No More Learning

On the
lowest we see, in the centre, the temple and tree of Buddh Gayā ; to the
left, a crowd of musicians and devotees with water vessels ; to the right, a
royal retinue and a king and queen descending from an elephant, and after-
wards doing worship at the tree. This is the ceremonial visit which Açoka
and his queen, Tishyarakshitā, paid to the Bodhi-tree, for the purpose of
watering it and restoring its pristine beauty after the evil spell which the
queen had cast upon it. The middle lintel is occupied with the scene of
Buddha's departure from Kapilavastu (mahābhinishkramaņa). To the left
is the city with wall and moat, and, issuing from its gate, the horse
Kanthaka, his hoofs supported by Yakshas and accompanied by the
divinities in attendance on the Buddha, and by Chhandaka, has groom, who
holds the umbrella symbolical of his Master's presence. In order to indi-
cate the progress of the Prince, his group is repeated four times in
succession towards the right of the relief, and then, at the parting of the
ways, we see Chhandaka and the horse sent back to Kapilavastu, and the
further journey of Buddha indicated by his footprints surmounted by the
umbrella. Lastly, in the topmost lintel, are representations of the seven
last Buddhas, the first and last symbolised by thrones beneath their
appropriate Bodhi-trees, the rest by the stūpas which enshrined their
relics.
On the execution of these sculptures, with their multitudinous figures
and elaborate details, many years of labour must have been exhausted and
many hands employed. It is not to be expected, therefore, that their style


## p. 572 (#610) ############################################

572
(ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
should be uniform ; yet there is none of the clumsy, immature workman-
ship here which we noticed in the inferior carvings of the balustrade round
the smaller stūpa and at Buddh Gayā. These reliefs are the work of trained
and experienced sculptors, and though they exhibit considerable variety in
their composition and technical treatment, their style throughout is
maintained at a relatively high
a relatively high level. The finest are
on the
Southern Gateway, the poorest on the Northern ; but in the matter
of technique, the
the greatest contrast, perhaps, is afforded by the
reliefs of the Southern and Western Gateways. Compare, for
example, the scene on the inner face of the middle architrave of the
South Gateway, depicting the Chhaddanta Jātaka, and the same scene on
the front face of the lowest architrave of the Western Gateway (Pl. XXIII,
61, 62). In the former, the figures are kept strictly in one plane, in order
that all may be equally distinct to the observer, and the relief low, that
there may be no heavy shadows to obscure the design, with the result that
the effect is that of a tapestry rather than of a carving in stone. The
elephants, again, are treated in broad flat surfaces with a view to emphasis-
ing their contours ; the trees sketched in rather than modelled ; and the
lotus pond indicated by conventional lotuses out of all porportion
to the size of the beasts wading through it. In the latter, the
leaves and towers are of normal size ; the water is portrayed by
undulating lines ; the banyan tree is realistically true to nature; the
modelling of the elephants is more forceful and elaborate ; and, though the
figures are kept religiously to one plane, strong contrasts of light and
shade and suggestion of depth are obtained by cutting deep into the
surface of the stone. Both reliefs are admirable in their own way, but
there can be no two opinions as to which of the two is the more master-
ly. The one on the South Gateway is the work of a creative genius, more
expert perhaps with the pencil or brush than with the chisel, but possessed
of a delicate sense of line and of decorative and rhythmic composition.
That on the West, on the other hand, is technically more advanced,
and the individual figures, taken by themselves, are undoubtedly more
effective and convincing ; but it fails to please, because the detail is too
crowded and confusing, and the composition too regular and mechanical.
The same remark holds good, if we compare the 'war of the relics' on
the Southern Gateway, with the somewhat similar scene on the Western
(Pl. XXIII, 63, 64). In both there is abundance of fancy and expressive
movement, but the movement and fancy are of a different order. In the
earlier, the scene is living and real, because the artist has conceived it
clearly in his own brain and expressed his conception with dramatic
simplicity ; in the later, the houses and the figures framed in the balconies
are stereotyped and lifeless, and the movement and turmoil of the crowd


## p. 573 (#611) ############################################

XXV]
VARIETIES OF STYLE
573
surging towards the city less convincing, because the artist has depended
not so much upon his own originality as upon the conventional treatment
of such scenes.
In the earlier, the depth of the relief and the intervals
between the figures are varied, and the shadows diffused or intensified
accordingly ; in the later, the figures are compressed closely together,
with the result that the shadows between them become darker, and a
'colouristic effect is thus imparted to the whole. In the earlier, lastly.
the composition is enhanced by varying the directions in which the figures
move; in the later, though the attitudes are manifold, the movement taken
as a whole is uniform. These differences in style are due in a large
measure to the individuality of the artists, but they are due, also, to the
changes which were coming over Indian relief consequent on the deepening
of extraneous, influences, on improved technical skill, and on the growing
tendency towards conventionalism. The extraneous influences referred to
are attested by the presence of exotic motifs, which meet the eye at every
point and are readily recognised - by the familiar bell capitals of Persia, by
floral designs of Assyria, by winged monsters of Western Asia, all of them
part and parcel of the cosmopolitan art of the Seleucid and succeeding
empires of the West, in which the heterogeneous elements of so many
civilisations were fused and blended together. But it is attested still more
forcibly by the striking individuality of many of the figures, as, for
instance, of the hill-men riders on the Eastern Gate, by the occasional
efforts towards spatial effects, as in the relief of the ivory workers of
Vidicā, by the well-balanced symmetry of some of the groups, and by
the 'colouristic treatment with its alteration of light and dark, which
was peculiarly characteristic of Graeco-Syrian art at this period. By the
side of these mature and elaborate compositions the reliefs of Bhārhut
are stiff and awkward, and, as we recall their features to mind,
conscious of the gulf which separates the two and of the great advance
that sculpture must have made during the century or more that elapsed
between them. The wonder is that these monuments could ever have been
classed together or regarded as products of one and the same epoch.
The steady growth of plastic art which we have traced in the fore-
going pages derives additional light from the pre-Kushāņa sculptures of
Mathurā, which are the more instructive, because they all emanate
from one and the same school. These sculptures divide themselves into
.
three main classes, the earliest belonging approximately to the middle of
the second century B. C. ; the second to the following century; and the last
associated with the rule of the local Satraps. Of these, the first two are
80 closely akin in style to the reliefs of the Bhārhut rail and Sanchi
toraņas, respectively, that it is unnecessary to dwell further upon them.
The sculptures of the third class are more exceptional. Their style is that
we
are
>


## p. 574 (#612) ############################################

574
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
2
of the Early School in a late and decadent phase, when its art was becom-
ing conventionalised and lifeless. Typical examples are the plaques repro-
duced in Pl. XXIV, 65, 66, the former a Jain āyāga pața or votire tablet
dedicated, as the inscription on it informs us, by a courtesan named
Loņaçobh kā; the latter, which is decorated on both sides, from a small
torana arch. In all works of the Mathurā school of this period the same
tendency towards schematic treatment is apparent, but it appears to have
affected the Jain sculpture more than the Buddhist. The dramatic vigour
and warmth of feeling which characterised the reliefs of the Sānchi gate-
ways is now vanishing; the composition is becoming weak and mechanical,
the postures formal and stilted. The cause of this sudden decadence is
not difficult to discover. A little before the beginning of the Christian
era Mathurā had become the capital of a Satrapy either subordinate to or
closely connected with the Scytho-Parthian kingdom of Taxila', and, as a
result, there was an influx there of semi-Hellenistic art, too weak in its
new environment to maintain its own individuality, yet still strong enough
to interrupt and enervate the older traditions of Hindustān. It was no
longer a case of Indian art being vitalised by the inspiration of the West, but
of its being deadened by its embrace. As an illustration of the close
relations that existed between Mathurā and the North-West, the votive
tablet of Loņaçobhikā is particularly significant, the stūpa depicted on it
being identical in form with stūpas of the Scytho-Parthian epoch at Taxila,
but unlike any monument of the class in Hindustān. Another interesting
votive tablet of the same class is one dedicated by a lady named Āmohini
in the reign of the Great Satrap Çoạāsa, which, to judge by the style of
its carving, dates from about the beginning of the Christian era.
Wherever important stūpas like those described above were erected,
monasteries were also provided for the accommodation of the monks or
nuns residing on the spot, and chapels or chaitya halls in which they could
assemble for their devotions. The monasteries, as might be expected,
were designed on the same plan as private houses; that is, with an open
square courtyard in the centre surrounded on the four sides by a range of
cells. Perhaps the earliest existing example of such a monastery is one by
the side of the Piprahwa stūpa (p. 565), which is said to be built of bricks
of much the same size and fabric as those employed in the stūpa itself.
As a rule, however, the early architects built their structural monasteries
and chaitya halls either wholly of wood or with a superstructure of wood
set on a stylobate of stone, like the more primitive temples of Greece;
and it was not until about the first century B. C. that more durable materials
came into vogue for pillars and walls, and not until a still later period
that they came to be used for entablature and roofs. The chaitya halls
1 For an account of another most important monument, the Lion-Capital,
see
Chapter XXIII, pp. 519. 20, where the date of the Āmohini tablet is also discussed.


## p. 575 (#613) ############################################

xxvi]
SUDDEN DECADENCE OF ART
575
were remarkably similar in plan to the early Christian basilicas, being divided
by two rows of columns into a nave and two narrow side aisles, which were
continued round the apse. The only remains of such structural halls prior
to the Christian era are those at Sānchi and Sonārī in the Bhopāl State of
Central India. In both cases the superstructure seems to have been of
wood, and what now survives of the original ball consists only of a lofty
stone plinth approached by flights of steps, but the form of the plinth and
the plan of the interior foundations leave no doubt that the superstructure
must have been similar in design to the rock-hewn chaitya halls of Western
India.
While these structural edifices, stūpas, chapels, and monasteries
- were being erected in Hindustān, the Buddhists and Jains of Western and
Eastern India were engaged in fashioning more permanent monuments of
the same class by hewing them from the living rock. The practice of hollow-
ing out chambers had been common in Egypt from time immemorial, and
by the sixth century B. C. , has spread as far east as Persia, where the
royal tombs of Darius and his successors of the Achaemenian dynasty up to
the time of Codomannus (335-330 B. c. ) were excavated in the cliffs of
Naksh-i-Rustam and Persepolis. From Persia the idea found its way during
the third century before our era into Hindustān and resulted, as we have al-
ready seen, in the excavation of dwelling places and chapels for ascetics in
the Barābar hills and Bihār. These artificial caves of the Maurya period were
of very modest proportions, and were at first kept severely plain, or,
like their Irānian prototypes, adorned only on the outer façade. As
time went on, however, the Indian excavators became more ambitious and,
rapidly expanding their ideas, proceeded to copy their structural chaitya
halls are vihāras on the same scale as the originals, and to imitate their
details with an accuracy which says
for their industy and
patience than for the originality of their genius. So literal, indeed, was the
translation of wooden architecture into the new and more durable material,
that infinite toil was expended in perpetuating forms which became
quite meaningless and inappropriate when applied to stone. Thus,
in wooden structures there had been valid enough reason for inclining pillars
. and door jambs inwards, in order to counteract the outward thrust of
the curvilinear roof, but, reproduced in stone, this inclination entirely miss-
ed its purpose and served only to weaken instead of strengthening
the supports. Again, it was mere waste of labour to copy roof timbers ;
still greater waste was it, first to cut away the rock and then insert
such timbers in wood, as was done in some of the earlier caves.
This close imitation of wooden construction affords a useful criterion
for determining the relative ages of these rock-hewn monuments, since it is
logical to infer that the older the cave, the nearer it is likely to approximate
more


## p. 576 (#614) ############################################

576
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA [CH.
to its wooden prototypes. But this index of age must not be pressed
too far ; for, though the rule generally holds good, there are many excep-
'
tions to it, and in every case, therefore, careful account must be
taken of other features also, and especially of the plastic treatment
of the sculptures and decorative ornaments which are found in many of the
caves.
Among the earlier chaitya halls of Western India the finest examples
are those at Bhājā, Kondāne, Pitalkhorā, Anjanta, Bedsā, Nāsik, and
Kārli. The plan and general design of these halls is approximately
the same, and the description of one will suffice for all. The finest example,
undoubtedly, is the hall at Kārli (Pl. XXV, 67, 68), which is at once
the largest, the best preserved, and most perfect of its type. It measures 124
feet 3 inches long by 45 feet 6 inches wide and is of the same apsidal plan
as the contemporary structural chaityas referred to above. Between the nare
and the aisles as a single row of thirty-seven columns, of which those round
the apse are of plain octagonal form, while the remainder, to the number of
fifteen on either side of the nafe, are provided with heavy basis and capitals
of the bell-shape type surmounted by kneeling elephants, horses, and tigers,
with riders or attendants standing between. Above these figures and rising
to a height of 45 feet at its apex, springs the vaulted roof, beneath the soffit
of which is a series of projecting ribs, not carved out of the stone itself, but
constructed of wood and attached to the roof. At the apsidal end of
the hall the vault terminates in a semi-dome, beneath which, and hewn like
the rest of the hall out of the solid rock, is a stūpa of familiar shape with a
crowning umbrella of wood above. At the entrance to the hall is a screen
pierced by three doorways, one leading to the nave, the others to the
side aisles ; this screen rose no higher than the tops of the pillars within the
hall, and the whole of the open space above it was accupied by a
great horse-shoe window, within which there still remains part of its
original wooden centring. It was through this window that all light was ad.
mitted into the hall, the nave and the stūpa being thus effectively illuminat.
ed, but the side aisles left in comparative darkness. In front of the entrance
to the hall was a porch 15 feet deep by about 58 feet high, and as wide
as it was high, closed in turn by a second screen consisting of two tiers of .
octagonal columns, with a solid mass of rock between, once apparently de-
corated with wooden carvings attached to its façade.
Though similar in general disposition to the one at Kārli, the chaitya
halls at the other places mentioned above vary considerably in their dimen-
sions and details. Thus the halls at Bhājā and Kondāne (Pl. XXVI, 69) are
about 60 feet long, the earliest at Ajanta 96 feet, and that at Nāsik
(P), XXVI, 72) 45. At Bhājā, Kondāņe, Pitalkhorā, and the earliest
of Ajanta, the screen which closed the entrance to the hall was originally of


## p. 577 (#615) ############################################

>
>
>
xxvi]
CHAITYAS
577
wood, and in all these caves, as well as in those of Bedsā and Nāsik,
the pillars incline inwards to a greater or less degree. In the Ajanta
hall, again, the pillars are quite plain without base or capital, and here, as
at Pitalkhorā, the covered ceiling of the side aisles is adorned with coffers,
the ribs between which are carved from the rock, not framed in wood.
From these and other peculiarities in their construction and decoration
it has generally been inferred that the earliest of all the chaitya halls to be
excavated were those at Bhājā, Kondāne, and Pitalkhorā, together with the
tenth cave at Ajanta; that next to them in chronological order came the hall
at Bedsā; then the ninth cave at Ajanta, followed closely by the chaitya at
Nāsik, , and, lastly, the great hall at Kārli. On the assumption, moreover,
that the chaitya at Nāsik is of about the same age as the small vihāra close
by, and that the Andhra king Kțishņa, during whose reign the latter
was excavated, was reigning at the beginning of the second century B. C. , the
conclusion has been drawn that the four earliest caves were excavat-
ed towards the close of the third century B. C. , the cave at Bedsā during the
first or second decade of the second century B. C. , those at Nāsik about 160
B. C. , and the one at Kārli about 80 B. C. Against this chronology, however,
there are insuperable objections based on epigraphical as well as plastic and
architectural considerations. In the hall at Kārli, for example-to take the
last of the series first -- is an inscription recording that it was the work of
one Seth Bhūta pāla of Vaijayanti, whose age cannot for epigraphical
reasons be far removed from that of Ushavadāta, the son-in-law of the
Kshatrapa Nahapāna. In this cave, too, the form of the pillars and
the modelling of the stately sculptures above them preclude an earlier date
than the first century of our era. Again, in the chaitya hall at Näsik
the form of the entrance doorway, the lotus design on the face of its
jambs, the miniature Persepolitan pilasters, the rails of the balustrade
flanking the steps and the treatment of the dvāra pāla figure beside the
entrance --all bespeak a date approximately contemporary with the Sānchi
toranas and at least a century later than the work of Bhārhut. Equally
strong are the objections in the case of the Bhājā and Bedsā chaityas, the
sculptures of which are too fully developed to have been executed before
the first century B. C. , while, as regards the latter hall, the design of
th ponderous columns in front of the entrance and the modelling of
the figures surmounting them, though manifestly earlier than the work at
Kārli, cannot be removed from it by a long period of time. From these
and miny other indications of a similar nature it is apparent that the
chronology of these caves needs complete revision. At present it seems
.
hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that the whole series of these
rock-cut halls - from the one at Bhājā to that of Kārli—are more modern
by at least a century than has been usually supposed, and that Messrs


## p. 578 (#616) ############################################

578
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
a
Fergusson and Burges3 were not far from the truth, when in their work on
the Cave Temples of India they assigned the Nāsik Hall to the latter half of
the first century B. C.
The above remarks apply in an equal degree to the other great class
of rock-cut remains -namely, the vihāras or residential quarters of the
monks. These vihāras call for little comment. The most perfect examples
of them were planned like the structural edifices of the same class, but with
this unavoidable difference, that the range of cells on one side of the
court was replaced in the cave vihāras by an open verandah, through
which light and air could be freely admitted to the interior. In other cases,
and among these are to be reckoned the majority of the early vihāras, the
plan is irregular, the cells being disposed in one or two rows only,
and often at erratic angles; while in one instance-at Bedsā -- they are
ranged round an apsidal court, manifestly imitated from a chaitya hall. A
striking feature of these viháras and one in which they present a great
contrast to those of the Eastern Coast, is the almost total absence of figure
sculpture. In nearly all the examples known to us the façades of the cells
are embellished only by simple architectural motifs, such as horse.
shoe arches, rails, lattices, and merlons, and it is only in rare instances, as
at Nadsūr (Pl. XXVI, 71) and Pitalkhorā, that the severity of this treat-
ment is relieved by figures of Lakshmi placed over the doors or pillars, or
by pilasters of the Persepolitan type surmounted by kneeling animals.
In only one vihāra is there any attempt at more diversified sculpture. This
is at Bhājā, where standing figures of guards and more elaborate scenes are
executed in relief on the walls of the verandab and interior hall. One of
these scenes, from the west end of the verandah, is illustrated in Pl. XXVI,
70. It depicts a four-horse chariot with three figures- a male and two
females - riding within, attendant horsemen at the side, and monster
demons beneath. This composition has been interpreted as the car
of Sūrya accompanied by his two wives driving over the demons of
darkness, but it is more than doubtful if this interpretation is correct. Four.
horse chariots of this type are a familiar motif in early Indian art,
and in this instance there is nothing special to indicate the identity of
Sūrya.
The composition of these sculptures is strangely bizarre and fanciful,
and their style, generally, is not of a high order ; but it is easy to perceive
from the technique of the relief work, from the freedom of the composition
and of the individual poses, as well as from the treatment of the orna-
ments, that they are to be classed among the later efforts of the Early
School, not among its primitive productions. Their date certainly cannot
be much earlier than the middle of the last century before the Christian
era.


## p. 579 (#617) ############################################

XXVI]
THE CAVES OF ORISSA
579
,
>
Of the early caves along the East Coast the only ones that merit atten-
tion here are the two neighbouring and intimately connected groups on the
hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri in Orissa. Unlike the rock-hewn monu-
ments of Western India described above, which were the handiwork of Bud-
dhists, these Orissan caves were both excavated and for many years tenanted
by adherents of the Jain religion, who have left behind them unmistakable
evidences of their faith both in the early inscribed records and in the
medieval cult statues which are found in several of the caves. To
this sectarian difference is due many distinctive features of the archi-
tecture, including, among others, the entire absence of chaitya halls, for
which, apparently, there was no need in the ceremonial observances of the
Jains. Taken together, the two groups comprise more than thirty-five
excavations, of which the more remarkable in point of size and decoration
are the Ananta Gumphā on Khandagiri, and the Rāni Gumphā, Ganesh
Gumphā, and the Jayavijaya caves on the Udavagiri hill. Besides these, ,
there are two caves in the Udayagiri group-namely, the Hāthi Gumphā
and the Manchapuri cave-to which a special interest attaches by reason of
the inscriptions carved on them. Of the whole series the oldest is the
Hāthi Gumphā, a natural cavern enlarged by artificial cutting, on the over-
hanging brow of which is the famous epigraph recording the acts of
Khāravela, King of Kalinga. This inscription was supposed by Pandit
Bhagvānlāl Indrāji and others to be dated in the 165th year of the Maurya
epoch, which, if reckoned from the accession of Chandragupta, would
coincide with 157-6 B. C. Other scholars have, however, since denied that
any such date occurs in the inscription, and, at the present time, there is
still a sharp division of opinion on the point? . In the absence of an un-
doubted date in this record or in the records of Khāravela's Queen and of
his successor (? ) in the Manchapuri cave, we must endeavour to determine
of these monuments from other sources of information. In the case
of the Manchapuri cave, the problem luckily derives some light from the
style of the sculptured reliefs of the interior. This cave, erroneously called
Vaikuntha or Pātālapuri by earlier writers, possesses two storeys, the
lower (Pl. XXVII, 73) consisting of a pillared verandah with chambers
hollowed out at the back and at one end ; the upper of similar design but
of smaller dimensions and without any chamber at the extremity of the
verandah.
It is in the upper storey of this cave that the inscription of
Khāravela's Queen is incised, while in the lower are short records stating
that the main and side chambers were the works, respectively, of Vakradeva
(Vakadepasiri or Kudepasiri), the successor, apparently, of Khāravela, and
of Prince Vadukha. It may be presumed, therefore, that the upper storey
1 See Chapter XXI, pp. 481 ff,
the age


## p. 580 (#618) ############################################

580
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
[CH.
is the earlier of the two. The rail patter which once adorned the broad
band of rock between the two storeys is now all but obliterated, but in the
ground-floor verandah is a well preserved frieze which confirms by its style
what the inscriptions might otherwise lead us to suppose : namely, that,
next to the Hāthi Gumphā, this was the most ancient cave in the two
groups.
Some of the reliefs of this frieze are illustrated in Pl. XXVII, 74.
Like most of the sculptures in this locality they are of poor, coarse work-
manship, but in the depth of the relief and plastic treatment of the figures
they evince a decided advance on the work of Bhārhut, and, unless it be
that sculpture in this part of India had undergone an earlier and indepen-
dent development (a supposition for which there is no foundation) it is
safe to affirm that they are considerably posterior to the sculptures of
Bhārhut. Next, in chronological sequence, comes the Ananta Gumpha-a
single-storeyed cave planned in much the same way as the Manchapuri,
which seems to have been the prototype of all the more important caves
excavated on this site. Over the doorways of this cave are ornamental
arches enclosing various reliefs ; in one is a standing figure of Lakshmi
supported by the usual elephants on lotus flowers (Pl. XXVII, 75); in
another is the four-horse chariot of the Sun-god (? ) depicted en face, with
the crescent moon and stars in the field ; in a third are elephants ; in a
fourth, a railed-in tree and figures to right and left of it bearing offerings in
their hands or posed in an attitude of prayer. The arch fronts themselves
are relieved by bands of birds or of animals and Amorini at play or of
garlands intertwined, and over each is a pair of triple-headed snakes, while
in the intermediate spaces are flying Gandharvas disposed in separate panels
(Pl. XXVII, 76). The last mentioned are more stiff and schematic than the
similar figures in the Manchapuri cave, and this taken in conjunction with
other features, such as the chubby Amorini and the treatment of the Sun-
god's chariot, seems to indicate for these sculptures a date not much earlier
than the middle of the first century B. C. A further stage in the develop-
ment of this architecture is reached in the Rāni Gumpbā, which is at once
the most spacious and elaborately decorated of all the Orissan caves (Pl.
XXVII, 79). It consists of two storeys, each originally provided with a
verandah - the lower 43 feet in length with three cells bebind, the upper 20
feet longer with four cells behind ; in addition to which there are chambers
of irregular plan in the wings, to right and left of the verandahs. In both
storeys the façades of the cells are enriched with pilasters and highly ornate
friezes illustrating episodes connected with the Jain religion, of which
unfortunately the interpretation has not yet been established. The friezes
resemble each other closely, so far as their general treatment is concerned,
but the style of the sculptures in the two storeys is widely different.
In the upper (cf. Pl. XXVIII, 78) the composition is relatively free,


## p. 581 (#619) ############################################

>
XXVI]
SCULPTURES IN THE CAVES
581
each group forming a coherent whole, in which the relation of the various
figures one another is well expressed ; the figures themselves are posed
in natural attitudes; their movement is vigorous and convincing; and from a
plastic and anatomical point of view the modelling is tolerably correct,
In the lower, on the other hand, the reliefs are distinctly elementary and
crude. The best of them, perhaps, is the group reproduced in Pl. XXVIII,
77, but even here the figures are composed almost as independent units,
connected only by their tactile contiguity ; their postures, too, are rigid and
formal, particularly as regards the head and torso, which are turned almost
direct to the spectator, and in other respects the work is stiff and schematic.
At first sight, it might appear that in proportion as these carvings are more
primitive-looking, so they are anterior to those of the upper storey ; but
examined more closely they betray traces here and there of comparatively
mature art, which suggest that their defects are due rather to the clumsiness
and inexperience of the particular sculptors responsible for them than to
the primitive character of plastic art at the time when they were produced.
Accordingly, it seems probable that in this cave, as in the Manchapuri, the
upper of the two floors was the first to be excavated, though the interval
of time between the two was not necessarily a long one ; and there is
good reason, also, to suppose that the marked stylistic difference between
the sculptures of the two storeys was the result of influence exercised directly
or indirectly by the contemporary schools of Central and North-Western
India. In this connexion a special significance attaches to the presence in
the upper storey of a doorkee per garbed in the dress of a Yavana warrior,
and of a lion and rider near by treated in a distinctively Western-Asiatic
manner, while the guardian door-keepers of the lower storey are as
characteristically Indian as their workmanship is immature. It is significant,
too, that various points of resemblance are to be traced between the
sculptures of the upper floor and the Jain reliefs of Mathurā, where, as we
have already seen, the artistic traditions of the North-West were at this time
obtaining a strong foothold. The pity is that the example of these outside
schools made only a superficial and impermanent impression in Orissa-a
fact which becomes clear if we consider some of the other caves on this
site. In the Ganesh Gumphā, for example, which is a small excavation
containing only two cells, the reliefs of the frieze are closely analogous in
style and subject, but, at the same time, slightly inferior to those in the
upper verandah of the Rāni Gumphā. Then, in the Jayavāijaya, we see
the style rapidly losing its animation, and in the Alakapuri cave, which is
still later, the execution has become still more coarse and the figures as
devoid of expression as anything which has survived from the Early School
(P). XXVIII, 80). The truth appears to be that the art of Orissa, unlike
the art of Central or Western India possessed little independent vitality,


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582
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
(CA.
a
add flourished only so long as it was stimulated by other schools, but
became retrograde the moment that inspiration was withdrawn.
It remains to consider the paintings and minor antiquities of the
early Indian school. Of the former our knowledge is the scantiest ; for
though many of the buildings described above, both rock-cut and structural,
must have been adorned with frescoes, only one specimen of such frescoes
is known to exist, and this one, unhappily, is too fragmentary and
obscured to afford a criterion of what the painters of that age were capable.
The fresco referred to is in the Jogimārā cave of the Rāmgarh hill within
the confines of the small and remotely situated State of Surgujā. At first
sight, it appears a more medley of crudely painted figures, destitute alike
of coherent composition and intelligible meaning ; but a closer examination
reveals here and there a few drawings, from which the colour has vanished,
but the line work of which is tolerably dexterous and bold, and it reveals
others also quite vigorously outlined, but spoilt by the colours roughly
daubed upon them. Evidently, the fresco has been repainted and added
to by some untutored hand at a time when most of its colouring had faded,
and these few linear drawings are all that is left of the original work.
It is to the later period that belong not only the existing pigments - red
and crimson and black-with which the older figures have been restored,
but the bands of monochrome. yellow and red which divide and sub-divide
tha panels, as well as the numerous ill-drawn and primitive-looking figures
applied indiscriminately on the fresco, wherever the older paintings had
been obliterated. Of the earlier work, all that can now be made out is
that it was disposed in a series of concentric panels separated from one
another by narrow bands ; that the bands were adorned with rows of fisbes,
makaras, and other aquatic monsters ; and that in the panels were various
subjects depicted in a very haphazard fashion, among which are the familiar
chaitya halls with pinnacled roofs, two-horse chariots, and groups of
figures seated and standing, manifestly analogous to those found in the
early reliefs, but too much effaced to admit of a detailed comparison. That
the fresco appertains to the Early School in sufficiently apparent from these
features, but its more exact date must remain conjectural. The late Dr
Bloch, who visited the cave in 1904, failed to perceive the repainting which
the fresco had undergone and assigned the whole as it stood to the third
century B. c. This was on the assumption that it was contemporary with a
short inscription in the early Brāhmi character engraved on the wall of
the cave. It is very doubtful, however, if the record in question is so
ancient, and equally doubtful if the fresco has any connexion with it.
More probably the latter was executed in the first century before our era.
With the terracottas of this period we are on firmer ground, for
examples of them are numerous, and in many cases their age can be deter-


## p. 583 (#621) ############################################

XXVI]
MINOR ARTS
583
as
mined not only by the internal evidence of their style; but by the associa-
tions in which they have been found. These terracottas consist of figurines
of men and animals or toy carts in the round, or of small plaques stamped
with figures or miniature scenes. The Indian specimens of the Maurya
period were, as we have already seen, very crude and primitive, correspond-
ing in this respect with the indigenous stone sculpture of that age. In the
second and first centuries B. C. , however, terracotta work steadily improved,
and towards the beginning of the Christian era we find it hardly less
carefully modelled or less richly decorated than contemporary reliefs
in stone. By this time, the use of dies for stamping the clay had come into
general vogue, and,
a consequence, even the cheaper toys of
children were enriched by pretty floral designs in relief. The same
thing happened, also, in the case of metal ornaments, which exhibit precisely
the same kind of designs as the terracottas. A good illustration of
the minute delicacy with which some of these dies were engraved is afforded
by a terracotta medallion from Bhītā (Pl. XXIX, 81), which might almost
be a copy in miniature of the relief work on the Sānchīgateways, so exactly
does it resemble it in style. One of the sculptures at Sānchi, it may be re-
membered, was the work of the ivory cravers of Vidiçā, and it was of ivory
probably that the die for this medallion was made. Of about the same age,
but of much coarser execution is the copper loļā from Gundlā in Kulū re-
produced in Pl. XXIX, 82. Here, again, the scene engraved round
the body of the vase is the familiar one of a prince seated in a four-
horse chariot with a band of musicians in front, a cortege of horsemen and
an elephant rider behind. The figure in the chariot has been identified with
Gautama Buddha, as Prince Siddhārtha, but it seems, prima facie, unlikely
that this should be the one and only exception to the rule wbich
obtained among the early Indian artists, of never representing the figure
of Gautama Buddha.
In following step by step the history of Indian indigenous art
during this early period we have seen that much extraneous influence
was exerted upon it, and that this influence was a prominent factor
in its evolution. Yet, if we examine this art in its most mature form,
as illustrated for example in the gateways of Sānchi, we can detect
in it nothing really mimetic, nothing which degrades it to the rank of
a servile school. Many of its motifs and ideas it took from Persia, but there
is no trace in it of the icy composure, the monotonous reiteration,
of the dignified spaciousness which characterise Irānian art. It owed a debt
tu the older civilisations of Assyria, but it knows nothing of the stately and
pompous grandeur or the grotesque exaggerations in which the Assyrian
fancy delighted. Most of all, it was indebted to the Hellenistic culture of
Western Asia, but the service which it exacted from the genius of


## p. 584 (#622) ############################################

584
[ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
Hellas served to develop its own virile character, not to enfeeble or obscure
it. The artists of early India were quick, with the versatility of all
great artists, to profit by the lessons which others had to teach them ; but
there is no more reason in calling their creations Persian or Greek
than there would be in designating the modern fabric of St. Paul's Italian.
The art which they practised was essentially a national art, having its root
in the heart and in the faith of the people, and giving eloquent expression to
their spiritual beliefs and to their deep and intuitive sympathy with nature.
Free alike from artificiality and idealism, its purpose was to glorify religion,
not by seeking to embody spiritual ideas in terms of form, as the medieval
art of India did, but by telling the story of Buddhism or Jainism in
the simplest and most expressive language which the chisel of the sculptor
could command, and it was just because of its sympathy and trans-
parent sincerity that it voiced so truthfully the soul of the people, and still
continues to make an instant and deep appeal to our feelings.
To complete our survey of the arts of early India, we must retrace our
steps, finally, to the North-East and pick up once more the threads
of Hellenistic and Western Asiatic culture which became established there in
the second century B. C. , and subsequently led to the development of an in-
fuential school of Buddhist art. The all important part played by Bactria
and Persia in connexion with the monuments of Açoka has already
occupied our attention. Forty years after the death of that Emperor the
Bactrian armies of Demetrius overran the north of the Punjab and paved
the way for the foundation of an independent Greek rule, which remained
paramount in the North-West for nearly a hundred years and lingered on
still longer in the hills of Afghānistān. The antiquities which these Eurasian
Greeks and their immediate successors, the Scytho-Parthians, have
bequeathed to us, are not numerous, but one and all consistently bear
witness to the strong hold which Hellenistic art must have taken upon
this part of India. Most instructive, perhaps, among them are the coins, the
stylistic history of which is singularly lucid and coherent (Pl. XXX, 83,
a-1). In the earliest examples every feature is Hellenistic. Their standard
is the Attic standard ; their legends are the Greek; their types are taken from
Greek mythology, and designed with a grace and beauty reminiscent of the
schools of Praxiteles or Lysippus ; and their portraiture is characterised by
a refined realism, which, while it is unmistakably Greek, demonstrates a
remarkable originality on the part of the engravers. With the consolidation,
however, of the Greek supremacy south of the Hindu Kush, the Attic
standard quickly gave place to one- possibly based on Persian coinage -
more suited to the needs of local commerce ; bilingual legends were
substituted for the Greek, and little by little the other Hellenistic qualities
gradually faded, Indian elements being introduced among tbe types and the


## p. 585 (#623) ############################################

xxvi]
INFLUENCE OF GREEK ART
585
portraits losing their freshness and animation. And so the process of
degeneration continued, relatively slowly among the Eurasian Greeks, more
rapidly when added barbarian elements came to be introduced from
Parthia. The testimony of these coins is specially valuable in this respect :
it proves that the engravers who produced them were no mere slavish
copyists of Western models, but were giving free and spontaneous expres-
sion to their own ideas ; and it proves further that, though the art which
they exhibit underwent an inevitable transformation in its new environment
and as a result of political changes, its influence, nevertheless, was long
and well-sustained on Indian soil.
Nor does this numismatic evidence stand alone. It is endorsed also
by the other antiquities of this age which have come down to us, though
in their case with this notable difference - a difference for which political
considerations readily account-that, whereas the coins of the Indo-
Parthians evince a close dependence on Parthian prototypes, warranting the
presumption that the kings who issued them were of Parthian stock, the
contemporary architecture and other antiquities show relatively little
evidence of the semi-barbarous influence from that region. Of the buildings
of the Eurasion Greeks themselves no remains have yet been brought to
light save the unembellished walls of some dwelling houses, but the
monuments erected at Taxila and in the neighbourhood during the Scytho.
Parthian supremacy leave no room for doubt that architecture of the
classical style had long been fashionable in that quarter of India ; for,
though by that time the decorative features were beginning to be Indianised,
the Hellenistic elements in them were still in complete preponderance over
the Oriental. Thus, the ornamentation of the stūpas of this period was
primarily based on the Corinthian' order, modified by the addition of Indian
motifs; while the only temples that have yet been unearthed are
characterised by the presence of Ionic columus and classical mouldings. In
the example of the former class of structures shown in Pl. XXXI, 85, the
Indian elements in the design are more than usually conspicuous, but even
in this stūpa, which is referable to the reign of Azes, they are restricted to
the small brackets over the Corinthian capitals, and to the subsidiary
toranas and arched niches which relieve the interspaces between the
pilasters.
As with the architectural, so with the minor arts ; they, one and all,
derived their inspiration from the Hellenistic School, and in the very
slow'ness of their decline bear testimony to the remarkable persistency of its
teachings. Of earlier and purer worksmanship a charming illustration
is afforded by some fragmentary ceramic wares from the neighbourhood of
Peshāwar, the designs on which are singularly human, and singularly
Greek, in sentiment. On one of them are depicted little Amorini at


## p. 586 (#624) ############################################

586
[Ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
a
play ; on another, a child reaching for a bunch of grapes in the hands of
its mother ; on a third, a scene from the Antigone, where Haemon
is supplicating his father Creon for the life of his affianced bride. Equally
Hellenistic in character, and equally devoid of any Indian feeling, is
an ivory pendant adorned with two bearded heads from Taxila, and
the vine-wreathed head of Dionysus in silver repoussé (Pl: XXXI, 84) from
the same site. Then, a little later - about the beginning, this is to say, of
the Christian era-we find Indian forms appearing among the Hellenistic,
just as they did in the case of architecture. Witness, for instance, the relic
casket of gold encrusted with balas rubies, which was found in a tope at
Bimarān (Pl. XXXII, 87). Here, the figures of the Buddha and his
devotees—the chief and central features of the design-are in inspiration
demonstrably Hellenistic ; but the arches beneath which they stand are no
less demonstrably Indian in form ; while th: sacred Indian lotus, full
blown, is incised beneath the base of the casket. Doubtless, it was in the
sphere of religious and more particularly of Buddhist art with its essentially
Indian associations, that Indian ideas first began to trespass on the domain
of Hellenism in the north-west, and this partly explains why the monu-
ments which betray the first encroachments of indigenous art, belong with-
out exception to that faith, and why other objects of a non-religious
character, such as engraved gems or the graceful bronze statuette of a child
from Taxila (Pl. XXXII, 86), preserve their classical style intact until a much
later date. But it must be borne in mind, also, that it was in architectural
forms that the earliest symptoms of Indian influence appeared, and that at
the time of which we are speaking India was already in possession of
a national architecture of her own and likely, therefore, to exercise more
influence in that particular sphere than in the glyptic or plastic arts,
in which she had then made less independent progress. The engraved
gems referred to are found in Jarge numbers throughout the whole north-
western area and are proved by the presence of legends in early Brāhmi or
Kharoshthi, as well as in Greek characters, to be the work of retident
artists. Some typical specimens are illustrated in Pl. XXXIII, 88, a-k.
The first is a cornelian intaglio from Akra in the Bannu district, of
pure Hellenistic workmanship, designed and executed with a fine sense of
composition and relief. Judging by the persistency with which it was
reſeated, the motif of the fighting warriors on this gem must have
been almost as favourite a one in India as it was in Greece. Next to it and
of about the same date is a remarkably spirited elephant cut on a pale sard.
Then comes a jacinth (c), the jugate heads on which recall to mind
the busts of Heliocles and Laodice on coins of Eucratides, though it
is slightly later than they. The lion, also, on pale sard (d) is a fine
example of delicate technique ; but in fig. e-a singularly beautiful sardoine


## p. 587 (#625) ############################################

xxvi]
ENGRAVED GEMS
587
-- the style shows incipient signs of falling off, and in the three following
specimens, a black garnet and two sards, we watch its slow and sure deterio-
ration until the beginning of the Christian era. The next two gems of
the series (i and j) are still more decadent. The treatment of the drapery
and other details of the seated Athena in the former remind us irresistibly
of coins struck about the time of Hermaeus, and we cannot bear wrong in
assigning this gem to about 50 A. D. , and the one which follows it to the
close of the same century. The latter is a cornelian from the Hazāra
District, engraved with a figure of Aphrodite and bearing a legend in
corrupt Greek characters. Finally, in fig. k, we have a representative of a
large gro
of gems executed in a meretricious and distinctive style, which
appears to have been fashionable in India in the first and second centuries
A. D. and which, taken in conjunction with other facts, suggests that a
strong wave of influence - due, perhaps, to Roman expansion-set in
about that time from Asia Minor.
It was during the Scytho-Parthian supremacy that the local school of
Buddhist art, known as the Gandhāra School, must first have sprung into
being. The story of this school belongs to a subsequent chapter; for it was
under the rule of the Kushāņa kings that it produced the majority of the
sculptures which have made it famous. But that it had taken shape
long before the Kushāṇas came upon the scene, is 'evident from the fact
that the types of the Buddha peculiarly associated with it, and the
evolution of which presupposes a long period for its achievement, were
already fixed and standardised in the reign of Kaniskha, and that the in-
fluence of the school had penetrated by that time as far as the banks of the
Jumna. Unhappily, among the many thousands of sculptures by which it
is represented, there is not one which bears a date in any known era, nor do
considerations of style enable us to determine their chronological sequence
with any approach to accuracy. Nevertheless, it may be taken as a general
maxim that the earlier they are, the more nearly they approximate in style
to Hellenistic work, and, accepting the relic casket from the stūpa of Shāh.
ji-ki-dheri as a criterion of age, it may safely be asserted that a number of
them, distinguished by their less stereotyped or less rococo character, are
anterior to the reign of Kanishka. One of the earliest of these, if we
accept the judgment of Prof. Foucher, is the Buddha image reproduced
in Pl. XXXIV, 89, which is certainly conspicuous among its fellows for
its graceful and restrained simplicity. Yet, even of this image the type is
demonstrably a well matured one, and, if we would seek for the beginnings
of the school, we must look still further back and learn from the Bimarān
casket and other antiquities of that time the process by which Hellenistic
art came into the service of Buddhism.
The question of the role played by classical art in India has been a


## p. 588 (#626) ############################################

588
[ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT INDIA
much disputed one in the past some authorities maintaining that it was
almost a negligible factor, others that it underlay the whole fabric of Indian
art. The truth, as so often happens, lies between the two extremes. In
Hindustān and in Central India it took, as we have seen, an important part
in promoting the development of the Early National School both by clear-
ing its path of technical difficulties and strengthening its growth with new
and in vigorating ideas. In the north-west region and immediately beyond
its frontiers, on the other hand, it long maintained a complete supremacy,
obscuring the indigenous traditions and itself producing works of no mean
merit, which add appreciably to our understanding of the Hellenistic genius;
here, too, as Indian influence waxed stronger, it eventually culminated in
the School of Gandhāra, which left an indelible mark on Buddhist art
throughout the Orient. Nevertheless, in spite of its wide diffusion, Helle-
nistic art never took a real and lasting hold upon India, for the reason that
the temperaments of the two peoples were radically dissimilar. To the
: Greek, man, man's beauty, man's intellect were everything, and it was the
apotheosis of this beauty and this intellect which still remained the key-
note of Hellenistic art even in the Orient. But these ideals awakened no
response in the Indian mind. The vision of the Indian was bounded by
the immortal rather than the mortal, by the infinite rather than finite.
Where Greek thought was ethical, his was spiritual ; where Greek was
rational, his was emotional. And to these higher aspirations, these more
spiritual instincts, he sought, at a later date to give articulate expression
by translating them into terms of form and colour. But that was not until
the more spacious times of the Guptas, when a closer contact had been
established between thought and art, and new impulses imparted to each.
At the age of which we are speaking, the Indian had not yet conceived the
bold and, as some think, chimerical idea of thus incarnating spirit in
matter, Art to him was a thing apartma sensuous, concrete expression of
the beautiful, which appealed intimately to his subconscious aesthetic sense,
but in which neither intellectuality nor mysticism had any share. For the
rest, he found in the formative arts a valuable medium in which to narrate,
in simple and universal language, the legends and history of his faith ; and
this was mainly why, for the sake of its lucidity and dramatic power, he
welcomed with avidity and absorbed the lessons of Hellenistic art, not
because he sympathised with its ideals or saw in it the means of giving
utterance to his own.


## p. 589 (#627) ############################################

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Av.
A. Anguttara Nikāya.
Dhp. A. or Dhp. Comm. Commen-
Abh. Abhandlungen.
tary on the Dhammapada.
Āçv. Āçvalāyana.
Die ar. Per. Die arische Periode.
Air. Wb. Altiranisches Wörterbuch. Dip Dīpavamsa.
Alt. Leb. Altindisches Leben. Divy. Divyāvadana.
Āp. or Āpast. Āpastamba.
El. Elamite version.
A. S. R. Reports of the Archaeo- Ep. Ind. Epigraphia Indica.
logical Survey of India.
E. R. E. Encyclopaedia of Religion
(Cunningham). and Ethics.
Arch. Sur. Ind. Archaeological F. H. G. Fragmenta Historicorum
Survey of India. (Annual Reports. ) Graecorum.
Arch. Sur. West. Ind. Archaeologi- Gaut. Gautama.
cal Survey of Western India.
G. G. N. Nachrichten v. d. k. Gesells.
Avesta.
d. Wissenschaften zu Göttingen.
Bab. Babylonian version.
G. S. Gșihya Sūtra.
Baudh. Baudhāyana.
Grund. d. indo-ar. Phil. Grundriss
Bh. Bahistān inscription.
der indo-arischen Philologie und
B.