Читать книгу Art of India - Vincent Arthur Smith - Страница 6

The art of the times dealt with in this chapter is characterized by frank naturalism. It is thoroughly human, a mirror of the social and religious life of ancient India, apparently a much pleasanter and merrier life than that of the India of later ages, when the Brahmans had reasserted their superiority and imposed their ideas upon art and upon every branch of Hindu civilization. The early sculptures, while full of the creatures of gay fancy, are free from the gloom and horror of the conceptions of the medieval artists. The Buddhism with which nearly all of them are concerned was, as already observed, the popular creed of men and women living a natural life in the world, seeking happiness, and able to enjoy themselves.

There has, also, been a tendency to apply certain literary standards, which are in essence medieval, to the work of the Early Period, and in fact, to all Indian art, wholesale. The various members, mouldings, and motives which dealt with in the Silpa Sastras cannot be found outside the buildings of the medieval period. With regard to the passages dealing with the sculpture the same thing applies. The Sastras are in fact technical memoranda based on a literary tradition, which may be taken to have crystalised out from the great literary activity of the Gupta period. Their import is very great with regard to the iconography of medieval and modern India. They can only be applied with great circumspection to the earlier art, the inspiration of which is oral and living.

The footprints of the Buddha (Buddhapada) from the Great Stupa at Amaravati, 1st century B. C. E., Satavahana period, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh. Limestone panel, 67.5 × 46.25 × 15 cm. British Museum, London.

Mahayan Chaitya-Griha Cave Temple, 5th-6th century C. E., late Gupta period. Rock-cut hall. Ajanta caves (Cave XXVI), near Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

The study of the existing monuments of Ashoka, scanty as they are, leaves one with a clear impression of a definite and distinct school of sculpture, with great stylistic and architectonic qualities and certain characteristics which distinguish it from the sculpture of the Early Period and from all other periods of Indian art. Firstly, finely stylized as these works are they are essentially naturalistic. Secondly, columns, capitals, and caves all have a highly finished, polished surface which is unique and unmistakable. Certain sculptures, however, exist which possess this distinguishing finish and yet as sculptures are to be classed with the work of Bharhut and Sanchi. These may be treated as a link between the two schools. Anyhow the Mauryan period, which is historically exact, provides a lower limit for the dating of the work of the Early Period. Among these sculptures, which are mostly of colossal size, is a mutilated standing statue of a male, perhaps representing the Yaksha demigod Kuvera, god of wealth, found at Parkham in the Mathura District, and now in the Mathura Museum. The material is polished grey sandstone similar to that used for the Ashoka pillars. The height, including pedestal, is two and a half metres, and the breadth across the shoulders is 79 centimetres. The excessively massive body, which possesses considerable grandeur, is clothed in a waistcloth (dhoti) held around the loins by means of a flat girdle tied in a knot in front. A second flat girdle is bound round the chest. The ornaments are a necklace and a torque from which four tassels hang down on the back. Some praise may be given to the treatment of the drapery.

This is probably the earliest example of ‘early’ sculpture as distinct from the Mauryan. In treatment and detail it is clearly a forerunner of the sculpture of Bharhut and has nothing in common with the art of the Mauryan capitals. Several other colossal sculptures, which do not possess the distinctive Mauryan polish, emphasize this development.

An uninscribed statue of a female, two metres in height, found near Besnagar adjoining Bhilsa in the Gwalior State, Central India, a locality associated by tradition with Ashoka, is to be classed among these on account of the style and costume.

The figure wears the heavy headdress as found at Bharhut and Sanchi and also the linked belt of beaded strands and the double breast chain. The finely pleated waistcloth is held at the hips by a belt with a looped clasp and its folds are treated in fashion that is reminiscent of the Sanchi bracket-figures rather than the Bharhut devatas. The modelling is naturalistic, but the sculpture has suffered severely from violence and exposure.

There is a second colossal female at Besnagar, two metres high, locally known as the Telin or ‘oil woman’, which has been described by Cunningham. He also mentions the existence in his time of a polished sandstone elephant and rider.

In 1873, Cunningham discovered at Bharhut, about midway between Allahabad and Jabalpur, the remains of a Buddhist stupa, surrounded by a stone railing adorned with sculptures of surprising richness and interest. The stupa had then been almost wholly carried off by greedy villagers in search of bricks, who treated the sculptures with equal ruthlessness, and were prevented from destroying them only by the great weight of the stones. During the following three years, Cunningham and his assistant uncovered the ruins and saved a large number of the sculptured stones by sending them to Calcutta, where they now form one of the chief treasures of the Indian Museum. Everything left on the site was taken away by the country people and converted to base uses.

Ajanta caves, 5th-6th century C. E., late Gupta period. Rock-cut. Ajanta caves (Caves XXIII–XXVII), near Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

The railing, constructed after the usual pattern, in a highly developed form, was extremely massive, the pillars being 2.15 metres in height, and each of the coping stones about the same in length. The sculptures of the coping were devoted mainly to the representation of incidents in the Jatakas, or tales of the previous births of the Buddha. The carvings on the rails, pillars, and gateways were exceedingly varied in subject and treatment of Buddhist legends. The structure must have been very much like Sanchi. The composite pillar of the gateway, made up of four clustered columns crowned by a modified Persepolitan capital, is worthy of special notice. An inscription records that the Eastern gateway with the adjoining masonry was erected during the rule of the Sunga dynasty (c. 185–73 B. C. E.), but it is not possible to determine the date of the monument with greater precision. The execution of work so costly and elaborate must have extended over many years. Certain masons’ marks in the Kharoshthi character of the northwestern frontier suggest that perhaps foreign artists were called in to teach and assist local talent. The railing exhibits a great mass of sculptures of a high order of excellence. The subjects and style are described by Cunningham as follows:

The subjects represented in the Bharhut sculptures are both numerous and varied, and many of them are of the highest interest and importance for the study of Indian style. Thus we have more than a score of illustrations of the legendary Jatakas, some half-dozen illustrations of historical scenes connected with the life of Buddha, which are quite invaluable for the history of Buddhism. Their value is chiefly due to the inscribed labels that are attached to many of them, and which make their identification absolutely certain. Amongst the historical scenes the most interesting are the processions of the Rajas Ajatasatru and Prasenajita on their visits to Buddha; the former on his elephant, the latter in his chariot, exactly as they are described in the Buddhist chronicles.

Another invaluable sculpture is the representation of the famous Jetavana monastery at Sravasti with its mango tree and temples, and the rich banker Anathapindika in the foreground emptying a cartful of gold pieces to pave the surface of the garden.

Of large figures there are upwards of thirty alto-rilievo statues of Yakshas and Yakshinis (Yakshis), Devatas, and Nagarajas, one half of which are inscribed with their names. We thus see that the guardianship of the north gate was entrusted to Kuvera, King of the Yakshas, agreeably to the teaching of the Buddhist and Brahmanical cosmogonies. And similarly we find that the other gates were confided to Devas and the Nagas.

The representations of animals and trees are also very numerous, and some of them are particularly spirited and characteristic. Of other objects there are boats, horse-chariots, and bullock-carts, besides several kinds of musical instruments, and a great variety of flags, standards, and other symbols of royalty.

About one half of the full medallions of the rail-bars and the whole of the half-medallions of the pillars are filled with flowered ornaments of singular beauty and delicacy of execution.

Great horseshoe window, 6th century C. E., late Gupta period. Rock-cut. Ajanta caves (Cave I), near Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

The medallions on the railbars and the half-medallions on the pillars are filled with a wonderful variety of bas-relief subjects. The comic monkey scenes display a lively sense of humour, freedom of fancy, and clever drawing. They must, of course, like all the early bas-reliefs, be judged as pictures drawn on stone, rather than as sculpture. The rollicking humour and liberty of fancy unchecked by rigid canons, while alien to the transcendental philosophy and ascetic ideals of the Brahmans, are thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of Buddhism, which, as a practical religion, does not stress the spiritual to the extinction of human and animal happiness. Everything seems to indicate that India was a much happier land in the days when Buddhism flourished than it has ever been since. The first medallion selected for illustration is a very funny picture of a tooth being extracted from a man’s jaw by an elephant pulling a gigantic forceps. The stories alluded to are presumably of the Jataka class. The spontaneity of the work vouches for the popularity of the tradition, stories that must have been on every child’s lips.

Sections of the enclosure railing (vedika) and a standard pillar (stambha) at the eastern gate of the great Bharhut stupa, 3rd-4th century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Red sandstone, railing height: 200 cm, pillar height: 216.41 cm. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Naga king Chakavaka, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Alto-rilievo statue of a railing pillar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Chakavaka Miga Jataka (previous birth of the Buddha): Once the Buddha was born as a Royal Deer. During the course of a big famine the people started killing deer. A large flock of one thousand deer was divided into two separate groups of which one was led by Lakshana and the other by Kala. Lakshana in the story is associated with Siddhartha and Kala with Devadatta, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Carved medallion of a railing pillar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Another medallion shows a characteristic and well-preserved specimen of the bas-reliefs on the coping. The artists who could design and execute such pictures in hard sandstone had no small skill. Havell observes that the technique is that of the wood-carver. The Chulakoka sculpture is especially interesting as the earliest extant example of the woman-and-tree motif. One of the best statues is that of the Yakshi Sudarsana which exhibits a good knowledge of the human form and marked skill in the modelling of the hips in a difficult position.

The large alto-relievo images of minor deities on the pillars vary much in execution.

The remaining relief details illustrate various fantastical hybrid creatures, winged lions and oxen, a centaur, a horse-headed female or kinnara, and a frieze of the fish-tailed monsters common at Mathura and in Gandhara. These are human-bodied and appear to be half-naga, half-makara. These strange beasts have a debatable origin. The Naga or snake godling is usually represented in India with his snake-hood, but in the Jatakas appears to be able to cast off this stigma and is then only to be known by his red eyes. These lesser divinities are by birth Indian and native in the earliest folklore and sculpture. The makara, too, whose scrolled tail is used so magnificently to form the volutes of the architraves of toranas at Bharhut, Sanchi, and Mathura, is also well founded traditionally. These with the kinnaris or half-bird musicians and the horse-headed kinnaras may be classed together as gandharvas, or lesser heavenly beings. They are as types paralleled with several other motives of early Indian art in the sculpture of West Asia, Assyria, and Persia. The bell and frieze design of the Bharhut copestone and its upper pyramid and lotus band are among these, and also, the bell capital surmounted by animal groups. Whatever the distant sources of these motives may be, their treatment at Bharhut, Bodh Gaya, and Sanchi, is wholly Indian. As has been said many of them spring directly from the soil.

Vase (Purnaghata or Mangalakalasa) with overflowing lilies, lotus buds and blooming lotuses. Four swans are perched on the pericarp of the overblown flowers, symbolising life and abundance, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Carved medallion of a cross bar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Procession of the Raja Prasenajita in his chariot on his visit to Buddha, late 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Relief of a railing pillar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Humorous scene: A giant yaksha, calm in the spirit of a Bodhisattva is being tortured by monkeys who are using a large clipper to remove the hair from the yaksha’s nostrils. The elephant is being driven by beating, piercing by a goad, and by making noise through trumpet and drum, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Carved medallion of a cross bar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Jetavana Monastery at Sravasti with its mango trees and temples, and the rich banker, Anathapindika emptying a cartful of gold pieces to pave the surface of the garden, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Carved medallion of a railing pillar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Jataka scenes with animal and fruit decoration, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Bas-relief of the coping, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

The Bharhut sculptures, having escaped the destructive zeal of Islamic iconoclasts by reason of their situation in an out-of-the-way region, lay safely hidden under a thick veil of jungle until, when the establishment of general peace and the spread of cultivation stimulated the local rustics to construct substantial houses from the spoils of the old monuments for which they cared nothing. The extensive group of early Buddhist buildings at and near Sanchi in the Bhopal State similarly evaded demolition because it lay out of the path of the armies of Islam. Although the monuments of Sanchi have not suffered as much as those of Bharhut from the ravages of the village builder, they have not wholly escaped injury. During the first half of the nineteenth century much damage was done by the ill-advised curiosity of amateur archaeologists. Now, however, the authorities concerned are fully alive to their responsibility, and everything possible is being done to conserve the local memorials of India’s ancient greatness. Sanchi today is a triumph of archaeological restoration.

The importance of Sanchi in the history of Indian art rests chiefly upon the four wonderful gateways forming the entrances to the procession path between the stupa and the surrounding railing. A key to the chronology of the site is provided by the Ashoka column which stands to the right of the South gateway. The Mauryan level is marked by a floor of pounded earth and clay. Three other levels or floors appear over it, the top-most being lime-plastered. Above all is the pavement of large slabs contemporary with the stupa railing. This is a perfectly plain copy of a wooden post and rail fence and may be dated in the latter half of the second century B. C. E., since there is 122 centimetres between the upper pavement and the Mauryan level, which could hardly have accumulated in less than a century.

Railing pillar from the original shrine enclosure at Bodhgaya, Bihar. The upper roundels depict stories from the previous lives of the Buddha (Hamsa Jataka), early 1st century C. E., Kushan period, Bodhgaya, Bihar. Sandstone, 116 × 37 cm. Given by Surgeon-Maj. F. A. Turton, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The four gateways, which are additions to the original railing, fall artistically in to pairs, the East and West gates, showing a slight development in modelling and the use of light and shade. A little more than fifty years may have elapsed between their execution, the end of the first century B. C. E. being accepted as a general date for all four. The Southern gateway was prostrate when visited by Captain Fell in 1819. The Western gate collapsed between 1860 and 1880, but the Northern and Eastern gates have never fallen. All have undergone thorough repairs during recent years under the able direction of Sir John Marshall, the former Director-General of Archaeology in India. Sanchi has taken on a new lease of life and beauty in his hands, the more important remains of this huge site being carefully and exactly restored and preserved. The Sanchi gateways, or toranas, stand 10.36 metres high, and are all substantially alike, while differing much in detail:

Two massive square pillars, one on either side, 14 feet (4.3 metres) high, forming as it were the gate-posts, support an ornamental superstructure of three slightly arched stone beams or architraves placed horizontally, one above the other, with spaces between them. The topmost beam of each gate was surmounted by the sacred wheel flanked by attendants and the trisula emblem.

The faces, back and front, of the beams and pillars are crowded with panels of sculpture in bas-relief representing scenes in the life of Buddha, domestic and silvan scenes, processions, sieges, adoration of trees and topes, and groups of ordinary and extraordinary animals, among which are winged bulls and lions of a Persepolitan type and horned animals with human faces.

Dancing Peacock with full plumage. Two peahens gently approach from either side licking the claws of their dancing companion in appreciation, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Carved medallion of a cross bar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Humorous scene: Monkeys playing with an elephant who has been tied with a rope. It is quite likely that the elephant is a bodhisattva who begrudgingly bears the torture caused by the monkeys who are known for mischief, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Carved medallion of a cross bar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

All critics are agreed that the gateways were built in pairs and that the southern gateway is one of the earliest of the four. The capitals of its gateposts are formed by four lions seated back to back, ‘indifferently carved’, and of the same type as those on Ashoka’s inscribed pillar already noticed. The marked decline in skill demonstrated by the contrast between the lions on the gate-post and those on the inscribed pillar is surprising considering the shortness of the interval of time, about a century, between the two compositions, or rather the essential difference between the Mauryan and the ancient Indian school. The difference is most easily verified by comparing the treatment of the lions’ paws on the gatepost capital and of the same members on the capital of the inscribed pillar, or the similar Sarnath pillar. The paws of the early Ashokan sculptures are correctly modelled with four large front claws and one small hind claw, the muscles also being realistically reproduced. In the later work five large claws, all in front, are given to the paws, and the muscles are indicated by some straight channels running up and down in a purely abstract manner.

The capitals of the gateposts of the northern gateway exhibit four elephants standing back to back, and carrying riders. Those of the eastern gateway are similar. On the capitals of the latest gateway, the western, four hideous dwarfs, clumsily sculptured, take the place of the elephants or lions.

All the Sanchi sculptures, like the Ajanta paintings, deal with Buddhist subjects if a composition seems in our eyes to be purely secular, that is only because we do not understand its meaning. Genre pictures, whether in paint or bas-relief, do not exist in the ancient art of India. The main object of the artist was to illustrate his Bible, and if, perchance, the illustration could be made into a pretty picture, so much the better; but anyhow, the sacred story must be told.

In addition to his desire to tell edifying stories in a manner readily intelligible to the eyes of the faithful, the old artist clearly was dominated by the feeling that he was bound to impress on all beholders the lesson that the dead Teacher, the last and greatest of the long line of Buddhas, had won and continually received the willing homage of the whole creation – of men, women, and children, of the host of heaven, the water-sprites, and the demons – nay, even of the monsters of romance and the dumb animals. And so, in all the ancient Buddhist art, whether at Sanchi or elsewhere, weird winged figures hovering in the air, snake-headed or fish-tailed monsters emerging from their caverns or haunting the deep, offer their silent homage to the Lord of all, and the monkeys bow down in adoration before the Master who had turned the wheel of the Law and set it rolling through the world. The early artists did not dare to portray his bodily form, which had forever vanished, being content to attest his spiritual presence by silent symbols the footprints, the empty chair, and so forth. But, whether the Master was imaged or symbolized, the notion of his adoration by all creation was continually present in the minds of the artists and influenced their selection of decorative motives. Although concerned in the main with thoughts of religion and worship they were not unmindful of beauty, which they often succeeded in attaining in no small degree.

In the early works, like those of Sanchi and Bharhut, the absence of images of Buddha has the advantage of saving the stone pictures from the formal symmetrical arrangements grouped round the central figure which often weary by their monotonous iteration in Gandhara and at Amaravati.

Chanda Yakshi wearing several ornaments such as a flat necklace and a Stanahara – a stringed necklace. The arm is raised up bending the branch of a blossomed tree the stem of which is held in the grip of the left leg, early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Carved corner pillar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

Rider carrying a royal standard with Garuda, figure of man and bird, on top (Garudadhvaja), early 2nd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh. Relief of a railing pillar, red sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta, West Bengal.

In general way, the style of the Sanchi reliefs resembles that of those at Bharhut, compensation may be found in the elegant bracket figures, practically statues in the round, which are a specially pleasing feature of Sanchi art. A good example is a form of the woman-and-tree motif. The beautiful decorative details of the pillar are worthy of careful study. No nation has surpassed the Indians in the variety and delicacy of the floral designs enriching their sculptures and pictures.

The reliefs of the West and East gates may be taken as being typical of the Sanchi reliefs. At the bottom of the inside of the left pillar of the East Gate stands the Yaksha guardian of the door in princely dress. His fellow stands opposite gateway – him on the other pillar. They are comparable with the Bharhut Yakshas, but the treatment of figure and ornament is considerably more rhythmic. The tree in the background is a Bignonia and the devata holds one of its blossoms in his right hand. The upper panel of the relief represents the Buddha’s victory over the black snake and the conversion of Kasyapa at Uruvilva. The snake and the flames of the conflict and the astonished Brahmans, some of whom are attempting to fetch water, are all shown, but the figure of the triumphant Buddha is left to the imagination. Below this scene the story of the conversion of Kasyapa is continued and the incident of Buddha and the Brahman sacrifice is shown. Wood is being split and the preparations made, but the fire springs up and dies at the Buddha’s command. On the front of the same pillar the final incident of the Buddha walking on the waters is told and the sequent visit to Rajagriha, King Bimbisara being depicted as arriving at the gate of the city in his two-horsed chariot. In the top panels of the pillars is the bodhi tree Shrine already discussed.

Surveying the work of the Early Period (second century B. C. E.-early first century C. E.) one recognizes certain distinctive common elements: the absence of the Buddha figure; its replacement by certain simple symbols; and the popular quality of the work, the living oral tradition of which is indicated by the predominance of Jataka scenes even over the scriptural; the naive technique which treats each story as a pictorial entity contained in a single panel or medallion, the figures of the protagonist being repeated twice and three times according to the demand of the drama to be unfolded. At Sanchi, while the method of exposition and the bulk of the decorative motives are the same as at Bharhut, the canonical is very definitely to the fore, and the technique has advanced considerably. At Mathura and many other sites in India sculptures have been found which belong to the Early Period. With regard to these it is advisable to take Bharhut and Sanchi as types of sub-periods and so arrive at the classification Early Period I and Early Period II.