Download Kushan – Mathura Slide Show

Kushan, Mathura
Slide 1
0842Gallery - IMG0073
Title: Herakles and the Nemean Lion, Indian Museum, Calcutta
Further testifying to the fact that Mathura did indeed draw influence from the Hellenistic
world is found in this sculpture of Hercules and the Nemean lion. While it may be
difficult to make out, Hercules is shown struggling with a lion. An attribute of Hercules
in Greco-Roman art is his cape of a lion’s skin. This too is depicted on the sculpture.
Even though there has been some question as to whether or not the figure represented is
truly Hercules, it is not necessary to confine the discussion of the work to this
iconographic problem in order to recognize its classical heritage or its distinctively Indian
translation of forms. The proportions of the man’s body are decidedly Indian in
character—note the relation between the trunk and the legs, for instance—and the subtle
modeling of both man and beast are indicative of Mathuran sensitivity as well. This is,
however, one of the few nude male sculptures in Indian art, and for this period it is an
extremely rare subject. The intricate juxtaposition of the two figures in space in high
relief sculpture is indicative of Kushan art at Mathura..
Slide 2
0842Gallery - IMG0074
Title: Bodhisattva Shakyamuni dedicated by Friar Bala, Archaeological Museum, Sarnath
According to the inscription on the base of the Bodhisattva of Friar Bala, the image was a
gift of that friar and was executed just before or just after 100 A.D. The inscription states
that the figure is a Bodhisattave but for all artistic and stylistic purposes, it is a Buddha
image, one of the first to depart from strictly aniconic symbolism and to render the master
in a human form. The figure originally stood before a tall column which supported both
the image and a large parasol over it, curved with the signs of the zodiac. At the foot of
the statue is a lion representing the image of the Buddha as a lion among men and
referring to his royal origin.
There is still a very geometric character to the technique used on the Bodhisattva image
that is characteristic of early Buddha figures. Emphasis has been placed on linear
patterning of drapery and on abstract bodily features, especially the face. Overall, the
form is massive and gives a profound monumentality to the Buddha image. As such, it is
an offspring of the Parkham Yaksha.
Slide 3
0842Gallery - IMG0077
Title: Head of Tirthankara, National Gallery, London
It is often difficult to pick out the difference between a Jain and a Buddhist figure. This
head, often ascribed as a Jain Tirthankara, is an excellent example of the Mathuran style.
The forms are curvilinear and give a feeling of outward expansion. There is, however, a
subtle geometric organization of the features, but not on the same grid that the GrecoBactrian and Gandharan heads were built. The eyes of Mathuran heads are large and
slight protruding. In fact, it has been suggested that the area around Mathura suffered an
iodine deficiency and the figures display symptoms of incipient goiters. That theory,
however, is often summarily dismissed by Indian art historians. The arch of the eyebrows
has been described as reflecting a bird’s wings. The full protruding lower lip is referred to
as a “bee-stung” lip. In later Hindu works it will reflect adoring concentration. The
extended ear lobes are both a Jain and a Buddhist attribute. They reflect that the figure
was once of princely status, but, by removing the earplugs, has renounced the world. The
tight, abstract, spirals of the hair are also typical of this style. Mathuran art is noted for its
full-bodied abstractions of the human form as seen in this head.
Slide 4
Gallery 0842 - IMG0078
Title: Colossal head of Bodhisattva, Indian Museum, Calcutta
This head, discovered in the Yamuna River, is characteristic of the early Mathura
Buddhist images. It is an excellent example of the Mathuran canon and is stylistically
closely connected with the Tirtankhara head of the previous slide. The curious diadem on
the Bodhisattva’s head alludes to Sakyamunni’s decision to seek Enlightenment. Upon
leaving the palace, he removed his jeweled turban, cut his long hair, and hurled them into
the sky proclaiming: “If I am to be Buddha, let them stay there. If I am not, let them fall.”
Two arms fork up from the bottom of the diadem, and the hands hold the hair tuft and the
turban. The hair lock and turban are common aniconic symbols of the Renunciation.
Here, they are combined with the iconic image.
Slide 5
0842Gallery - IMG0085
Title: Railing from stupa from Kankali, Indian Museum, Calcutta
The architecture of Mathura was so thoroughly demolished by Islamic invaders that it is
impossible to select any one building as typical. Characteristic types like the stupa were
presumably only an elaboration of earlier forms surrounded with railing, the uprights of
which were carved in high relief. Hercules and the Nemean Lion, the first slide in this
show, is an upright to a stupa railing. However, most subjects were chthonic deities
traditionally worshipped in the villages. Yakshis were very common. They were felt to
aid women in fertility, childbearing, lactation, and many other gender related areas. Until
these works were placed in museums, they continued to provide these services and were
actively sought out by the local population. The figures of the fertility spirits were usually
represented in positions similar to those seen on the Stupa One brackets at Sanchi. This
sinuous and moving type of pose, as well as the eloquent gestures of the hands, suggest
very strongly the active imitation by the carvers of the poses and gestures of the Indian
dance. The composition of the stupa railing Kankali Tila is standard for this area. The
uprights are divided into three zones capped with the continuous foral frieze. At the top
of the post are couples looking down from balconies. The yakshi is underneath the
couples and is shown standing on the lower zone composed of a dwarf or animal.
Slide 6
0842Gallery - IMG0084
Title: Yakshi Carrying Wine and Mangoes, Bhutesar, Archaeological Museum, Mathura
This yakshi from a stupa at Bhutesar is typical of the Kushan Mathura style. The top of
the upright is not shown in this slide but it is composed of a couple, the man reaching
down with a cup to dip up wine from the jug carried by the yakshi. Before being placed
in the museum, women would anoint areas of this statue. It is not known if this was the
practice when the stupa was intact. European scholars have long debated the purpose of
such sensuous figures on a Buddhist monument. One of the answers proposed is that they
represent a pointed reference on the exterior of the sacred enclosure to the transitory life
of pleasure, outside the peace of the world of Buddha. Another answer has been that they
represent an allegory of the desirability of the soul’s union with the divine in these female
forms that so actively suggest the desirability of sexual union. I would suggest that these
theories might reveal more about the European psychic than they reveal about Buddhist
iconography.
Slide 7
0842Gallery - IMG000087
Title: Seated Buddha from Katra, Archaeological Museum, Mathura
The making of an image of the Buddha involved much more than the mere carving of a
human effigy and labeling it as Sakyamuni. While Western art sought to make an
aesthetically beautiful form by portraying human figures as models of physical perfection
and athletic vigor, Indian art started with abstract spiritual concepts which had to be
translated into physical shape. A proper likeness of the Buddha had to show his
achievement of the final yoga state of serenity and complete mental equilibrium, and in
addition it had to incorporate all the lashanas or thirty-two major signs of superhuman
perfection distinguishing the body of a Buddha from those of ordinary mortals. As ruler
of the universe, Buddha assumes the physical emblems or signs, perhaps originally of
astrological origin, which characterize the body of a Mahapurusa or Great Being and a
Chakravartin or World Ruler. These signs of physical and spiritual perfection include the
cranial protuberance, or ushnisha, on the skull and the urna or tuft of hair between the
eyebrows; in addition, the body of the Buddha is like that of a lion, the legs like those of
a gazelle. On the soles of the feet appear two shining wheels with a thousand spokes. The
carving of images on the basis of such descriptions was almost literally metaphorical, and
imposed certain inevitable abstractions on the conception of the form. The attendants
presumably may be identified as Indra and Brahma, who later are replaced by
Bodhisattvas. The Buddha is represented clad only in a dhoti; it is only in the Kushan
reliefs, apparently under Gandharan influence, that Sakyamuni is depicted with the
monastic robe covering the body; in these the drapery, conceived as a series of string-like
ridges or in overlapping shingle-like pleats, is an evident imitation of the classical
drapery of the Gandhara school.
The artists also had to incorporate mudras or hand gestures that very early came to be
associated with various actions and events in the career of Sakyamuni. The most common
of all is the abhaya mudra, the gesture of reassurance.
In the rendering of sacred figures certain fixed canons of proportion made their
appearance at a relatively early period. The unit of measurement, which has no reference
to any actual physical anatomy, is an entirely arbitrary one designed to produce an ideal
rather than a human proportion. This modulus is the thalam, roughly a palm or the
distance between the top of the forehead and the chin, which is divided nine times into
the total height of the figure. The treatment of the body is broadly conceived planes, with
the suggestion of the pneumatic distension through prana, is at once apparent.
When European pioneers in the study of Indian art first discovered the art of Gandhara,
they admiringly described its Buddhas as the finest images ever produced by Indian
craftsmen. With the rise of nationalistic feeling, the pendulum swung to the other
extreme. Acclaiming the power of Mathura Buddhas, scholars labeled Gandharan
Buddhas as imitations of an imitation, and condemned Gandharan reliefs as hybrids.
Neither judgment is fair.