Extracts from Ahuja Ashmolean Cat.pdf

N A M A N P. A H U J A A RT A N D A RC H A E O LO GY OF ANCIENT INDIA EARLIEST TIMES TO T H E S I XT H C E N T U RY N A M A N P. A H U J A A RT A N D A RC H A E O LO GY OF ANCIENT INDIA EARLIEST TIMES TO T H E S I XT H CENTURY ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM OX F O R D · 2018 2· In Memoriam Foreword 7 Randolph Leonard Boxall Marjorie Jean Boxall Acknowledgements 8 (née Walker) Preface 9 Maps 11 1 I N TRO D U C TI O N : TH E A RT A N D A RCH A E O LO GY O F A N C I E N T I N D I A   17 I · Prehistory  19 I I · Proto-history  22 I I I · Early History up to the Mauryan Period  28 IV · The Post-Mauryan Period  31 V · The Rise of ‘Art’: Its Lexicon and its Patrons  41 Art and Archaeology of Ancient India: Earliest Times to the Sixth Century 2 PR E - A N D PROTO - H I S TO R I C S O U TH A S I A   57 3 © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 2018 Naman Ahuja has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work. TH E N O RTH WE S T   111 British Library Cataloguing in Publications Data 4 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 910807 17 0 N O RTH A N D C E N TR A L I N D I A   165 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by 5 any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. E A S TE R N I N D I A A N D TH E D E C C A N   243 Published by the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford Designed and typeset in Magma and Verdigris by Dalrymple Printed in Belgium by Albe De Coker For further details of Ashmolean titles please visit: 6 M I S C E L L A N E A   271 www.ashmolean.org/shop Bibliography 287 Index 299 AC K N OWL E D G E M E N TS P R E FAC E I am grateful to the Ashmolean Museum for inviting me This book provides a catalogue of the Ashmolean century ad, commonly referred to as the Maurya to the to undertake this research, to Neil Kreitman for his initial Museum’s important holdings of archaeological arte- immediate post-Gupta periods. trust and support and especially to Andrew Topsfield, facts and works of art from the Indian subcontinent in Various curiosities also came to light in the Museum’s Curator of Indian Art, for his editorial help, guidance and the Prehistoric periods, the Protohistoric or Bronze holdings in the course of writing this catalogue, good humour. I began work on this catalogue at a time Ages, and the Early Historic and Ancient periods up to necessitating a sixth chapter on Miscellanea. Some when I could still profit from exchanges with Simon Digby ad 600. It is not a complete record of the Ashmolean’s of these objects are those once thought genuine and and to a lesser extent with James C. Harle, scholars who had holdings, in that the archaeological material is repre- now proven to be fakes. Others are in styles known served the interests of the Ashmolean’s Indian art collec- sented selectively. This catalogue also omits the to have been current for hundreds of years, which are tions as past curators: I remember them with gratitude also. Museum’s large collection of Gandhara Buddhist sculp- therefore difficult to relate chronologically to any of the In 2002 I was awarded a grant by the Society of South ture and related works under Graeco-Roman influence, other chapters. A few more are of types that have been Asian Studies to visit sites in India that had bearing on the which will be discussed in a separate volume by David produced at many different places, making it very hard material included in this catalogue. I have been able, over Jongeward. It does, however, include those terracottas, to assign them geographically to one of the previous the years, to supplement that by several field trips on my bronzes and other small finds from the Gandhara chapters. own or with my students at Jawaharlal Nehru University. region, Central Asia and Kashmir that are part of the I have attempted to follow a chronological order Each of those visits has informed portions of this work. wider ancient Indian styles of art which form the main within each chapter, while at times departing from this Alison Petch, Researcher of the ESRC-funded Relational subject of this work. This division of material is in some in favour of a more visually guided narrative. The aim is Museum Project at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and Alison ways imprecise or problematic. However, these two to present a history of art and archaeology that builds Roberts, Collections Manager in the Ashmolean’s books together will present a fuller and more compre- up a visual history of everyday objects – tools and small Department of Antiquities and AHRC British Collections hensive view of the art of ancient India. finds – along with iconography, religion and ritual. Project Manager, have both helped me wade through prov- Similarly, no attempt has been made to cover the Transliterated Indian language words and names of enance histories of what were once collections held within extensive numismatic holdings of the same period in places, dynasties, deities and iconographic terms are a single department of one museum, but are now scattered the Museum’s Heberden Coin Room. This catalogue given here in their nearest modern English form and among the artefact collections in several different depart- therefore comprises largely Indian artefacts from the most current spelling – for example, Sanchi rather than ments and in different museums. Department of Eastern Art, and to a lesser extent the Sāñci, Kushan not Kuṣāṇa, chakra not cakra, Vishnu During the initial phases of research on this Catalogue South Asian prehistoric holdings which, for historical not Viṣṇu, Shiva rather than Śiva. Diacritical marks I enjoyed fruitful discussions with Justin Morris, Cameron reasons, are kept in the Department of Antiquities. are reserved for cases in which specialist scholars will Petrie, Joe Cribb and Shailendra Bhandare. Alexandra Of this book’s six chapters, the first provides a broad require them, such as full transliterations of texts and Trone is a paragon of good sense who re-edited the new overview of the period it covers, from earliest times to inscriptions. incarnation of most of this catalogue after a fairly complete the end of the sixth century ad, along with contextual Objects in the Museum’s collection included in manuscript had been lost in 2006. Alessandra Cereda, information concerning the religious and social history this book have each been assigned a catalogue number Collections Manager in the Ashmolean’s Department of the times. Also considered are the ways in which the referred to in the text in bold type. Contextual photo- of Eastern Art, has cross-checked all entries and helped Ashmolean’s collection has been shaped by its donors, graphs, maps or comparable objects in other collections to monitor the progress of this book. I thank her and the contexts in which their collections were made and are assigned a number with the prefix ‘fig. ’. her Eastern Art Study Room colleagues, as well as David the extent to which this has shaped our understanding of Each catalogue entry is usually unique to a particular Gowers for his photographic work, Robert Dalrymple for India’s past. object. However sometimes, for ease of reading, similar designing this book, Catherine Bradley for copy-editing The second chapter concerns the Pre- and objects are grouped under one broad catalogue number and Declan McCarthy for seeing this book through the Protohistoric remains of South Asia. Geographically but individually sub-numbered within that entry for press. Amongst my students and research assistants, Avani this includes a vast area, extending from Afghanistan in purposes of individual description, as in the case of Sood, Sanjukta Dutta, Anjali Duhan, Michelle de Freese the Northwest to the Northeastern regions and to Tamil cat. 24, a group of 40 Megalithic Black-and-Red Ware and Shweta Wahi have all assisted me along the way, and I Nadu, the southernmost part of the subcontinent. It pots. Thus, while this catalogue has 161 entries, it actu- owe them my sincere thanks. brings to the fore artefacts from several lesser known ally deals with in excess of 480 objects, not counting the Finally, for their encouragement, help and friendship, sites which are historically important as being among large assemblages of individual sherds, microliths, Stone I would like to thank Phyllis Granoff, Crispin Branfoot, the first major discoveries of India’s various Stone and Age tools or beads. Robert and Helen Knox, Heather and Robert Elgood, John Bronze Ages. and Fausta Eskenazi, George Michell, Robert Skelton, John The following three chapters are each specific to one Marr and Parul Dave Mukherji. major region: the Northwest (Western Punjab and the This book is dedicated to the memory of Marjorie and Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, and adjoining Randolph Boxall, two extraordinary people whose gener- parts of Afghanistan), North and Central India, and osity, spirit of enquiry and fairness will live with me always. Eastern India and the Deccan. Each one covers the NPA period from the third century bc to the end of the sixth 8 · a ncient india ancient india · 9 1 THE ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANCIENT INDIA: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION The south side of Stupa 1 A few Indian artefacts already formed part of the called the Early Historic, discussed in Parts III and IV of at Sanchi in 1920, after its Ashmolean Museum’s collection at the time of its the present chapter. restoration (after Marshall foundation in 1683.1 Many more would be added in Despite the enormity of India’s ancient literary and and Foucher, The Monuments the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centu- archaeological data, few fixed dates are available in early of Sanchi, vol. II) ries. Who collected these objects, why and under what Indian history. The Buddha, for instance, is believed by detail of fig.22 circumstances? And what does their collection reveal most historians to have died around 483 bc. Alexander of the changing knowledge of the history of Indian art of Macedon retreated from the Punjab in 326 bc, shortly and archaeology? Some discussion of these questions is after which an important dynasty, the Mauryas, occu- included within individual entries in this catalogue. The pied most of the subcontinent, reaching the height of purpose of the present chapter, however, is to provide a their power in the third century bc. Most of the artefacts selective introduction to the cultural geography, social in this catalogue come from the post-Mauryan period, history and religious plurality of India from earliest which may approximately be dated between 200 bc to times until around ad 600, enabling the reader to estab- ad 200. During these centuries the Satavahanas came to lish a context in which to place the Museum’s Indian prominence in the Deccan, as did the Shungas in Central collections from these periods. India and several Indo–Greek kingdoms in the north- Any introduction to Indian history and archaeology west and Punjab. This was, art historically, an extremely must consider the lay of the land and its chronology. diverse and prolific phase, with hundreds of archaeo- This chapter will elaborate the five main chronological logical sites spread all over South Asia. Monuments at divisions of ancient India: Prehistory, Protohistory, these sites have revealed both ancient inscriptions and Early History up to the Mauryas, the Post-Mauryan coins giving the names of dynasties or kings who are also period and, finally, the rise of the new artistic iconogra- mentioned in literary sources; such valuable informa- phies and styles under the Kushans and Guptas. The tion allows art historians to establish the regional and earliest objects in this catalogue could go back to around chronological remit of an artistic style. At the same time, 1,700,000 bc and belong to the earliest phases of particularly with regard to the post-Mauryan period, it the Indian Palaeolithic Stone Age. Objects that come remains extremely difficult to arrange in a clear, logical from the Neolithic period, particularly in Baluchistan sequence the names of all the kings and dynasties or the and Sindh, date from the sixth millennium bc. They rapidly shifting boundaries of their kingdoms. From originate in a period of transition from Prehistory to the second century ad the Kushans came to exert their Protohistory, characterised by traces of sedentary life influence as patrons of art over most of northern India. and the domestication of animals. Protohistoric Bronze By the fourth century ad the Gupta dynasty, with its base Age cultures in the northwest and western parts of the in Central India, would later lend its name to the artistic subcontinent, such as the Indus Valley Civilisation, were style of that period. prolific during the period 2500–2000 bc. Perhaps less Apart from a chronology of ancient India, this chapter famous, but equally important Protohistoric cultures also introduces its cultural and religious background. were established in other parts of India as well, including While much of the ancient art of India that has survived a variety of Chalcolithic and Megalithic cultures. These is religious in nature – and most accounts of it are, as a form the concerns of Part II of this chapter. The eighth result, governed by the telling of a visual history of reli- to sixth centuries bc see the transition to the period gion – the arts of the major early religions, Buddhism, 16 ·  ancient india · 17 Hinduism and Jainism, cannot in fact be appreciated in Fig. 1 | Sir John Evans Fig. 2 | Lieutenant-General isolation without contextualising them within a wider (1823–1908) Augustus Henry Lane Fox Indian aesthetic world-view. In that context, these Pitt Rivers (1827–1900) religions are seen to be in constant dialogue with each Fig. 3 | John Lubbock, other as well as other cults. Several of them were ridden Lord Avebury (1834–1913) with factionalism and breakaway sects. Even the more mainstream religions were changing in response to their cultural climate, local geography and social and philo- sophical needs. It is important, then, to look at Indian art beyond the categorisation imposed by religious terms, such as ‘Hindu art’ or ‘Buddhist art’. Moreover, one of the important aspects of the early archaeological remains preserved at the Ashmolean is that not all are from a religious context; some provide a window into the material culture of ancient India, rather than being manifestations of its later religious cults. Chapter 2 covers aspects of the earliest arte- fact remains of South Asia as represented by the Ashmolean’s substantial holdings. Some are as early as the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic ages, while others come from periods widely called Protohistoric, Early Historic or even simply Ancient Indian. The Museum possesses objects from nearly every part of South Asia from each of those ages, even as it contains many objects that do not fit neatly into one single cate- gory or period. Taken as a whole, the collection offers a narrative of Indian history that is cognisant of the murky a subtext of the catalogue that follows. Their personal I · P R E H I S TO RY the Somme Valley, had prompted publications by John interstices between the more celebrated and clearly histories and the circumstances in which they collected Evans, Hugh Falconer, John Flower, Charles Lyell and defined historical periods. objects often reveal both a commitment to research and Forming the collection and forming Joseph Prestwich, among others, that put forward the The names given to periods of art history are based, an insatiable curiosity to know more about the world our knowledge view that human civilisation had an antiquity greater largely, on dynastic appellations. We now realise that around them. Some, such as Sir John Lubbock and Besides the Ashmolean’s extensive Indian archaeolog- than 4004 bc – the date famously proposed by Bishop these are misleading indicators of the date and spread Augustus Pitt Rivers – inveterate antiquarians seeking ical collections, mainly housed within the Department Ussher for the biblical Creation. Evidence for the Stone of an artistic style and are a singularly inappropriate scientific credentials for Prehistoric archaeology in of Antiquities, approximately 5,500 archaeological Age in South Asia also began to be collected from the nomenclature for communicating cultural history; Britain (and anywhere else including, of course, British objects from India and Sri Lanka are also held at the mid- to late nineteenth century, first in Central India however, they remain in common use. The Shungas for India) – were friends of Sir John Evans, avid Prehistorian University’s Pitt Rivers Museum. Most of these are and the Deccan, followed closely by discoveries from the instance, were a relatively small, short-lived dynasty. Yet and father of Sir Arthur Evans, the famous archaeolo- Stone Age tools. The donors of many of the objects at the peninsula and Eastern India. For instance Blanford, in the word has come into common currency to describe gist and Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum. Lubbock two Oxford museums are the same, and in fact many of his 1867 ‘Account of Stone Implements found in Central the artistic remains of post-Mauryan India. Art histo- was a neighbour of Charles Darwin and was married to the Ashmolean’s Stone Age tools once came from the India’,3 reveals his awareness of the up-to-date research rians confront similar problems in the extent and Augustus Pitt Rivers’ daughter Alice. The friends of these Pitt Rivers, while a few of those now kept there were of Henry Christy’s monograph of 1865 on the caves and diversity of the Gupta, Kushan or Pala styles, to name influential men were spread all over the British Empire originally from the Ashmolean. As a recent study has rock shelters of southwest France, and that of 1866 by only three major epochs. Furthermore, the royal dynasty at its height, and through them they amassed formi- shown, these Stone Age artefacts began to enter British Edouard Lartet. Not only were artefacts from India itself was seldom involved in patronising the arts, espe- dable collections. A selective account follows of those collections as early as the mid-nineteenth century.2 The part of the shaping of the wider knowledge of the world, cially objects such as terracottas which form the major collectors whose interests lay in the objects covered in Ashmolean Museum’s holdings of Stone Age artefacts the sites where they were being discovered were also at proportion of the archaeological assemblages covered in the present catalogue. The Ashmolean’s collection can from the Indian subcontinent are far larger than can be the forefront of defining archaeology as a discipline: this book. The Ashmolean Museum’s holdings of Indian tell us much about the sensibilities of antiquarians and illustrated here. To avoid repetition, only a few samples they brought to light the relevance of stratigraphy as an antiquities are indeed remarkable for their historical connoisseurs of the nineteenth century, as well as what of each type have been discussed in this catalogue, with archaeological method and geological context in deter- breadth, representing widely varied periods of history they thought constituted ‘fine specimens’. In fact, some the anticipation that they may whet the appetite of mining the age of artefacts. as well as traces of the transitions between what are now artefacts were not merely collected by these individ- scholars more specialised in these materials than I to Many of the fine and exceptionally large stone blades better documented periods. However, these objects were uals because they illuminated ‘Indian’ history, but also discuss them with the comprehensiveness they warrant. and cores from Sindh (cat. 10; fig. 4), which can be often collected when the historical epochs of India were because they are the very objects that shaped scientific Large collections of prehistoric artefacts were made variously dated to between the late Neolithic and early hardly known to scholarship, and they have thus played research into the grander enterprise of understanding in the subcontinent by amateur British explorers and Indus Valley periods, come from the collection made by an important role in informing the understanding of the nature of human evolution. Also, read in another archaeologists. Their accompanying reports were John Lubbock, later the first Baron Avebury (1834–1913). India’s past. way, they reflect the cultural legacy of the aggrandise- largely anecdotal, treating the objects discovered as Lubbock was among the most significant members of It becomes equally interesting, then, to look into the ment and ambition of the British Empire. curiosities that served European antiquarian interests. Victorian society and is remembered for his proposals histories of the men and women who collected these The 1860s were, after all, the very period when studies for regulating shop hours and creating Bank Holidays in objects, and to ask what inspired them? This remains on artefacts from European caves, particularly those in the British Isles: these one-day public holidays became 18 · A Brief Introduction ancient india · 19 Madras (now Chennai) and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu is hindered by our inability to determine, securely, the (cat. 1). The larger corpus of Foote’s collection lies in the provenance of the Museum’s objects. The collectors did Chennai Museum, while the Ashmolean has a smaller, not always specify exactly where an object was found. representative collection of Foote’s finds. A tattered label pasted behind an object may preserve An important antiquarian whose objects have indi- the name of a village, but many villages share the same rectly entered the collection is Archibald Campbell name, and may even be located in the same district. Carlyle (1831–97), who published under the surname Further, there seems to have been no fixed system of Carlleyle (cats. 1–2). An enthusiastic amateur prehisto- transliterating the names of the little villages in the rian, he originally came to India to tutor the sons of the remotest parts of India. As a result, even collectors who Raja of Vizianagaram, but in 1871 went on to work for assiduously annotated their pieces use variable spellings the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), where he was inventing their own phonetic transliterations; this can employed by its director Alexander Cunningham as his leave us at times with half a dozen or more confusing assistant. He was subsequently elected a member of the names which sound the same. Such problems notwith- Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1880. His large collection standing, this remains a large and valuable collection of Indian Stone Age artefacts was made traversing on deserving further study. Each type and category of foot, for over 13 years, through Rajasthan and Madhya Stone Age tool discussed in this catalogue is only a small Pradesh.9 Carlyle began to sell off his collection through proportion of a much larger set, and has been selec- his neighbour Charles Seidler, curator of the Nantes tively illustrated to reveal the variety and strength of the Museum and an art dealer. It is likely that some of the Museum’s holdings. Fig. 4 | The city of Sukkur microliths in the Evans collection (cats. 1–3) may have The Ashmolean’s collection moreover allows us to (Rohri Hill) on the west bank been purchased from Carlyle through Seidler. However, study the complexity of Prehistory in South Asia. The of the Indus, upper Sindh it is now impossible to differentiate the objects collected nature and dates of the Prehistoric assemblage varies province (Pakistan), in the by Carlyle from those Evans might have acquired from depending on which part of South Asia one investigates. 1860s other sources, since he amalgamated them into typolog- Although the oldest Palaeolithic material might even be ical groups without keeping records of their provenance. 1.7 million years old at Attirampakkam (one of the sites known as St Lubbock’s Days.4 He had been personally (cats. 1, 3–4). Over 600 objects from the Seton-Karr It is thus of some historical significance that the larger represented here), the oldest material at the Ashmolean tutored by his illustrious father, also Sir John Lubbock, collection are in the Pitt Rivers Museum, although the proportion of these Stone Age artefacts in the Museum is mostly Middle and Upper Palaeolithic; it cannot mathematician and owner of Lubbock & Co. Bank, and larger part of his collection was from Egypt (substan- come from the collection of Sir John Evans – not least therefore be generally dated earlier than 250,000 bc. by their neighbour Charles Darwin. His second wife, tial portions are in the Liverpool Museum, the Field because these were the very finds that influenced his and These ages are contemporary with some other Lower Alice A. L. L. Fox Pitt, whom he married in 1884, was Museum, Chicago and other museums). He served in his colleagues’ opinions on the nature of the Stone Age Pleistocene Acheulian sites in Africa and southwest Asia. the daughter of the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers, the army and was an avid traveller, amateur archaeolo- in world history. And yet, despite the scholarly acknowl- Tools of the Upper Palaeolithic at one site, however, founder of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Apart gist and painter. Seton-Karr was also a serious hunter edgement of these artefacts, the vast collections of them overlap with the types of the Middle Palaeolithic in from various scientific societies and clubs, Lubbock was who made about 50 major hunting expeditions, over were invariably made by enterprising individuals, often another (cats. 1, 3–4); it used to be thought that micro- also a member of the famous free-thinking dining club, 20 of them to India. He amassed his collection in the without institutional support or encouragement from the liths were distinctive of the Indian Mesolithic Age, the ‘X Club’.5 His first major scientific contributions, course of his travels in India, Africa and America. While Archaeological or Geological Surveys. As a result the bulk however these are now well known even at Neolithic Pre-Historic Times as Illustrated by Ancient Remains (1865) in search of game in Somaliland in 1896, Seton-Karr of their findings were inadequately ballasted by contex- ones and microliths in the Deccan can be studied along and The Origins of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of came across numerous small worked flints which he tual information, and served only their antiquarian with those from Sindh and Bundelkhand (cats. 2, 10); Man (1870), were among the most important works on recognised as resembling Palaeolithic tools previ- collecting habits and those of the museums which they and the variety of Neolithic finds are equally disparate in evolution. In such works Lubbock noted the similarity ously found in France. He showed examples to John shaped. The archaeological value of these artefacts is their geographical find spots and chronology (cat. 5). The between the tools of prehistoric man and those in use by Evans and studied Evans’s collections of flints from therefore variable. Some collectors carefully documented Mesolithic tools from one part of India can be as early as ‘modern savages’ (thus forming the foundations of the various parts of the world; on revisiting Somaliland, the sites that have been the focus of subsequent research, 9,000 bc while in others it may be as late as 4,500 bc, discipline of ethno-archaeology), and coined the distinc- he recognised many large hand-axes as resembling which greatly enhances our knowledge of the objects. coinciding with the dating for sites which were Neolithic tion between Palaeolithic and Neolithic man. those from the Somme gravels. These tools, and others Others remain tantalising curiosities. in another part of the country. Pitt Rivers’s own collection went on to form the basis from the ‘lost flint mines’ he had rediscovered in Egypt, In this collection we also see stone tools which imitate of his Museum in Oxford. A number of Indian stone were exhibited to the Royal Archaeological Society at When was Indian Prehistory? metallic forms (cats. 3, 5), showing that lithics were used tools from the Evans collection (including several that their meeting in London on 2 June 1897. Seton-Karr’s By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, even after the advent of the Bronze Age (usually dated originally came from collectors such as Robert Bruce discoveries in Somaliland were the first evidence of the staggering number of artefacts found had begun to around 3000 bc). Similarly, the many different groups Foote, J. H. Rivett-Carnac and the Revd. Dr Jarbo) have Stone Age man in tropical Africa, and, in Evans’s view, change the nature of investigation. The finds encouraged of painted pottery sherds from Sindh, Baluchistan and been transferred at various dates from the Ashmolean to tended to prove the unity of races in Asia, Europe and systematic research in the region and put South Asia the Northwest Frontier from the fourth millennium the Pitt Rivers Museum. Many of these collectors also Africa in Palaeolithic times7 – a view that has, of course, firmly on the map of Prehistory as a region where some of bc (cats. 6–8) also provide evidence of the cultures of gave pieces to the Geological Museum in London, from since been improved upon.8 the earliest traces of human habitation in the world could those regions in the critical period of transition from where they were transferred to the British Museum. The The Evans collection was built from those of the be explored. Typological studies attempted to relate stone the Neolithic to the mature Indus Valley Civilisation, British Museum also received gifts from these collectors earliest archaeologists and travellers interested in tools to stratigraphically measured chronologies and the exemplified by the famous sites of Mohenjodaro and independently.6 non-European Prehistory, including Valentine Ball of geological context from which they were discovered. Harappa. All this goes into making nearly as rich and Another part of the collection is formed by what was the Geological Survey of India and Robert Bruce Foote, Correlating artefacts from sites recorded in the seamless a progression to Protohistory as can be postu- initially the collections of Heywood W. Seton-Karr who actively collected these artefacts in the vicinity of nineteenth century to sites investigated more recently lated in the current state of our knowledge. 20 · A Brief Introduction ancient india · 21 I I · P ROTO H I S TO RY 1904 he became a British subject. While a Registrar of study collection of a critical period exemplifying both Punjab University and Principal of Oriental College, the pre-Indus Valley cultures of the Indo–Iranian As with the dates of Prehistory, so too is there belief Lahore (1888–99), he explored archaeological remains borderlands and the late or post-Indus Valley cultures. in the contemporaneity of the general transition from in the Peshawar Valley. Stein was the first to discover Prompted by John Marshall’s discovery of the ancient the Neolithic to the Protohistoric phases of history evidence of the spread of the Graeco–Buddhist culture civilisation of the Indus Valley, Stein made two jour- in different parts of the world. It seems that settled of Northwest India across Chinese Turkestan and into neys through Baluchistan (1927–28) in search of links communities with social hierarchies dependent on China itself. He is most famously remembered for his with the prehistoric civilisation of Sumeria. These were agriculture – considered the mark of Protohistoric discoveries at the caves of Dunhuang and for excavating followed in 1932–36 by four other ‘archaeological recon- civilisation – developed around the seventh to sixth the lost cities of the Silk Road, where he discovered naissances’ funded by Harvard University. It is likely millennium bc in many parts of the world. One must wooden, leather and paper documents, painted wall that these terracotta sherds were collected either in the be cautious, however, as broad generalisations tend to panels, sculpture, coins, textiles and many domestic 1927–28 mission or between 1932 and 1936. simplify complex phenomena: a number of communi- objects (now mainly found in the British Library, British The extent of the Indus Valley or Harappan ties in the world, for instance, have continued to remain Museum and the National Museum, New Delhi). Civilisation, it is currently believed, spread from the nomadic or have lived as hunter-gatherers even when Similarly, Charles Louis Fabri, another Hungarian northwest of the subcontinent in Pakistan to Gujarat, most of the world had become sedentary. Different scholar who acquired British nationality (in 1939), Haryana and the Indian Punjab. Some of its key sites parts of the subcontinent thus exhibit traces of Pre- and came to India at the same time as Aurel Stein and were Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Lothal, Amri, Dholavira, Protohistory at different times. Artefacts from almost made an important study collection for the Indian Chanhudaro, Kot Diji and Kalibangan; Mohenjodaro every South Asian Protohistoric culture in different Institute at Oxford which was transferred to the and Harappa were in fact the first mature Bronze Age regions are represented in the Ashmolean’s collection. Ashmolean. Although Fabri had strong interests in sites to come to the notice of modern historical study. These artefacts are mostly in the form of tools, burial Indian archaeology (he accompanied Stein on one of below Over 1,000 sites are now known to us that belong to the remains, seals, terracotta figurines and pots (map  1). his major reconnaissance visits to Central Asia and held extended Indus civilisation, an area appreciably larger Fig. 5 | Sir Marc Aurel Curatorship of the Lahore Museum), in the years after Stein, third from left, with than that covered by Early Dynastic Egypt or Sumer. Sindh, Punjab and Northwest India Partition he became an ardent admirer of Indian dance Various proto-Harappan sites have been excavated travelling companions and Like Prehistoric artefacts, the fact that an object was and sculpture and had a regular column as art and dance his dog Dash III (after Stein, which show patterns that develop into the Indus Valley collected at a particular site or region does not neces- critic for The Statesman newspaper. These fields took Innermost Asia, vol. II) culture.11 When viewing Harappan artefacts, it is now sarily mean that it is representative of that place. This him to a study of costume and architecture. In 1939–40 clear that there was no single ‘Harappan’ culture (unless, opposite top catalogue is a document of where many objects were he put together a collection of small finds, terracotta of course, the word was narrowly defined to mean only found, not where their main area of production was. The plaques and sherds as well as some beads, metal and Fig. 6 | The main street, the culture of the people of that city). In fact the term has Mohenjodaro: Excavations complexity of the disparate places in South Asia from conch shell jewellery and the occasional coin, which come to signify the varied cultures of the wider Indus in 1929–30 (Photo: ASI) where these holdings come, with their overlapping included material from Indus Valley sites like Harappa civilisation encompassing Gujarat, Rajasthan and the dates and yet their distinctive natures, certainly do not and Mohenjodaro as well as later material from Akhnur opposite below North Indian plains. The various Harappan cities knew permit any neat telling of history. And herein lies the near Jammu and Sunet, near Ludhiana in Punjab.10 Fig. 7 | Mohenjodaro: of and traded with each other, and their people migrated strength of this collection, for neither history nor its The Ashmolean’s is a relatively modest collection 1929–30 excavations from within a multicultural whole. tellers are prone to being neat. Equally, this catalogue of Stein’s archaeological sherds. Yet they are a useful the air (Photo: ASI) Objects often came to the Museum’s collection as reflects where the donors and collectors of these pieces curiosities – artefacts intriguing to the scholarly mind. were often stationed or conducted field surveys. Thus For instance, one of the first Indus seals ever found the majority of mature Indus Valley sites represented (cat. 11.4) could not be explained when it turned up at the Museum are Chanhudaro, Mohenjodaro and in the autumn of 1923 in the excavations at Kish in Harappa, all extensively surveyed and excavated in the Iraq, during the Herbert Weld (for the University of colonial period during the 1920s and 30s, rather than the Oxford) and Field Museum (Chicago) Expedition many sites of earlier and later occupations in the wider to Mesopotamia. Mackay unearthed this seal at Tell ambit of that civilisation which have been unearthed in Uhaimir, under a pavement built by Hammurapi’s son, post-Independence India and Pakistan. Owing to these King Samsu-iluna (1749–1712 bc). As it was found in the new discoveries, archaeologists are shifting away from fill of a foundation, there is good reason to believe that the term Indus Valley Civilisation, as there are now the seal is actually much older than c.1700 bc. By 1932 many more sites in Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat about 30 Indus seals were known to have come from along the dried up courses of rivers that fed into the Iraq, mostly dating from the Akkadian period (2354–34 Ghaggar-Hakra, that it is misleading to call it just Indus bc). Until the findings from the scientific excavation of Valley Culture. Harappan is used as a shorthand (after Mohenjodaro and Harappa in the 1920s and 30s were the celebrated site), or at times, the lengthier Ghaggar- disseminated, these seals were curiosities that could not Hakra-Indus Valley Cultures. be fully explained within the cultural fabric of ancient Many terracotta pottery sherds (cat. 18) come from Mesopotamia. the collections of Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) First recorded by Charles Masson in 1826,12 the (fig. 5). Stein was employed by the Indian Education mounds of Harappa were subsequently visited by Sir Service (1899–1910) and by the Archaeological Alexander Cunningham in 1853 and 1873, but only exca- Department (1910–28). Originally Hungarian, in vated between 1920 and 1934 by Madho Sarup Vats, and 22 · A Brief Introduction ancient india · 23 later by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in 1946. Mohenjodaro cults. All the same, as one sees supernatural representa- Fig. 8 | Dancing girl, scholars now subscribe. Invasion or not, we can at any those further east became the Vedic Indians. Gradually (figs. 6–7) was first methodically excavated between tions of plants emerging from vulvas, figures emerging bronze. Mohenjodaro, rate be quite sure that there was growing influence of a their influence spread to the plains around the Ganga 1922 and 1931 by Sir John Marshall and later by Ernest from trees, pregnant females with bovine heads and c.2600–1900 BC. H. 11.5 cm. Sanskrit-reciting people who called themselves Aryan. river. Exactly when this happened, and to what extent it Mackay. After Indian Independence it was excavated composite animals, to enumerate only a few instances, National Museum, On the basis of the linguistic transformations in Sanskrit overlapped with the Indus Valley Civilisation, is a matter New Delhi again by Wheeler and subsequently by George F. Dales. these images certainly take us beyond the plausible and the changing geographic features included in texts of serious scholarly controversy. (photo: Angelo Hornak / The successive periods of the Harappa-style cultures world of secular iconography. at different times it is hypothesised that the language It seems the Indo-Aryans were semi-nomadic. Their Alamy Stock Photo)­ (mature phase: c.2550–1900 bc) have left us with a Apart from Harappan seals, there is great consistency group spread in two broad lines of advance: a northern contribution to the material culture and art of ancient coherent body of art and material culture from a huge in contemporaneous terracotta figurines. There are or northwestern branch and a southern branch that India is unknown, as excavations have not revealed any area with several major urban centres, many of which appreciably more female figurines than male, and all came via the Thar Desert. Of the northern branch, one great architectural or sculptural works that can be dated appear to be contemporaneous. This is noteworthy, appear to emphasise their headdresses and ornaments; set, it is assumed, settled around Khorasan in Eastern between 1200–500 bc – the intervening period between as most other contemporary civilisations in the world they tend to have a single stump-shape for legs and can Iran and became the early Avestan Zoroastrians, while the sophisticated Harappan urban centres and the were in the nature of city-states where one capital city have emphasised hips. Such figurines are often called artefacts of the earliest cities of the Historical period. Yet took pre-eminence. The nature and high degree of ‘Mother Goddess’, a nomenclature that must be adopted ongoing excavations, and those of the past few decades town planning and urbanisation show a stratified and with caution. Assemblages of female terracotta figurines in excavations in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), Haryana and organised society with specialised communities. There from several regions in Pakistan, Northern and Western Punjab, hold the promise of altering this imbalance. At is also ample evidence of overland and maritime trade India may appear to be similar in some respects. Yet we any rate, the ‘literature’ of the Indo–Aryans became one with Central Asia, Sumer and Mesopotamia. These must admit they were too far removed in time or space of the most important and enduring influences on Indic urban centres must have been supported by an agricul- to be bracketed under some common rubric such as civilisation. They are credited with the composition and tural surplus produced in the countryside around the ‘Mother Goddess’, however many similarities may exist perpetuation of the four Vedas (collections of knowl- towns. Among the material remains are a wide variety between them to build up a consistent iconography. edge) regarded as the earliest Hindu scriptures: the Rig, of terracotta figurines, beads of precious and semipre- Whether the Chalcolithic cultures of the Ganga- Atharva, Sama and Yajur Vedas. These poetic hymns in cious stone, ivory, terracotta and glass, a few bronze Yamuna Doab region or the people buried in the the Sanskrit language give valuable linguistic, religious, figures and thousands of seals and their impressions hundreds of so-called ‘megalithic’ burials of Peninsular historical and sociological information about the people (cats. 11–20). India worshiped cultic icons cannot be ascertained. who recited them. They also provide a foundation for Most Harappan sites are built of baked brick. The Relatively few stone and bronze figures are known from many of the religious concepts that pervade later South cities themselves are remarkably well planned. Large the Indus sites, and there are none in the collection of Asian art. Embedded within them also are references to civic structures such as reservoirs, granaries and ware- the Ashmolean. Terracotta figurines are more common the geography of the northern parts of the subcontinent, houses have been identified. Residential architecture is and are of diverse types, and while the Museum does allowing scholars to locate portions of the texts to these invariably in the form of two-storey buildings around not have any anthropomorphic ones, it does possess a regions. a central courtyard. Mohenjodaro is best known for its small collection of animal figurines (cat. 14). It also has orderly layout based on a grid plan and its sophisticated a small and important collection of seals and sealings, Central Asia drainage system. The site is divided into two parts: a pots, weights and various other minor artefacts from the The Museum holds a solitary example from the Bronze section with the larger public buildings on a higher period. Seals (cat. 11) were probably used in trade, as is Age cultures of Central Asia (cat. 21). The archaeological mound and a lower area for domestic architecture and evident from two seals in this collection that were found monuments of southeastern Uzbekistan and south- craft activity. A huge reservoir, or what has been called in Iraq. The patterns on the soft steatite stone were western Tadjikistan are products of the cultural zone the ‘Great Bath’ of Mohenjodaro, measures 11.3 x 6.7 m, carved in intaglio, and then the finished seal was baked that includes parts of Afghanistan and naturally, by with a depth of 2 m at the centre. The cities also seem to whiten and harden its surface. These tiny seals have extension, had close ties with the Protohistoric cultures to have areas with workshops for artisans such as presented art historians with some of the most fasci- of the Indus Valley. There is, however, no reason to lapidaries, responsible for some rare or unique beads nating subjects for study. Usually square, they may at believe that this region was inhabited by a homogeneous (cat. 15); potters, who made various terracotta vessels, times be in the shape of a long bar, prism (a long bar with ethnic or linguistic group. At its northernmost extent usually red with black painted decoration in distinct three surfaces) or cylinder. They often carry complex lie the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex shapes (cat. 24); and metal-workers, who worked bronze intaglio designs, humans, animals and, most impor- (BMAC) cultures, largely discovered and named by the in various techniques (cat. 8), among others. tantly, a uniform and developed ‘script’. Approximately archaeologist Victor Sarianidi. He found numerous A number of motifs and supernatural symbols begin 400 different signs have been catalogued for this appar- monumental structures at many different sites; some are to make repeated and consistent appearances in the seals ently pictographic ‘script’. Its successful decipherment, simple nomadic settlements, while others are fortified, and terracottas of the extended Harappan civilisation. however, eludes scholars.13 with impressive walls and gates. The people interred in Strictly speaking, these constitute for art historians of The art historical continuity between the Harappan the graves associated with these sites are thought to be South Asia the first system or language of visual symbols culture and the resurgence of urban civilisation in the the first Indo–Aryan-speaking inhabitants of the region. that can be called iconographic. Yet however compelling Ganga Valley in the Early Historic period is broken, The objects and rituals of these early Indo–Iranians or widespread this iconography may be, scholarship owing to the scarcity of material remains from the inter- have been identified by some scholars as evidence of remains at a loss to understand what it means, and vening period in the area. This, along with the discovery the earliest material traces of Zoroastrian and Vedic so cannot provide an entirely convincing history of of a few skeletal remains that were – rather erroneously cultures.14 The earliest developed stages of this culture Harappan religion or its cults. It may be argued that – interpreted as a mass grave such as one left in the can be seen in the Urals and Central Asia around 2100 an iconography need not always be religious, and the aftermath of a conflict, led many scholars to suggest that bc; it reached its peak at sites such as the Dzharkutan consistent use of a symbol must not make us presume the Indus Valley culture met a dramatic demise at the temple, Kangurttut settlement and the Tigrovaya that the Harappans’ iconography is a reflection of their hands of an Aryan invasion. This is a view to which few necropolis between 1800 and 1300 bc. This Bronze Age 24 · A Brief Introduction ancient india · 25 The Deccan and Peninsular India During the past four decades many excavations have been undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India and the Deccan College, Pune at Jorwe, Prakash, Bahal, Nevasa, Daimabad, Chandoli, Sonegaon and Inamgaon. The remains from these sites are divided into four different periods. The earliest phases are Neolithic, which move from the assemblages of larger stone tools to finds of microliths and similar objects. Much has been written about the Stone Age at these sites, their habitation patterns, trade, industry and the extent of interaction between this part of the country and other parts of South Asia at these periods. The most well-known phases of Protohistory in Maharashtra are the third and fourth phases. Finds from the third phase (second millennium bc) reveal a unique burial culture of excarnated bones in multiple urns. While the Museum does not have any remains of the better-known Jorwe cultures, a large collection of Black-and-Red Ware from the succeeding cultures in that region is available (cats. 24–27). Most of the pots in this collection come from excavations conducted at the sites of Motamari, Raigir and Bhongir in Telangana (a division of Andhra Pradesh) by Dr E. H. Hunt (fig. 9). This Hyderabad State medical officer, like so many others interested in archaeology, was fascinated by the Iron Age Megalithic burials in the area.17 The distribution of Iron Age burials in India is wide and spreads over a broad timeframe. The burials have been found as far north as Burzahom in Kashmir (fig. 12),18 Khandesh / Maharashtra in the northern Deccan and in the hills (such as Kotia in Allahabad district) south of the Ganga Valley. However, the greatest Fig. 9 | E. H. Hunt (1874–1952) number of burials, and the most varied, come from excavating in Telangana, Southern India. While some of the most remarkable Andhra Pradesh (Ashmolean Megalithic complexes have been found in Kerala (for Eastern Art Archive) example, Kandanisseri and Kattampal), most are spread over Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and they are especially culture of the steppes probably formed the basis of the It is generally thought that the Vedic literature must profuse in the Andhra region. They are understood to great Early Historic kingdom of Bactria by the seventh have been composed in the second millennium bc, and be representative of settled Iron Age cultures, variously century bc. a number of scholars have tried, highly speculatively, to dated between 1500 and 200 bc. relate the Copper Hoard culture to Vedic tribes. It seems It is difficult to work out an internal chronology Northern India that the Copper Hoard culture coexisted with at least the within the Megalithic clusters, as many different types The Copper Hoard culture is named after the wide later phases of Harappan culture, although at some sites opposite seem to occur simultaneously and in the same place. Not range of fascinating hoards of copper objects in the it appears to have been contemporaneous with Mature Fig. 10 | Annapanadi, Madura, all the Megalithic complexes have revealed ossuaries form of weapons, tools and implements which are Harappan sites as well. Many Copper Hoard sites are terracotta funeral urn with (figs. 10–11). Of those that do, some appear to consist found scattered across most of India and Pakistan. The found with an associated Ochre Coloured Pottery, other small pots and vessels of chambers that contain single skeletons, while other most interesting of them, unique in their shapes, come usually dated between 2300–1000 bc. It must be noted unearthed from an ancient site complexes have chambers containing multiple skeletons. from the Doab, that is, the Ganga and Yamuna river that even with the aid of comparisons between sites, (Photo: ASI) Sometimes remains are interred in urns or large terra- plains. The precise use of such heavy copper objects the rare discovery of a piece in a stratified context and Fig. 11 | Sector general view cotta troughs with multiple legs. Often the grave contains remains uncertain. Although they are fashioned as the thermoluminescence testing of associated pottery, from West showing Megalithic iron implements such as tools, weapons, pots, stands and weapons and implements, their excessive weight indi- enough variations remain in the material to make it diffi- cist and contents of pit, tripods, as well as etched carnelian and other stone beads cates that rather than being utilitarian, they may have cult to postulate a clear set of dates for this culture. These Nagarjunakonda (Photo: ASI) and, rarely, objects in such metals as bronze, copper and been objects for rituals, objects of wealth and exchange sites continued until they were replaced by Early Iron Fig. 12 | Harwan, Kashmir, gold. Almost always, however, the distinctive Black- or status symbols.15 A harpoon in the Museum belongs Age assemblages, usually characterised by the presence group of prehistoric monoliths and-Red Ware is present. Presumably these grave goods to this phase (cat. 22). of the distinct Painted Grey Ware.16 (Photo: ASI) were intended for use in the afterlife. 26 · A Brief Introduction ancient india · 27 I I I · E A R LY H I S TO RY U P TO coral, diamond and agate, as well as perfumes and the gods, they do not explicitly sanction image worship. ivory. This in turn fostered major artistic and architec- Various other bodies of religious literature continued to T H E M AU RYA N P E R I O D tural projects and furnished guilds with raw materials. be composed in Sanskrit until the twelfth to fourteenth In the south the Black-and-Red Ware, dated between Centres such as Taxila in the northwest, Mathura and centuries ad. Although there is no easy way of dating 600 to 100 bc, marks a transition to the historical Kaushambi in U.P., Rajgir, Gaya and Pataliputra in many of these texts, it seems that embedded within period where Megalithic burial culture continued. The Bihar, Chandraketugarh and Tamralipti in Bengal, them lies evidence for developing at least a relative sites show large rock-cut circular enclosures, which had Dharanikota and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh and chronology of ideas. This has to be done with caution, as in their midst pottery sarcophagi containing human Vidisha in Central India were among the more promi- sometimes a late text may preserve records of an older bones. These represent quite huge and remarkable feats nent sites that have revealed the types of objects found pantheon of gods, magico-religious worship, spirits and of activity.19 Megalithic burials are also known in the in the Ashmolean’s collection. The chief remains at these shamanistic possession, medicine, rituals and drama north, but they are not as well preserved. Interesting sites will be discussed presently. which may significantly enhance our appreciation of correlations can be made between the ancient art of art objects from an earlier period.21 Texts that have burying both cremated and skeletal remains in mega- The Development of Buddhism, Jainism been useful in illuminating the mythologies and nature lithic enclosures and the plans and ideas that underlie and Hinduism of various deities include the two longest epics in the the building of early Indian stupas (Buddhist relic With the rise of sedentary life, the Vedic establishment world, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as well as the shrines), to which we shall turn presently. That South of the caste system’s four-fold division of society into later Puranas. These texts have survived into the modern India had certainly moved into the historical age by the the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra classes period in both written and oral versions. late centuries bc is attested by surviving inscriptional served as a persuasive model that gradually began Literary sources, oral or written, and both Indian evidence from the period of the Mauryan emperor to assert itself. Although not at first seeking to be (Sanskrit or Pali) and Greek, attest the presence of a Ashoka, as well as the Sangam literature, the earliest discriminatory, this socio-economic division separated rich tradition of philosophical debate. As an increasing body of Dravidian literature in Tamil. Broadly contem- people by their broad professional calling, placing the number of peoples were incorporated into wider poraneous with the region’s prosperous trade with educated priests (the Brahmans) and the warriors and organised trade and agricultural networks, their Egypt, Arabia and the Mediterranean in the first century rulers (the Kshatriyas) at the top of the scale. Vaishyas, various shamanistic cults, wandering ascetics or shra- bc and early centuries ad, it is said that three successive the merchants and traders, were followed by artisans manas and local theistic pantheons contrasted with the assemblies were held at Madurai where the poets and and workers, the Shudras. In time, inter-caste social existing Vedic liturgy. Sometime in the fifth century bards of the south came together. The collections of their mobility became restricted – a development accom- bc Siddhartha (later Gautama Buddha), a prince of work are gathered under the general term of Sangam.20 panied by the growth of ritualism. Kings and priestly the northeastern state of the Shakyas and the founder Significant sites emerged in the north around the classes were reliant on elaborate rituals to ballast their of Buddhism, came from this tradition of heterodox sixth century bc, and these were to remain centres of status and maintain social order. The rituals that marked sects. So too did Vardhamana Mahavira, the founder habitation, power and trade for millennia. The period personal rites of passage also served to enhance people’s of Jainism. Monarchs and merchants patronised these is particularly marked in the east with the use of iron social status. religions and richly endowed the ascetic orders. Although and the prevalence in Northern India of a type of there are few artistic remains of this early period (most ceramic called Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW). Figs. 13 & 14 | Images of sculptures and buildings having been made in perish- The process of state formation was already well on its two ascetics, Gandhara, able materials such as wood), the early heterodox sects way by this time, with large parts of the subcontinent 2nd–4th centuries ad: bent and other theistic cults perpetuated the sanctity of sites divided either into various janapadas (small monarchies) mourning figure in grey associated with their seers and myths. These sites conse- or sabhas (small confederacies or collectives of tribes, schist (left), and clay head of quently became major centres of Hindu, Buddhist and castes and / or communities with elected representa- a bearded ascetic (opposite). It seems that in their rise these ideas were not accepted Jain pilgrimage, trade and artistic activity. Ashmolean Museum tives). In their early years these were highly ritualistic without some commentary, challenge and conflict. The As has been mentioned, it is within this growing (EA1999.33, EA1993.22) societies, with the king placed at the apex of the empire admittance of many other autochthonous cults, and an context of renunciation and asceticism (figs. 13–14) that as a chakravartin, or universal divine monarch. Some of appreciation of this changing and varied philosophical the rise of various heterodox sects, including Buddhism the prominent monarchies were Magadha, centred on milieu, are of significance for art historians trying to and Jainism, is to be viewed. The latter was popularised by modern Patna; Vanga, encompassing modern Bengal; understand the multifarious types of cult icons that Vardhamana Mahavira, last in a line of 24 Tirthankaras Kashi, around modern Varanasi; Gandhara in the north- emerged in the second century bc. It is unfortunate that (literally: ‘ford-maker’) who rose to the status of Jina west; and Vatsya, with its capital at Kaushambi near so little material evidence has survived from the period (someone who has attained ‘victory’ over this material modern Allahabad (maps 2–4). between 600–300 bc, when there was an important world). Mahavira is said to have lived between c.540–468 During this period increasing amounts of forestlands interaction between different strands of traditions – bc and may have been contemporary, for part of his life, and their resident peoples were put to agricultural uses, urban and tribal, indigenous and Indo-European – which with Gautama Buddha, believed to have lived between fostering the growth of urban centres, artisanal classes merged to create the fabric of Indian civilisation. c.563–483 bc.22 There was much in common between and trade. The manipulation of natural resources within Some evidence for this is preserved in early Sanskrit these faiths and between their founders: both were each geographical unit generated a rich surplus – be literature, which does not remain static. New deities members of the Kshatriya caste, opposed to Brahmanical it access to iron and coal from Eastern India or gold take prominence by the Later Vedic age, and words that orthodoxy, who denied the authority of the Vedas and panned from Himalayan rivers and mined in Karnataka appear to come from the Dravidian language form a part were opposed to ritualism, including animal sacrifices and Andhra, the settlement of agricultural communi- of the literature from the earliest time, indicating that the which had become a keystone of Brahmanical power. ties across the expanse of the Indian plains or trade in tradition was open to change. Even though the earliest Their doctrines were marked by extreme non-violence, precious and semi-precious stones, including sapphire, Indian texts, the Vedas, contain vivid descriptions of and both gained popular support by virtue of being 28 · A Brief Introduction ancient india · 29 non-caste faiths. At the same time, being favoured by the in 321 bc and founded the capital of Pataliputra, from the Mauryan and immediately post-Mauryan period resonates with all the ancient religions of India: the most influential kings, they gained imperial patronage, where the Mauryas ruled. The reign of Chandragupta in the Ashmolean. Although making a chronological lotus (transcendence and purity), tree (ancient spirits), which greatly helped in disseminating their teachings.23 Maurya saw a rapid expansion of the empire, particu- distinction between them on stylistic grounds alone is chakra (the wheel, movement, cyclical time and a discus- Christianity too may have arrived at a very early date; larly northwest of Pataliputra. According to Jain sometimes hard, it is possible, nonetheless, to show that shaped weapon), serpent (regeneration, water and some believe it was brought by St Thomas soon after the accounts, he was a devout follower of their faith, who in art from the Mauryan period had a definite bearing on the earth, bearer of treasure); bull (virility, strength); death of Christ. Syrian Christians have certainly lived in his declining years underwent rigorous self-mortifica- subsequent ages. elephant (knowledge, remover of obstacles) and lion Southern India from the ancient period, and their pres- tion in accordance with Jain tradition. Most famous of Ashoka is mentioned extensively in ancient Buddhist (power). Thus, despite the undisputed awareness of ence in the northwest and in Afghanistan is also believed the Mauryan kings was Ashoka (reigned c.273–32 bc) literature, and he is known to have strengthened diplo- Achaemenid art in India at the time, it is impossible to to be very early. Although the Persian Zoroastrians did who helped to make Buddhism into a proselytising reli- matic and trade exchanges with Iran, Greece, Egypt, Sri view the art and architectural remains of the Mauryan not migrate to India until the medieval period, long- gion. Most of the spectacular Mauryan pillar capitals, Lanka and Southeast Asia. He is known to us also from period without reference to the symbolism of Indian standing ties with Iran over millennia ensured their rock-cut caves and the brick cores of important Buddhist the numerous royal inscriptions left by him on pillars religious iconography. faith was well known. Indeed, art historical research stupas are credited to his reign, although none of the and rocks. These give us insight into a variety of social, now corroborates no small amount of Zoroastrian forms of these creations were necessarily invented at Fig. 15 | The Alexander Gem. Fig. 16 | The Mauryan pillar religious and economic matters, as well as his statecraft influence in the statuary of the Northwest Frontier and that time.26 Tourmaline sealstone with at Lauriya Nandangarh, and promotion of an ethical code of tolerance. Imperial Afghanistan.24 The Mauryan is a controversial period in art history. portrait of Alexander the Champaran, Bihar, 3rd Mauryan freestanding monolithic pillars were all quar- IV · T H E P O S T- M AU RYA N P E R I O D A careful reading of the philosophical and religious Nearly all the literature on it is concerned with the Great, 325–300 bc, with century BC. Sandstone, ried at Chunar and then transported over river networks literature of ancient India thus reveals a continuous debate on the indigenous versus foreign (Achaemenid, impression shown below. H. c.12 m above ground. to far-flung regions of the empire. They also preserve A much weakened Mauryan state saw a revolt in 183 bc process of development, in which no one religious West Asian, Hellenistic) origins of Mauryan art. The Ashmolean Museum (Photo: ASI) two of the earliest readable Indian scripts, Brahmi and when Pushyamitra, perhaps a Brahmin general of the system appeared without reference to the others and artistic expression of the period may seem to have no (AN1892.1499) Kharoshthi (cat. 76).27 Mauryas, seized power and founded his own kingdom. Fig. 17 | Lion capital from none was at any time static, fully formed or complete. immediate precedent in India, but its symbolism, to Sarnath, 3rd century bc. The pillars (figs. 16–17) are highly symbolic monu- Other kingdoms also emerged at roughly the same time, The land was always producing new cults and gurus, as which we shall return, seems to uphold time-honoured Sandstone, H. 214 cm. ments, and though they may be largely present at and we meet with names of several different dynasties much as it was constantly reinterpreting older ones and Indian concepts, unique in the ancient world. The most Sarnath Site Museum important early Buddhist sites, they bear imagery which such as the Andhra / Satavahana, Mitra, Kuninda, absorbing various tribal forms of worship.25 striking feature is the sophisticated and profuse use of stone as a medium for sculpture – a material which, as The coming of Mauryan art inscriptions reveal, was consciously used with a view to Leaving aside these cultural and religious digressions, posterity. This means that whereas remarkable Mauryan we may revert to our broad historical narrative. The art remains in stone have survived, very little of the tradi- mountain passes of the Northwest Frontier have tions of wood, ivory, precious metal and other perishable always been India’s vital corridors for links to the or recyclable material that would have also been made at West – whether for overland trade or, as in the case that time, and indeed in prior centuries, is now available of Alexander (Sikandar) in the third century bc, for to us. The great pillars and some of the sculptures bear conquest (fig.15). The northwest had been developing a characteristic glossy polish called the Mauryan High closer ties with Persia from the sixth century bc Polish, which some scholars say was never seen before onward. The prosperous region of Gandhara formed or after the Mauryas. Some also say that the artistic style the twentieth Satrapy or tribute-paying province of the died with the decline in the dynasty, assuming there- Achaemenid empire. This Persian dominance began to fore that it was mostly a ‘court’ art. Yet it did influence decline with the settling of the Bactrian Greeks in the succeeding cultures, particularly in the realm of terra- region after Alexander of Macedon defeated Darius, cottas and the absorption of its Achaemenid-style motifs the Achaemenid emperor. Yet Alexander’s war-weary into the decorative repertoire of Buddhist stupas. army retreated from the Jhelum river in 326 bc, probably It is possible to postulate a slightly different sort because they were unwilling to face the standing army of history, however, if one focuses on the small terra- of the Nanda kings of North India, and his possessions cottas and the occasional ivory or wood image from the in Sindh, Punjab and Afghanistan were divided between Mauryan period, instead of the overwhelming body ­his generals. The establishment of the first subconti- of stone sculpture. More modest in scale, but equally nent-wide empire of the Mauryas in the third century preserving iconographic conventions that were more bc, with its base in Magadha in modern Bihar, came prolific and widespread, the little terracottas would have therefore at a time when aspiring monarchs had already been objects used by people in their homes, perhaps for a centuries-old model of statecraft and control over a rituals or as ex-voto offerings. They wrest history away standing army on which to base their administration. from the elite discourse based on public monuments The ancient kingdom of Magadha saw rapid changes that required either imperial or collective patronage in its monarchy until the king Mahapadma initiated the and communal effort to produce, and permit a more Nanda dynasty. Though they were equally short-lived, quotidian telling of art history. The remarkable affinity the Nanda are often referred to as the first empire- between these small Mauryan terracottas, from sites as builders of India. Chandragupta Maurya sought his distant as the Northwest Frontier and Bengal, shows the opportunity to seize power within the cracks in their nature of urban networks already in place in the subcon- state. His illustrious dynasty assumed official power tinent by this period. There are several small-finds of 30 · A Brief Introduction ancient india · 31 91  Two coping stone pieces 91.1 Inscribed coping stone Spotted red sandstone Mathura, Uttar Pradesh Pre-Kushan period, late first century bc–early first century ad l. 97.8, h. 17.8 cm EA1983.24 Purchased with the help of the Friends of the Ashmolean Published: J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987, no. 10 This slightly curving stone would have formed the capping or uppermost beam (ushnisha) of a stone fence (vedika) that enclosed a sacred space such as a tree shrine, the seat of a yaksha or a Buddhist or Jain stupa. A portion of a small tenon projects at one end of the stone. Although the site from which it comes is not recorded, at least 15 other parts of the same vedika are 91.1 divided between various collections. The stone is carved in low relief; the upper evidence for the date and, less clearly, for far known, only one, in a private collec- The top is bordered with a row of alter- border consists of a row of beads and pearls the original location of the railing. The tion in Kolkata, bears the full text. Two nating bells and leaves or buds, a typical from which bells are suspended, alternating relatively small scale of the railing argues inscribed examples and eight others are in decorative motif of this period. The carving with buds. The frieze below is carved with for an early date, as do the motifs of leaping the National Museum, New Delhi;4 one of is in low relief. As animals such as those mythical creatures such as leaping lions (at creatures and palmettes on the frieze. the two in the Los Angeles County Museum depicted here are commonly represented times with human faces) interspersed with These were widespread in India from the of Art is inscribed,5 as is one in the Museum circumambulating a sacred shrine clock- fanciful palmettes composed of several third century bc, and are executed here in für Indische Kunst, Berlin. The prancing wise; it is likely that this frieze is from the vegetal motifs, including the lotus and a style quite compatible with an early first animals all face the same direction, and they inner face of a vedika. honeysuckle. century BC date.3 appear to have revolved clockwise on the The stone bears an inscription of histor- The railing may have stood in Ahichhatra, outer face of the vedika. 1  H. Härtel, Eine Mathura-Inschrift der vor–Kusana– ical importance on its reverse. Although the principal site in Panchala, from where Zeit, Berlin: Museum für Indische Kunst, 1977, 91.2 Coping stone fragment p. 193. fragmentary in this example, it was sculptures in the same style and distinctive Spotted red sandstone repeated several times at regular intervals stone as that of Mathura have come and for 2  Härtel 1977, op. cit. Probably from the environs of Mathura on the railing. Preserved in its entirety on which a sub-school of sculpture has been First century bc–first century ad 3  For other examples from Kaushambi, Bodhgaya one example, it reads, ‘Caused to be made and Mathura, see P. Chandra, Stone Sculpture in the postulated. On the other hand, however, H. 16.5, L. 26 cm EA1997.252 Allahabad Museum: A descriptive catalogue, Poona: by Kāśiputra Yaśaka, the confidant of king identically carved copings were excavated American Institute of Indian Studies, 1970, p. 59. Sūryamitra, the son of Gopāli’.1 Härtel has from the contemporary Kankali Tila site For comparable pieces also see S. J. Czuma and argued – on epigraphical grounds, as well in Mathura. The two sites are not very far This fragment from a coping stone is R. Morris, Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India, as in response to the style of the carving – apart, and it would seem likely that the same carved with mythical animals. A crouching, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985, p. 56 ; for the less well-documented of two kings set of itinerant craftsmen were employed boar-like animal with an unusually long tail and Pal 1986, op. cit., p. 175. named Suryamitra; he reigned in Panchala, at both. Since at least 15 other portions of tucked between his hind legs occupies the 4  S. P. Asthana, Mathura Kala: Catalogue of northeast of Mathura, in the first half of the this coping (ushnisha) are known, the railing principal area of the relief, and traces of a Mathura Sculptures in National Museum, ed. S. P. Gupta, New Delhi: National Museum, 1999, first century ad.2 Kashiputra Yasaka held to which it belonged perhaps enclosed an prancing lion are seen following it. Both pp. 104–6, pls. 114–15 (although grouped with 91.2 an important position in the court of King important space devoted to a yaksha, or a animals have strong faces with wide eyes this set, on account of its slightly incomplete Suryamitra, who was second in the line of relic containing stupa, or even, perhaps, a and are carved in an energetic and stylised appearance, no. 115/6 may not come from the same successors in the Mitra dynasty, after King tree-shrine. manner. Three leaves of a stylised floral vedika). Gomitra. The inscription thus provides Of the other nine inscribed portions so pattern are present on the proper left side. 5  Pal 1986,, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 175–6, no. S53a–b. 186 · North and Central india ancient india · 187 92  Buddha’s hand First century ad Probably from the Mathura region Spotted red sandstone l. 61 cm EA1997.186 This colossal fragment of a right hand and forearm comes from an early sculpture of the Buddha that would have been more than twice life-size. The thumb, index finger and tips of the other fingers are missing. The soft, fleshy hand is in abhaya mudra. Abhaya, literally fearlessness, is the gesture of reassurance that conveys to the devout that they have nothing to fear with the Buddha’s grace. A dharmachakra is carefully carved on the palm; it denotes the turning wheel of the Buddhist teaching and is one of the auspicious symbols (mahapurusha lakshana) that distinguish great beings.1 With dharma inscribed now where the lines of destiny normally lie, fearlessness is the promise of the enlightened condition of Buddhahood. The presence of the garland on the back of the hand suggests that it dates from the as Bodhisattvas (other than Shakyamuni) The image is subsequently published in nearly every early Kushan period, when garlands were are invariably bejewelled. This iconographic textbook on Indian sculpture. Remains of two large, life-size Mathura Bodhisattvas have also been placed between the hand and the body of attribution is further corroborated by the found at Bhita and Kaushambi; these are now in the Buddha. However, dating the fragment prominent dharmachakra. the Allahabad Museum: see Chandra 1970, op. cit., more precisely is difficult. The monumen- Colossal Buddha and Bodhisattva pls. xxxvi-xxxvii, cat. nos. 82, 85. Neither of these is tality of the image and the garland at the images were based on earlier monumental of the same scale as the Friar Bala Bodhisattva, and back of the palm are in favour of a first sculptures of the yakshas.2 While the latter, the arm of the Ashmolean’s piece must belong to a century ad date, but the angle of the hand statue that was of a similar scale. serving as guardian deities, were placed on may suggest a later date. The abhaya mudra high platforms on the outskirts of villages, was shown with the wrist bent at an angle in the renowned ‘Bhikshu Bala’s Bodhisattva’3 the early pieces; by the reign of Huvishka in colossus, the type of image from which this the second century ad these had tended to hand comes, was placed very much within become frontal, held flat and straight. The a sacred site at Sarnath, where the main angle on the Ashmolean hand is not very stupas and shrines would have been erected. pronounced. In addition, the remains of a sanghati, the monastic robe worn by Buddha 1  Comparable large images are known from figures, can be seen just above the wrist. Kaushambi, Sarnath and Maholi. A Bodhisattva Maitreya on a much smaller scale is in the National This may be of some importance as the right Museum, New Delhi (no. 59.530/1) and another shoulder and arm of the early Kanishka larger Bodhisattva is in the same museum (no. A 40): period (and perhaps even pre-Kanishka) Asthana 1999, op. cit., pls. 82, 87. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were left bare; 2  As, for instance, the heavy and monumental it is more common to see a sanghati on this Manibhadra Yaksha, found at Parkham village, 23 side towards the end of the first century km south of Mathura, and now in the Government Museum, Mathura: this is one of the earliest known ad. It is more likely, furthermore, to be the images of Mathura sculptural art. hand of a colossal Buddha rather than of a 3  For an early reference see D. R. Sahni, Catalogue Bodhisattva: on the latter it is probable that of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath, Calcutta: traces of wristlets would have been found, Superintendent, Government Printing, 1914, p. 36. 188 · North and Central india ancient india · 189 93  Palette or supporting dish 94  Nagaraja Second–fifth centuries ad First–second centuries ad Gopalpur, Gorakhpur District, Uttar Pradesh Mathura Sandstone Red sandstone dIAM. 12.4 cm h. 16.5 cm EAOS.38 c EAOS.28 Purchased from Pandit Govind Charan, Mathura, Published: V. A. Smith and W. Hoey, ‘Buddhist 1939 Sutras Inscribed on Bricks found at Gopalpur in Gorakhpur District’, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society This small relief of a two-armed standing of Bengal, 1896, pp. 99–102. figure represents a naga or serpent, Between 1854, when a hoard of Gupta gold frequently personified and worshipped coins was found at Gopalpur, and 1894, alongside other semi-divine beings such when Dr William Hoey and Vincent Smith as yakshas, their kindred spirits. Like them were alerted to it, the site was seriously nagas are personifications of nature, asso- disturbed. This shallow dish was found ciated with eternity; they are feared (and in an eight foot square crypt or chamber hence revered) and continued to be upheld composed of large bricks, 18 inches long and as keepers of the waters and the jewels of the 3 inches thick. There must have been several earth, even when pantheons of other deities objects interred in this relic chamber, from became dominant. which four inscribed terracotta tablets were The sculpture is heavily worn, rendering also recovered (cat. 121), along with another individual features indistinct. Yet one can shallow dish of Kushan copper coins as well still make out the right hand in abhaya while as a few even earlier coins of the Mitra kings the left hand, drawn to the hip, holds onto of the first century BC. Since this object was a small pot, usually taken to refer to amrita, originally published by Smith and Hoey as the nectar of immortality or ambrosia. A terracotta, it has always been believed to be large hood composed of five (or seven?) so. However, it is in fact made of a dense serpent heads rears over the nagaraja’s head, sandstone with a high mica content. which is surmounted by a turban or crown. The shallow curvature of the rounded The twisting body of the serpent is carved on centre of this curious dish perhaps formed the reverse. A rolled scarf is visible, falling a base or support for a relic-bearing off the proper left shoulder, and a broad belt container. The subject matter of the carving, holds up the dhoti. As usual the figure wears on a register concentric to the lip of the prominent earrings. dish, lends some credence to this view. It is Gopalpur must no doubt have seen. The Several monumental images of nagas divided into four segments, each featuring animals in this palette also move clockwise; have been found in the Mathura area,1 a stylised animal or humanoid rendered in each kneels (with erect hindquarters and making it clear that these icons held a a curvilinear style. One contains a deer, the outstretched forelimbs) while thrusting a large following. These would explain why second an unidentifiable animal (perhaps foreleg towards the facing wall. The squat- the naga was so readily incorporated into a horse or deer?) looking back over his ting yaksha also pushes the wall to his left the emerging iconographic canons of shoulder, the third a lion and the last, most with an outstretched arm. Perhaps a relic Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Nagas curious of all, has a squatting man; his bent container in the centre of this ‘palette’ were frequently placed near bodies of water left arm is raised higher than his shoulder would thus have symbolically sat within the (particularly dams) and under trees – and 1  The most important include the Dadhikarna and his hand is brought close to his face. The cyclical energies of the creatures. perhaps also as central images in temples Naga: N. P. Joshi, Iconography of Balarama, New figure squats in a pose not unlike the many The curvilinear outline of the animals devoted to them. Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1979, p. 18; one in the yakshas seen on Buddhist railings and in and its excessive stylisation is also unusual, Brooklyn Museum: Czuma and Morris 1985, op. various post-Mauryan artefacts. corresponding to no mainstream stylistic cit., no. 25; and one at the Norton Simon Museum: The lion, horse and deer are also familiar idiom of Early Historic India. However, P. Pal, Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum, vol. 1: Art from the Indian Subcontinent, Yale University Press, animals on Buddhist railings surrounding a comparison with carvings on the few, 2003, no. 44, pp. 80–1. The remains from the apsidal a stupa. They famously move in a clockwise more decorated stone relic caskets of a Temple 2 at Sonkh show that it would have been direction on the abacus of the Mauryan pre-Kushan or early Kushan date may yield dedicated to the cult of the Naga, see Härtel 1993, op. column at Sarnath, which the devout at some parallels. cit., pp. 425–7. 190 · North and Central india ancient india · 191 96 Hariti Second–third centuries ad A curious figure is seated between her 1  J. C. Harle and A.Topsfield, Indian Art in the Mathura legs. It is too abraded to identify positively, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1987, p. 11. Spotted red sandstone 2  N. P. Joshi, ‘Matṛka figures in Kuṣāṇa sculptures at but it could be a child holding his right hand h. 41.3 cm Mathura’, in M. Yaldiz and W. Lobo, eds., Investigating up to its mouth. Alternatively, as has been Indian Art: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Development EA1971.36 suggested previously, it may be an elephant- of Early Buddhist and Hindu iconography, held at the Purchased with the help of the Friends of the Ashmolean headed figure, perhaps Ganesha.1 Museum of Indian Art Berlin in May 1986, Berlin: If it is indeed a Ganesha, which is Museum für Indische Kunst, 1987. Published: J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, Indian unlikely, this would open up an important Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987, no. 13; John Guy ed., L’Art de la discussion on the development of matrika Devoció: L’Escultura en els temples Indis, Barcelona: iconography with regard to its links to Fondacio ‘la Caixa’, 2007, no. 7 Shaivism – a link between a divine mother and Ganesha would associate her with Uma Hariti (‘the thief ’) was an ancient goddess or Parvati, which is not usually thought of from the realm of the yakshis. She had the as a pre-Gupta development. N. P. Joshi2 power to afflict children with smallpox noted that, apart from Skanda, Ganesha which could be fatal (hence her name), is also associated with the matrikas in the yet was also a popular matrika or mother Puranas, however, as he rightly observes, goddess in both Kushan Mathura and that was a post-Kushan development. It Gandhara. The myth of Hariti derives has also been suggested the matrikas were principally from Buddhist sources, which derived from the Krittikas (the six myth- present her initially as a terrifying figure ical mothers of Skanda, thus explaining who had to be propitiated with regular child their iconographic link with him); later, sacrifice to keep her wrath at bay. To teach as Skanda became associated with Shiva her a lesson, the Buddha hid one of her own (Virabhadra), so were the matrikas. Further, children under his alms bowl. Hariti was in the early texts Skanda is known as a graha grief-stricken, and the Buddha used this (or grasper / seizer), the terrifying adopted opportunity to cause her to sympathise child of the matrikas – who were themselves with the anguish she had caused count- stealers of children and foetuses, like less parents. She was thus converted to Hariti. Buddhism, a faith within which she became a Finally, we must also consider that not all protectress of children. elephant-headed images of this period refer In some depictions Hariti is accompa- to Ganesha. For example, in its complete nied by her consort Kubera or Panchika. form, a Chandraketugarh terracotta plaque She is usually shown seated, with children in the Museum’s collection (cat. 142) gambolling about her. In this relief, Hariti would have shown several elephant-headed is supporting a child on her left knee and figures together, none of them evidently holding up a large cup with her right hand. pre-eminent as the singular Ganesha. In She has a wide smiling face and her hair is addition, Ganesha is also known to derive dressed in a large central bouffant that is from personified vighnas (obstacles) and parted in the middle (see Cat. 95). She sits the vinayakas; these demonic types are in a typical chaitya-arched shrine supported associated with childhood disease and on columns with double capitals. With short would thus have an appropriate link to the flanges rising at the base of the arch, the ogee matrikas, with their similar associations. If or chaitya arch here reveals a design scheme this is indeed an elephant-headed figure, it of an early gavaksha window, one of the may then perhaps be better identified as a most enduring Indian architectural motifs vinayaka. reproduced on Hindu and Jain temples in subsequent centuries. The goddess sits with her feet tucked into a cross-barred plinth through which her toes project. 194 · North and Central india ancient india · 195 97  Panchika and Hariti, or Kubera and Lakshmi 98  Two Durga images Kushan period, second–third centuries ad Mathura Red sandstone 98.1 Durga as Mahishasuramardini h. 25 cm EAOS.37 Purchased from Pandit Govind Charan, Mathura 1939 Published: J. C. Harle, ‘On a Disputed Element in the Iconography of Early Mahishasurmardini Images’, Ars Orientalis VII, 1970, pp. 147–53, fig. 1 98.2 Durga as Mahishasuramardini H. 19 cm EA2005.13 Published: J. C. Harle, ‘On a Disputed Element in the Iconography of Early Mahishasuramardini Images’, Ars Orientalis VII, 1970, pp. 147–53, fig. 61 The iconography of the popular Hindu image of Durga Mahishasuramardini seems to have developed by the Kshatrapa and Mitra periods at Mathura as a result of the synthesis of disparate goddess images. The earlier figures, dating from the close of the first century bc to the first century ad, tend to be two-armed, while six-armed figures such as these can be dated from the end of the second to the third century ad.2 herself.) This is an exceedingly important, 3  As in the example in the Los Angeles County Durga stands with her right hip thrust epiphanous moment in the theological Museum, see Pal 1986, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 195. out, propping Mahisha, the buffalo demon, legitimacy of Durga as a supreme godhead. 4  T. B. Coburn, Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi Mahatmya and a Study of on her lifted left leg as her two lower arms Whereas the Devi Mahatmya, a section of its Interpretation, New York: State University of reach down to break the animal’s neck (the the Markandeya Purana, the most important New York Press, 1991; T. B. Coburn, Devī Māhātmya, Kushan period, second–third centuries ad He holds an indistinct object in his right left pulling the neck up as she presses down ancient Sanskrit treatise on the cosmic The Crystallisation of the Goddess Tradition, Delhi: Mathura hand; in better preserved examples this is on his back with the right). The attributes in supremacy of the Goddess,4 exists in a form Motilal Banarsidass, 2002. Red sandstone a wine flask or lotus. His left hand is drawn her other four arms are worn and indis- no older than the fifth century ad, the visual h. 15, W. 21.5 cm up against his belly. The female’s left hand tinguishable, but would probably have evidence from images like these reveals EAOS.32 holds a lotus and her right hand is held up in included a sword and shield, symbolic of her that these ideas were already current in the Purchased from Pandit Govind Charan of Mathura in 1939 abhaya mudra. She wears a dhoti, the worn assertive, aggressive nature, and a wreath or Kushan period. central folds of which are seen to fall to the garland in the upper arms to suggest defen- This iconographic combination of a matrika ground from her belly. The image is badly sive, protective qualities and refer to her 1  This sculpture was formerly in the collection of Dr Harle. and her consort, most probably referring worn and the face of the female deity has victory. In some contemporaneous exam- 2  G. von Mitterwallner, ‘The Kuṣāṇa Type of the to either Hariti with Panchika or Lakshmi been reattached. ples, the goddess’s uppermost arms bear the Goddess Mahiṣāsuramardini as compared to the with Kubera, is frequently found in the sun and the moon, representing eternity Gupta and Medieval Types’, in German Scholars Mathura region represented on small and her cosmic nature.3 on India, Contributions to Indian Studies, Varanasi: plaques such as this; a number of compa- 1  Asthana 1999, op. cit., nos. 55–8, pp. 51–3, and There was, for some years, controversy Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1976: vol. I, N. P. Joshi, Mathura Sculptures: A Handbook to pp. 196–213. A more detailed discussion on the rable examples may be seen in the National about what Durga holds in her uppermost Appreciate Sculptures in the Archaeological Museum ‘warrior goddess’, with specific comparisons to Museum, New Delhi, and the Mathura arms. It is now widely acknowledged that other six-armed Kushan reliefs from Mathura, is in Mathura, Mathura: Archaeological Museum, 1966, Museum.1 The figures sit on their haunches figs. 40, 69. For an excavated piece from Kaushambi, this is a wreath or garland, which she is in Doris Srinivasan, Many Heads, Arms and Eyes: Origin, beside one another. The male deity is see G. R. Sharma, Excavations at Kaushambi, 1969, the process of putting on herself. (As the Meaning and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art, Leiden: characterised by a typically large belly. pl. XLIX (A), p. 76. ultimate victor, she alone is left to anoint Brill, 1997, pp. 288–9. 196 · North and Central india ancient india · 197 101  Vahana or mount of a yakshi Kushan period, second century ad Mathura region Pink sandstone h. 26.5, w. 31 cm max. EA1996.76 The vahanas or mounts of the yakshis may be looked upon as their kindred spirits, for they are themselves an order of yakshas and come from the same semi-divine realm that lies between the world of mortals and that of the gods. Frequently misshapen and dwarfish, they create an important artistic dialectic between the beauty of the yakshi and their own grotesque forms. This crouching dwarf has a large, monstrous head that rests on his clenched little fists, which he holds under his chin. His arms are disproportionately spindly, considering the size of his head and stocky torso. The remains of the foot of a yakshi rest on his head. This sculpture may be compared with several other examples.1 It is the lower fifth portion of a larger block (probably a pillar from a vedika or stupa railing) which depicted a standing yakshi. The figure is broken at the hip and there is some damage to his upper lip. The stone is generally worn and flaked. 1  Cf. Czuma and Morris 1985, op. cit., nos. 30, 32; R. C. Sharma, The Splendour of Mathura Art and Museum, New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1993–4, pls. XX–XXI, fig. 48; S. P. Gupta, Kushana sculptures from Sanghol, New Delhi: National Museum, 1985, p. 7, nos. 1, 5, 8, 16, 18–20, 23–4; H. Mode, Altindische Skulpturen aus Mathura, Hanau: Müller and Kiepenheuer, 1986, figs. 12, 14, 17a, 22; P. Chandra 1985, op. cit., no. 10; H. Härtel, Some results of the excavations at Sonkh: A preliminary report, Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series‚ 1977 (reprinted from German scholars on India, vol. 2, 1976), fig. 46. Although all of the above show comparable figures, this piece is closer in style to the Sanghol ones. 200 · North and Central india ancient india · 201 102 Grimacing yaksha 103  Double-sided relief with fantastic beasts Kushan period, second–third centuries ad furrowed, frowning brow and pointedly terracotta relief from Kaushambi shows a Mathura gaze upward. The cheeks are wrinkled, with giant with a similar expression abducting a Mottled pink sandstone the nostrils pulled up and the lips turned young damsel.3 h. 24.5 cm down at the corners. His scowl is a flinch as EA1994.95 much as a baleful expression. His hair falls 1  More benign yakshas are commonly found as Published: J. C. Harle, ‘Revisions and in tufts onto his forehead and two leaves caryatids, for example one in the Mathura Museum: Previsions: Indian Sculpture, 1970–1995’, in G. von Mitterwallner, ‘Yakṣas of ancient Mathura’, appear to be tucked behind his ears. R. Allchin and B. Allchin, eds., South Asian D. M. Srinivasan, ed., Mathura: The Cultural Heritage, Perhaps because he is a sort of caryatid or New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1989, pl. 35, xii. Archaeology 1995, New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., 1997, vol. II, fig. 7, p. 610; John atlant, the yaksha’s expression is in response 2  National Museum (no 78.522), found at Guy ed., L’Art de la Devoció: L’Escultura en els temples to the weight he has to bear.1 The hairstyle Ahichhatra, the [Patravahaka] yaksha is sometimes Indis, Barcelona: Fondacio ‘la Caixa’, 2007, no. 21. and quality of carving compare well with also confused with Kubera because of his perfectly another large caryatid that would have prob- formed pot-belly: see Asthana 1999, op. cit., no. 53. This extraordinary sculpture of a larger than ably lifted a large bowl, now in the collection 3  Two impressions of the moulded terracotta plaque are known, and the complete one, in the collection life-size head of a grimacing yaksha is one of the National Museum, New Delhi.2 The of the Allahabad Museum, is poorly illustrated: Kala of the most expressive works of the ancient facial expressions of the dwarf caryatids are 1980, op. cit., New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, period. His eyes are set below a deeply at times shared with the giant yakshas. A rare fig. 145. Kushan, second century ad This irregular fragment has a grotesque head Mathura on each side. There are traces of roundels on Mottled pink sandstone each side within which these strange human h. 11 cm faces are depicted; one has a lolling tongue EA1997.182 and an upturned fang or tusk, the other an elephant-like face with an incongruous human nose. The piece bears some surface damage. Considering the subject matter and the fact that it is meant to be viewed from both sides, this fragment could belong to a corner or terminal element (either a coping stone or a pillar with roundels) of a vedika railing surrounding a shrine or a stupa. While longer narratives and mythical tales tended to be illustrated along the railings themselves, fanciful beasts were potent talismans to protect spaces. They were thus often placed at thresholds, entrances and corners, or set outside a building, to ward off any evil that might threaten the divine spirit contained within the shrine. 202 · North and Central india ancient india · 203 104  Three images of Surya Mathura 104.1  Surya been noted by Banerjea as being character- Red sandstone c.First century ad istic of Suparna Garutman, i.e. the Vedic h. 15.7 cm description of Surya as the ‘golden bird’.7 EAOS.30 The principal iconography – as we know It is significant that in the Ashmolean’s Purchased from Pandit Govind Charan from it – of Surya, the solar god – a male deity example he is now shown with the more Mathura, 1939 carrying a full-blown lotus blossom in generally recognised attribute of Surya, the each hand, riding a chariot with horses, This stele of mottled red sandstone portrays horse-drawn chariot, and lotuses that are crowned and wearing boots and armour a male, squatting on his haunches, with probably symbolic of the rising and setting – was certainly fixed by the end of the what appears to be a club in his right hand sun. Kushan period. However, this iconography and a sword (dagger?) in the left. Locks of 104.3  Surya or a Kushan Prince took at least two centuries to develop. hair radiate from his head, some falling on c.Third century ad Various strains of solar deities from the both shoulders, and there are traces of a h. 23 cm Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and the halo behind his head. The sculpture is very EA1972.45 Hellenistic world were synthesised to create worn and it is almost impossible to make Published: J. C. Harle, Gupta Sculpture, Oxford, the icon generally recognised as Surya. out whether he is in fact wearing the boots 1974, fig. 51; J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, Indian There are four early Surya images in the that are characteristic of Surya. Very close Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1987, no. 20; Ashmolean Museum. No image has all the examination also reveals that the figure P. Pal, The Ideal Image, New York, 1978, no. 5; iconographic attributes present in later would probably be wearing a cuirass. The D. Klimburg-Salter, Buddha in Indien, Vienna, images, but sufficient attributes are present sword and club are not normally associated 1995, no. 222; John Guy, ed., L’Art de la Devoció: L’Escultura en els temples Indis, Barcelona, 2007, to identify them as Suryas. All are Kushan: with Surya, but this should be viewed as one no. 23. three are from Mathura and catalogued of the anomalies of this inchoate formative here, while one is from Gandhara.1 Taken period. This posture and costume are also The squatting figure holds a small bowl(?) together, the group exhibits all the main seen in Kushan royal portraiture. The figure topped by a lotus blossom in his right hand; variations for the early iconography of the compares well with a few others from the in his left he probably held a sword, of god. By the first century bc several images same period and region.5 which only the scabbard base remains. The of a Surya-like deity can be found in India.2 figure wears northern dress (called udīcya 104.2 Surya Apart from numerous examples in stone, Kushan period, second–fourth centuries ad veṣa in the Brihatsamhita of Varahamihira, various pieces in wood, ivory and terracotta h. 14 cm LVIII.468), a Scythian crown or cap and are noted from Eastern India and images of EAOS.31 a cross-hatched breast-plate; he is also the Greek solar god Helios are also recorded Purchased with the help of the Max Müller adorned with various ornaments. The knees on Bactrian coins of approximately Memorial Fund of the figure are damaged and his left hand 140 bc.3 is missing. Lions can be seen in profile on By the Kushan period there were thus This sculpture of buff to red sandstone is either edge of the stele. The image compares several widespread prototypes for Surya closer to the recognisable image of Surya. closely with one in the Mathura Museum.9 images. The influence of the solar worship He is seen here squatting, riding a chariot Determining whether this image is of of the Indo-Iranians, linked to their idea and wearing armour. Traces of the seams of Surya or a Kushan prince, or of a Kushan of divine kingship, certainly aided the his boots can be seen on his legs and the two prince as Surya, is not easy. While the popularity of Surya imagery. The Kushan damaged and indistinct objects in his hands costume is entirely northern, of Scythian dynastic shrine at Surkh Kotal has an orna- resemble stalks of lotuses. The rearing derivation, and anticipates the canonical mental merlon with a seated image of a sun horses are pulling in opposite directions. prescription for Surya, the cup, sword god who looks like a Kushan king.4 Surya is Although not immediately visible, six well- and lions fulfil none of these criteria. The often portrayed squatting on his haunches: carved horses seen in profile draw Surya’s posture and costume are appropriate for this posture and his Central Asian dress are chariot. both a royal figure and Surya. The lions both also linked to Kushan royal portraits. The piece can be compared with a represent the terminal elements of his low These disparate influences are apparent in jewelled hair ornament on a female head in throne, or a simhasana, which is princely, this group, the individual details of which the Lucknow Museum (no. 46.80) and with whereas Surya might have been shown on a are recorded below. several Bengali ivory and terracotta depic- chariot. Equally, the colossal Kushan image tions, as well as one from the Sat Samudri still worshipped at Gokarneshvara shows a Well in Mathura,6 which has a trace of haloed figure on a throne.10 The symmetri- wings. Surya’s association with wings has cally incised lines drawn from his lips to his 204 · North and Central india ancient india · 205 104.3 105  Vishnu as Vasudeva Second century ad Mathura Mottled red sandstone h. 11 cm EAOS.38a Purchased from Pandit Govind Charan, Mathura, 1939 Published: J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987, no. 14 This upper portion of a small relief portrays a four-armed standing Vishnu who wears a high, cross-hatched mukuta (crown). His upper (rear) right hand holds the staff of a very long gada or mace. The lower right hand, now broken off, would have been in abhaya, while both the left hands and most of the body below his waist are missing. Although the figure is considerably worn, traces of a sacred thread over his left shoulder can still be seen. The scarf draped over his left arm may actually be a portion 104.1 104.2 of his vanamala, the garland of wild flowers ears may refer to a faceguard or, more prob- 1  A schist turban crest ornament depicting Surya in lotus in his right hand. See also Sharma 1993, op. cit., that is a standard iconographic feature of ably, a beard. Neither of these are associated his chariot, no. EA1997.26: D. Jongeward, Buddhist col. pl. XIII. the deity,1 and that can be identified more Art of Gandhara in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: 6  The piece may be compared with a small Surya with Surya and both are more characteristic specifically as his early manifestation in the Ashmolean Museum (forthcoming), no. 88. relief, Mathura Museum, no. D.46, in ASI Bulletin of warriors, lending weight to the idea that 1909–10, p. 75, pl. XXVIIIc; also J. Ph. Vogel 1930, op. form of Vasudeva.2 2  Prominent early examples include: (1) a relief at this is a royal image. Having said that, it has Bodh Gaya (Bodh Gaya Archaeological Museum, cit., pl. XXXVIIIa, discusses an example with wheels, in The Vaishnavite doctrine, with its already been noted that the early images of no. 1367); (2) the tympanum of Cave 3, that is the which the figure of Surya is provided with wings. antecedents in the Bhagavata cult of the Surya were consciously made to conflate Ananta Gumpha at Khandgiri Hill, Orissa; (3) a relief 7  J. N. Banerjea, The Development of Hindu Iconography, Pancha-viras,3 has great antiquity at with royal portraits, which may explain the in Vihara 29 at Bhaja, Maharashtra; and (4) a clearly 2nd ed., Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, 1956, Mathura. This image comes from the period Kushan example from Jamalpur, Mathura, where reprinted New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1985, appearance of this figure. when this early cult was accommodated into a relief from the Huvishka Vihara shows Surya in p. 130; at p. 429 Banerjea also mentions a similar piece in the National Museum, Delhi, no. 72.130. the Brahmanic Vaishnava doctrine. Most the narrative of the Buddha’s life (State Museum, Stylistically too, the image is hybrid Lucknow, no. B208). 8  Panditbhushan V. Subrahmanya Shastri and Vidwan of these early images, including this one, – Kushan but veering towards a Gupta 3  Osmund Bopearachchi illustrates the coins of an M. Ramkrishna Bhat trans., Brihat Samhita of Varaha are small and meant for private household style.11 Although the figure is mostly in Indo-Greek king called Plato, as well as the slightly Mihira, Bangalore: V.B. Soobbiah and Sons, 1946, p. 514 worship. Curiously, this deity has four arms, (and not in Chapter LVII.48, as cited by Ajay Mitra northern dress, his lower garment resem- earlier coins (probably) of Eucratides I in Bactria: see a feature rarely seen in such early depic- his Monnaies gréco-bactriennes et indo-grecques: Catalogue Shastri, India as seen in the Bṛhatsaṁhitā of Varāhamihira, bles an Indian dhoti. That, along with the Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1969, p. 226). tions. Comparable images suggest it is safe raisonné, Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1991, pp. 74, large eyes and discernible pout to the lips, 9  Mathura Museum, no. 16.1215, illus. in Gail (cited n. to assume that he would have been standing 1  For comparable images, see Mathura Museum, nos. 58.11/9, 58.11/19 and 20, 66.23. Variations show 220–1, 453, pl. 24. as well as the ornament, certainly lend it 10 below), fig. 18.1. in the samapadasthanaka pose with his left no. 781: D. B. Diskolkar, ‘Some Brahmanical an eight – or two-armed Vishnu with his mount 4  See J. Rosenfield, Dynastic Art of the Kushans, Sculpture in the Mathura Museum’, Journal of the UP Garuda in the more complex form of Chaturvyuha an early Gupta period feel. Whatever the 10  Although identified as a royal portrait by Rosenfield hands holding a chakra (wheel or discus) and Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1967 and New Delhi: Historical Society, V, 1, Jan. 1932, pl. I, fig. 3, pp. 18–57. (Mathura Museum, no. 14.392–5). This is also the iconography may actually represent, it is 1967/1993, op. cit., pp. 142–3, 148–9, it has been a shankha (conch). Munshiram Manoharlal, 1993, pp. 187–9, fig. 124. An almost identical figure was excavated at Sonkh period in which several of the god’s incarnations are identified as Surya by A. Gail, ‘Early Sūrya and the undoubtedly inspired by Kushan regalia, 5  Cf. the Surya figure in the Museum of Fine that is dateable to the mid-late second century AD: given their first form, including Varaha, Narasimha, Gokarṇeśvara colossus at Mathurā’, South Asian and the softness of its facial features Arts, Boston (no. 21.1706): A. K. Coomaraswamy, Archaeology 1993, A. Parpola and B. Koskikachio, eds., H. Härtel, Some Results of the Excavations at Sonkh, Balarama and perhaps even Hayagriva. compares well with that in other late Catalogue of the Indian Collections in the Museum of Fine Helsinki, 1994, vol. 1, p. 215, fig. 18.2. in German Scholars on India, vol. 2, Bombay, 1976 2  See D. M. Srinivasan, ‘Vaisnava art and Kushan examples.12 Arts, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, vol. 1–2, 1923, 11  Previously published as Gupta by various authors, (repr. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, iconography at Mathura’, in D. M. Srinivasan, pl. I, p. 46; Coomaraswamy considers the object including Harle: see J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, Indian 1977), p. 85. Also pieces in the National Museum, ed., Mathura: The Cultural Heritage, New Delhi: in the left hand to be a staff. Another Surya is in Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: Ashmolean in Asthana 1999, op. cit., pp. 13–15, in which she Munshiram Manoharlal, 1989, pp. 383–92. the Mathura Museum (no. 12.269), from Kankali Museum, 1987, p. 20. lists the following Mathura Museum four-armed 3  The ancient hero cult worshipped the five Vrishnis: Tila; see J. Ph. Vogel, ‘La Sculpture de Mathura’, Ars 12  See, for instance, the Jina head in the Ashmolean Vishnus: nos. 15.912, 15.948, 28.1729, 15.933, 15.190; Samkarshana / Balarama, Vasudeva-Krishna, Asiatica, XV, 1930, pl. XXXIII(b), where he holds a collection (cat. 106). further examples in the National Museum include: Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Ekanamsa. 206 · North and Central india ancient india · 207 111  Decorative roundels and brick fragments from Sunet 112  Stylised figure 1  Also in Ludhiana District, Punjab. This is an Early Second century ad Historic site, with a few early terracotta pieces that Sunet, Ludhiana District, Punjab are stylistically consistent with others from the rest Terracotta of the Divide: ASI–AR 14, pp. 65–7; B. Ch. Chhabra, in Vishveshvaranand Indological Journal 8, Hoshiarpur, 111.1 Decorative roundel 1970, pp. 177–8. Decorative double-sided roundel 2  Among the better known sites in the Divide, Diam. 9.5 cm Agroha in Hissar District was excavated over a EAX.143 number of seasons. After the initial explorations by C. J. Rodgers in 1888–9 (Report of the Punjab Circle of 111.2 Decorative brick fragment the ASI 1888–9, pp. 41–3), the site was re-excavated by (not illustrated) H. L. Srivastava in 1938–9 (H. L. Srivastava, Excavation l. 4.5 cm at Agroha, Punjab, Mem. ASI, 61, 1952); also mentioned EAX.145 in IAR 1978–9: pp. 68–9, 1979–80: p. 31, 1980–1: pp. 15–16, it has shown a sequence back to the NBPW Although patterned terracotta objects such as this (Northern Black Polished Ware). As regards ancient historical material, Agroha has revealed a few brick roundel (cat. 111.1) have usually been thought of structures of the late Kushan–Gupta period, various as scrapers or for scrubbing, they may also have terracotta objects and a hoard of Indo–Greek and been used as printing blocks.1 Dating from the first other coins. The legend ‘Agodaka Agaca janapadasa’ on century bc to the fourth century ad, they are widely the coins has established the identity of Agroha with found in North India (at Rang Mahal,2 Sonkh,3 ancient Agrodaka. Atranjikhera,4 etc.) and occasionally in the north- 3  In Hissar District, Haryana, most finds from the Naurangabad site have been collected from the surface. west as well. Sunet lies on the route to Taxila. Finding 4  Sanghel, in Gurgaon District, Haryana, is a small these objects in Taxila should come as no surprise, PGW (Painted Grey Ware) and Early Historic site. as that site seems to have been a fundamental part of 5  Sanghol, in Ludhiana District, Punjab, is famous for the general scheme of North Indian urban material the Kushan Mathura red sandstone images that were culture between the second century BC and the first found perfectly preserved here. Period IV has revealed some Shunga terracotta; IAR 1968–9, p. 25, 1969–70, century ad, when it began to adopt and transform p. 31, 1970–1, p. 30, 1971–2, p. 39. Hellenistic and Indo-Greek styles. 6  S. Bhan, ‘Report of Excavation at Sugh (1964–5)’, The patterns on these roundels have never been Journal of Haryana Studies, IX, 1–2, Kurukshetra, 1977, systematically collated and studied. They make a pp. 1–49. Also IAR 1963–4, pp. 27–8, 1965–6, pp. 35–6. fascinating corpus for a study of ancient Indian deco- 7  H. Rydh, ‘Rang Mahal: The Swedish archaeological rative ornament. They can also be related to a few mission to India 1952–54’, Acta Archaeologica c.First–third centuries ad Lundensia 40, no. 3, Lund: CWK Gleerup Publishers, stone roundels and other, hollow, terracotta roundels Gangetic plains 1959, pl. 76 (nos. 10, 14–20), pp. 161–2. formed by luting two round plaques together. The Terracotta 8  J. Marshall, ‘Excavations at Bhita’, ASI – Annual hollow roundels are usually called rattles. However, h. 13 cm Report, 1911–12, Calcutta, 1915, pl. XXVIII: 125 and p. 80. it might be more likely that many such small, circular, EA1958.33 9  R. Senior, Catalogue of Indo-Scythian Coins, vol. 2, double-sided objects were framed and used as deco- Gift of E. M. Scratton Lancaster, PA: Classical Numismatic Group, 2000, rative plaques in the pilasters that surrounded model p. 158, no. 222. This solid terracotta figure, with a promi- votive or domestic shrines, much as the larger stone nent, beak-like nose and stump arms, has roundels were used at stupas. several very coarsely added coils and pellets 1  As suggested with similar excavated objects at Rang Mahal, that mark out its breasts, navel, necklace, Bikaner District, Rajasthan: see Rydh 1959, op. cit., pl. 70, p. 161. eyes and hair ornaments. The figure’s 2  Ibid. stylisation is not dissimilar from that of the 3  Härtel 1993, op. cit., fig. 148, and its reverse, 148R. This many bird – and animal-headed anthropo- piece shows a lion trampling over various small animals on the morphs that must have had a cultic function obverse, while the reverse carries a geometric pattern similar to our piece. of some sort. Since the comparable figu- 4  R. C. Gaur, Excavations at Atranjikhera, Aligarh: Centre of rines are mostly Kushan, this piece may Advanced Study, Aligarh Muslim University; Delhi: Motilal belong to the same period.1 Banarsidass, 1983, pl. CI, p. 380, shows – instead of the more commonly recorded roundels – a double-sided square dated to 1  A thermoluminescence test on 8 August 2005 by Period IV (Phase B), as being 500–350 bc. This is earlier than the Oxford Authentication Ltd. determined that it was dates given to such objects from other sites. last fired between 1,200 and 2,000 years ago. 214 · North and Central india ancient india · 215 113  Head of Shiva Early fifth century ad conceived by half-open eyes, their gaze steadied 1  For a close comparison, in the Lucknow Mathura by reverberating curves of lids and brows and Museum (no. h2), see J. C. Harle, ‘The head of Siva Red sandstone the deep shadows between their intersecting from Mathura in the Ashmolean Museum: Is the h. 30.5 cm planes. Correspondingly, the strands of hair moustache recut?’, Asian Review, vol. 2, no. 1, April EAOS.38 that spread out like wings of a soaring bird 1965, pp. 37, 39. Purchased with the help of Mr and Mrs clasp the vaulted forehead and frame the face… 2  S. Kramrisch, Manifestations of Siva (exhib. cat.), H. N. Spalding and the Art Fund, 1939 Abdicating all sensuality, the austere forehead Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981, and eyes are in command of the full-cheeked face. p. 15. Published: S. Kramrisch, ‘Notes: A Siva head Compassion and detachment hover around the from Mathura’, Journal of the Indian Society of lips – now damaged and moustached. The third eye Oriental Art, VI, June–Dec. 1938, pp. 200–2, pl. 44; – symbolically the seat of the fire of destruction – R. C. Majumdar and A. D. Pusalker, eds., The extending across the entire height of the forehead, History and Culture of the Indian People, vol. 3, The is here an essential part of Siva’s physiognomy. The Classical Age, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, head is indwelt by Siva power; it is the god’s true 1954, p. 524, fig. 38; J. C. Harle, ‘The head of Siva likeness.2 from Mathura in the Ashmolean Museum: Is the moustache recut?’, Asian Review, n.s., vol. 2, no. 1, April 1965, p. 38; J. C. Harle, Gupta sculpture: Indian sculpture of the Fourth to the Sixth Centuries A.D., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974, p. 44, fig. 50; S. Kramrisch, Manifestations of Siva (exhib. cat.), Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981, no. 14; G. Kreisel, Die Siva-Bildwerke der Mathura- Kunst, Stuttgart: Monographien zur Indischen Archäologie, Kunst und Philologie, 5, 1986, figs. 90 a–c; J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, Indian art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987, no. 24. The large, forceful, heavy-lidded eyes of Shiva are here set beneath a deeply bowed brow in a round face. Together with fleshy cheeks and thick lips, and complemented by his cascading ringlets, they give the sculp- ture an impression of control and power. Furthermore, the sculptor shows a thor- ough knowledge of this iconography and its meaning, one of the great hallmarks of Gupta workmanship. The head has attracted much scholarly attention.1 It has been argued that it could have been a part of an ekamukha-linga (the primordial phallic symbol of Shiva with a face sculpted on its base), or it could have been a part of a full-scale figure. Nor is it certain whether the moustache was part of the original conception, as is the case with Shiva’s Aghora (or fierce) emanations, or if it was converted into that at a later date. Stella Kramrisch has given an evocative description of this sculpture: …outstanding in the elemental power, controlled and concentrated, that informs its every plane and curve. Severe and serene meditation is 216 · North and Central india ancient india · 217 117 Vishnu Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh triple-pointed mukuta or crown; heavy (conch) and padma (lotus), which stand for Gupta, mid-fifth century ad kundalas or earrings pull at his distended his more subtle transcendent qualities, Pink sandstone earlobes and a necklace rests on his proud encompassing compassion and eternity. h. 52 cm chest. A vanamala or garland of wild flowers, This sculpture is likely to come from the EA1996.77 swathed around his upper arms, would have Upper Gangetic Valley, in the environs of Purchased with the help of the MLA / V&A Fund, the Art Fund and the Friends of the Ashmolean continued down to his knees. A dhoti or Mathura or Allahabad. The general air of lower garment tied at the waist is rendered athletic strength and ornamental detail seen Published: National Art Collections Fund 1996 to show a softness as it smoothly clings to in the style of his crown3 are comparable Review, p. 143; John Guy ed., L’Art de la Devoció: L’Escultura en els temples Indis, Barcelona: Fondacio his body. A halo, plain but for its scalloped with images from that region.4 ‘la Caixa’, 2007, no. 33 edge, in keeping with early to mid-fifth-cen- tury images, emerges behind the god’s A transformation in what we now regard shoulders. Although his oval face is worn, as the religion of Vishnu had taken place by one can still make out that it is set with large the Kushan period. What were previously downcast eyes over a full mouth. lending the various heroic aspects of the cult of the image an air of composure. The deity’s the Vrishnis associated with Bhagavatism torso and shoulders are distinctly muscular, were now given a cosmic and psychological not with the exuberance of Gandhara but dimension.1 This was achieved by merging with an innate strength. The chest is inflated them with the idea of vyuha or emanations with prana, the life force of his breath, over a of Vishnu (as opposed to his avatars, literally narrow and shapely stomach which, with its complete ‘descents’ in animal or human ever so soft distension of abdominal flesh, forms). Both the vyuha and avatara aspects betrays a state of comfort and ease without of Vishnu, as that inherent, uncreated, detracting from his control and strength. timeless quality, found expression in varied This sensitivity towards the meaning iconographic forms, of which the prin- behind symbolic and iconographic formulae 1  For a better understanding of Bhagavatism and cipal Gupta temples at Udaygiri, Eran and is entirely in keeping with Gupta artistic Vaishnavism, see R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaiṣṇavism, Deogarh are important examples. There is achievement. Even in a relatively small Śhaivism and Minor Religious Systems, Varanasi: reason to believe that the worship of Vishnu image as this, we therefore see a profound Indological Book House, 1965, and Banerjea 1956 at these royal temples was linked to the understanding of the god who stands for (reprinted 1985), op. cit., Calcutta: University of concept of divine kingship, and the Gupta order and balance that ensures prosperous Calcutta Press. 2  For more on the concept of Vishnu and kingship, kings who were Vaishnavas often employed continuity of the cosmos, providing stability see J. Gonda, Aspects of Early Viṣṇuism, Delhi: Motilal religious iconographic conventions of this in the samsaric cycle of regeneration and Banarsidass, 1969 (2nd ed.), pp. 164–6. sect to mark their authority.2 destruction. Vishnu was, for this reason, 3  The crown is paralleled on a bodhisattva from The iconography of Vishnu has been used a particularly appropriate royal god, and Mathura, see J. G. Williams, The Art of Gupta India: several times in Indian and Southeast Asian it was not uncommon from the Gupta Empire and Province, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982, pl. 72. art to such political ends. However, the period onwards for royal personages to be 4  For a fine Vishnu in the National Museum, New Gupta period offers us its first clear articula- patrons of important Vaishnava temples. Delhi – in better condition and larger in scale, but tion. This particular statue of Vishnu has not This explains the large number of Vaishnava of the same type – see J. C. Harle, Gupta sculpture, only ancient Indian iconographic conven- temples and sculptures from the Gupta Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974, pl. 49 (also colour tions for the divine king, but also additional period. illus. in G. Morley, Indian Sculpture, New Delhi: regal features that bear similarities with The figure is broken at the thighs. His Roli Books, 2005, pp. 68–9). For a much denuded comparable Gupta Vishnu from Bhita, see P. Chandra the divine king in Sassanian Iran. This is arms and nimbus are also broken, and the 1970, op. cit., p. 120, pl. L, and, for another from particularly visible in the mop of curly hair sculpture has suffered general wear and Shankargarh, Satna District, Madhya Pradesh, also that can be seen emerging under the heavy pitting. Of the god’s four arms, the lower of the mid-fifth century, see P. Chandra 1970, op. kingly crown, in a manner widespread ones would have held his standard attrib- cit., no. 208, pl. LXXI. The Vishnu from the National in contemporaneous imagery of Iranian utes of gada (mace) and chakra (discus), Museum, New Delhi, and from the Mathura Museum can be found in: M. C. Joshi, Marie-Claude royals. usually personified in the Gupta period into Bianchini, John Dawson, et. al., L’âge d’or de l’Inde Vishnu is shown here in his conventional Gadadevi and Chakrapurusha who symbolise classique: L’empire des Gupta (exhib. cat.), Galeries form of a kingly figure, four-armed and Vishnu’s martial and temporal strengths. Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris: Réunion des with long curling hair. He wears a high, The upper arms usually hold a shankha Musées Nationaux, 2007, pp. 152–5. 222 · North and Central india ancient india · 223 118  Makara Fifth century ad1 1  Although a thermoluminescence test on Mathura area 23/3/71 by the AHA Lab., Oxford, indicated it Terracotta plaque was made in c.ad 250, we can usually account h. 19.7, l. 41.5, d. 8.6 cm for about 150 years of error in the test, making EA1971.13 an early fifth-century date plausible. 2  Compare plaques from Mathura and Published: J. C. Harle, Gupta Sculpture, Oxford, Newal, illustrated by A. Cunningham, 1974, fig. 148; P. Pal, The Ideal Image, New York, Archaeological Survey Report, vol. XI, (covering 1978, no. 33; G. Michell et al., In the Image of Man, Gangetic provinces from Badaon to Bihar London, 1982, no. 32; J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, in 1875–76 and 1877–78), and those in situ Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1987, at Bhitargaon. An exceptional terracotta no. 20 brick carved with a makara (perhaps slightly later than the Ashmolean piece) was donated The spirited modelling of this makara is a by Cunningham to the British Museum wonderful example of the verve of Gupta (no. 1887.7–17.55). This piece may also be compared with one at the Brooklyn Museum terracotta art, which distinguishes it from the (no. 69.127.1), which shares the same marginal gravitas of contemporaneous stone carv- decoration, scale and spirit of the makara, ings. A makara is a mythical aquatic creature, indicating they might both come from the usually depicted with the snout of a gharial same site: illus. in A. G. Poster, From Indian crocodile. It is a sophisticated ancient Indian Earth: 4000 years of Terracotta Art (exhib. cat.), symbol of the fertile rivers. Here the creature Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1986, no. 102, p. 164. A near parallel is illustrated in an is modelled with freedom as he lunges in the exhibition catalogue of J. Eskenazi, Sculture waters, his paws and snout transgressing dell’ India Classica, Milan, 1983, no. 56. the margin marking the end of the brick. His open jaw exposes teeth, while an angry, spherical eye indicates his power. His fanciful rear portion is rendered as dramatically rippling curves of fins and vegetal scrolls. The lateral cutting of vegetal scroll orna- ment – in which the artist played with the folding and curving of flat planes, rendering them almost three-dimensional – was a hallmark of Gupta workmanship in stone and terracotta (see Cat. 123). A number of fine images from terracotta temples of the period are in museums across India and the rest of the world, even though only a handful of the temples themselves survive. No doubt terracotta would have been the most popular medium of construction. The temples’ niches, in the finest examples, were filled with large, nearly life-size sculptures of the principal deities. Surrounding them at the base of the temple, and above, were images and narratives of the divine and, more commonly, of the semi-divine worlds, such as this makara. This plaque is said to come from a site 100–150 miles north of Mathura. It is most likely from Ahichhatra, where one of the most important Gupta terracotta temples was discovered.2 224 · North and Central india 119  Buddha head 120 Buddha Fifth–sixth centuries ad unearthed at Sarnath and housed in the Gupta style, sixth century ad appreciably larger than this piece. The style Sarnath Eastern Uttar Pradesh or Bihar collection of the local site Museum and the of having only one shoulder covered by the Pale buff Chunar sandstone Bronze Indian Museum, Calcutta.1 The two major sanghati is more common in either the earlier h. 6.5 cm h. 7.9 cm EAOS.51 centres for Buddhist art in the early Gupta Kushan period stone images from Mathura EA2000.22 Purchased from Pandit Govind Charan, Mathura, period were Mathura and Sarnath. The or in the bronzes of such southern Gupta 1939 softness in modelling, the egg-shaped head, The Buddha stands in abhanga with his sites as Buddhapad (Andhra Pradesh) in the the upward slant of the eyes, the shape of weight on his right leg, looking as if he is Deccan2 and, rarely, at the Vakataka site of Even a small head such as this, which must the brow and the general air of tranquillity about to move. His sanghati covers only his Phopnar.3 However, this bronze certainly have been part of a much larger narrative all suggest production in the Sarnath area. left shoulder (which may be taken to indi- does not possess the unique metal composi- scene, is informed by the artistic ideals of Further, the cream-coloured stone used cate an earlier date), and its gathered end is tion or style of the Phopnar pieces, nor is it as the Gupta period. The Buddha, with his most probably comes from Chunar, the held in his left hand. This Buddha has the rigid as the Buddhapad ones. It is in all other perfectly oval face, has almond-shaped eyes celebrated ancient quarry about 30 miles plain diaphanous drapery, gentle movement ways stylistically similar to an Eastern Indian and raised, arched eyebrows. A clean, broad from Sarnath. and arched eyes typical of Eastern Indian idiom. forehead marked the space for an urna, workmanship of the late fifth and sixth By the Gupta period the iconography of the topped with large snail-shell curls, and he 1  See also the Sarnath Buddha heads published in centuries ad. His transparent, fold-less Buddha with which we are familiar had been has a full, sensuous mouth. The whole face P. Chandra 1985, op. cit., p. 85, and B. N. Goswamy, garment emphasises the contours of the formalised. All the individual elements were possesses a quality of serenity, with the eyes Essence of Indian Art, San Francisco: Asian Art body, a feature of the Sarnath school. then in place: the broad forehead marked half-closed in a meditative gaze. The piece Museum, 1986, p. 256; also D. Klimburg Salter, One of the greatest phases in Indian art by an urna, the snail-shell curls covering the Buddha in Indien: Die Frühindische Skulptur von König has suffered some damage on the nose and was achieved between the fourth and sixth ushnisha, which symbolises his great wisdom, Asoka bis zur Guptazeit, Vienna and Milan, 1995, cats. lip. 202, 207. A very similar head in cream sandstone is centuries ad under the rule of the Gupta the breadth of his shoulders conveying the This sculpture can be compared to in the Cleveland Museum of Art, John Huntington and Vakataka kingdoms and their tribu- Buddha’s great strength and the standard a significant group of other examples Collection 1714–46. taries. The Gupta sculptural style is known gesture of abhaya mudra, here broken, made to us mostly from images made of stone and by his left hand to reassure his followers terracotta – and, very rarely, from bronze that they have nothing to fear. Other icono- figures. Portable images such as this were graphic norms that were standardised for the instrumental in helping to disseminate Buddha in this period include the eyebrows, Buddhism and its iconography to Tibet, arched like birds in flight, the heavy eyelids, Southeast Asia and China, yet very few suggesting his meditative gaze, and his bronzes of the Buddha are known from distended, undecorated ear lobes, stretched this early period. Almost all known exam- from the weight of the earrings he wore when ples were found in Tibetan monasteries, to still Prince Siddhartha. which they had been brought in antiquity. Monks from all over the Buddhist world 1  For the Sarnath stone Buddha, Indian Museum frequently travelled to Sarnath and Bodh no. 9515/A22895, see Klimburg-Salter 1995, op. cit., Gaya on pilgrimage. They were trained no. 205, p. 221, and, for the more famous piece in the same collection, no. A 25102 (S 90), see Williams at large monastic towns such as Nalanda 1982, op. cit., no. 87. For the bronze in the Norton and returned to their home countries with Simon Museum, Los Angeles (no. F. 1972.1.S), portable images, mostly bronzes like this see Pal 2003, op. cit., p. 106, no. 69, and Ulrich von one, and terracottas. These images played a Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong: Visual decisive role in shaping the artistic styles of Dharma Publications, 1981, no. 43C. For the other those countries, where they were copied. famous eastern Indian bronze in the Rockefeller collection, see N. P. Ahuja, Divine Presence: Arts of The posture of the figure may be India and the Himalayas (exhib. cat.), Milan: Five compared with that of the renowned Continents Editions, 2003, p. 66, no. 9; the sculpture standing sandstone image from Sarnath in was previously published in Denise P. Leidy, Treasures of the Indian Museum, Calcutta (Kolkata). Asian Art: The Asia Society’s Mr and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller The closest comparable image in bronze 3rd Collection, New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1994, p. 28, with further references. is in the collection of the Norton Simon 2  von Schroeder 1981, op. cit., no. 44A, B, C and G, Museum, Los Angeles, although this has which are attributed by him to the sixth century ad a much less perceptible sway to the hip.1 under the patronage of the early Pallavas of the Deccan. However, the above-mentioned images are 3  von Schroeder 1981, op. cit., no. 44D and H. 226 · North and Central india ancient india · 227 121  Four inscribed tablets Sixth century ad Gopalpur, Gorakhpur District, Uttar Pradesh Terracotta Gift of Mrs Hoernle, c.1923 121.1 Tablet 1 l. 20.5 (max.), w. 13.4 cm EAX.402a l. 8.6, w. 7.3 cm EAX.402b Broken into four parts, three of which are restored and rejoined (EAX.402a), while one remains separated (EAX.402b); small fragments are missing Inscribed in 12 lines on the obverse, 6 lines on the reverse 121.2 Tablet 2 l. 23.1, w. 11.5 cm Inscribed in 12 lines on the obverse, 12 on the reverse EAX.403 121.3 Tablet 3 l.29.5 cm, w. 12 cm Inscribed in 12 lines on the obverse, 10 on the reverse EAX.404 121.4 Tablet 4 l.24.3, w. 10.5 cm Inscribed in 10 lines on the obverse, 9 on the reverse EAX.405 This piece has a single break, which has been restored. Published: V. A. Smith and W. Hoey, ‘Buddhist Sutras Inscribed on Bricks found at Gopalpur in Gorakhpur District’, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society 121.1 obverse and reverse 121.2 obverse and reverse of Bengal, 1896, pp. 99–102, pl. vii; V. A. Smith, later. Smith, one of the most influential bricks. On a ledge alongside was a small execution, while the majority are in a more come from EAX.402. The fragment is an form granules that would stick together ‘Deposit of Sutras in Stupas’, Indian Antiquary, July 1904, pp. 175–6; T. W. Rhys-Davids, Buddhist historians of Indian art and architecture, saucer with 11 copper coins, mostly dating careful, smaller and tighter hand. EAX.402 edge of the tablet, and there are obviously and could be easily brushed off, or would India, London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1903, p. 123, was subsequently alerted to a tablet that from the first to second centuries ad. Ten and 405 are damaged: the latter has a single two missing segments of inscription on fall away. Wet tablets would be difficult to fig. 27; E. H. Johnston, ‘The Gopalpur Bricks’, was available for sale by Pandit Ramgharib were Kushan (Hima Kadphises [sic, now break suffered accidentally in the 1890s, EAX.402. inscribe on both sides without damaging Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1938, pp. 547–53, Chaube in 1894–5. A large number of bricks referred to as Vima Kadphises], Kanishka while EAX.402 was found in four parts. While studying the palaeography, the inscription on the already carved surface pls. viii, ix-x; W. Zwalf, ed., Buddhism: Art and began to be recorded at Gopalpur when and Huvishka) and one Mitra (cock and bull Three of the parts fit together, but the fourth Johnston believed that as there was no as the scribe wrote on its reverse. Pre-fired Faith, London: British Museum Publications, the local zamindar (landlord) instructed type with the legend ‘ayu mitrasa’). Hoey and does not at first seem to fit neatly. A careful burring (or gathering) of clay on the extrem- (bone dry) terracotta remains inscribable 1985, no. 34. his staff to find old bricks, with which he Smith presented their findings at the Asiatic look shows that the handwriting differs ities of the strokes, it was unlikely that with a sharp iron or steel stylus, but one intended to finish making his indigo vats. Society of Bengal in 1896.2 in exactly the same ways on either side they had been incised on wet clay; he thus would expect a formal and rigid hand in that While 20 Gupta period gold coins (of which In January 1896 another tablet made its The four tablets are not of the same size. of the fragment and the tablet; they both believed the tablets must have been carved case (as with stone), rather than this more seven were of the emperor Chandragupta)1 way to Dr Hoey. He then explored the site’s They are each one inch thick, but their have the same consistency in the lines and after firing.3 This is in fact incorrect. There spontaneous, cursive set of inscriptions. and a pot full of cowries were recorded from two large mounds and found two further length and width vary. All are inscribed on both pieces were exposed to an identically are traces of burring on the edges of the The French Sanskritist Jean Filliozat Gopalpur (28 miles south of Gorakhpur) in tablets, making a total of four (one of which both sides, and at least two different forms reducing atmosphere in the kiln, creating letters. The tablets were probably allowed brought up the similarity of the script on 1854, the first of the four tablets illustrated is highly damaged). of handwriting can be discerned. One has several charcoal grey patches (not visible to become leather-hard before they were these bricks with the Tibetan syllabary at here only came to the attention of Vincent The tablets came from a small (eight larger letters with more spaces between in any of the other tablets). These features inscribed. In that consistency and state, a meeting of French Orientalists presided Smith and Dr William Hoey 40 years foot square) chamber built out of large them and is altogether more rapid in indicate that the loose piece does indeed clay at the extremities of strokes would over by Paul Pelliot in 1939.4 Some time 228 · North and Central india ancient india · 229 later the Japanese Tibetologist Inaba Shoju paticcasamuppāda in Pali, fajie yuanqi in with the ceasing of birth, death ceases. With followed up this suggestion, observing that Chinese), also translated as ‘interdependent the ceasing of becoming, birth ceases, and these inscriptions were so similar to the origination’ or ‘conditioned coproduction’, so on, until with the ceasing of ignorance no Tibetan script that he questioned the extent is a core concept of Buddhism. In early karma is produced, and the whole process to which the seventh century ad gram- literature the Buddha’s Awakening is seen as of death and rebirth ceases. The constit- marian Thönmi Sambhota could be credited his complete insight into this causal chain of uents of this chain are variously found in with his traditionally received role of creator dependent arising. The teaching of the chain different scriptures which later develop into of the Tibetan script.5 Stephen Beyer, in The of the dependent origination, or the causal a sutra by themselves. Perhaps the earliest Classical Tibetan Language in 1992,6 takes a links that lead to suffering and the means reference to them would be at the beginning similar view. for its cessation, began to be seen almost of Book 2 of the Samyuttanikaya. Palaeographically, the tablets are in fact as one with magical potency. It is even said Over the past 70 years there has been inscribed in what is certainly identifiable as that a person who can see the meaning of a large amount of scholarship on this Gupta period Brahmi. However, because dependent arising sees Dharma itself. Of sutra, its recensions and its importance they have conjoined letters below them the texts selected for burial in a stupa, there- to Buddhist metaphysics. Many of these they were said by some to be the earliest fore, those that best expressed the cyclical arguments rest on the exact sequence of the surviving prototypes of Tibetan. Very nature of existence and the most essential clauses, or the order of the constituents of similar tablets were found at Nalanda.7 Buddhist doctrine were considered appro- dependence.11 The links are not always 12 Written on soft clay, the writing is again priate.9 In its commonly received version as in number, and their sequence is altered on more informal in style than inscriptions a chain of 12 links, it is summarised thus: 10 a number of occasions. This points to the chiselled on stone. That this genre of script With Avidyā (ignorance) as condition, Saṃskāra fact that they can be understood as a later influenced the formation of Tibetan cannot, (mental formations) arise standardisation of the teaching, attempting however, be disputed. Indeed Gopalpur and With Saṃskāra (mental formations) as condition, to give it a coherent and unified form. Also, Nalanda were some of the early monastic Vijñāna (consciousness) arises rather than seeking to understand the 12 settlements which attracted Tibetan monks. With Vijñāna (consciousness) as condition, stages of dependencies in the sutra as being The presence of older coins interred Nāmarūpa (name and form) arise spread over an entire life, or over several With Nāmarūpa (name and form) as condition, in the crypt or relic chamber at Gopalpur lives, they may be seen as perpetually in Ṣaḍāyatana (the six sense spheres) arise is typical of a trend commonly found in existence, manifesting in everything within With Ṣaḍāyatana (the six sense spheres) as ancient Buddhist relic deposits, as is the condition, Sparśa (contact) arises this world of samsara, the cycle of death and occurrence of the particular sutra found With Sparśa (contact) as condition, Vedanā rebirth. here.8 Once the sharirika dhatu or corpo- (feeling) arises Tablets 1 and 4 have the same inscription, real relics of the Buddha were no longer With Vedanā (feeling) as condition, Tṛṣṇā (craving) while 2 and 3 are elaborations on the Sutra. available to be deposited in relic chambers, arises 1 and 4 have the opening lines of the Sutra, sacred texts epitomising the Dharma, the With Tṛṣṇā (craving) as condition, Upādāna ‘Thus have I heard – Once upon a time, (clinging) arises Buddha’s teachings, were used. Bhagavan was dwelling at Shravasti in the With Upādāna (clinging) as condition, Bhava Smith and Hoey presented the tran- (becoming) arises Jetavana, in the garden of Anathapindada, scription of the first of the tablets in 1896. With Bhava (becoming) as condition, Jāti (birth) etc.’ A slightly corrected and amended full They concluded that the inscriptions arises transcript of the inscriptions as noted by were all related to the same sutra, i.e. With Jāti (birth) as condition, Jarāmaraṇa (ageing E. H. Johnston in 1938 follows. Words or the Pratityasamutpada Sutra or Sutra of and death) arise letters that are not noted in previous read- Dependent Origination. E. H. Johnston And thus the Bhāva-chakra, or cycle of existence, ings are given in bold. reread them in 1938 in his article in the continues. Tablet I obverse JRAS. He found some minor inconsistencies 1. evaṁ mayā ṣrutam ekasminna samaye in the transcription of ‘brick’ 1 and offered Mental as well as physical phenomena are bhagavān śrāvastyāṁ viharati jetavane12 his transcriptions of the other three, while believed to come into being only in relation 2. nāthapiṇdadasyārāme tatra bhagavānni.. agreeing with the view that it was indeed the to, and conditioned by, other phenomena. nāmantrayati sma dharmaṇāṁ vo bhi Sutra of Dependent Origination. This has Nirvana is often conceived of as the stop- 3...va ācāryaṁ ca de..yivyāṁ..pacayaṁ ca been the opinion of all scholars who have ping of this cycle. Suffering is based on tachhṛṇuta [sādhacāsuṣvaca]13 discussed these pieces since. certain causes: if the causes are removed, 4.  manasikuruta bhāviṣye dharmaṇāṁācayaḥ The notion of ‘dependent origina- suffering will also disappear. By removing katamaḥ yadutāsmin..ti14 tion’ (pratītya-samutpāda in Sanskrit, the causes for craving, craving ceases. So, 5. daṁ bhavatyasyotpādādidmutpadyate yadutā 121.3 obverse and reverse 230 · North and Central india 121.4 obverse 121.4 reverse vidyāpratyayāḥ saṁskārāḥ saṁskāra International Association of Buddhist Studies 14, 1991, 6. pratyayaṁ vijñānaṁ vijñānpratyayaṁ pp. 1–27. nāmarūpaṁ nāmarūpapratyaya sparśaḥ15 10  R. Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford 7.  sparśapratyayā [veda]nā vedanāpratyayā tṛṣṇā and New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, tṛṣṇāpratyayamupādanamu- pp. 133–59. 8.  pādānpratyayo bhavaḥ bhavapratyayā 11  E. Lamotte, ‘Conditioned Co-production and jātirjātipratyayā jarāmaraṇā Supreme Enlightenment’, in S. Balassoriya et al., 9. śokaparidevaduḥkhādermanasyopāyāsāḥ16 eds., Buddhist Studies in Honour of Walpola Rahula, saṁbhavatyevamansaya mahato London, Vimamsa, Sri Lanka: Gordon Fraser, 1980, pp. 118–32. Alex Wayman’s many writings on this Tablet I Reverse sutra brought out its differences in text and some 1. duḥkhaskaṅdhasya samudāyo deeper meanings (‘Buddhist dependent origination’, bhavatyayamucyate dharmāṇāmācayaḥ dharmāṇā History of Religions 10, 1970, pp. 185–203; ‘Dependent 2. mapacayaḥ katamaḥ yadutvā vidyānirodhat Origination: The Indo-Tibetan Tradition’, Journal of saṁskārnirodhaḥ saṁskārnirodhā… Chinese Philosophy 7, 1980, pp. 275–300.) More recent- nāmarūpa- yathābhutasyābhisamayo babhūva vedanāyāṁm 9.  nirodhāt Saṁskāranirodhaḥ saṁskāran- lists a series of related early inscribed texts. He 3. jñananirodhaḥ ly these have been analysed by A. Hirakawa, C. Cox 10. pratyayaḥ ṣaḍāyatanaḥ21 ṣaḍāya[tanapratya] asatyāṁ tṛṣṇā irodhād vijñānanirodhaḥ vijñānanirodhān provides a rubbing of the Nalanda tablet, which has and G. R. Elder in R. K. Sharma, ed., Researches in vijñānanirodhānnāmarūpanirodhaḥ yaḥ sparśaḥ sparśaḥpratyayā vedanā 3.  na bhavati vedanānirodhāt tṛṣṇānirodhaḥ tasya nāmarūpa- a similar inscription and is of a comparable size. Indian and Buddhist Philosophy, Essays in Honour of Pro- nāmarūpanirodhātṣaḍāyatana mamaitad abhavat kasminn asati vedanā 10. nirodhaḥ nāmarūpanirodhāt ṣaḍāyatanan- Comparable also is the Kasia copper plate inscription fessor Alex Wayman, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982, 4. nirodhaḥ ṣaḍāyatananirodhādvedanānirodhaḥ Tablet II reverse 4.  na bhavati kasya nirodhād vedanānirodha iti irodhaḥ ṣaḍāyatananirodhāt sparśaniro[dhaḥ] (reported by Dr Hiranand Sastri and published by pp. 105–62, and R. Bucknell, ‘Conditioned Arising vedanānirodhātṛṣṇānirodhaḥ17 1.  vedanāpratyayā tṛṣṇā tṛṣṇā pratyayam tasya mama yoniśomanasikurvvata 11.  sparśanirodhāt vedanānirodhaḥ F. E. Pargiter, Annual report of the Archaeological Survey Evolves: Variation and change in textual accounts of 5. tṛṣṇānirodhādupādānanirodhaḥ upādānam upādānapratyayo bhavaḥ bhavaprat- 5. evaṁ yathābhutasyābhisamayo babhūva sparśe vedanānirodhāt tṛṣṇānirodhaḥ tṛṣṇānirodhāt of India 1910–11, Calcutta: Government Printing, the Paticca-samuppada doctrine’, Journal of the Interna- upādānanirodhād..vanirodhaḥbhavanirodhājjāti yayā jātiḥ 1914, pp. 71 ff., which also has the same sutra. For sati24 vedanā na bhavati sparśani- upādā- tional Association of Buddhist Studies 22 (2), 1999. To 6. nirodhaḥ jātinirodhājjarāmaraṇāśokaparideva 2.  jātipratyayājarāmaraṇaśokaparidevaduḥkhadau- the other tablet from Nalanda, see A. Ghose, ‘An In- 6.  rodhād ve[danā]nirodaḥ tasya mamaitad abhavat 12. nanirodhaḥ upādānanirodhād bhavanirodhaḥ see how this doctrine defines itself using metaphor duḥkhādermanasyopāyāsā ramanasyaupāyāsaḥ saṁbhavaṁnti evam asya scribed Brick from Nalanda of the Year 197’, Epigraph- and terms derived from the Vedic world, while also kasminn asati sparśo na bhavati kasya niro- bhavanirodhā 7. nirudhyaṅtevamasya [kepama]sya18 mahato 3.  mahato duḥkhaskandhasya samudayo ica Indica, XXIV, 1984, pp. 20–2 and pl. ff.19, which using the same to show its distinctiveness from 7.  dhāt sparśanirodha iti tasya mama duḥkhaskaṅdasya nirodho bhavatyayamucyate bhavati tasya mamaitad abhavat kasminn asati was found in the core of a votive stupa. Referring to the Vedic world, see J., Jurewicz, ‘Playing with fire: yoniśomanasikurvvata evaṁ yathābhutasyābhisa- 8. dharmāṇāmapcayaḥ dharmāṇāṁ vo bhi..va jarāmaraṇaṁ na bha- the same inscriptions he had previously published, The pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic 8.  -mayo babhūva ṣaḍāyatane [asat]i sparśo na ācayaṁ ca deśayiṣyāṁyapacayaṁ ca 4.  vati kasya nirodhāj jarāmaraṇanirodha E. H. Johnston in ‘Some Sanskrit Inscriptions of Ara- thought’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XXVI, 2000, bhavati ṣaḍāyatananirodhāt sparśa- 9.  iti me yaduktamidametatpratyaktamidamavo- iti tasya mama yoniśomanasikurvvata evaṁ kan’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, pp. 77–104. yathābhutasyābhisa- 9. nirodhaḥ tasya mamai[tad abhavat] kasminn vol. 11, no. 2, 1944, pp. 357–85, says, ‘For the peculiar cabhdagavānāttamanasaste 12  Rather puzzlingly, Johnston makes a correction 5.  mayo babhūva jātyām asatyāṁ jarāmaranaṁ asati ṣaḍāyatanaṁ na bhavati ka[sya] nirodhāt ṣaḍā- initial i of the bell I can only quote an inscribed 10. ……………bhikṣavo bhagavato bhāṣitamasya to Smith and Hoey’s 1896 transcription of this line in nandaḥ19 na bhavati jātinirodhāj jarāmaraṇanirodhah tasya 10.  ya[tana]nirodha iti tasya mam brick (Epigraphica Indica, XXIV, pp. 20–2), recently his article, ‘The Gopalpur Bricks’, Journal of the Royal mamaitad a- yoniśomanasikurvvata evaṁ discovered at Nalanda, which is dated 197 (evidently Asiatic Society, 1938, pp. 547–53, suggesting we read Tablet II obverse yathābhutasyābhisama- Gupta Era) and which proclaims its eastern origin āmantrayate instead of āmantrayati. However, āman- 6.  bhavat kasminn asati jātir nna bhavati 1.  yathābhutasyābhisamayo babhūva ṣaḍāyatane 11.  yo [babh]ūva nāmarūpe asati ṣaḍāyatanaṁ na by its forms of śa, ṣa, and ha, thereby differing from trayati does not actually feature in their inscription. kasya nirodhāj jātinirodha iti tasya mama sati sparśo bhavati ṣaḍāyatana – bhavati nāmarūpanirodhāt ṣaḍāyatana- the similar bricks previously discovered at Nalanda 13  This, as per Johnston’s correction, should read yoniśomanasikurvvata 2.  pratyayaś ca puna sparśaḥ tasya mamaitad 12. nirodhaḥ tasya mamaitad abhavat kasminn and Gopalpur (Epigraphica Indica, XXI, pp. 19ff., and sādhu ca suṣṭu ca, based on the clearer inscription in 7. evaṁ yathābhutasyābhisamayo babhūva bhave abhavat kasmin sati ṣaḍāyatanaṁ bhavati asati nāma JRAS, 1938, p. 547ff.)’, confirming his view that these Tablet 4. asati jātir nna bhavati bhavanirodhāj jātinirodha iti kiṁpratya- tablets are almost certainly of the Gupta period. The 14  Johnston 1938, op. cit., states that, as per the sutra, 8.  tasya mamaitad abhavat kasminn asati bhavo Tablet III reverse 3. yaś20 ca punaḥ ṣaḍāyatanaṁm iti tasya mama Gopalpur inscriptions were cited again in G. K. Nar- a line is missing between the present lines 4 and 5, yet na bhavati kasya nirodhād bhavanirodha iti tasya 1. rūpaṁ na bhavati kasya nirodhān 1  E. Thomas, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal yoniśomanasikurvvata evaṁ yathābhū- iman, M. Winternitz, S. Lévi, E. Huber, eds., Literary there appears to be no space for it. mama yoniśoma- nāmarūpanirodha iti tasya mama (JASB) XXIV, 1855, p. 499, and V. A. Smith, in Journal of 4.  tasyābhisamayo babhūva nāmarūpe sati History of Sanskrit Buddhism, Delhi: Motilal Banar- 9.  nasikurvvata evaṁ yathābhutasyābhisa- 15  Johnston 1938, op. cit., points out that ṣaḍāyatana yoniśomanasikurvva- the Asiatic Society of Bengal (JASB) LIII, 1, 1884, p. 152. sidass, 1972, p. 8. I am grateful to Prof. Harry Falk ṣaḍāyatanaṁ bhavati nāmarūpapratyayaṁ ca is missing from the chain in Tablet 1, whereas it is mayo babhūva upādāne sati22 bhavo na bhavaty 2  V. A. Smith and W. Hoey, ‘Buddhist Sutras In- and Dr Sam van Schaik for their numerous personal 5. punaḥ ṣaḍāyatanaṁ tasya mamaitad abhavat 2.  ta evaṁ yathābhutasyābhisamayo babhūva present in Tablet 4. upādānanirodhād bhava- scribed on Bricks found at Gopalpur in Gorakhpur communications, confirming that the palaeography kasmin sati nāmarūpa[ṁ] bhavati kiṁpratyayaṁ vijñāne asati nāmarūpaṁ na bhavati 16  Johnston 1938, op. cit., says: read duḥkhādaur- 10.  nirodha iti tasya mamaitad abhavat kasminn District’, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, of these inscriptions may be dated to the sixth cen- ca 3.  vijñānanirodhān nāmarūpanirodhaḥ tasya manasyo instead of duḥkhādermanasyo. asatyupādānaṁ na bhavati kasya nirodhād 1896, p. 100. tury ad. 6.  punar nnāmarūpaṁm iti tasya mamaitad abhavat kasminn asati vijñā- 17  Johnston 1938, op. cit., points out that sparśa is upādānanirodha iti tasya 3  E. H. Johnston, ‘The Gopalpur Bricks’, Journal of 8  Even though Vincent Smith changed his initial mama yoniśomanasikurvvata evaṁ 4. naṁ na bhavati kasya nirodhād vijñānanirodha missing from the chain in Tablet 1, whereas it is pres- 11.  mama yoniśomanasikurvvata evaṁ yathāb- the Royal Asiatic Society, 1938, p. 548. opinion about the tablets being c.400 ad and attrib- yathābhutasyābhisamayo iti tasya mama yoniśomanasi- ent in Tablet 4. hutasyābhisamayo babhūva tṛṣṇāyāṁ satyām23 4  J. Filliozat, ‘Les origines de l’écriture tibétaine’, uted them to the second century ad on the basis of 7.  babhūva vijñāne sati nāmarūpaṁ bhavati 5.  kurvvata evaṁ yathābhutasyābhisamayo Comptes rendus de la Société Asiatique, séance du 10 18  For Kepamasya read kevalasya. upādānaṁ na bhavati the coins, the palaeography does not permit one to vijñānapratyayaṁ ca punar nnāmarūpam tasya babhūva saṁskāreśv asatsu vijñānaṁ na bha- mars 1939, Journal Asiatique 231, 1939, p. 283. 19  For asya nandaḥ read abhyanandan. 12. tṛṣṇānirodhād upādānanirodhaḥ tasya give them a Kushan date. See V. A. Smith, ‘Deposit mamaitad a- 6. vati25 vijñānanirodhaḥ tasya mamaitad abhavat 5  See I. Shoju, Chibettogo koten bunpogaku, Kyoto: of Sutras in Stupas’, Indian Antiquary, 1904, July, 20  Read yaṁ. mamaitad abhavat 8.  bhavat kasmin sati vijñānaṁbhavati kiṁpra- kasminn asati saṁskārā na bhavanti Hozo-kan, 1954, pp. 1–3. pp. 17ff. 21  Read pratyayaṁ ṣaḍāyatanaṁ. tyayaṁ ca punar vvijñānaṁm iti tasya mama Tablet III obverse 7.  kasya nirodhāt saṁskāranirodha iti tasya mama 6  S. Beyer, The Classical Tibetan Language, New York: 9  P. C. Bagchi, ‘A Note on the Pratityasamutpada 22  Read asati. vijñānāt pratya- 1.  kasminn asati tṛṣṇā na bhavati kasya nirodhāt yoniśomanasikurvvata evaṁ ya- State University of New York, 1992, pp. 40–1. Sutra’, Epigraphica Indica 21, no. 33, 1934, pp. 204–7, 23  Read tṛṣṇāyāṁ asatyām. 9.  [yā]d āvarttate mānasaṁ nātaḥ pareṇa vyati- tṛṣṇānirodha iti tasya mama yoniśo- 8.  thābhutasyābhisamayo babhūva avidyāyām 7  N. P. Chakravarti, ‘Two Brick Inscriptions from and D. Boucher, ‘The Pratityasamutpadagatha and its 24  Read asati. varttate ya[duta] vijñānapratyayaṁ nāmarūpaṁ 2.  manasikurvvata evaṁ asatyāṁ saṁskārā na bhavanti avidyā- Nalanda’, Epigraphia Indica XXI, 1934, pp. 199–204, Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics’, Journal of the 25  saṁskāranirodhād has been omitted. 232 · North and Central india ancient india · 233 135  Mould for a plaque of a standing goddess and her attendant First century bc–first century ad1 ending, on top, in the head of a peacock naturally be easy to prise off the mould. In Bengal, probably Chandraketugarh (possibly a cockerel). The general shape the process of drying and through firing Terracotta of the cap is known from a few signifi- the impressed plaque would shrink further, h. 23.2 cm cant examples; it was inspired by Shaka making the detail on its surface seem much EA1993.35 (Scythian) examples or Phrygian prototypes finer than the mould. However, there Gift of the Friends of the Ashmolean from Central Asia.4 The mirror, a familiar remains the tantalising question of how the Published: N. Penny, The Materials of Sculpture, attribute in other depictions of the goddess moulds themselves were made. No object Yale University Press, 1993, p. 168; J. K. Bautze, with weapons, becomes common in exam- has yet been recovered that can definitely Early Indian Terracottas, Leiden: Brill, 1995, pl. IIIb. ples of later Indian female divinities, where be understood to be the ‘first’ positive. The it signifies both adornment and the qualities iconography is almost completely unknown The goddess has one arm akimbo and the of psychological insight and perception.5 in stone sculpture, and examples in media other touching her earring. She is heavily Mirror-bearing attendants to the goddesses other than clay include a tiny one in quite bejewelled, with tassels of beads hanging are common in the terracotta plaques of the crude gold repoussé and some exquisite from her large, disc-shaped earrings and her period, and have been found at various sites small ivories, none of which could have been girdle, worn low across her hip. Her neck- in the north Indian plains and Bengal.6 used to make such a mould. A few pieces laces are worn both short (with pendants The thousands of terracotta plaques in wood have recently come to light, but falling around the base of her neck) and surviving from the post-Mauryan period their workmanship is too coarse to have long (reaching below her navel); a tight were impressed from moulds such as this. produced as detailed an object as this. It is waistband is tied below her breasts, while Some moulds are plainer, their impres- likely that a rough original may have been large bracelets and anklets adorn her arms sions creating simple figures in relief which modelled out of clay by hand, fired and and feet. Typically, her coiffure is treated were adorned by using smaller stamps used as a first impression in a thick slab of elaborately – divided into three large buns for jewellery. However, most surviving clay to make a mould. The negative would (held in place by rows of beads or pearls moulds, particularly those from Bengal, have been carefully incised with lines and and various bands) in which she wears ten are so refined as to create perfectly formed dots and further impressed with stamps weapon-shaped ornaments. She is clad in a and highly detailed plaques from a single of rosettes to create the detail. At the same diaphanous lower garment which billows impression alone. This is particularly time it is possible, though less likely, that a around her ankles. With its fine stippled evident in the present mould, which is first original was made of soft wax (already detailing, larger than average size, orna- impressed exceedingly finely with dots in use for bronze casting) over which putty- mentation and surrounding petal border and faint lines. The resulting impression like clay would have been impressed. Any on the perimeter, as well as the iconography would bear the diagnostic florid stippled traces of wax would have evaporated when of the goddess and the pale buff to grey clay ornament and diaphanous drapery so the mould was fired. from which it is made, this mould can be popular in the plaques of Chandraketugarh compared to several others excavated from and Tamluk. The mould is made along a 1  Thermoluminescence tested by Oxford Authentication archeological laboratories in April the Chandraketugarh area of Bengal.2 straight plane except at the feet. Here it 1993 and found to have last been fired 1500–2300 The presence of weapons in the hair is a curves, resulting in impressions in which years ago. ubiquitous feature of terracotta goddesses otherwise straight plaques have projecting 2  An almost identical mould is in the Neumann from across the northern plains of South feet. This is a shrewd technological device collection: Bautze 1995, op. cit., pl. IIIa. Asia in the post-Mauryan period. However, of the terracotta artists, both facilitating the 3  See further observations on this iconography with scholarship has not yet been able to identify removal of the plaque from the mould and regard to Cat. 136 (EAX.201). this goddess more definitively, or if indeed, creating a piece that gave some impression 4  The motif has a long ancestry; in Iran and Central it refers to a specific goddess (rather than a of depth, even if the feet would have been at Asia it is known in Parthian and Sasanian art. An almost identical motif, except that the cap ends in generic type of costuming).3 Whereas the an unnatural angle. This also explains why the head of a bird of prey (possibly an eagle), is seen number of such weapon-shaped accou- a great number of plaques survive in which on a stone head from Gandhara in a French private trements are usually five, a greater (or the feet have been broken off: the area of the collection: see E. Errington and J. Cribb, eds., The sometimes lesser) number have also been curve that broke the plane of the flat plaque Crossroads of Asia: Transformation in Image and Symbol, found in Bengal. was the most fragile part. Cambridge: The Ancient India and Iran Trust, 1992, no. 124, pp. 120–1, for detailed references to this. For The mirror-bearing diminutive female A thick liquid clay or slurry was poured references to its links with Phrygian caps as seen with attendant also wears interesting headgear. into the porous terracotta mould which the god Mithra (without a bird-shaped terminus) see Her tall, conical cap bears three rows of would rapidly absorb the water in the clay. the small terracotta male head, Cat. 38 in the present circular bosses between fine ‘pearl’ borders This shrank the plaque so that it would catalogue. 250 · Eastern India and the Deccan ancient india · 251 136  Standing goddess 5  In later Indian art the mirror in the hand of c.First century bc Culture under the Sungas, Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Parvati, for instance, is understood as the attribute of Tamluk, Bengal Prakashan, 1996, fig. 56; O. Untracht, Traditional prakriti or nature which reflects the essence of Shiva, Jewelry of India, New York: Abrams, 1997, Terracotta the deity who represents the unknowable absolute, no. 691; N. P. Ahuja, Divine Presence, Barcelona purusha, approachable and realised through her. h. 21.3, W. 9.9 cm and Milan: Five Continents, 2003, fig. 7, p. 24. 6  See Bautze 1995, op. cit., pl. XXC, in the Kronos EAX.201 N. P. Ahuja, ‘Changing Gods, Enduring Rituals: collection, and pl. XXI, in the Neumann collection, Observations on Ancient Indian religion as seen both from the Chandraketugarh area. Also from Published: G. Bysack, ‘Note on some copper through Terracotta Imagery c.200 bc – ad 100’, Bengal is a piece in the Los Angeles County Museum, coins, and a terracotta figure’, Proceedings of the in C. Jarrige and V. Lefèvre, eds., South Asian no. M.85.35.2: see P. Pal, Indian Sculpture, Los Angeles Asiatic Society of Bengal, March 1888, pp. 113–14, Archaeology 2001, vol. 2, Paris, 2005, fig. 2, p. 346 County Museum of Art, 1986, vol. 1. pl. III; S. Kramrisch, ‘Indian Terracottas’, JISOA, VII, 1939, pp. 88–110 (reprinted in B. S. Miller, ed., Exploring India’s Sacred Art: Selected Writings This plaque was the first of its type to be by Stella Kramrisch, Philadelphia: University discovered, and remains the most well- of Pennsylvania Press, 1983); E. H. Johnston, known of all early Indian terracottas. It Report of Curators of the Indian Institute for 1938–9; has been used as a standard against which E. H. Johnston, in Annual Bibliography of Indian subsequent researches on post-Mauryan art Archaeology for the year 1939, vol. XIV, p. 16, Pl. V; styles and certain religious or cultic mores E. H. Johnston, ‘A terra-cotta figure at Oxford’, JISOA, X, 1942, pp. 94–102; S. K. Saraswati, are measured. The goddess has a flat, round, Yearbook of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal for smiling face with a tilak or bindu marked 1949, pp. 174–5; J. Auboyer, Daily Life in Ancient on the forehead. She sports an elaborate India, London: Weidenfeld, 1961, and New tripartite headdress which consists of the Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1994, pl. 15; proper right coque sporting five weapons, S. K. Saraswati, Early Sculpture of Bengal, Calcutta, a conical lotiform element in the centre 1962, Ch. 8, n. 9, and pp. 96–102, pl. XVI; and a large, turban-like arrangement on C. Sivaramamurti, The Arts of India, New York: the left; the whole headdress is covered Abrams, 1977, p. 367, no. 407; R. N. Misra, Yaksha Cult and Iconography, New Delhi: Munshiram with multiple strings of pearls, beads and Manoharlal, 1981, p. 138, pl. 86; B. Durrans and ribbons. The weapons in the goddess’s R. Knox, India: Past into Present, exhib. cat., headdress may be identified as an ankusha London: British Museum Press, 1982, p. 47; (elephant goad), a spear or dagger, a hatchet J. C. Harle, The Art and Architecture of the Indian or axe and two forms of tridents or trishulas. Subcontinent, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986, She stands with the left arm akimbo and and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994, the right flanking her torso, with both her fig. 24, p. 40; J. and S. L. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India, Tokyo and New York: Weatherhill, hands clasping her girdle. Her extravagant 1985, fig. 5.39, p. 88; A. Poster, From Indian jewellery includes, in her left ear, a large disc Earth: 4000 Years of Terracotta Art, exhib. cat., containing six rosettes against a patterned Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1986, pp. 22–3, background; in her right ear the same disc fig. 2; J. C. Harle and A. Topsfield, Indian Art in the is at the end of a laterally projecting cylinder Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, or bolster, further decorated with entwined 1987, no. 6; S. Stronge et al., A Golden Treasury: rows of floral motifs. Tassels of pearls are Jewellery from the Indian Subcontinent, London: suspended from both discs. Victoria and Albert Museum, 1988; M. Postel, Ear Ornaments of Ancient India, Bombay: Franco-India A short collar wrought into a series of Pharmaceuticals, 1989, p. 2; S. Pande, ‘A note on crescents alternating with opening buds the enigma of the so-called panca-cuda figurines’, seems to emulate a type that must have been in S. D. Trivedi, ed., Sunga Art, Allahabad: made of gold. A long, bandolier-like sash, Allahabad Museum, 1991, pl. XXI, fig. 3; N. Penny, worn over the goddess’s right shoulder, The Materials of Sculpture, 1993, p. 168; D. K falls diagonally across her torso. It has a Chakrabarti, ‘Post-Mauryan states of Mainland prominent floral element over her right South Asia’, Ch. 12 in F. R. Allchin, The Archaeology breast, out of which emerge three mythical of Early Historic South Asia – The Emergence of Cities and States, Cambridge: CUP, 1995, p. 325, creatures: a bird, a makara with a curling fig. 12.3 (I); L. Lynton, The Sari, London: Thames fish tail and an elephant, also with a curling and Hudson, 1995, p. 10; V. K. Mathur, Art and fish tail. A tight waistband of rosettes traps 252 · Eastern India and the Deccan ancient india · 253 plaque would have curved forward – a clever artistic strategy to create depth and inter- rupt the plane of a flat tablet, but one which also made the area more fragile and suscep- tible to breaks. The plaque is a masterwork, compensating for the shallowness of relief with florid detailing and taking full advan- tage of its malleable medium of clay. The circumstances in which the object was found by Babu Gaurdas Bysack in a river bank at Tamluk (ancient Tamralipti), in April or May 1883, are known in consider- able detail. It was later presented by him for exhibition at the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. Then subsequently (it is not known how) the figure entered the collection of the Indian Institute Museum, Oxford, founded by Professor M. Monier-Williams. There the goddess was brought to light again by Prof. E. H. Johnston in 1938. He suggested the piece may have come from Kaushambi where excavations had, by that time, revealed similar objects.1 However, in 1949 S. K. Saraswati confirmed that the plaque was in fact from Tamluk.2 As this was the most important (and one of the only known) figures of its type, most stylistic comparisons that could be drawn were to the relief sculptures of the post-Mauryan period, as at Bharhut, Bodh Gaya or Sanchi. Stella Kramrisch a gossamer fabric tightly below her breasts. over the left shoulder, leaving the right bare, gave its extraordinary iconography the Another ornament, worn diagonally across as modern saris are worn. Her arms appear appellation of the apsaras Pancacuda, after her torso, is composed of three rows of bare (unusual in terracotta goddesses), the five-crested celestial nymph whose pearls. Triple heavy bangles are identically except for a scarf that must be worn over birth is recorded in the ancient myth of arranged on each forearm, with the third her shoulder as portions of it are seen to fall the churning of the ocean.3 Thereafter this in each case the most elaborate, composed over her upper arms. The end of the drape name came into common art historical of large, frontally arranged floral roundels billows out like a cape behind her. The back- currency, even though many figures have alternating with a constricting ring. Equally ground of the plaque is littered with flowers. been found subsequently that have more elaborate is the goddess’s huge girdle, Two suspension holes, drilled when the or less than five weapons in their hair. slung low and asymmetrically across her plaque was still leather-hard, are unobtru- Johnston proposed that she was the Indian hips; it comprises three rows of beads, the sively placed on either side of the figure’s variant of an archetypal divine feminine central one of floral medallions between waistband. The plaque was broken into four called ‘Maia’ or ‘Maya’, related to Cybele, two rows of alternating gadrooned lozenges pieces and has been repaired in modern Nanaia and other West Asiatic and Nile and rings. Tassels including ornamental times. It is, of course, impressed from a Valley goddesses who were also, of course, potbellied dwarf yakshas (kumbhandas) are fine mould (compare Cat. 135) and was only well-known to the Greeks.4 However reser- suspended from the figure’s girdle and minimally worked on further, the secondary vations were expressed about those names dangle over her thighs. retouching being mostly limited to and Saraswati5 saw fit to call her a yakshi. The goddess is clad in a diaphanous dhoti providing some undercutting. As usual, the More recently Pal viewed the figure’s ubiq- around her legs that is taken, interestingly, piece is broken above the ankles where the uitous deployment of weapons as her salient 254 · Eastern India and the Deccan ancient india · 255 137  Fragment of a plaque with a demon yaksha and a woman iconographic feature and suggested the type comparable bronzes from Bannu (cat. 31) 5  S. K. Saraswati, Early Sculpture of Bengal, Calcutta, may represent a proto-Durga iconography.6 were clearly meant to be attached to some 1962, pp. 98. 6  P. Pal, Icons of Piety, images of Whimsy: Asian While this is possible, we must remember larger object, and would thus have served a Terra-cottas from the Walter-Grounds Collection, Los that the idea of Durga, as we know her, is decorative purpose. Yet there is a difference Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987, p. 39. This a much later one – and perhaps a syncretic in the two types of images: the Bannu ones attribution has found favour with others, see one, drawing on the many martial and do not have weapons, while the hieratic M. Lerner and S. Kossak, The Lotus Transcendent, productive goddesses from both India goddess with weapons is often represented New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991, and Central Asia in this early period of the as being worshipped in Northern and pp. 54–5; J. K. Bautze, Early Indian Terracottas, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995, p. 13. formation of ‘Hindu’ iconography (cat. 98).7 Eastern India. The consistent depiction 7  Indeed if the image of this figure does link Nor need the presence of the ‘weapons’ be of the figure over a range of thousands with Durga this would invite a reinvestigation of regarded as constituting her attributes.8 of miles, in exactly the same poses, seen Johnston’s original hypothesis, for the image of They are more likely to be symbols of power at times in large plaques as the central Durga on a lion has been related to the image of and beauty, not limited to goddess figures icon in a shrine flanked by acolytes and Nana, also on the same mount. The myth of the Phrygian Nana is closely woven with Cybele, who alone, as images of female figures with this attendants, leaves us in no doubt that she was also shown bearing weapons. Both goddesses headdress have been found in contexts that is a goddess. Finally it must be noted that, are connected to the god Mithra whose cult was are not always convincingly religious. This although the figure itself is not associated significant in Central Asia, as it was in much of the leads one to a larger question, however: that with Buddhism, two early examples of ancient world. of whether religiously informed imagery this iconography come from Buddhist 8  I have elaborated on this and the variety of other could be used in ‘secular’ domains? We shall contexts.11 One, a small gold repoussé iconographic possibilities in N. P. Ahuja, ‘A Buddhist interpretation of small finds in the Early Historic return to this question presently. plaque, was found in the relic casket of Period’, in J. Clarke, ed., ‘Research Papers 1 on Even as we consider the interpretations the stupa at Piprahwa,12 and the other, a Buddhist Sculpture’, Inner and Central Asian Art and of Maya, proto-Durga, an apsaras like life-size image, is from an Andhra stupa Archaeology, Brepols Publishing, forthcoming. Panchachuda or a secular figure, what cannot (probably Goli).13 While we are still at a loss 9  N. P. Ahuja, ‘Changing Gods, enduring Rituals: be disputed are this figure’s association to identify her with certainty, the goddess of Observations on Early Indian Religion as seen through Terracotta Imagery, c. 200 bc–ad 100’, with the world of yakshas. Not only were the ‘Oxford plaque’ remains one of the most in South Asian Archaeology 2001, vol. II, Historical they widely worshipped at the time, but important and finest pieces of its type. Archaeology and Art History, pp. 345–54, C. Jarrige and their presence, falling like talismans on her V. Lefèvre, eds, Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les c.First to second centuries ad thighs – along with the other auspicious Civilisations, 2005, pp. 345–54, figs. 7–11. Chandraketugarh emblems of the semi-divine beings and 10  N. P. Ahuja, ‘Moulded Terracotta from the Indo- Terracotta symbols of the natural elements such as the Gangetic Divide, Sugh, Circa 2002 bce–50 ce’, in l. 5.5, w. 8.3 cm P. Pal, ed., Marg, 2002, figs. 5–7, and N. P. Ahuja, EAX.2909 makara, bird and fish-tailed elephant – are ‘Further Studies towards a definition of the style of Gift of Douglas McDougall also motifs commonly associated with Early Historic Terracottas from the Indo-Gangetic 1  E. H. Johnston, ‘The Gopalpur Bricks’, Journal of yakshas and yakshis at Buddhist stupas. Divide’, in The Ananda-vana of Indian Art: Dr. Anand the Royal Asiatic Society, 1938, pp. 547–53. In images from Kaushambi and from the Krishna Festschrift, N. and M. Krishna, eds., Varanasi: This corroded fragment of a rectangular 2  E. H. Johnston, ‘A terra-cotta figure at Oxford’, Middle Ganga Valley the weapon-bearing Indica Books and Abhida Prakashan, 2004, pp. 47– plaque bears a moulded impression of a JISOA, X, 1942, pp. 94–102, being unaware that the 58. goddess is usually found standing on a lotus piece had been published by Gaurdas Bysack in 1888, woman; she has a large bouffant worn at 11  For a possible Buddhist interpretation, see or emerging from a water-tank, linking incorrectly states ‘It was exhibited in a monthly N. P. Ahuja, ‘A Buddhist interpretation of small finds an angle and grasps an indistinct object. In her more with Lakshmi than Durga.9 In meeting and was apparently presented, along with front of her is another figure, of which only in the Early Historic Period’, forthcoming (2018), ancient coins, discovered on the same occasion pieces from the Indo–Gangetic Divide and cited above, n. 8. the animated head remains. This figure’s and made over to the society’. Bysack’s original the Northwest, the weapons are frequently 12  Although the relics were disturbed, and parts of face is like the grimacing dwarf yakshas note (G. Bysack, ‘Note on some copper coins, and balanced on the other side of the head by them perhaps forged in the 1880s when the stupa was and ganas, popular in the imagery of the a terracotta figure’, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society excavated, some objects, such as the gold plaque in sprigs of foliage.10 Sometimes the weapons of Bengal, 1888) specifically distinguished between period. Demon yakshas were often used as the collection of the Indian Museum, Kolkata must may dispensed with altogether; only large the coins, which were sent for presentation to the be authentic.; illus. in S. P. Gupta, The Roots of Indian talismanic images on children’s rattles to sprays of flowers and leaves are shown. In Society, and the terracotta figure ‘forwarded for ward off evil spirits, fulfilling their role as Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian exhibition at the meeting’. The more correct account those cases her productive aspects are high- Art and Architecture – 3rd and 2nd Century bc, New protectors of life. They are also associated of the circumstances was in fact brought to light by lighted, a function to which the plaque’s Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation, 1980, pl. 35a with the female yakshis, providing their S. K. Saraswati, Yearbook of the Royal Asiatic Society of (central). excessive (and highly auspicious) jewellery Bengal for 1949, pp. 174–5. mounts (cats. 101, 102). This plaque was 13  Masterpieces of Buddhist and Hindu sculpture from the must also make reference. At the same 3  S. Kramrisch, ‘Indian Terracottas’, JISOA, VII, British Museum, exhib. cat., Kyoto: Kyoto National donated along with another, a featureless time one may well question whether these 1939, pp. 100–1. Museum, Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994: no. 11, p. 53: lower torso of a female (EAX.2908), also depictions are cultic at all? After all, the 4  Johnston 1942, op. cit., pp. 100–2. British Museum no. 1995.10–17.1. reportedly from Chandraketugarh. 256 · Eastern India and the Deccan ancient india · 257 142  Fragment of a plaque with an elephant-headed drummer 143  Elephant riders c.First century bc Second–first centuries bc Bengal, Chandraketugarh Chandraketugarh, Bengal Pale grey terracotta Terracotta fragment h. 7.7, w. 3.8 cm max. h. 4, w. 6 cm max. EA1997.16 EA1996.98 Published: N. P. Ahuja, ‘Changing Gods, Published: E. Haque, Chandraketugarh: A Enduring Rituals: Observations on Early Indian Treasure House of Bengal Terracottas, Dhaka: Religion as seen through Terracotta Imagery International Centre for Study of Bengal Art, c.200 bc–ad 100’, South Asian Archaeology 2001, c.2001, p. 356 (no. B156) C. Jarrige and V. Lefèvre, eds., Paris, 2005, vol. 2, fig. 17, p. 351 Post-Mauryan plaque images are not of hieratic deities alone. We find a number of An elephant-headed drummer is seated on narrative subjects as well, though identi- a low stool, playing a drum held between fying these specifically is difficult; the sites his knees. He wears a short band across in question have not been horizontally his neck. Strings of beads intersect on his excavated, giving us as a result only peep- torso and short rows of beads, typical of holes into the past with narrow vertical digs. contemporaneous Bengali ornament, are Few sites have been properly excavated to suspended from his bracelets. The frag- reveal the variety of structures and contexts ment preserves traces of another figure’s in which different objects are found, and in leg and arm seated above him. The whole the absence of that information we cannot would have been bordered by a repeating be sure whether the plaques were found in motif of two concentric circular bosses. religious or other contexts. However, what It is likely that this is the bottom left we have been able to establish is that certain part (as seen from the viewer’s perspec- mythological narratives were popular. tive) of a larger plaque showing a masked This fragment, for instance, is part of a show a procession. However, an examina- in the collection of the British Museum (nos. OA dance. At least four other plaques are popular motif, consistent in its representa- tion of more complete pieces, from both 1937.3–19.5 and 1937.3–19.6): see Errington and Cribb 1992, op. cit., pp. 160–1. At times the figures known that can be closely related to this tion across a number of sites. This invariably Chandraketugarh and elsewhere in India, can be under a royal chhatra, or they may be attended one. Some of them are impressions from comprises three figures riding an elephant, show two main stories in which a group is by a chauri bearer or a figure carrying a relic casket, the same mould and, studied together, steered by a mahout (missing here). Visible seated on an elephant (with minor varia- which Czuma has suggested shows the division of allow one to reconstruct the narrative in this fragment are the couple seated tions in each type). In pieces where the third the Buddha’s relics: see S. Czuma and R. Morris, composition of which the present plaque behind the missing mahout, with a small figure holds a pot, it has been interpreted Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India, Cleveland: is a fragment. None of the known plaques child or attendant behind them. Only traces as the scene of the dispersal of the relics of Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985, p. 155. are complete, but together they create of the main male figure remain. He is bejew- the Buddha after his cremation,1 a familiar 2  Udayana, the king of Kaushambi, eloped with a nearly complete and unusual scene. elled, with the usual charm of fine Bengali theme in contemporary stone imagery. In Vasavadatta, the princess of Ujjaini, on the back One is recorded from the excavations at terracottas, wearing a stippled necklace some of the terracotta examples from the of the cow elephant Bhadravati. The story is preserved in several texts, such as the Pali Udena- Chandraketugarh. The others, including with pendant rows of beads and multiple Upper Ganga Valley, one of the riders is seen vattu, the Sanskrit Makandikavadana, Meghaduta, this fragment, are surface collections bracelets – including a spiralling one that dropping coins behind him. This has been Kathasaritsagara, Svapna-Vasavdatta, Pratijna- from the same site. The excavated piece this figure with Ganesha,2 it is almost 1  Two of these are illustrated in Ahuja 2001, op. looks like the well-known ancient coiling interpreted as a scene showing the narrative Yaugandharayana, Ratnavali, Priyadarsika and the is slightly different iconographically: certainly not a depiction of that god. cit., figs. 17–18. The excavated piece is housed in the serpent type. By contrast, the woman of Udayana-Vasavadatta.2 Brahma-khanda of the Skanda Purana. It finds mention Ashutosh Museum, Kolkata: S. S. Biswas, Terracotta it shows a group of four figures, with There is not one pre-eminent, potbellied, seated behind him wears none of the usual also in the Jain Vividha Tirtha Kalpa, Lalitavistara art of Bengal, Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1981, 1  This can be seen on a piece from Hadipur, and Tibetan-Buddhist literature. See the list in two wearing elephant-headed masks elephant-headed figure here, but rather pl. XL(b). ornaments. Instead she is seen in a distinc- Chandraketugarh, in the collection of the State G. R. Sharma, ‘Excavations at Kausambi, 1949–50’, and playing musical instruments. Three several thin, elephant-headed figures 2  See discussion of a possible ‘proto-Ganesha’ on the tive costume, wrapped in a pleated cloth. Archaeological Museum of West Bengal, Calcutta, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, other images, now in private collections, engaged in making music and dancing. stone relief of Hariti from Mathura (cat. 96). Her head is completely covered by fabric, illus. in Ahuja 2001, op. cit., fig. 3.239. Other notable Manager of Publications, 1969, p. 7. The attribution show the upper parts of their plaques. In Several textual sources attest to the wide- 3  A significant collection of these references may wound around her forehead like a turban plaques that show figures riding an elephant include of the scene on the plaques as Udayana-Vasavdatta one the elephant-headed figure plucks a spread rites of music and dance, processions be found in V. S. Agrawala, Ancient Indian Folk Cults, and looped under her chin; her face appears two fragments from Tamluk, one from a relatively may have been first suggested by R. Krishnadasa, ‘A bow-shaped harp; the other two feature and festivals that formed an active part of Varanasi: Prithivi Prakashan, 1970. as if peeping out of the swathes of cloth. The secure excavated context in the collection of the ASI, Vasavdatta Udayana Terracotta’, JUPHS, XVIII, 1945, 4  Another little studied piece bearing a masked Delhi, and the other at the Tamluk Museum: see pls. 1–2, pp. 82–90; see also S. C. Kala, Terracottas the left side of the narrative that shows early Indian worship.3 These terracotta elephant on which the figures would have dance scene is a small stone cup in the Allahabad Ahuja 2001, op. cit., figs. 3.240 and 3.241 respectively. in the Allahabad Museum, New Delhi: Abhinav similarly costumed figures dancing with images offer us an unusually candid look University Museum. This shows several figures in a been seated is now missing. The image of figures riding an elephant from this Publications, 1980, pp. 58–9. For a summary of the another unmasked figure before a chaitya.1 into the nature of worship at post-Mauryan thick drapery wearing bird-shaped masks while one There is no way of knowing what is being period can also be found in other media, for example Udayana narrative see V. Mani, Puranic Encyclopedia, Tempting though it may be to associate religious shrines.4 plays a bow harp; see Ahuja 2001, op. cit., fig. 19. narrated in this fragment. The scene may the two roughly contemporary silver roundels Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996 (reprint), pp. 801–3. 262 · Eastern India and the Deccan ancient india · 263 144  Dancing woman 145  Female bust c.First century ad c.First century bc–first century ad Probably Chandraketugarh, Bengal Eastern India, probably Chandraketugarh Moulded terracotta plaque Stained ivory h. 12.5 cm h. 6.5 cm EA1999.47 EA1996.64 A dancer, with her hair dressed in open Carved in the round, this rare and elegant braids, is poised with a sensuous, gentle bust shows a woman with a large, conical, flexion in her body. The movement in beehive-shaped hat (or possibly a very the figure is accentuated by the swaying elaborate coiffure), composed of rows bejewelled chains suspended from her of medallions that end in a thick band or girdle. Their weight pulls on the girdle, scarf. The reverse shows her hair falling exposing more of her belly. No attempt has in a ponytail from the top of the hat. She been made to compensate for the figure’s has a smiling oval face framed by simple nudity by imposing excessive amounts of disc earrings, and a square pendant with jewellery on it, as was generally the case in scooped edges is suspended from her short pre-Kushan images. In fact, the rhythm plain necklace. Her right arm is completely achieved by exposing large sections of missing and the left broken above the elbow. smooth flesh and a few simple ornaments Several fissures can be seen along the side of rather anticipates the Kushan idiom. the piece. The dancer also wears a short necklace With its refined and self-confident grace, with a large central bead and six simple this piece is among a group of extremely bracelets on each arm. The prominent fine ivory statuettes that have come to light tubular earring suspended from one ear is from Bengal. Indian ivory carving was a common convention in terracottas from highly valued in antiquity and traded inter- this period. Two small suspension holes are nationally. Several ivories of an Indian style present on either side of her waist. The hair- have been found at Begram in Afghanistan. style, iconography and spirit of the piece Another, buried in Pompeii, is executed in may be compared with contemporaneous an earlier, post-Mauryan style, consistent examples from Dig (near Mathura) and with the period before ad 79, when an erup- another from Kaushambi.1 tion of Vesuvius destroyed the city. Some of the best examples have emerged in recent years from Bengal, mostly from the Chandraketugarh area. They are usually stained in a dark brown colour. While some of them are utilitarian (used as handles or a decorative terminal to a furniture leg), others, such as this piece, are decorative. A number of graceful, freestanding ivory and clay statuettes have come to light which do not appear to bear any religious icono- graphic attributes. Judging by the nature of Indian poetic literature and drama from the ancient period, there is good reason to 1  Mathura Government Museum (no. 59.4748), believe that art was used for decorative ends illus. in A. G. Poster, From Indian Earth: 4000 Years as well as religious purposes. of Terracotta Art, exhib. cat., Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1986, no. 20, p. 98; the Kaushambi piece is in the Bharat Kala Bhavan (no. 22178), illus. in M. Chandra, ‘Terracottas in the Bharat Kala Bhavan’, A. Krishna, ed., Chhavi 1, Golden Jubilee Volume, Varanasi: Bharat Kala Bhavan, 1971, fig. 19. 264 · Eastern India and the Deccan ancient india · 265 146  Mithuna or loving couple First century bc–first century ad Kamasutra, acknowledged that he was Eastern India, probably Tamluk producing a compendium of known sources Terracotta in the field of kama (erotics). Erotic meta- h. 5.8 cm phors, and eroticism itself, abound in the EA1993.389 surviving plays and poetry from an earlier Published: J. K. Bautze, Early Indian Terracottas, period – such as the writings of the play- Leiden: Brill, 1995, pl. XXXI(d) wright Ashvaghosha and the Satvahana poet Hala, and in some early Buddhist Jatakas, This pale buff to cream-coloured fragment as well as the Natyashastra, the major text on from a moulded terracotta plaque shows a aesthetics dateable to the second century mithuna or amorous couple. The female has bc. These foundations of eroticism in her left arm around her partner’s shoulder. literature are echoed in the art of the same As the male, positioned behind his partner period, as this small plaque demonstrates. and to her left, reaches towards her face Dozens of small, moulded terracotta with his left hand, his loose bracelet of beads plaques of mithunas have been found all over slips down his forearm, while she turns her South Asia, from as far west as Taxila and bashful glance away from him. The compo- widely in the Gangetic plains at Mathura, sition captures the contradictory feelings Ahichhatra and Kaushambi. The most of shyness and the closeness of the couple’s lyrical of the early depictions, however, embrace. This rare terracotta fragment come from Bengal. The erotic imagery such shows a quality of empathy, movement and plaques contain performs a wide range of compositional sophistication matched by symbolic functions. As a (mimetic) substi- only the finest pieces of the period. tute for a magico-religious fertility ritual, Typically, the male figure’s turban is it may have warded off foetus-stealing arranged into an oval element on one side demons, while it also was a symbolic meta- of his head. The female’s hair is elaborately phor connecting one architectural structure dressed, its rectangular arrangement over with another. The images were said to help the forehead being a common style of the the buildings on which they were placed first century bc, widely seen in terracotta endure the electrical shock of lightning; plaques. So too are her multiple necklaces elsewhere, they became tools by which one and the markings of the bindu or tika, community could poke fun at another on enclosed in an eye-shaped outline on her a temple wall. Some small early terracottas forehead. and ivories appear to represent secular Although mithuna imagery is commonly dramas. However, the most widespread found in Bengal, particularly in the villages occurrence of the mithuna in early Indian of the site of Chandraketugarh, they are art was as an auspicious symbol placed generally formulaic in composition (see for on the gateways of contemporaneous instance Cat. 147). However, a small corpus Buddhist religious shrines, where it served of fragments from Tamluk, largely in the as a powerful talisman. This can best be collection of the site museum, show, as seen on the entrances of the rock-cut caves does this piece, considerable charm and the at Karle and Kondane in Maharashtra and conscious projection of mood and individ- Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati in Andhra uality.1 The piece is coated in a creamy slip, Pradesh, as well as at Bodh Gaya in Bihar. possibly kaolin, which on account of a low firing temperature has not fully adhered to the body of the plaque – a tendency to which many Chandraketugarh and Tamluk plaques were prone. 1  An unpublished mithuna plaque in the Tamluk site Vatsyayana, the late Kushan period (c. museum, for instance, captures a couple kissing in an third–fourth centuries ad) author of the enclosed courtyard: Ahuja 2001, op. cit., fig. 3.254. 266 · Eastern India and the Deccan 147  Maithuna scene 148  Tile with lion c.Second–first centuries bc Probably sixth century ad they been scientifically excavated; some Probably Chandraketugarh, Bengal Found at Dimapur, Assam have even been pillaged to the point where Ivory Terracotta little trace of them remains. It is difficult h. 4.1, w. 3.7 cm max. h. 15, w. 14.3 cm to relate this tile to those from Harwan EA1998.39 EA1952.81 (cat. 61.1–4), the only well documented site Gift of Alexander Götz Gift of Mr N. S. Mundy in the region, where the tiles are stamped Published: A. Topsfield, ‘Ivory plaque’, This nearly square tile is carved in high and the clay well levigated. None of the Archaeometry, 41, 1, 1999, p. 203. relief. It shows a prancing lion with one carved bricks or tiles found in the Kushan foreleg raised, reaching out to what could be and Gupta periods in Northern India or The medallion, a carved plaque of irreg- a figure, while flames or foliage issue from Kashmir have the type of micaceous inclu- ular oval form, shows a maithuna scene (a its mouth. Three large flaming elements are sions visible in this piece. In addition, the loving couple engaged in sexual activity). placed on its neck. A hole has been drilled in style of the lion, with the flames (possibly Its iconography is typical and widely found the centre of the tile under the lion’s belly. conch shells) on his neck, anticipates later at Chandraketugarh in this period.1 The The piece is worn and a corner is damaged. Nepalese or Tibetan ornament. This tile woman is shown on her back on a deep Although several sites in Kashmir was reportedly found at Dimapur, Assam, chair with her legs splayed, the right one and Central Asia have produced carved, a region with an important and ancient held back by her arm, the left one over the stamped and incised terracotta tiles, not all history of terracotta temples which have shoulder of her partner, who is shown these sites are well documented. Nor have largely been destroyed. standing. Radiating lines incised on her breasts are most unusual and are perhaps meant to indicate their volume. The naked figures wear their hair within turbans typical of the period. This is accompanied by the usual items of jewel- lery, including indifferently incised discoid earrings, armbands and bracelets and short necklaces that are nearly identical on both the man and woman. A broad girdle and They are more popular in Lower Bengal giving credence to the idea that they are not anklets are additionally worn by the female. (particularly in the Chandraketugarh merely ‘secular’ representations. The most As is the norm for maithuna images from area) than in any other region, although detailed and plausible explanation for them Bengal, a vessel, in this case a large water a few have also been found at Tamluk and has been given by Devangana Desai, who pot, is placed under their bed or chair. The Kaushambi. The terracotta examples are feels they may show the transmutation in bottom right edge of the piece is broken, part of the general fabric of post-Mauryan visual media of fertility rituals.3 Moving away leaving the male without his feet. archaeological assemblages at sites in the from a ‘ritual’ interpretation for these images The composition of the piece is deliber- lower Ganga Valley. This ivory piece has becomes more difficult when we contextu- ately explicit, the angle chosen to exhibit been Carbon 14-tested and found to be alise the erotic plaques within the broader fully the sexual intimacy between the consistent with those dates.2 concerns of contemporaneous religious couple. It is noteworthy that both the Importantly, maithunas are only found imagery, which is substantially connected figures are smiling, which, along with the in the ‘minor’ arts of terracotta and ivory with begetting and protecting children. overt pose, bespeaks the quality of confi- at this date. They are usually of a small dent enjoyment, or bhoga. It is a celebratory size (approximately 5–8 cm in diameter 1  See Bautze 1995, op. cit., pls. XXXI(d), XXXII(a). representation, rather than being associ- or height and seldom more than 10 cm 2  The plaque was tested by the Oxford University ated with any coyness, seduction or hint of in length), and even more rarely drilled Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the Research shame. with suspension holes. Their function Laboratory for Archaeology (report of 7.7.98), yielding a date range of 380–180 bc (with 95.4 percent It may also be noted that while mithunas remains mysterious. In Bengal mithuna and confidence). This is close enough to the expected dating (loving, amorous couples) are found in maithuna scenes are found with unparalleled of the object to be reassuring as to the contemporaneity stone at chaityas and stupa sites, maithuna frequency and exhibit great variety. Some of the carving itself with the material. depictions are not. Maithuna, as noted within the genre, such as this piece, are 3  See D. Desai, The Erotic Sculpture of India: A Socio- above, is the iconographic term for scenes both compositionally and iconographically Cultural Study, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, which show coition, cunnilingus or fellatio. consistent and are commonly represented, 1975, pp. 14–18, and Poster 1986, op. cit., pp. 35–6. 268 · Eastern India and the Deccan ancient india · 269 6 MISCELLANEA < Detail of Cat. 152 270 · Eastern India and the Deccan 149  Ropes of stone beads Various semi-precious stones 1  A comprehensive study of workshops that make All Proto- or Early Historic similar carnelian beads, led by Mark Kenoyer, Various locations, mostly in North India yielded relevant information on how we perceive it EATNIS.795 was done even at Chanhudaro, c.2000 BC: Jonathan Given by J. H. Rivett-Carnac Mark Kenoyer, Massimo Vidale, Kuldip S. Bhan, ‘Carnelian Bead Production in Khambat, India: An The skill of Indian lapidaries in bead- Ethnoarchaeological Study’, in Bridget Allchin, ed., making has been remarked upon by Living Traditions: Studies in Ethnoarchaeology of South archaeologists and scholars of jewellery, Asia, New Delhi: Oxford University Press and IBH, 1994. Gurcharan S. Khanna’s study of chalcedony who have shown that beads may be studied in Bagor, Rajasthan, which travelled there from the to provide information on various aspects Deccan Trap over 90 km away, for instance, shows of society. As well as being clear signifiers of the patterns of movement and exchange as early wealth and status, they are also often shaped as the Mesolithic age: G. S. Khanna, ‘Patterns of into distinct talismans, or are desired Mobility in the Mesolithic of Rajasthan’, Man and Environment 18, 1, pp. 49–55. because individual stones have a prophy- lactic quality, thus lending insight into wider superstition and social mores. Beads are also studied by archaeologists for their importance in revealing trade networks or routes of exchange in antiquity.1 As most of these beads were collected without adequate contextual information, we are not able to determine their archaeo- logical importance with any certainty. They bear some old labels that state they came from areas such as Rai Bareilly, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Ranchi and other places in Northern, Eastern and Central India in the late nineteenth century. Many are of rock crystal, carnelian or banded agate. They come from the collection of the avid anti- quarian and discoverer of Indian prehistory John Henry Rivett-Carnac, whose recon- naissance tours led him widely through these regions. 272 · Miscellanea ancient india · 273 150  Ewer with elephant trunk-shaped spout 151 Sealing the contemporaneous Satavahana trade Date unknown from the coast of Andhra, are both well Taxila attested in historical and archaeological Terracotta l. 13.2, h. 8.5 cm max. records. In his multi-volume work on the EA1958.20 archaeology of the Mekong Delta, Malleret Gift of E. M. Scratton draws attention to various Kushan coins that were found there.4 The impression is deeper in the centre of this curious clay plaque, suggesting that perhaps it was made by impressing a cylinder seal, 1  S. Czuma, Kushan sculpture: Images from Early with the greatest force being applied while India, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985, over the centre of the plaque. Although that no. 86, pp. 171–2. Compare also a similar ewer in appears to be how it was made, one cannot the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 2004.59, be sure however: no cylinder seal with this which is described as ‘Vietnam, late 2nd–3rd century type of pattern is yet known from anywhere ad’. 2  M. Comstock and C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan in the world and moreover, unless the person and Roman Bronzes in the collection of the Museum of Fine impressing the seal was particularly careful, Arts, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1971, nos. 446, we would expect to see some trace of a repe- 448, 449, 480; Marshall found similar ones at Taxila, tition on one of the edges, whereas none in dateable to the first century ad: J. Marshall, Taxila: fact exists. The impression is in no readable An Illustrated Account of Archaeological Excavations script and does not even appear to be in 1913–14, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951, vol. III, pl. 174, nos. 259–60, and vol. II, straight lines, horizontally or vertically. And p. 589. Smaller gold spouts in the form of elephants’ yet, like a pseudo-script, it has the semblance heads, originally attached to a glass vessel, were of some ancient Brahmi characters and found among the treasures of Begram and are in the symbols which may tantalise the curiosity Kabul Museum: see B. Rowland and M. Rice, Art of of numismatists and epigraphists. On its Afghanistan, Objects from the Kabul Museum, London: Penguin, 1971, pl. 79, and J. Hackin, Nouvelles extremities are symbols that may be taken to recherches archéologiques à Begram, Mémoires de la be the sun and moon (the latter looking more First–second centuries ad neck has a plain moulding in the centre; it is Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan, like an anemone). A suggestion made on an Northwest Frontier region, Pakistan; found in surmounted over the lip by a looped handle, XI, 2 parts, Paris, 1954, fig. 240. Compare also unsigned note found alongside the object in South Vietnam, site unknown Kushan bronze ewers with elephant spouts (and patterned like a garland and terminating the museum’s reserves says that this plaque Bronze with high copper content, with a mahouts in some cases) in the Matsudo Museum: 1  The late 19th century forger Islam Akhun’s reportedly thick, aerated patina in crudely fashioned lions. The ewer sits may be an early instance of cartography, or see M. S. Hakubutsukan, Silk Road and Gandhara: infamous Brahmi manuscripts in Khotan deceived h. 31.8, w. 33 cm max. on a tall conical foot, the edge of which is The Fifth Anniversary of Matsudo Museum: Special a symbolic map. It is difficult to see how, scholars across Europe and India and were EA2000.116 fashioned into a perforated pattern of a exhibition, Chiba-ken Matsudo-shi: Matsudo Shiritsu without information on what each symbol extensively published by A. F. R. Hoernle before Gift of Alexander Götz series of elephant heads with raised trunks, Hakubutsukan, 1997, no. 32, which has a large refers to. The only recognisable motif on the their exposure by Aurel Stein in 1901. Examples of echoing the spout. The spout itself is square elephant head spout, also no. 33(i–iii) for similar object is a dagger with a serpentine blade. these are in the Ashmolean collection. For further spout fragments. information on Islam Akhun, see http://www. This ewer was reportedly found in South in cross-section – another feature that this We have little substantiated history of such 3  Ewers with looped handles occur more than iranicaonline.org/articles/islam-akhun. An even Vietnam, although its closest stylistic paral- ewer shares with others from the Northwest once at Bharhut, perhaps most prominently in the blades in India. In most museums nowadays greater scandal accompanied the alleged forging of lels come from Gandhara. A comparable Frontier. Most of the spout is now restored, famous relief showing the purchase of Jetavana: they are associated with Indonesian kris, Brahmi inscriptions on the relic caskets excavated example in the Cleveland Museum of Art1 to match closely photographs taken when it see B. Barua, Barhut, Book III: Aspects of Life and prompting speculations that they may have from the stupa at Piprahwa of which the British is a more globular ewer; it has a small foot was intact, and there has been minor resto- Art, Calcutta: Indian Research Institute, (Fine Arts been made in ancient India as well. Government made grand state gifts to its Buddhist and curving elephant trunk for the spout, ration to the elephant head. Series; nos. 1–3, 1934–1937), 1937, pl. XCI, no. 140; We should also remember that in the late subjects in Burma, Ceylon and Siam. Peppé, the A. K. Coomaraswamy, ‘La Sculpture de Bharhut’, excavator, was perhaps part of a wider nexus in contrast to this one which is straight, but Spherical or squat ovoid pots with long nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Annals du Musée Guimet, Bibliothèque d’Art, n.s., 6, headed by Alois Führer, that falsified inscriptions shares a similar trumpet-shaped neck and spouts and a curving handle over the rim are Paris: Vanoset, 1956, pl. XXVI, fig. 67. For Amaravati, inventive forgeries were being produced and relics to ingratiate themselves to the British moulding at the neck. Writing about the a standard ancient Indian design of metal- see R. Knox, Amaravati, Buddhist Sculpture from the – not so much direct copies of known Indian Government; or else, used the forgeries to Cleveland example, Czuma drew atten- ware. They are known to us from several Great Stupa, London: British Museum, 1992, fig. 42, artefacts as innovative assimilations of cover up the discovery of original relics at the risk of tion to excavated pieces from Taxila and to relief carvings ranging from Bharhut, in p. 102. For Gandharan stone reliefs, see the scenes ancient styles to produce maverick, and personal infamy. For a summary of the deceptions of Amrapali approaching the Buddha with such a surrounding these, see: http://www.piprahwa.org. Hellenistic ewers.2 the second century bc, to Gandhara and thus almost plausible, objects. Such forger’s vessel in I. Kurita, Gandharan Art I, Tokyo: Nigensha uk/The%20Piprahwa%20Deceptions.htm (accessed The body of the ewer has a pronounced Amaravati, up to the third century ad.3 Publishing Company, 1993, pp. 230–2, nos. 477–80. objects often bore inscriptions, as that was 29 December 2011), and Charles Allen, The Buddha ovoid form, with a floral band around the In the Kushan period trade with 4  L. Malleret, L’archéologie du Delta du Mékong, Paris: what nineteenth century antiquarians were and Dr Führer: An Archaeological Scandal, London: centre. The elongated, trumpet-shaped Southeast Asia from ports in Bengal, and École française d’Extrême-Orient, I–IV, 1959–63. looking for.1 Haus Publishing, 2011. 274 · Miscellanea ancient india · 275 158  Male head 159  Plaque with female attendant Modern copy Modern impression From an unidentified site in Pakistan North India Terracotta Terracotta h. 11 cm h. 8.3 cm EA1966.21 EA1960.86 Gift of Douglas Barrett Presented by the executors of Sir C. Leonard Woolley This head was first acquired in Sindh in the 1920s. It is a modern copy of a Gupta This moulded plaque showing a female period, Gandhara style stucco or terracotta, chauri-bearer and other figures is an of a type highly collectable at the time. The impression of a fragmentary mould now in exaggerated naturalism, stylised curling the collection of the Allahabad Museum.1 hair and furrowed brow follow the aesthetic The original mould is certainly of the late of original Gandhara heads; however, the Kushan to Gupta period and is an unusual broad nose, fleshy face and thick lips are in artefact, for the art of such finely moulded a more Gupta style. Not only is the manner plaques is generally thought to have disap- of this hybridity incongruous, but the bright peared by the Kushan period. The slender orange terracotta colour is also unrecorded chauri-bearer may in fact be a part of a larger from ancient pieces. A thermolumines- narrative, judging by the composition and cence test has confirmed that the piece is iconography. modern.1 A close inspection of the Ashmolean’s plaque raised suspicion, initially because the edges of the plaque are all uniformly raised, whereas being a fragment (and not a real edge) they should be absolutely along the same plane as the plaque itself. The texture of the terracotta was also too smooth, and not consistent with that of any known terracottas from ancient India. Further investigation has revealed the mould from which it was impressed in the Allahabad Museum. As is to be expected, the mould is only fractionally larger than this impres- sion, as the latter would have shrunk, first when drying and then further during the firing process. A thermoluminescence test has confirmed the piece is modern.2 This impression was probably made before the mould came into the Allahabad Museum’s collection. 1  Allahabad Museum no. 3457, illus. in S. C. Kala,, Terracottas in the Allahabad Museum, New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1980, fig. 324. Although Kala prefers to date it to the first century ad, the object may in fact be of more recent date. 1  Tested by Oxford Authentication, August 2005, 2  Test conducted by Oxford Authentication, sample sample no. N105x87. The object was found to have no. N105x95. The piece was found to have been last been fired less than 150 years ago. fired less than 150 years ago. 282 · Miscellanea ancient india · 283 160  Votive stupas (tsa-tsa) or pot dabbers 161  Fifteen potsherds Third century BC–sixth century AD Sarnath EAX.2039 Gift of W. Howe Greene, c.1925 Sarnath, where the Buddha preached his first sermon, has been a satellite city, in the nature of a monastic establishment, just north of Varanasi for some 2,500 years. One of the four most holy places in the Buddhist world, it is rich with archaeological remains, dating from the third century bc to the twelfth century ad. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the site was subject to extensive despoliation. Several excavations have taken place, some more systematic than others.1 These excava- tions have revealed spectacular statuary, which overshadowed scholarly attention to the huge numbers of terracotta vessels Fourth–sixth centuries ad In Tibetan Buddhist practice, offerings and small finds from the region, including Northwest Frontier of such stupas and of other Buddhist images storage jars, censers, bowls, cooking pots, Unbaked clay are called tsa-tsa. Tsa-tsa offerings are made lamps, etc. These sherds come from such a h. 8.9 and 7 cm on all kinds of occasions: to remember typical assemblage, and are variously date- EA1984.28 and EA1984.29 ancestors, when embarking on a difficult able from the third century bc to the fifth or Gift of Mrs Alethea Pitt journey or more generally, as a votive sixth centuries ad. These objects were reportedly collected offering to invoke auspiciousness. by the donor’s father, Sir Armine Dew, in the Northwest Frontier Province in the 1930s. In form they appear to be either pot dabbers or small votive stupas. Unbaked clay dabbers with a rounded edge are used across South Asia to pad out the rounded or hemispherical bottom of the classic Indian earthen pot. However, these two were found in Gandhara – a region known for its widespread Buddhist culture which, at least for ordinary people, unlike monks who may have been able to command more substantial donations, would 1  In 1794 the emperor Ashoka’s Dharmarajika Stupa was infamously pillaged for its bricks to build the have involved festive ritual offerings Ramnagar palace as well as other local buildings. in unbaked clay and other ephemeral In 1835–6, Alexander Cunningham excavated two media. These objects could well be stupas, a temple and a monastery there. His left-over votive stupas, of the sort recorded both proceeds, some 60 cartloads, were thrown into the in the arid parts of Central Asia and the river Varuna to serve as a breakwater to facilitate construction of the piers of a bridge. Nonetheless Himalayas. The upper sloping part of archaeological reports on the site include ASI–AR, these stupas bear repeated impressions vol. 1, pp. 103, 121; vol. 8, p.16; vol. 11, p. 181; also of images of the Buddha, now heavily ASI–AR 1904–5, p. 59; 1906–7, p. 68; 1907–8, p. 43; denuded, lending credence to this view. 1914–15, p. 97; 1919–20, p. 26; 1921–2, p. 42. 284 · Miscellanea B I B L I O G R A P HY Agrawal, Dharma Pal, ‘The Metal Ahuja, Naman P., ‘Moulded Terracottas Technology of the Indian Protohistoric from the Indo-Gangetic Divide, Sugh, circa Cultures: Its Archaeological Implications’, 200 bce–50 ce’, in Pal, P., ed., Marg, 2002, Puratattva: Bulletin of the Indian Archaeological pp. 46–57. Society 3, A. K. Narain, ed., 1969–70, Ahuja, Naman P., ‘Further Studies Towards pp. 15–22. a Definition of the Style of Terracottas from Agrawal, Dharma Pal, The Archaeology of the Indo-Gangetic Divide’, in Naval and Manu India, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies, Krishna, eds., The Ananda-Vana of Indian monograph 46, London: Curzon Press, 1981. Art, Dr. Anand Krishna Felicitation Volume, Agarwala, Prithvi Kumar, Early Indian Varanasi: Indica Books, 2004, pp. 47–58. Bronzes, Varanasi: Prithivi Prakashan, 1977. Ahuja, Naman P., The Body in Indian Art and Agarwala, Prithvi Kumar, Ancient Indian Thought, Antwerp / Brussels: Ludion, 2013. Mother Goddess Votive Discs, Varanasi: Indica Ahuja, Naman P., ‘The British Museum Books, 1993. Hariti: Toward Understanding Agrawala, R. C., Human Figurines on Transculturalism in Gandhara’ in Sue Pottery Handles from India, and Allied Problems, E. Alcock, et al. eds., Beyond Boundaries: V. L. Devkar, ed., Baroda: Department of Connecting Visual Cultures in the Provinces of Museums, Gujarat State, 1970. Ancient Rome, Los Angeles: Getty Publications, Agrawala, Vasudeva Saran, Mathura 2016. Terracottas, originally in Journal of the UP Ahuja, Naman P., ‘A Buddhist interpretation Historical Society (JUPHS), 1936, reprinted of small finds in the Early Historic Period’, Varanasi: Prithvi Prakashan, 1984. in John Clarke ed., ‘Research Papers 1 on Agrawala, Vasudeva Saran, ‘Rajghat Buddhist Sculpture’, in Inner and Central Terracottas’, JISOA, vol. 9, 1941, pp. 7–11. Asian Art and Archaeology, Brepols Publishing, forthcoming 2018. Agrawala,Vasudeva Saran, ‘The Terracottas of Ahichhatra’, originally in Ancient India Alborn, Timothy L., ‘Lubbock, John, first 4, 1947–8, pp. 104–79, reprinted Varanasi: Baron Avebury (1834–1913)’, Oxford Dictionary Archaeological Survey of India, 1985. of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online ed., October Agrawala, Vasudeva Saran, ‘A Unique Terracotta Plaque from Rajghat’, Bulletin of the 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/ Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, no. 2, article/34618, accessed 4 July 2008]. 1951–2 (1953), pp. 82–5. Allchin, Frank Raymond, ‘Sanskrit “Eḍūka” Agrawala, Vasudeva Saran, Ancient Indian – Pāli “Eluka”’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Folk Cults, Varanasi: Prithivi Prakashan, 1970. and African Studies, vol. 20, no. 1/3, Studies in Honour of Sir Ralph Turner, 1957, pp. 1–4. Ahuja, Naman P., ‘Changing Gods, Enduring Rituals, Observations on Early Allchin, Frank Raymond, ‘Evidence for Indian Religion as seen through Terracotta Early Distillation at Shaikan Dheri’, in Imagery, c.200 bc–ad 100’, in Catherine Maurizio Taddei, ed., South Asian Archaeology, Jarrige and Vincent Lefèvre, eds., South Asian Seminario di Studi Asiatici, Series Minor vi, Archaeology 2001, Vol. II: Historical Archaeology Naples: Instituto Universitario Orientale, and Art History, Paris: Éditions Recherche sur 1977. les Civilisations, 2001, pp. 345–54. Allchin, Bridget, and Allchin, Frank Ahuja, Naman P., Early Indian Moulded Raymond, The Rise of Civilisation in India and Terracotta, The Emergence of an Iconography and Pakistan, Cambridge World Archaeology, Variations in Style, c.200 bc–ad 200, University Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, < Detail of Cat. 129 of London Ph.D. dissertation, 2001. 1982. 286 · Miscellanea ancient india · 287