Читать книгу Art of India - Vincent Arthur Smith - Страница 5

After the death of Ashoka the empire broke to pieces, but his descendants continued to rule the home provinces for about half a century, at the end of which they were superseded by the Sunga kings who governed parts of Northern India until the beginning of the first century B. C. E. However, the style of architecture, decoration, and sculpture which perhaps first assumed a permanent form under the patronage of Ashoka continued in use up to about the close of the first century of the Common era, forming a distinct and definite period in the history of Indian art.

Although Buddhism at this period, approximately extending from 273 B. C. E. to 10 °C. E., was by no means the only religion in India, it enjoyed a dominant position as the result of the great Buddhist emperor’s propaganda, and the monuments remaining, therefore, are almost all Buddhist, though few are as early as the reign of Ashoka. The huge mass of solid brick masonry known as the great stupa of Sanchi, later encased with stone, may belong to his reign, as well as several other similar structures, but most of the buildings that now survive are of a later date.

The ancient civil buildings having all perished utterly, except the tangle of superimposed foundations that is all that the spade lays bare at most of the early sites, the story of Indian architecture must therefore be reconstructed from the somewhat one-sided evidence of the temples and shrines, and the bas-reliefs that adorn them. The most characteristic early architectural compositions were stupas, with their appurtenant railings and gateways, monasteries, and churches, the ‘ifaziiya-halls’ of James Fergusson. The monasteries and churches include both rock-cut and structural examples. Isolated pillars also were frequently set up.

Stupas or ‘topes’, the dagabas of Sri Lanka, solid cupolas of brick or stone masonry, were constructed either for the safe custody of relics hidden in a pagaba, or chamber near the base, or to mark a spot associated with an event sacred in Buddhist or Jain legend. Until the early twentieth century, the stupa was universally believed to be peculiarly Buddhist, but it is now a matter of common knowledge that the ancient Jains built stupas identical in form and accessories with those of the rival religion. However, no specimen of a Jain stupa is standing, and our attention may be confined to the Buddhist series. The earliest stupas were of unburnt bricks like the Bharhut stupa. The great stupa at Sanchi was originally of this type, a casing of roughly trimmed masonry and a ramp forming an upper procession-path being added later.

As time went on, the originally hemispherical dome of this stupa as it appeared before restoration was raised on a high drum or tier of drums, and so by a series of gradual amplifications the ancient model was transformed first into a lofty tower after Kanishka’s stupa at Peshawar, described by Hiuen Tsiang, and ultimately into the Chinese pagoda.

The most ancient stupas were very plain. They were usually surrounded by a stone railing, sometimes square in plan, but more often circular, marking off a procession path for the use of worshippers and serving as a defence against evil spirits. The earliest examples of such railings, at Sanchi, are unadorned copies of wooden post-and-rail fences. The bars of the railing were usually lenticular in section, inserted in the posts as shown in the diagram. At Besnagar another form of ancient railing has been unearthed, consisting of oblong slabs held by grooved uprights.

Bharhut and Sanchi represent two sequent stages in the development of the stupa of the Early (post-Mauryan) Period. They and their appurtenances had become more ornate. Sculpture was freely applied to every member of the railing to the posts, rails, and coping. Late in the second century of the Common era at Amaravati the railing was transformed into a screen covered with stone pictures in comparatively low relief but with the richest effect. The openings giving access to the processionpath inside the railing were dignified by the creation of lofty gateways (torana) copied from wooden models, and covered with a profusion of sculpture. The best examples of such gateways are those at Sanchi.

The origin of the stupa lies in primitive burial ceremonies for they are primarily tombs like the ‘iron age’ cairns of the south and such tumuli as those excavated by Dr. Theodor Bloch near Nandangarh in the Champaran District. Originally mounds of earth, the earliest stupas existing are of unbaked brick, hemispherical in shape. Although their first object was the enshrinement of sacred relics, in later times they acquired a symbolical value and many cenotaphs were built, the dedication of miniature stupas of stone or clay being customary at the great shrines. This idea of the symbolic value of stupas and the merit of stupa-building, on the part of the faithful, apart from the relics they might or might not contain, is to be found at the root of the legendary accounts of Ashoka’s ten-thousand stupas. Fa Xian says that in monasteries it was customary to raise stupas to Mudgalaputra, Sariputra, and Ananda, as well as in honour of the Abhidharma, Vinaya, and Sutra, such stupas in fact being regarded as altars. The word chaitya is indeed often used where a stupa is intended, in the sense of a shrine or holy place. So Anathapindika builds Sariputra’s chaitya which was four stories high, decreasing in size, and which contained a relic vase, and was surmounted by a roof and many umbrellas.

In the Dulva, too, it is laid down that a Bhikshu’s body (Buddhist monk’s body) is to be covered with grass and leaves and a chaitya raised over it. In a still more remote sense, the converted but disconsolate Queen Sivali raised stupas at the places where her ascetic husband had argued with her and finally convinced her. In medieval times the stupa with its pyramid of sheltering umbrellas is dwarfed in importance by the sculpture that adorns it. At Ajanta and Ellora and everywhere, in miniature at Bodh-Gaya, it is really nothing but a domed shrine, the tier of umbrellas being fused together into a spire.

Stupas, not to speak of miniature votive models, varied greatly in size. The very ancient specimen at Piprahwa on the Nepalese frontier, which may possibly be earlier than Ashoka, has a diameter of 35.36 metres at ground level, and stands only about 6.7 metres high. The diameter of the great Sanchi monument at the plinth is 46.17 metres, the height about 235 metres and the stone railing is a massive structure 31 metres high. Several monuments in Northern India, some of which were ascribed to Ashoka, are recorded to have attained a height of from 61 to 122 metres; and to this day the summit of the Jetavanarama Dagoba in Sri Lanka towers 76.5 metres above the level of the ground. The larger monuments afforded infinite scope to the decorative artist.

The Great Stupa of Sanchi, 3rd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty. Sandstone, stupa: diameter at the plinth: 37 m, height: 16.5 m, stone railing: 30.8 m. Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh.

Western Gateway (torana) of the Great Stupa. The pillar capitals depict four yaksha-like figures standing back-to-back with upraised hands supporting the architraves, 70 B. C. E., Satavahana dynasty. Sandstone, gateway height: 10.36 m, pillar height: 4.27 m. Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh.

On the Bharhut bas-reliefs two types of buildings are to be found. The first is domed and round in plan. The second is barrel-roofed and sometimes three stories high. This second type is the origin of the barrel-roofed chaitya-caves where the details of the octagonal pillars, the balcony railings and the arched doorways and windows are faithfully portrayed. At Sanchi the same types appear and also at Amaravati and Mathura. Shrines are shown in three instances and are all of one type. At Bharhut the Shrine of the Headdress Relic is circular in plan, closed in by a low railing but otherwise open on all sides. It has the usual ogee doorway, the arch of which is ornamented, above its beam-heads, with little rosettes. The semicircular part of the opening is filled in with the usual framework which served as a weather screen. The roof is dome-shaped and has a pointed finial. It is divided into two by a narrow clerestory opening which comes between the dome and the curved eave. In the centre on a stone platform technically known as a ‘throne’ (asana) is a cushion bearing the sacred relic. The throne is ornamented with pendent garlands and is marked with the impressions of the right hands of devotees, a custom still common in India.

The first scene of the conversion of Kasyapa (ancient sage) of Uruvilva on the middle of the inner side of the left-hand pillar of the East gateway at Sanchi shows another shrine of this type. This is the Shrine of the Black Snake which the Buddha eventually caught in his begging-bowl. Here the dome is broken by eight windows and is surrounded by a balcony railing.

The famous shrine which Ashoka built around the bodhi tree appears at Bharhut, Sanchi, Mathura, and Amaravati. At Bharhut it is sculptured on the Prasenajit pillar and seems to consist of a barrel-roofed colonnade, circular in plan entirely surrounding the tree. The upper story is provided with many windows and a balcony railing. At Sanchi this same building is accurately reproduced on the front of the left pillar, and again on the outside of the lower architrave, of the East gateway, where it is the centre of a huge host of pilgrims. At Mathura it also appears on an architrave of Kushan date and again in a slightly amplified form at Amaravati. Here other buildings have arisen around it and to one side is a gateway (torana). These gateways were apparently used everywhere, for secular purposes as well as ecclesiastical, for on the middle architrave of the East gateway at Sanchi, one appears as the entrance to a town through which a procession is passing beneath crowded windows and balconies.

A survey of such scenes where buildings of two and three stories abound accords with the colourful descriptions of the splendours of such towns of ancient India as Vaisali or Pataliputra. Buildings of seven stories in height are even spoken of (Satta, Bhumaka, Pasadd). Among the most famous of these piles was the Kutagara-Vihara at Vaisali, which Buddhaghosa describes as a storied building raised on pillars with a pinnacle, and like the chariot of the gods.

Civil architecture is described in the Jatakas on almost as lavish a scale. The large houses had wide gateways leading into an inner courtyard with rooms opening into it on ground level. There were granaries and store-rooms and a treasury, but the flat roof, as at all times in the East, played a great part in the life of the house, at least during the day, being probably roofed-in to form an open-sided, airy pavilion.

Plaster (chunam) was used everywhere to adorn these buildings, and as a base for painting. Yaksha figures were painted as door-guardians and certain decorative motives are also mentioned: wreath-work, five-ribbon work, dragon’s teeth work, and creeper-work.

As has been said, nothing of these splendours has come down to us in any of the various sites that have been excavated. It is obvious, however, that the greater part of these structures was of wood and therefore perishable, as, indeed, layers of ashes testify in many places. It is noticeable that the pillars of the upper stories of the buildings depicted on the bas-reliefs are octagonal, usually without capital or base. The pillars on the ground floor are octagonal also but have heavy bells surmounted by animal capitals or brackets, which suggests that the lower pillars were possibly of stone. On the right jamb of the East gateway at Sanchi are represented six superimposed stories, said by Grünwedel to represent the six deva-lokas. The pillars of these structures are grouped in pairs, the lowest of each having bell-capitals, the upper being plain and leading up to the barrel-roof. There is a considerable difference between the proportions of the upper and lower pillars, which again suggests a difference in material.

Although monastic institutions in India were not confined to the Buddhists, the Buddhist Sangha (community) attained a height of power and a detail of organization to which the Jain and Brahmanical communities never aspired; and in consequence, the buildings dedicated to the use of the Order were frequently designed on a scale of the utmost magnificence. The central and all important building of the early monasteries seems to have been the Sabha or hall of meeting of the community. Gateways, store-houses, kitchens, and well-houses are mentioned, but the actual cells of the monks were apparently a group of separate buildings. These, it seems, were built by the brethren themselves, among whom were many skilled architects. In the Jatakas it is said, however, that only the senior brethren had their own chambers, while the juniors slept in the hall. Later the Buddha ordained that novices should be lodged with their supervisors for three days and then sent to their own place. The forest-dweller’s leafy hut is often portrayed in the early sculpture and many of the lesser dwellings of the monastery were probably of this type. The meeting hall or service hall must have been a common type of building in ancient India, for the Buddhist Sangha was by no means an innovation and can be directly compared to the hundred and one political and social corporations of the time. Every village, profession, and craft was organised into guilds which had their appointed places of meeting.

The mote hall of the Licchavis (Santhagara) must have been a building of the same kind as the Assembly-hall of the Buddhists.

Before the period of the rock-cut halls and cells like those at Bhaja and of later Bedsa, in Gandhara (area around Peshawar, in the east of the Khyber Pass) and in medieval India generally, the monasteries took a quadrangular form, the cells being built so that they faced inwards on the four sides of a courtyard.

When such a quadrangle became multiple, through the addition of chapels, stupas, refectories, halls, churches, storehouses, and other buildings, the greater monasteries covered an enormous area, and offered to the architect, sculptor, and painter endless opportunities for the display of art in every form. Although no very early monastery has survived in a condition at all complete, the ground-plans of many such establishments have been clearly traced, and in Gandhara considerable remains of superstructures crowded with statuary have been disclosed. Recorded descriptions and extant remains amply attest the splendour of the more important monasteries, each of which was a centre of secular as well as of religious education, and also a school of art in which men were trained in all the crafts needed for the adornment of the holy places.

Dhamekh Stupa. This stupa is said to mark the spot where Buddha gave his first sermons to his five disciples after attaining enlightenment. The narrative sculptures show different events from Buddha’s life, 249 B. C. E./50 °C. E., Maurya dynasty (Ashoka)/late Gupta period.

Solid cylinder of bricks and stone, stupa: diameter: 28 m, height 43.6 m. Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh.

The Jetavanaramaya stupa, located in the ruins of Jetavana Monastery, 3rd-4th century C. E., Anuradhapura period. One of the largest brick structures in the world (93.3 million baked bricks), height: 122 m, volume: 233,000 m³. Anuradhapura.

Symbols of the Buddha’s first sermon, with centred triple wheel, aniconic representation of the historic Buddha, 2nd century B. C. E., Kushan period, Ancient Gandhara (modern Pakistan/Afghanistan). Grey schist, 23.2 × 19.7 × 4.4 cm. Private collection.

Something of this great school of art is preserved for us in the great rock-cut halls and dwelling-caves of Western India. Here, at Bhaja, Kondane, Pitalkhora, Bedsa, Ajanta, Nasik, Karli, and Kanheri, have been hewn out of the very heart of the rock full-scale reproductions of the ancient assembly-halls in all the detail of their wooden construction. In general plan they correspond with the barrel-roofed buildings of the early sculpture. They are apsidal with side aisles on either hand and are lit by the great horseshoe window at one end. A survey of this series of caves lays bare a stylistic advance from purely wooden imitation to definitely lithic forms. At Bhaja the plain octagonal pillars rake inwards considerably; the screen that closed the lower part of the great window was actually of timber mortised into the rock as are the carefully inset roof beams. There is no decoration except bands of railing-pattern and tiers of miniature ‘chatty a windows’, derived from the piled-up stories of the wooden originals. These details apply to the caves at Kondane, Pitalkhora and to the earliest at Ajanta (Cave X). Later the wooden screen is reproduced in stone and bell-capitals and bases, and tiered-up abaci with heavy animal upper-capitals appear, while at Nasik, Karli, and Kanheri sculpture is freely used. This sculpture is all obviously post-Sanchi. At Karli and Kanheri highly decorated railings of the Amaravati kind are found and also guardian figures which closely correspond to the middle phase of Kushan sculpture, found at Mathura. The epigraphical evidence coincides with the artistic evidence, dating the last of these early caves (Karli and Kanheri) in the second century C. E. The façade of Bhaja is so exactly like the bas-relief representations of the wooden original at Bharhut and Bodh Gaya that the earliest of the series may be accepted as second century B. C. E.

The Lomas Rishi Cave in the Barabar hills belongs to a group of small rock-cut cells some of which were dedicated in the reigns of Ashoka and Dasaratha, his grandson. Like the other caves its interior walls have received the fine polish which is so typical of Mauryan work. The original work seems to have been discontinued owing to a flaw in the rock. The façade must have been a later addition, for it is akin to the work at Bharhut. It, however, offers a good example of the close imitation of wooden construction.

The Buddha’s first sermon, 2nd century B. C. E., Satavahana dynasty. Steatite, height: 39.5 cm. Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh.