* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Kushan – Mathura Slide Show
Dhyāna in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist cosmology of the Theravada school wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddha-nature wikipedia , lookup
Phra Pathommachedi wikipedia , lookup
Kushan Empire wikipedia , lookup
Longmen Grottoes wikipedia , lookup
Buddhas of Bamiyan wikipedia , lookup
Pre-sectarian Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist art wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and Western philosophy wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist ethics wikipedia , lookup
Enlightenment in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhist philosophy wikipedia , lookup
Relics associated with Buddha wikipedia , lookup
Women in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Gautama Buddha wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism and Hinduism wikipedia , lookup
Wat Phra Kaew wikipedia , lookup
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.