the ideological basis of Indian aesthetics. He also played a marked role in the cultural renaissanceof modern India by his eloquent, uncompromising affirmationof traditionalAsian spiritualvalues and of their universal significance. Since Coomaraswamy's death in I947, however, field excavations and special studies have releaseda torrent of historical data which has required new efforts to organize and control. This has by no means invalidated Coomaraswamy's insights into the ideological substratumof the arts, nor has it solved all vexing questions of chronology and iconographicinterpretation.But the historicalpicturehas changed radicallyso in some parts. New views of the stylistic and iconic evolution of Indian art have emerged, and it is now possible to ask questions which were not germane a generation ago. The Museum of Fine Arts is one of the few places outside India where under one roof the student can trace much of the growth of India'sconceptions of the artsand observe the manner in which the various traditions- Buddhist or Jaina, Hindu or Islamic, that of Rajas or of primitive villagers - reached their aesthetic fulfillment. From this rich arrayof material,I should like to single out some of the objectswhich were made to serve the Buddhist faith and to considerthem as illustrationsof a new theory of the evolution of Buddhist art.'
HE

IT is possible to see the arts of the Buddhist community as an autonomous and dis-

tinctive aesthetic tradition. Indeed, these comprised the first mature expression of Indian art following the collapse of the prehistoric Harappa (or Indus Valley) Civilization. Needless to say, aesthetic attitudes, decorative motifs, and folkloristic
130

themes were shared with the Jaina and Hindu schools, but the Buddhist tradition was increasinglyflavored by the specialcharacterof the doctrines of the faith. This was a faith for which meditationremainedthe centraldisciplineleading to the attainment of spiritualgrace; it was a faith for which the most characteristic images were those of a sage seatedin deep contemplationor dispensingthe fruit of his meditations, the BuddhistDharma (Figs. II, 12, I8). Even though theological doctrineswere subject to debate and change and were divided into separatesectarianlines, they nonetheless exerted a pervasive and unifying power, like that of a magnetic field, over the realm of artisticexpression. As a result, the evolution of Indian Buddhist art, despite tortuous problems of particularhistoric detail, appearsas clear and consistent as that of Greek sculpture from the Archaic to the Hellenistic stages. It is not nearly so familiar to Western students of the history and theory of art, but it should be taken into account by those who ask whether one may legitimately find certain lawful or predictable elements in the structureof artistic traditions. There is no doubt that historically there was a time when Indian Buddhist art did not exist, a time when it came into being, grew, and flourished in many places, a time when it diminished and then ceased to exist in its homeland. The full process,from beginning to end, took nearly fifteen hundred years, and the forms of Buddhist art - in the largest sense - appear to have developed in an orderly, irreversibleway, and in a manner consistent with the objectives of the faith. Within this time, five distinct stages of development can be defined which are, for the most part, entirely clear and distinct throughout the land.2 I. Germinal THE origins of Indian Buddhist art are clear and even abrupt. They are seen in the monuments associatedwith Asoka, Emperor of the Mauryan dynasty, who placed the vast resourcesof his stateat the service of the Buddhist Church. They are primarily a seriesof stone columns with animal capitalsused by the Emperor for proclamations at Buddhist sanctuaries.While they were erected over a number of years, 250 B.C. can serve as a convenient referentpoint for these works over two hundred yearsafterthe deathof Sakyamuni. The examples of Mauryan art are otherwise extremely rare and no major work may be seen outside India.3Their importance, however, exceeds their numbers, for they comprise the very beginning of the continuous history of Indian art itself. Before this time, folk arts such as terra-cottadolls and animisticvotive figurineshad been made; decorative arts flourishedin the ornamentationof furnitureand luxury goods like mirrorsand cosmetic boxes. But for the period in which the most original and exalted of India's religious texts were composed - the Vedas, Brahmanas, - and the time of the career of Sakyamuni himself, Indians carved no Upanishads statue, built no temple, created no great palace which has survived to the present. Indeed, most evidence indicates that the making of such things was either unimportant or was anathema to the spiritual values which dominated Indian culture. This in itself is one of the most extraordinaryfacts in the entire history of art, and the reasons for it have never been thoroughly explored. The ending of this long
I 3I

span of indifferenceto the monumentalartsmay well have been due to the Emperor Asoka; it was certainlya symptom of the profound changesin the socialand spiritual order of India wrought by him and by the faith which he adopted, a faith which he helped change into a religion for laymen as well as for smallcommunitiesof monks. The Asokan animal capitalsare splendidheraldicemblems, but they by no means comprise an iconic language of the faith. They do possess, however, two stylistic featureswhich are importantones in the later Buddhist tradition.The Lion Capitals for example (Fig. i), were inspiredlargely by the sumptuous of Sarnathand SanchT,
i. AsokanLion Capital.Sandstone.Sarnath,ca. 250 B.C. Sa,rnathMuseum.

8~~~'Fj

132

art of Achaemenid Iran.They are imperiousin mien, heraldic,their surfaces polished to a high gloss. The absorptionof Iranianelements into Buddhist arts was to recur of the faith. often in the future,reflectinga cosmopolitanismwhich was characteristic Far more than orthodox Brahmans, the Buddhists welcomed those born outside the sanctifiedHindu caste system as well as foreign ideas - a major factor in Buddhism's rise to the statusof Asia's foremost universalreligious system. On the other hand, the Rampurva Bull Capital, for example (Fig. 2), has an amazingly sympathetic, intuitive feeling for the nature of the animal. The bulk and solidity of the
2.

Asokan Bull Capital. Sandstone. Rampurva, ca. 250 Indian Museum, Calcutta.

B.C.

a
I33

3. Bust of a Yakshi. Red sandstone.

Indian,from Bharhut,ca. I20

Ross Collection. 31.435

B.C. H. 1934

inches.

I34

in conception andreveals, at an earlydate, that deep bull is stronglysculpturesque is of which a the Indiannational for stone tradition. major aspect affinity sculpture asa brief,isolated The question the Asokan monuments stand moment of whether in history,the creations of an inventivegenius,or whetherthey weremorebroadly whichsucceeded basedandconnected with the artistic them,is stillunsolved. stages on centered the It is boundup with a long standing datingof a groupof controversy folk deities as Patna stoneimagesof such the the Yakshi Yakshas, large,impressive andBarodiYakshas. with andthe Parkham of Didargafnj, together Coomaraswamy, of scholars on the subject, heldthatthesebelonged to the timeof Asoka the majority themwith the figural otherscholars, or shortly however,wouldcorrelate thereafter; solutionof this problemhas been epoch.4A satisfactory stylesof the next artistic hamperedby the rarityof the statuesthemselvesand of supportingevidence. however,further activityis likelyto providemoredata. archaeological Fortunately, II. Early THE Museum is especially richin material drawnfrom someof the most important
monuments of this period, which lasted from ca. I25
B.C.

to A.D. 50. These carvings

reflectthe pioneereffortsof the growingBuddhist sanctuaries to communicate in visualtermswith the largenumbers of newly converted also reveal laymen.They form to embodythe spiritual the severeproblemof findingan appropriate aesthetic valuesof the faith.Thereis no question thatthe worksof thisagearemoreprimitive andlesselegantthan,say,the AsokanLionCapital of Sarnath, for after technically the the fallof the Mauryas andthe withdrawal of imperial availresources support, and the unifyingspiritof a able to the Buddhist were less generous communities singlegreatpatronwas lost. The result,however,is a style of greatdiversityand and the vigor, one bornof the effortsof local ivory- or woodcarvers, goldsmiths, makersof ceramicfigurinesto adapttheir old, small-scale craft to monumental in stone. sculpture The oldestBuddhist iconicimagerywas in manyways an assortment of miscellaneoussecular motifswhich had been relatedor adaptedto Buddhistthemes.A India(Fig.3), datable in Central typicalexampleis the femalefigurefromBharhut fromca. I20 B.c. Tattooed overherfaceandbody with auspicious signs,shewas one of a seriesof animistic godlingscarvedon the outsideof the railingpillarswhich in orderto give it supernatural surrounded the sanctuary protectionand also to their Thesepagandeities who were devotees. welcome,asit were,the localvillagers of local districts, servedas protectors of roadsand dangerous as passes,guardians lordsof wealthandof fertilityin manandhis crops;they werecommonlydepicted of the day,of whichthe Museum hasa numberof handin the terra-cotta figurines with the mystical, somespecimens. spiritual theyhadno directconnection Although shrine a very deep-rooted in a Buddhist reflects of the faith,theirpresence concerns whileworshiping one god of Indian principle religionandart,whichis to recognize, of others.The equationis statedclearlyin the in particular, the valueor existence of lesserdeitiesis permissible but Maitri Upanishad (4:6) to the effectthatreverence them but then deny on them and praise inferior:"One shouldmeditate essentially them,for with them one moves [spiritually] higherandhigherin the world."
I35

y-*'t

t;

136

4 & 4a. Torso of a Yakshi. Indian, from Gateway of Great Stalpa at Sdiichi, ca. 25 B.C.-A.D. 25. H. 28K2 inches. Ross Collectioni. 29.999

The lovely torso from Sanichl(Figs. 4 & 4a) belongs to the same class of demigods, for she, like the Bharhutfigure, originally clung to the blossoming branchof a tree, exemplifying the common bond of fertility in man and nature. She was one of eight large tree-dryads,together with sixteen smaller ones, which ornamented the monumental gateways of the GreatStupaof Sahchl.The work was carvedabout the time of the birth of Christ, a century or so later than the Bharhut figure, a century in which a greaterfamiliaritywith the problems of monumental sculptureallowed the artistsa greatersense of confidence in expressingboth the ponderous weight of the body as it twists in spaceand the sensualvitality which is so basicto the meaning of the image. In both figures,the sculptorsdepicted thejewelry and hair with almost naturalisticfidelity to detail (rhythmically composed, the heavy braided hair and garlands of flowers falling over the back of the Sanchi torso are extraordinarily graceful); at the same time they idealized the featuresand proportions to suggest a beauty surpassingthat of an ordinary mortal woman. Not in this early phase, nor underWestern influence) did genuine, in any of the later ones (except in Gandhara, the Buddhist enterinto treatmentof divine images in India. empiricalnaturalism The Museum collection includes a number of notable carvings from Mathura, an important religious center on the Jumna River between Agra and Delhi, and a city whose sculptureworkshops remainedin continuous activity for centuries- far longer than those of any other single site in the land. From very early in their history, the mid-first century B.C.,has come a small equestrianfigure in relief on the crossbar of a railing (Fig. 5). The subjectis probably a devotee, shown not in a portrait-like of a particular mannerbut as the representative classor group of people. The sculptor depicted the horse trappingswith unusualcare - the bit and harness,the saddleand stirrupband - and this work is of great interest to students of Indian technology. It is rather similar to a small terra-cottafigurine of a slightly later date (Fig. 5a). Here the equestrianis dressedin an Indian style turban and an Iraniantunic. The figurine and railingrelief, however, arethe clearestexamplesin the Museum'scollection of the close connection between such popular art forms and early Buddhist stone sculpture. From the same period comes the roundel from Mathuracarved with a menacing crocodile-likecreature,the makara(Fig. 6)-a motif drawn from that realm of Indian thought which Coomaraswamynamed "the aquaticcosmology."5 In an essay filled with luminous insights, he explained how such themes as crocodiles, lotus creepers, and vases overflowing with flowers - major decorative featuresin the arts of this phase - reflected the outlook of Indian farmersand villagers and how the makara served as a water demon, alternately benevolent and malevolent, the source of destructivefloods or life-giving moisturein the paddy fields. At Mathura,strangely, its malevolent guise was the more common one, as in this roundel or in the fine tympanum of the earlyfirstcenturyA.D. (Fig. 9). The benevolent makaramay be seen on the lower part of a broken pillar of this "early" period from the eastern Deccan (Fig. 7). Here the reptile disgorges an undulatinglotus creeper,engraved with a delicate sense of rhythmic motion which suggeststhe processesof growth and increasein the flow of the waters. Above it is a half-medallion, a schematizedlotus flower whose petals are set in a precisely geo138

5. Equestrian figure. Red sandstone. Indian, from Mathura, ca. 50 Thomas Oaks Rogers Fund. 25.461

B.C. L. 14

inches.

5a. Horseman wearing a tunic. Terracotta. Indian, early Ist century A.D. H. 3 Arthur Mason Knapp Fund. 26.132

inches.

I39

6. Makara.Red sandstone. Indian, fr Thomas Oaks Rogers Fund. 25.460

ca. 50 MaMathura,

B.C. H. 94

inches.

metric, radiantpattern. These may be subsidiary,decorative forms, but they must have evoked in the craftsmena number of deep-seatedvalues - a sense of purity, of physical and spiritualprosperity- for they were carved with a fluency and vitality that transcendsmere decoration. This pillar is probably from AmaravatT, the site of a complex sanctuarycentered around one of the largest stupas in the Buddhist world. This was in the ancient Andhra kingdom, in the lower reachesof the KistnaRiver north of Madras,where the Buddhist faith was extremely strong. The carvings of the Andhra workshops were done in a soft, marble-like white limestone, and most of them have suffered badly from weathering and vandalism. Despite its damaged condition, one of the large slabsin the Museum gives remarkableinsights into the evolution of style and symbolism in this southern region (Figs. 8 & 8a). It was carved early in the first century A.D. with a scene of Sakyamuni bathing in the waters of the Nairanjana River. About I50 years later (ca. A.D. 200), when the monument was refurbished, the stone was turnedaround, inverted,and recarvedin the vastly more sophisticated and visionarymannerof what is herecalledthe "developed"style of the region.6 On the older side may be seen one of the dominant characteristics of the "early" phase throughout the country: the refusalto representthe founder of the faith in a human guise. In the legend illustratedhere, the Buddha-to-be had bathed in the waters of the river just before taking his seat beneath the tree where he attained
140

supremeEnlightenment.The sculptorindicatedSakyamuni'spresenceonly by means of the two tiny feet placed beside the diagonal band engraved with a water pattern, makaras,turtles, and fish. In contrast to this anticlimactic treatment of the main figure of the scene, the sculptorlavishedgreatcareon the complex jewelry and clothing of the maidenscoming to the river with their waterjars as well as on the Serpent King and his wives who emerge from the water in gesturesof homage. Throughout the Buddhistrealm, so exalted was the conceptionof the natureof the Buddha that he could not be depicted by mere craftsmenin a guise resembling a mortal being. Buddhist literatureof the day containsmany passageswhich statethat Sakyamuni, having attainedEnlightenment,was drawn into an absoluterealm apart
from that of the everyday world. The Majjhima-iikaya (I. 487-488), for example,

statesthat becausethe Tathagatahas rid himself of materialshape, feeling, and perception by which one might define him, he is freed from reckoning by material shape; he is deep, immeasurable,and unfathomableas the great ocean. In the Samyutta-iiikdya (III.118), it is said that the BlessedOne, even when present,is incomprehensible, and he is quoted as saying: "What is there in seeing this vile body? Whoso seesthe Dharmaseesme; whoso seesme seesthe Dharma."

7. Floral motifs. White marble. Indian, railing pillar from AmaravatT,ca. 50 B.C. Museum, Madras. 21.1529 Gift of the Governmtent

H. 5

feet i inch.

I4I

8. Sakyamuni Bathing in the Nairahjana River. White marble. Indian, slab from an enclosing wall at Amaravati, ca. A.D. 50. H. 63 inches. Ross Collection. 29.151
I42

'iiA7- ''q -

8a. Representation of a Stipa. White marble.

Rearview of Fig. 8, ca. A.D.

200.

I43

9. Two sides of a broken Tympanum from a monastery doorway. Red sandstone. Indian, from Mathura, ca. A.D. 25-50. H. 30'2 inches. Charles Amos Cutmings BequestFund. 26.241

This reluctanceto depict the person of the Buddha is also reflected in the relief decor on both sidesof a panel used to frame the upper part of a monasterydoorway from Mathura(Fig. 9). It datesfrom aroundA.D. 25-50, and the composition in each of the four narrow bands is centered upon a symbol which refers to the Buddha without representinghim. The tree in the lower left undoubtedly symbolizes his Enlightenment,while the wheel mounted on a column and faced by deer and monks stands for his First Sermon in the Deer Park of Benares.The small building in the lower right may depict one of the monasterieswhich he founded. The object placed on an altar (upperleft) is the Buddha'sbegging bowl, one of the holiest of the relics
I44

which he left behind and the focus of great popular veneration.The sanctity associated with these symbols was indicatedby the halo which enclosesthe begging bowl and by the barriers of flame or supernatural radiationswhich set them apartfrom the devotees - laymen bearing gifts, monks in patchwork robes, and fabulous griffincentaurs. The artists who carved this tympanum and the bathing scene from AmaravatT had a strong interestin descriptivedetail and narration,and these two works are the clearestexamples in the Museum collection of the pervasive desire in this "early" in dramaticterms. India was a phase to make the values of the faith understandable
I45

land which produced stirringepic literature,which supportedan elaboratetheatrical tradition at the princely courts, which honored its playwrights and village storytellers; thus there was unusual awareness of this aesthetic dimension. A narrative style concerned with dramatic crises and confrontations in the life of the Buddha was a basicpartof early Buddhist art. Most characteristics of the "early" phase are clearly apparent in the Museum's collection - the strongly distinctive regional styles, the taking over of decorative motifs from the seculararts, the admissionof animistic deities into Buddhist iconic programs, the frank delight in sensual imagery as expressions of well-being and prosperity, the reluctance to represent the sacred person of the Buddha, -and the affinityfor storytellingand highly descriptivedetailcoupled, however, with a system of idealizationfor divine images. These richly inventive schools had not yet evolved a language capable of evoking in aesthetic terms the more exalted ideas and experiencesof the faith;this was to be the chief productof the next phase.

III. Developed
the middle of the first century A.D., most of India from the Ganges River basin to the northwest frontier region was absorbedinto a vast empire ruled by the Kushandynasty. The Kushanswere the leadersof the most powerful of severaltribes of former Central Asian nomads, collectively called the Indo-Scythians, who had penetrated the northwestern mountain defenses of the subcontinent. Although originally Iranianin language and culture, the Indo-Scythianswere greatly attracted by the Buddhist faith. Two celebratedKushanEmperors,KanishkaI and Huvishka, along with many nobles and courtiers,becameenergeticpatronsof the faith, helping it spread through their provinces in Afghanistanand Bactria and into other parts of Central Asia. For two and a half centuries,from ca. A.D. 50 to 300, Buddhist art north of the Vindhya mountainswas dominated by the workshops of the KushanEmpire. In the south, the old schools of the Andhracountry continued to flourishas did those in the Western Ghats (the cave sitesof Karli,Nasik, Bhaja,etc.). The southernschools were under the aegis of the Satavahanadynasty, whose political and military power increasedas it successfully kept the Indo-Scythiansfrom penetratinginto the Deccan. The existence of these two great contemporary political forces must have encouraged a process of unification of artisticstyles. Distinctive local forms began to fuse into broaderregional manners.The so-called Amaravatistyle was shared (with in the lower Kistnaregion - Nagarjunikonda, variations)by many of the sanctuaries Golli, Bhattiprolu,etc. The ateliersof Mathura,the chief Kushan citadel in central India, set the patternfor the Buddhist sculptureof the entire Ganges-Jumna region, while the Gandharastyle permeatedIndo-Iranianborder lands.7At the same time, as the Buddhist faith steadily increasedin its appeal to laymen, the commissioning of statuesand shrinebuildingsbecame an importantway of gaining religious merit. Consequently,theseartisticworkshopsbecame productiveto an unparalleled degree, sending forth a flood of statuarywhich was frequently uninspiredand repetitious, with only the work of occasional, anonymous mastersrising to a more evocative and accomplishedplane.
AROUND I46

At the beginning of this phase, images of the Buddha were produced, as were thoseof Jainaand even Hindu deities;among the latterSuryaand Siva were the most values prominent. This was another major step in the reversalof religious-aesthetic which had been started (or accelerated)by Asoka, and it took place in the Kushan Empire. Although scholarshave long debated whether this was the result of GrecoRoman influencesin Gandharaor else a naturaloutgrowth of native Indianimagery in Mathura, recent researchhas indicated that the artistic revolution was brought about not simply by the existence of artisticprototypes but by changes in attitudes concerning the nature of the Buddha. Development of concepts such as the trikaya, or the three "bodies"of the Buddha,notions far too complex to explore here, made it theologically possible to represent the Blessed One in human guise, and the two main Kushanschools of sculpturedrew upon the prototypesat hand in order to form the icon type. The Gandharanschool built chiefly upon Western examples, while the one at Mathuraadapted such Indian images as the long familiaryakshas. The Museum possessesseveral important documents of this artistic revolution. The oldest is an extremely rare type of gold coin issuedby the Emperor KanishkaI (Fig. io). On its reverse is the image of a standing figure in monastic robe, clearly denoted in majusculeGreek lettersas BODDO, the Buddha or EnlightenedOne. The precisedating of Kanishka'sreign is still unclear,but this coin was probably minted some time between A.D. 80 and I30, by which time the iconic revolution had proin such a secular,public guise. gressedfar enough to permit the Buddha'sappearance From the heavy robes which seem to obscurethe body beneath,one can assumethat this tiny coin image is a reflectionof Gandharan imagesin the Greco-Romanmanner. The accomplishmentsof the Mathuraschool may be seen in the Museum'sseated Buddha flankedby two attendantsof ca. A.D. I50-I70 (Fig. ii). Although this work is, at best, an average example of its idiom, one can still experience the powerful qualities of the native Indian cult image, free from apparent foreign influences. The Buddha is in the cross legged pose used in seated meditation; his body is revealed through the essentiallytransparent garment; the torso seems to expand with a senseof controlled vital energy successfullytranslatedinto the massive bulk of the stone. Of about the same date and qualitativelevel is another small Buddha image

.^^;f^SS^

io. StandingBuddha.Reverseof gold coin of Kanishka I. Indian, ca. A.D. 80-130. D. Y4 inches. K. Siveetser Fund. 31.895 Setlh

I47

I I. Seated figure of the Buddha. Red sandstone. Indian, from Mathura, last half of 2nd century A.D. David P. Kimball Fund. 25.437

H.

2812

inches.

carved in spotted red sandstone(Fig. I2). Here, however, the Mathurasculptorshad been influencedby the westernizedcanonsof the Gandharan schools,for the Buddha's robe obscuresthe underlying body, and the folds establisha strong pattern on the surface.This is clear evidence of the transmissionof stylistic and also iconographic elements between two major regions. It reflects the great freedom of movement within the Buddhist realm; monks and texts traveled vast distancesacrossnational boundaries,and the processof interconnectionwas to resultultimately in more uniform artisticcriteriathroughoutthe land. Neither of thesestatueshas any remarkable Each is a direct and vigorous statementof an subtlety in modeling or interpretation. in of icon-type which, the passing centuries,would be graduallyrefined in proportion and detail. It is difficulttoday to sense the immense challengewhich the creationof the early images of the Buddhamust have offeredto the craftsmenof Mathuraand Gandhara,
148

who sought to embody in stone the hallowed conceptionsof "the Uttermost Person, the SupernalPerson, the Attainer of the Supernal."Their solutions, however, have much in common with other traditional,ecclesiastic arts,for the Buddhistcult image is most often placed in a strictly frontal, hieratic guise and the featuresidealized, so that they sharenone of the imperfectionsand signs of mortality of the averageman. The solutions were adapted for Jaina and Hindu imagery as well, and the Museum possesses a small, crisply organized statue of the Sun God Sorya from Mathura, ca. A.D. 250 to 300 (Fig. I3). Seated in a distinctive, squatting position, he wears an Iraniantunic and boots which beartestimony to the fact that the revival of religious interestin this ancientsolardeity had been prompted by the spreadof the cults of the Iraniandeity Mithra.In the West it had beencarriedby RomanLegionnaires throughout the Empire; in India, where solar worship had been practiced even in Vedic times, the revival of the cult of the Sun God was graduallyabsorbedinto orthodox Hinduism. At the same time that these austere, hieratic icons were being perfected, nude female figures continued to appearin a semi-decorativeguise in Buddhist temples throughout India - an exception being Gandhara,where the idiom seems to have fallen out of favor. The Museum has a number of examples from Mathura,perhaps the finest of which (Fig. I4) is a pillarfrom a stairrailing showing a heavilyjeweled
I2. Seatedfigure of the Buddha.Red sandstone. Indian,from Mathura,last half 2nd centuryA.D. H. Charles Amllos Cummitgs Bequest Fund. 27.448
122

inches.

13. Sirya. Cream sandstone. Indian,from Mathura,ca. A.D.

Brimiiiner Futd. Mariatnne

250-300. 21. 1706

H.

io inches.

mE

J
I49

woman holding a flaming torch; behind her is a male figure peering above a curtain with bawdy implications. Dating from approximately the last half of the second century A.D., the work is simply another link in the unbrokenchain of appearances of all Indiancreeds,from Bharhutand of this type of image in almost all sanctuaries Sanchi to the present. It became virtually a natural,intuitive act to include such figuresin the decorationof public monuments. Within the Kushan Empire, the old narrativeand descriptivestyle graduallydeclined in strength whereas the hieratic, isolated figures of the Buddha and Bodhischools sattvasbecame increasinglyimportantin the artisticscheme. The Gandharan were at firstespeciallygiven to illustratingin stone the dramaticbiographicallegends but by the third century this was of the Buddha, such as Asvaghosha'sBuddhacarita, replacedby an atmosphereof charismaticimagery, in which the mere presenceof a deity was of farmore importancethanany specificdeed.
Oppositepage: 15. Temptation of Sakyamuni and the Worship of his Headdress. White marble. Indian, from Amaravatl, ca. A.D. 100. H. 62'4 inches. Marie Antoinette Evans Funtd. 29.157 I4. Woman with a lamp. Mottled red sandstone. Indian, railing pillar from Mathura. Last half 2nd century

A.D. H. 22Y

inches.

BlackFund. 35.647

-. i

"

"'At

>_ffi.'**:v*: 3 '%.

In the Andhra country, however, the workshops were in many ways more conservative. They adhered loyally to the narrativesystem until their activities were ended by, among other things, the conquestsof the Pallavasin the fourth century. They also frequently reverted to the older mannerof omitting the image of Sakyamuni long after his icon type had been accepted. For example, in the upper half of a relief-carved panel of the early second century (Fig. I5), the empty throne beneath the Tree of Enlightenment stands for the presenceof Sakyamuni in a Temptation scene. The dramaticcontent of this familiar legend is emphasizedby the assaultof the dwarf-like demons, by the provocative poses of the daughtersof Mara, and by the rush of the large elephants in the background. A nervous, flickering energy
ca. A.D. i6. Worship of the Wheel of the Law. White marble.Indian,from Amaravati, inches.Gift of the GovernmentMuseum, Madras. 21.1505

200.

H. 32

I52

animates these small figures. Much of the charm of this style residesin the sense of fleeting motion and worldly awareness, as can be seen in the elegantly carved fragmentof ca. A.D. 200, showing the Wheel of the Law with two lounging devotees and a flying angel (Fig. I6). Missing here, however, is the grave and hieraticspiritof the Mathura school of sculpture, with its ability to suggest the concentration of spiritualand psychic powers in a solidly conceived stone image. IV. Mature IN the fourth century A.D., feverish political and military turmoil destroyedthe independenceof both the Indo-Scythiansin the north and the kingdoms in the south

I7. Standing Buddha. Copper. Indian, early 6th century A.D. Museum, Madras. 21.1504 Gift of the Goveritnment

H.

I9

inches.

I53

under whom the Buddhist church had flourished.Much of the Indian subcontinent was brought under the rule of the Gupta dynasty, which rose to power in Magadha along the east-centralreachesof the Ganges;but the decadesfollowing A.D. 320, the date of the founding of their hegemony, were markedby bloody wars of unification. The entire fourth century is still a rather blank page in art history due in part to the decline in productivity and also to the lack of enough clearly dated works to enable us to define the style precisely.This is especiallytrue of Gandharan sculpture. In the following century, the fifth, Buddhist sanctuaries again became the centers of great artisticactivity from Ceylon in the south to Nepal and Asam on the east, into Kashmir and the Buddhist cities of Afghanistan. Throughout this vast area,

I8. SeatedBuddha.Copper gilt. Nepalese, 8th century A.D. or earlier. H. 3 ) inches. Collection. 17.2317 Ross-Coomarasvwamy

came into effect;the distinctiveflavorof the regional ratheruniform artisticstandards styles weakened but did not entirely disappear.The standardsfor this age were set chiefly by the workshops of Mathuraand also of Sarnath,the vast monastery and pilgrimage center near Benareswhich grew up around the spot where Sakyamuni preached his First Sermon. Despite its religious importance, however, it does not seem to have become an unusuallyactive artisticcenter until the last half of the fifth even that of Mathura. century, when its influencesurpassed The mature phase can be dated roughly between A.D. 300 and 700, and the sculptures of these two schools during the middle of this period (fifth and sixth centuries) deserve in more than one way the adjective "classic" by which they are often described.They are classicin the sense of sheer artisticexcellence, in the sense that they set a norm for Buddhist images throughout the land, and in the emotional serenity and equipoise with which they are imbued. The Museum'sfinest exemplar of the classicstyle is the large, early sixth-centurybronzestatueof a standing Buddha (Fig. I7). Recent cleaning has removed the awkward green crust and revealed an
I54

19. Head of the Buddha. Mottled red sandstone. Indian, from Mathura, early 6th century A.D.
H. I24

Fund. inches.Marianne Brimiuier

21.2230

20.

Head of the Buddha. Basalt. Javanese, from Candi Sewu, ca. A.D. 800.

H.

15 inches.

HoldenTinkhami. 43.6 Gift of George

I55

interconnectionbetween the partsof the body which is softerand more organic than before. The gently swelling contours of the chest, waist, and hips impart to the figure a feeling of expansionand contraction,like that of breathing.The transparent effects of the robe, the lithe and youthful canon of proportions,the sense of delicate of the Sarnath equipoise and balanceof the bodily masses- these areall characteristics style, and yet this piece probably came from the Kistna valley region not far from AmaravatT. The head of this bronze statue closely resembles, in proportion and expression, the much larger stone head from Mathura (Fig. I9) which has, however, a more powerful and brooding quality typical of its school. It also shows more clearly than does the bronze the strongly geometric principlesof composition which underlay much Buddhistimagery of the time. The head was given a distinctly egg shaped contour; the eyes and brows are highly abstractarc shapes;ears and hair curls are tightly schematized. The mouth, however, is more organic in form and injects a sensuous,personaldimensionin the heavily protrudinglower lip. The aesthetic visions of the classic schools of this period pervaded the entire Buddhist world, which, by the sixth century, had grown to include Korea andJapan as well as China, and had extended into SoutheastAsia and the Indies. The style was or by foreign pilgrims to Indiawho carriedaway texts spreadby Indianmissionaries and drawings and actualcult objects. It is often quite difficultto tell exactly where a small image was originally made, like the tiny gilt-bronze statue of the preaching Buddha (Fig. i8). Found in Nepal, it is saidto date from the eighth century. Despite its tiny scale, it is of extraordinarily high quality and was made in close obedience to the canons of the Sarnathschool. The same canonsarealso reflectedin the large head from Candi Sewu in Java (Fig. 20), but here a softer and more passive mood has replaced the disciplined animation of the Indian prototypes, which were nearly three hundred years older. A fine work from Sarnathitself in the Museum's collection is the delicate figure of a Bodhisattvaof the early sixth century (Fig. 2I). His long hair tumbles down on his shoulders,and he is adornedwith a lavishlyjeweled necklaceand crown in which is placed a tiny image of the Buddha Amitabha seatedin deep meditation. It was in this "mature"phase that large numbersof Bodhisattvaimages began to be made in accordancewith the preceptsof MahayanaBuddhism, the "GreaterVehicle" of the faith, the doctrine of salvation through the grace and power of a vast pantheon of deities.It is true that Bodhisattvasarefrequentlyfound in the sculpture compassionate of the Kushanempire (see p. I20, Fig. 7), but they were not yet the embodimentsof sacredwisdom and all powerful "skillin means"who work for the benefit of suffering humanity as explained in the Mahayanatexts. These texts originatedas early as the end of the first century B.C. and are known to have been acceptedin many parts of BuddhistIndia;however, the greatpopularsanctuaries must have remainedunder the control of the monks of the more orthodox "Lesser Vehicle" (I-tinayana) throughoutthe "developed"phasein north and south India.The institutionalhistory of Buddhism is still in its infancy, but it is a theory worth consideringthat the apparent revival of the arts and temples in the fifth century was due to the great

;.

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2I.

Sandstone.Indian,from Sarnath,early 6th centuryA.D. H. I I Avalokitesvara. HelenandAliceColburnt Funtd. 34.229

inches.

I57

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Bodhisattva. Mottled red sandstone. Indian, from Mathura, 6th century inches. Ross Collection. 26.1

A.D.

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23. The Goddess of the River Ganges (Ganga lDevT).Sandstone. Indian, 6th century A.D. H. 29 7 inches. Charles Amos Cummings BequestFund.
26.26

I59

popular appeal of the Mahayanasects and their gaining control over a number of importantsanctuaries. The sturdy Bodhisattva figure from Mathura (Fig. 22) contrastsstrikingly with the more lithe image from Sarnath,and points up - perhaps excessively so - the differencesbetween the two schools. The Mathuri style remainedsomewhat heavier and stolid; it had closer affinitiesto the arts of the Hindu sanctuaries which, for the first time, had begun to rival those of the Buddhists in originality and aesthetic excitement. In CentralIndiaand the Western Ghats,thereare remainsfrom the early fifth century onward of images of the great Hindu deities - Siva, Vishnu, Krishna, and their consorts. Even though these were outgrowths of Buddhist canons of beauty and the idealized human form, they were also motivated by different concepts of divinity, conceptsoften basedon irresistible physicalmight.

24. Fragment of a wall painting from Ajanta.Indian, 6th century A.D. H. I5 inches. Clara BertramKimball Fund. 21.1286

i6o

The deeply carvedrelief of the Goddessof the River Ganges (Fig. 23) from Central India demonstrates the achievements of artists of the "mature" phase outside of the restrictive idiom of cult imagery. The Goddess, a lineal descendant of the Yakshis in both form and content, standsupon a raging makara Bhirhut and SanchT and is served by two dwarf-like figures. In purely visual terms, the balancebetween the roundly modeled figures and the deeply recessed background, between the thrashingmakaraand the self-possessed,gracefulGoddessis achieved with a sureness that is the fruit of centuries of experience in composing such forms. It is also the product of the conscious aestheticism in the capital and provincial courts of the .Gupta Empire which cultivated excellence in the visual arts and in poetry, music, drama,and dance. Thus, even though it was merely the ornament of a doorway and its religious content was not profound, this relief is one of the great treasuresof the Museum'scollection, for it manifestsan aestheticintelligenceof the highest order. The narrativetradition was almost entirely extinct in Buddhist sculpture of this "mature"phase. In the celebratedwall paintings of the cave monastery of Ajanta, however, it was operative with full force alongside pictorial compositions which were as hieratic and grave as mandalas.A small, darkened fragment of the Ajanta wall paintings in the Museum (Fig. 24) was taken from an unidentified narrative scene, perhaps from Cave II, but despite its fragmentary nature it is a worthy exemplar of that tradition. While the noses and mouths of the men might have been copied from a contemporaryBuddha image from Sarnath,the eyes are not the introspective ones of the cult images. They are looking about in an animated way. The figures were grouped with a view toward variety and overlap each other in depth in a semi-realisticmanner. Similarly, the leaves of the tree in the background are carefully worked out in spatial terms by means of a searching contour line, while the play of light and shade over the bodies defines their volume without creating highly illusionisticeffects. The paintersof such scenesat Ajanta were very much aware of theatricalgestures and facial expressions,of courtly musical instruments,fancy textiles, and sumptuous jewelry. They may well have been court artistssent by their employers to decorate the dwelling halls of monks, even though their style was far removed from the austere, monastic spirit of the stone images of Sarnathand Mathura or even the sculpturaldecor of the Ajanta caves themselves. Courtly arts must have been the true home of the narrativetradition, but of this time the only remaining relics are the paintingsat such Buddhistsitesas Ajanti, or Sigiriyain Ceylon. V. Late THE declining fortunes of Buddhism in India caused a great reduction in the geographicscope of its activity. In the final stages (ca. A.D. 700-I200), the region which was the most productive artisticallywas the east - Bihar, Orissa,and Bengal - under the protection of the Pala and then the Sena dynasties.However, pockets of activity remained in the Deccan and in the northwest, the latter representedin the Museum by a rareand exquisite small ivory figure of a seatedBuddha which was made, most likely, in Kashmir (Fig. I, p. 104).
I6I

These schools are all characterizedby great refinements of technique, extreme finesse and sophisticationin the handling of materials,whether bronze or stone or ivory. This is a trait sharedwith other "late" phasesof sculpturaltraditions- those of Hellenistic Greece or the European Baroque, for example, in which the technical experience of centurieswas at the disposalof the craftsmenand the materialno longer seems to have offered much resistanceor to have disciplinedthe artist. Floral motifs, jewelry, the posture of the human figure - all were imbued with a sinuous, effortlessgrace. The "late" Buddhist schools were strongly affected by the growth of Esoteric or Tantric Buddhism, the third of the great doctrinaldivisions of the faith. This was an extremely complex religio-philosophic movement which embraced Indians of all creeds and injected into Buddhism a number of magical cult practices, as though to induce the state of spiritualenlightenment through the manipulationof occult forces. A large number of new deities were admitted into the faith, creating a new pantheon of immense power and complexity which overawed the laymen and challenged the monks, who were obliged to master its full meaning. Some of the of highly abstracttheological new deities were folk gods, others the personifications notions, others female deities, the Buddhist equivalentsof the dynamic consorts of the great Hindu gods, while still others were members of the older Mahayana pantheon, drawn into the Tantric system and reinterpreted.Of the latter, a great number of new forms were devised for Avalokitesvara, for example, the most widely worshipedof the MahayanaBodhisattvas. A recentlyacquiredstatueof Avalokitesvara(Fig. 2, p. I05) is of the type usually called Lokanatha,"Lordof Worlds," an indicationof the deity's heightened prestige at this time. Dating from the tenth or eleventh century, its large scale, light-colored stone, and boldly plastic quality suggests that it came from Orissa.The majority of

25. Avalokitesvara. Bronze. Ceylon, 8th-9th century A.D. H. 3 Y inches. Collection. 17.2312 Ross-Coomlarasvwamy

Opposite page: Blackslate. Lokesvara. 26. Khasarpana Indian,I2th centuryA.D.H. 31 inches.

Marshall H. Gould Fund. 61.129 I62

fks

EasternIndiansculpturesof the era, however, were carvedof a dark, shale-likestone which was susceptibleto finely carved detail and was often given a shiny surface. This may be seen in the Museum's Khasarpana Lokesvara,another of the variant forms of Avalokitesvara,a statue coming from the Sena kingdom of Bengal of the twelfth century. Both of these works are pervadedby the mood which predominates in the arts of the era - a searchfor exquisiteness,a sense of the sinuous, tendril-like rhythmswhich pervadethe drapery,floralmotifs, limbs, and torsosof the figures. The scale of the tiny bronze figure of an Avalokitesvaraof this period, seated in the position of "royal ease," belies the extraordinarilyhigh quality of the work itself (Fig. 25). The sculptor createda delicate balanceof the massesof body which were thrown out of simple alignment by the relaxedposition, and he made the right

27. Avalokitesvara. Copper gilt. Nepalese, 9th century A.D. Ross-CoomarasivamyCollection. 17.2315

H.

12 inches.

164

hand (in the teaching gesture) the focus, as it were, of the balancedtensions of the form. Discovered in Ceylon, it reflects the rather universal canons of the "late" Lokesvara(Fig. 26). figural style, as can be seen by comparisonwith the Khasarpana On the other hand, the rather angular and reserved mode of composition suggests that it is a work from the early partof this phase - that is from the eighth century. From Nepal has come the Museum's well-known standing figure in bronze of Avalokitesvara (Fig. 27), which depicts the Bodhisattva in one of his simplest and most ingratiating forms as Padmapani, "Bearerof the Lotus." Nepal adjoined the small kingdom where Sakyamuni was born; it became a major Buddhist center, but its oldest artistic relics date from only the fifth century A.D. and were subject to artisticinfluencesfrom Mathura, Sarnath,or the Hindu schools of Central India
28. Illustrations from the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita. Painting on palm leaf. Nepalese, A.D. 1136. L. (of cover) 22 /8 inches. Harriet Otis Cruft Fund. 20.589

(as in Fig. I9 which comes from Nepal). This standingfigure, however, is of a later it reveals the strong date. In its rather simple drapery and restrainedcontraposto
flavor of the early Pala schools and dates probably from the ninth century. Throughout the remainder of the "late" phase, the workshops of Bihar and Bengal were the dominant influence in the arts of Nepal. After the demise of Buddhism in India, Nepal, along with Tibet, was one of the chief legatees of its artistic heritage. Illustrated religious texts played a vital role in the transmission of the Buddhist Dharma, and the Museum possesses one of the oldest extant examples of a palm-leaf manuscript, the long and narrow strips now quite worn from long use (Fig. 28). It was done in Nepal A.D. I 136, but it is close in techniqueto manuscriptsoriginating

in the Pala empire and sharesmuch of the aestheticcanons of Pala stone and bronze of Wisdomin 8o,000 Verses,the Astasdhasimagery. The text itself is The Perfection which is one of the fundamentalworks of Mahayanaphilosophy. rikaPrajnipdramitd Preservedarethe two wooden cover boards,one paintedwith a sceneof the Temptation of the Buddha and the other with the image of the Yellow Tara, the consort of Avalokitesvara,and her attendants.Two hundred and seven pages of the text are also extant, but only six of them are adorned with paintings, each with three tiny scenes as shown in Fig. 28, two different versions of the goddess Tara. The lower one presentsher in a war-like guise with elephant goad, sword, bow, and the like. In Tibet or Japan,Tantric imagery of this kind is pervadedby an atmosphereof demonic and awful power, but the goddess here is still imbued with the delicate lyricism of the late Pala and Sena schools. fifteen hundredyear life span of the Buddhist artistictraditionin the land of its birth was dominated by the development of the cult image, hieratic in form and freed of narrativefunctions. Such images were ultimately given the main burden of both religious and aesthetic meaning, and the fifteen centuriesmay be divided into those in which the image was lacking, those in which it was invented and endowed with ever more refined aesthetic features, and those in which the solutions of the past were repeatedwith increasingfacility. Once conceived, it was never allowed to sharetoo closely in the appearances of the everyday world, for one of the dominant of the Buddhist faith was the belief that "the conditioned world," that principles which is known by immediatesensedata,is fundamentallyundesirable. The prime goal of the faith had been to lead mankindto escapeinto the "unconditioned," to give up concern with the world of illusion and of the self and of the ego, "... to conquer lust for forms and sounds and tastes,to conquer lust for scents and things of touch" (SuttaNipata974-5). The naturalismwhich appearedin Hellenistic Greek sculpturewould have been theologically impossible in Buddhist India, even though "late" Buddhist and Hellenistic sculpturemight resemble each other in the mastery and refinements of techniques. But because of the distinctive pressures exerted by Buddhist theology, the evolution of Indian Buddhist arts followed patterns which differ from those of Greece, and, indeed, those of the figural traditions of any other civilization. Nevertheless, the historicalphasesof Buddhist art and architecturein India are of great importance for the study of East Asian culture, becauseIndia was a generator
THE

i66

of religious ideas and symbolic forms which were communicated, often very quickly, to the other Buddhist lands of Asia. And, coincidentally or otherwise, as the faith died out in India, Buddhist art also waned in the East as a vital force stimulating the most impressive achievements. The thirteenth century is a rough bench mark for the decline of traditional, hieratic styles of Buddhist imagery throughout Asia, no matter how pleasant the twilight charm of later Thai, Nepalese, or Tibetan forms. In the Chinese and Japanese galleries of the Museum can be seen numerous reflections and reinterpretations of the themes of Indian Buddhist art, and no one was more aware of this than Robert T. Paine, late Curator of the Asiatic Department and a specialist in Japanese art. With genuine insight, he had begun adding Indian objects of great relevance to the international Buddhist tradition to the Museum's collection and affirmed, once more, this great unifying force in the civilization of Asia.
JOHN ROSENFIELD

Harvard University

NOTES
I.

2.

to the five periodsare as colorlessand neutralin connotationas possible,in order This discussion will involve changes in the to avoid any suggestionthat one period of some of the objects. previous dating is more "valuable" than another. Many voices may be heard today warning 3. A smallfigure of a makaracarvedin of the dangers of interpreting the history induratedpot-stone in the Museum of art, as did Wolfflin and Riegl, in terms collection (Acc. no. 38.20), together with of biological or other patterns of evolution. a similarpiece now in the Cleveland It is said that this attitude can easily lead Museum of Art, was thought possiblyto the scholar into the swamps of determinism, date from the Mauryanperiod (MFA
that it sets his eyes upon artificial chronological distinctions and blinds them to the unique and expressive qualities of the individual works. (See the discussions of James Ackerman in Ackerman and Carpenter, Art and Archaeology, Princeton studies, Humanistic scholarship in America, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, I963, pp. I64-I86; also Arnold Hauser, The Philosophy of Art History, Cleveland, I958, pp. 118-276.) Aware, hopefully, of such a pitfall, I feel that the establishment of a large, general scheme to account for the evolution of Buddhist imagery helps to place dozens of monuments, hitherto unrelated, into a simple scheme which aids in their dating and interpretation. The reader will note that I have avoided some of the familiar period labels for Indian art, such as Mauryan, Sunga, Kushan, early and late Andhra, Gupta, and the like. These are essential in detailed art history, but their use here would distract from the larger unities I have tried to establish. The names which I have given Bulletin, April, 1936). Confirming evidence

has not appeared during three decadesof and since they research, archaeological lack certainof the distinctivefeaturesand scale of the Asokan monuments,the dating of these works as Mauryanmust still be consideredas unverified. andSungaArt, Ray, Maurya 4. Niharanjan Calcutta, 945, pp. 102-104. 5. A. K. Coomaraswamy,"Yaksas," Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections,
No. 2926, Vol. 8o, 1928; No. 2059, I93I.

6. For a very similarwork in the British Museum,see Douglas Barrett,Sculptures in the British Museum, from AmaravatT
London, I954, Pls. iv-v. Barrett's

sculptures chronology of the AmaravatI differsfrom that employed here, for he datesthe early phaseof the school ca. A.D. I75. 7. BenjaminRowland'sanalysisof the manner by which the Gandharan workshopscame underHellenisticand Roman influence may be found elsewherein this issue of the Bulletin. 167