Mauryan Art.pdf

Mauryan Art Ashokan pillars: The earliest Buddhist Monument extant were produced in the Mauryan period (322 - 185 bc e) , notably works ordered by the emperor Ashok, who was himself converted and adopted the Buddhist Law of piety as the law of his land. To commemorate his conversion and to expand t...

Mauryan Art Ashokan pillars: The earliest Buddhist Monument extant were produced in the Mauryan period (322 - 185 bc e) , notably works ordered by the emperor Ashok, who was himself converted and adopted the Buddhist Law of piety as the law of his land. To commemorate his conversion and to expand the teaching of the faith he ordered many stone memorial columns to be set at points associated with important events of the Buddha's life. These monoliths, in a smooth aristocratic style that had little effect on later Indian Art, reveal the influence of Persia. Made of considerable size Graft shafts with the edicts of Ashok engraved near their bases were each crowned by an animal or animals on a bell shaped capital recalling those of the Achaemenid Empire of Darius and Xersees in Persia. The capital was highly polished by a process requiring considerable technical skills. This too is tough to reflect the official and hieratic style of Achaemenid sculpture, and has been called the "Mauryan Polish", but many have questioned the accuracy of this design, since the technique could reasonably have continued beyond that period. The best preserved of these great columns is the one excavated at Sarnath and now kept at the museum and the capitals have consequently been moved to museums. The Sarnath capital is bell shaped and surmounted by a freeze with four animals and four wheels in which, in turn is surmounted by four lions back to back. The lions themselves are remarkably like those of Persepolis and Susa, in Persia. The stylization of the face, particularly of the nose and whiskers on the upper part of the jaw, the rather careful rhythm and reat barbering of the mane, the representation of the claws, separated by deep debts, and the slightly hunched posture of the animals - all these are elements to be found in the representation of lion at Persopolis. The representation on the freeze is more unusual. The horse, the best preserved of the footer figures in relief, has that sympathetic naturalism we have learned to expect from the Indian sculptor. Despite the stylization of its mane, the treatment of its body and legs shows a much less decorative intention than dose the treatment of the lion above. Sarnath: The subject matter is of great symbolic import because the lion is the symbol of royalty, and the Buddha , describes in the texts as the lion of the Shakya - Dam, was himself of royal blood. The wheels on the freeze are symbols of the Buddha's Law, and later representations of the Buddha show his hands in motion of teaching or turning the wheel, symbolic of his preaching the sermon at Sarnath, where he 'Set the Wheel of the Law in mother '. But the other representations are more difficult to explain. The animals represented many perhaps be those associated with the four directions, or they may symbolize lesser deities of the Hindu pantheon as it existed at that time. The horse, in particular, is associated with Surya. The Brahmany bull, which is associated with the great God Shiva, one of the two most important male deities of the later Hindu patheore. The elephant was the vehicle of Indra, the lion of Durga. It has been suggested that the animals on the base represent such non-Buddhist deities at the service of the Buddha. Rampurva: The column from Rampurva has, in addition to the non familiar bell— shaped capital a frieze of Water flowers and plants, motif that became extremely important in later Buddhist art. The frieze is surmounted by a bull whose body is curved in the round but whose legs emerge from the block, for the functional reason that freestanding legs could not have supported the weight of the stone body. This treatment does, strongly enough, recall certain Hillite and Persian version of the bull, which treat the area below the stomach as a block, on which the genitalia are shown in relief. But the style of the animal itself has none of the awesome and overpowering quality of works from the ancient Near East, rather it has a certain quiet simplicity and gentleness characteristic of later Indian representation of animals. Parkha Yaksha, Besnagar Yakshi: At the same time the works were being produced under imperial patronize in an official style with trace of Persian influence in Mauryan Court, other sculptures were produced having on precedents in the art of an ancient Middle East. They appear to be representation of nature deities. Yakshas or Yakshis whether these images were placed at Buddhist sites and connected with Buddhuist ritual it is at present impossible to say. The two key monuments of this native style are the Parkham Yaksha and Besnagar Yakshi. The first one of the most interesting and exciting of all pictures of Indian sculptures, for it shows the Parkham Yaksha as it once may have stood, in the midest of a village and not within the protective walls of a museum. One can sense something of cream sandstone, now badly eroded. It is architectonic, formality organized, massive in its proportions and, in a sense, held within the block of stone. One might also say it is contained in a tree trunk, because it is likely that most of the indigenous style sculpture of the period preceding the rise of Budhhust stone sculpture was in wood. The Parkham Yaksha and the Besnagar Yakshi may well be transition into stone of a tradition of monumental wood sculpture carved from great tree trunk. The relaxation of the Yakshi's left knee makes us wish we had some earlier work for composition, because the bent naturally recalls the relaxation of the knee seen in Greek sculpture at the close of archaic period. It is a first tentative gesture toward a more informal, less rigid treatment of the figure. The Yamaha's pouch, or potbelly, is a constant feature of Yaksha iconography, seen especially in Kubera, god of wealth and chief of all Yakshas. Again, the Besnagar Yakshi, matter sadly damaged but with the same general conformation as the Yaksha. The tremendous development of the breasts, the relatively small waist, and the large hips show one of the fundamental Indian representational modes. The female form must suggest its functions of life bearing, life giving, and loving. The exact date of the Besnagar Yakshi is as open to argument as the Parkham Yamaha. There are certain similarities particularly in the headdress, the necklace, and the treatment of the girdle and skirt to work as that the first century Yakshi's at Sanchi. The weathered condition of both the Parkham Yaksha and the Besnagar Yakshi adds decades to their appearance and increases the archaic effect. Didarganj Yakshi:The carefully polished, voluptuous image, found at Didarganj, Bihar, holds the ceremonial which (chamara) that identified her as an attendant to some eminent personage. This sculpture may will be the most sophisticated and courtly expression of Mourya or slightly later figural style. The tall and powerful figure has a monumental quality in the proportions. The tremendous development of the breasts, the relatively small waist and the hips show of the fundamental Indian representational modes. The female form must suggest its functions of life bearing, life giving and loving. The exact date of the sculpture is as open to argument as that of Parkham Yaksha. There are certain similarities particularly in the headdress, the necklace and the treatment of the girdle and skirt works as the first century Yakshi at sanchi.