Chapter 6 Paths to Enlightenment: The Art of India
In the Third Millennium BC, the Sumerians were burying their dead in the royal cemetery of Ur, the Egyptians were building the Great Pyramids at Giza, and the Aegean sculptors in the Cyclades were carving abstract statues of women and musicians. At the same time a great civilization arose over a wide area that included parts of present day India and Pakistan. This has been called the Indus Civilization. There is evidence of trade with the peoples of the near east. One of the intriguing characteristics of the Indus Civilization is that no surviving structures have been identified as either palaces or temples. This marks a sharp contrast to the contemporaneous civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Very little art has been discovered and all the objects are small. The most impressive is a robed male figure made of a soft local soap stone called steatite. The figures eyes are half clothed and he has a closely trimmed beard with shaved upper lip. The elegant robe displays a Trefoil pattern (clover like designs with three stylized leaves.) Does this figure remind us of any previous figures? (Sumerian Votive figures) What ever the purpose, the figure is an elite individual because of the precious material it is made of and the elaborate costume.
The most common Indus art objects are steatite seals with incised designs. They are very similar to the Mesopotamian seals. This seal depicts a figure in a yogic posture. Yoga (literally “to yoke”) is a method for controlling the body and relaxing the mind as a way of uniting with the divine. This seal shows that this important meditative practice began as early as the Indus Civilization.
Veldic and Upanishadic Period
By 1700 BCE, the urban phase of Indus Civilization ended and was replaced by village life, as a result art production gradually ceased for the nest 1000 years. However the religious foundations laid during this time were very important. The religious views were based on the oral hymns a group of people called the Aryans brought with them to India from Central Asia. These views defined most of the art that was later created. They called themselves Aryas (Noble Ones) and spoke Sanskrit, the earliest language yet identified in South Asia.
Around 1500 BCE, the Ayrans composed the first of four Vedas(which means “knowledge”.) The compilations of religious learning, written in Sanskrit, included hymns written for priests (called Brahmins) to chant or sing. The Aryan priest headed a social hierarchy that has come to be called the caste system which still forms the basis of Indian society today. Below the priests were the warriors, traders, and manual laborers (including artists and architects). The Aryan religion centered on sacrifice, the ritual enactment of highly intricate and lengthy ceremonies in which the priests placed materials such as milk and soma (sacrificial brew) in to a fire that took the sacrifices to the gods in the heavens. If the priests performed these rituals accurately the gods would fulfill the prayers of the sponsers. These gods were mainly male and represented the rains, the ocean, the sun, and fire. They apparently did not make images of these Gods.
From 800-500 BCE, religious thinkers east of the Aryans composed a variety of texts called the Upanishads. Among the contributions to the religious beliefs of the people were samsara, karma, and moksha (or nirvana). Samsara is the belief in reincarnation, that individuals are born again after death in a almost endless round rebirths in various forms. An individuals past actions (karma), either good or bad determine the nature of future rebirths. The ultimate goal of a person’s religious life is to escape from the cycle of birth and death by merging the individual self into the vital force of the universe. This escape is called either moksha (liberation, for Hindus) or nirvana (cessation for the Buddhists).
Hinduism had it origins in Aryan religion, while Buddha was an historical figure who advocated the path of asceticismor self-discipline and self denial, as the means to free ones self from attachments to people and possessions.
Maurya Dynasty
When Alexander the Great reached the IndusRiver in 326 BC, his troops refused to go further dashing Alexander’s dream of conquering India. After his death, the Empire was divided among his four generals. Seleucus Nicator was his general that re-invaded India but was defeated by Chandragupta Maurya (323-398) the founder of the Maurya dynasty that consolidated most of present day India.
The greatest ruler of this Dynasty was Ashoka (r.272-231 BCE) who converted to Buddhism and was responsible for spreading Buddha’s teaching throughout India and beyond. Ashoka formulated a legal code based on Buddha’s dharma (basic principles of cosmic or individual existence; divine law). He had these laws inscribed on enormous monolithic stone columns erected throughout the kingdom. The pillars reached 30-40 feet in height and where the first monumental stone artworks in India. The pillars were penetrated deep into the ground connecting earth and sky, forming an “axis of the universe,” an important motif in Buddhist architecture. In our example of a lion capital, we clearly see a stylistic relationship to the pillars at Persepolis, but the iconography is Buddhist. Two pairs of back to back lions stand on a round abucus decorated with four wheels and four animals representing the four quarters of the world. The lions once carried a large stone wheel on their backs This wheel or chakra refers to the Wheel of the Lawbut also indicated Ashoka’s stature as the “holder of the wheel” a universal king imbued with divine authority.
The Maurya dynasty, as all seem to do, ended and was replaced by other dynasties. But the one thing that connected all was the patronage of Buddhism. One of the most important Buddhist monasteries founded during Ashoka’s reign was at Sanchi, in central India. It consists of many buildings constructed over the centuries. These included viharas (celled structures where monks live, large stupas (a monument housing the relics of Buddha), chaitya halls (hassle with rounded or apsidal ends for housing smaller stupas), and temples for sheltering images.
The Great Stupa at Sanchi dates to Ashoka’s reign, but its present form is from 50 BCE to 50 CE. The dome is solid stands 50 feet high and is filled with dirt and rubble. Worshippers enter through one of the gateways walk on the circumambulation path, then climb the stairs on the south side to circumambulate at the second level. Carved into the different parts of the Great Stupa are more than 600 brief inscriptions of the hundreds of individual donors, over one third being women. These inscriptions venerating Buddha are by common lay people hoping to gain merit for future rebirths by their gifts.
The stupa was not a tomb, but rather a monument housing relics of Buddha. Buddhas cremated remains where placed in eight reliquaries,or containers, that were similar to those found in medieval churches, which we will study later. Unlike their Western equivalents, which were met to be viewed, the Buddha’s remains were buried in solid earthen mounds (stupas) that could not be entered. Ashoka opened the original eight Stupas and spread the Buddha’s relics among thousands of stupas throughout the realm. Buddhists venerated the Buddha’s remains by circumambulationwalking around the stupa in a clockwise direction, following the path of the sun, bringing the devotee into harmony with the cosmos. Stupas can vary in size from a handheld size to giant structures.
The monumental stupas are three-dimensional mandalas, or sacred diagrams of the universe. The domed stupa represents the world mountain, with the cardinal points marked by toranas, or gateways. The harmika, positioned atop the stupa dome, is a stone fence or railing that encloses a square area symbolizing the sacred domain of the gods. At the harmika’s center, a yasti, or pole corresponds to the axis of the universe. Three chatras, or stone discs, assigned various meanings, crown the yasti. Ther yasti rises from the mountain dome and passes through the harmika, thus uniting this world with the heavenly paradise. A stone fence often encloses the entire structure, clearly separating the sacred space containing Buddha’s relics from the profane outside world.
The four toranus or gateways at Sachi depict the Buddha’s life story and his past lives. In the reliefs on the gateways, Buddha is never depicted as a human being. Instead artist’s used symbols, such as footprints, a parasol, or an empty seat, possibly representing where the Buddha once was, so others can follow in his footsteps.
Also carved on the eastern gateway is a scantily clad, sensuous woman called a yakshi. These goddesses, worshiped throughout India, personified fertility and vegetation. The Sanchi yakshi reaches up to hold on to a mango tree branch while pressing her left foot against the trunk, an action that has brought the tree to flower. Buddhists later adopted this pose, with its rich association with procreation and abundance, for representing Buddha’s mother.
Chaitya Halls
One great example of a chaitya hall is one carved out of living rock at Karle, India around 100 CE. The hall has pillared ambulatories (walking paths) that allow worshippers to circumambulate the stupa placed at the back of a sacred cave. The hall is nearly 45 feet high and 125 feet long, larger than the temple of Ramses II. Elaborate capitals atop the rock-cut pillars depict men and women riding elephants. Outside amorous couples flank the entrance symbolizing the creative life force. These Sanchi and Karle figures represent what will become a long tradition of eroticism in Indian religious art.
Buddhas in Human Form
Originally revered as an enlightened mortal, the Buddha increasingly became regarded as divine, thus his followers desired images of him to worship. Many early portrayals of Buddha in human form come from the Gandhara region of India that is now Pakistan. Sculptures fashioned representations of Buddha in both freestanding statuary and narrative relief. This second century CE statue is carved in gray schist, a local stone, and shows Buddha in a monk’s robe seated in a cross legged yogic posture, that we have seen earlier. The Buddha’s hand gestures are called mudra. This positiondepicts Buddha in meditation. The Gandara region was part of the wide area of the ancient world that reflected the Hellenized culture that was spread by Alexander the Great. This is seen in our seated Buddha in the drapery and treatment of body forms.
It is even more clearly seen in the narrative frieze, from Gandhara, depicting the life of Buddha. While Buddhist in iconography this frieze must have used Roman reliefs as stylistic models. The distribution of standing and equestrian figuresover the relief ground with those in the first row seemingly suspended in air is familiar in Roman art of the second and third centuries CE. The figure of the reclining Buddha parallels the figures on the lids of Roman sarcophagi. The hierarchical composition placing a large seated figure between balanced tiers of smaller on lookers can be seen in the later Arch of Constantine, as well as, earlier Roman art.
Other Buddhist Styles
Contemporary to the Gandharan sculptures, but stylistically different are the Buddha images from Mathura. The Mathura statues are closely linked to the Indian portrayals of yakshas, the male equivalents of the yakshis. Indian artist represented yakshas as strong and powerful, as seen in their broad shoulders, and open staring eyes. The Mathura Buddhas retain these characteristics, but wear a monk’s robe, with the right shoulder bare, and a lack of jewelry and other signs of wealth of the yaksha. The robe appears almost transparent revealing the full fleshy body underneath. The Buddha sits in a yogic posture on a lion throne under the Bodhi tree, with attendants on either side. He raises his right hand palm out as a welcoming guesture to worshippers that they have no need to fear. His hands and feet bear the marks of the dharma wheel.
Around 320 CE a new empire arose called the Gupta. Under the Guptas, artists formulated what became the canonical image of Buddha combining the Gandharan monastic robe covering both shoulders with the soft, full bodied Buddha figures with clinging garments of Mathuran sculptures. These styles are beautifully merged in this fifth century Buddha from Sarnath, India. Here the robust figure wears the sheer unadorned robe. His eyes are downcast in meditation and he holds his hands in a Wheel-turning gesture, preaching his first sermon. Buddha images such as this one became so popular that temples housing Buddha statues seem largely to have displaced stupas as the norm in Buddhist architecture.
Hinduism
Buddhism and Hinduism have many gods and various paths which permits tolerated differences. In Hinduism, Buddha is one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu, one of the three principal Hindu deities. Hinduism recognizes no founder, and has many variations. Mainly there are Brahmin priests who offer sacrifice to please a deity in order to achieve release moksha (liberation) from the endless cycle of reincarnationsamsara and become one with the universal spirit.
The three major Hindu deities are Shiva, Vishnu, and the goddess Devi. The three major sects of Hinduism has each of these deities as Supreme. Shiva is Shaivism, Vishnu is Vaishnavism, and Devi is Shaktism (Shakti is the female creative force.)
Shiva is the Destroyer, but, consistent with the multiplicity of Hindu belief, is also a regenerative force and, in the latter role, can be represented in the form of a linga (a phallus or cosmic pillar). When Shiva appears in human form in Hindu art, he frequently has multiple limbs and heads, signs of his super human nature. He often has matted locks piled on the top of his head, crowned by a crescent moon. Sometimes he wears a serpent scarf and has a third eye on his forehead (the emblem of his all seeing nature). Shiva rides the bull Nandi and often carries a trident. His son is the elephant headed Ganesha.
Vishnu is the Preserver of the Universe. Artists frequently portray him with four arms holding various attributes, including a conch shell trumpet and discus. He sometimes reclines on a serpent floating on the waters of the cosmic sea. When the evil forces of the universe become too strong, he descends to the earth to restore balance and assumes different forms, including a boar, fish, and tortoise, as well as Krishna, the divine lover, and even Buddha himself.
Devi is the Great goddess who takes many forms and has many names. Hindus worship her alone or as a consort (wife or lover) of the gods. She has both benign and horrific forms; she both creates and destroys. In one form she is Durga, a multi-armed goddess who rides or is accompanied by a lion.
Vashnu
The earliest Hindu cave temples come 600 years after the earliest Buddhist ones. The monumental relief sculptures in the Udayagiri temples, near Sanchi, provide a more sophisticated iconography than one would expect from their simple exteriors. One of the reliefs carved in a shallow niche of rock, shows a 13 foot tall Vishnu in his incarnation as the boar Varaha. Vishnu assumed this form when he rescued the earth, personified by the goddess Bhudevi clinging to the boars tusk, from being carried to the bottom of the ocean. Vishnu stands with one foot on the coils of the snake king (with human head), who represents the conquered demon that attempted to abduct the earth. Rows of deities and sages witness the event.
This relief also served a political purpose. The patron was a local king who honored a great Gupta king with an inscription dated to 401. The king wanted his subjects to see the Gupta king as as saving his kingdom by ridding it of its enemies much the way Varaha had saved the earth. The Udayagiri sculptors, acting on their patrons wishes, clothed contemporary events in mythological disguise, as the Greeks frequently did.
Shiva
A wonderful relief depicting Shiva comes from a series of wall reliefs in halls cut into the rock cliffs above the city of Badami in central India. The Shiva relief dates to the late 6th century and depicts him doing the cosmic dance with his many arms (how many?) forming a rhythmic arc. Some hands hold objects and others form mudras. On the right, Shiva’s son, the elephant headed Ganesha tentatively mimics his father, while Shiva’s bull mount, Nandi, is on the left. Artists often represented Hindu deities as part human and part animal. Such composite and multi-limbed forms indicte that the subjects are not human, but God’s with supernatural powers.