A PANTHEON

REDISCOVERED?

The so-called ‘minor' antiquities from Afghanistan, Punjab, the north Indian plains in U.P., Bihar and all the way to Bangladesh, roughly in the period 200 BC - AD 200, (usually called the ‘Shunga', post-Mauryan or pre-Kushan periods) reveal a consistent and prolific language of imagery. These images are startlingly sophisticated: The plaques, free standing images, mould, pots and architectural elements discussed in this website allow us to make parallels with the surviving stone images from sites such as Mathura, Sanchi, Bharhut and Amaravati. Sites, about which much has been written.

The most dominant type of image of this pantheon is that of the goddess with weapons in her headdress. These come from different regions and were made in different media. In the Gallery section of this website, you will see that the piece from the Metropolitan Museum reveals the context of the type of shrine she would have been worshipped in and what sort of worship would have been accorded to her. The image from the Ashmolean is the most well known one in the world, and arguably, still the finest of its ilk. Apart from having over a century of academic discourse behind it, more recent investigation into this image has shown its importance in studying the special nature of the talismans she is covered with, revealing a dimension of early Indian religious practice about which we have known little so far. The tiny pieces in bronze and amber from Kaushambi and the Northwest Frontier, show how such private images may have been made in precious materials to suit a different class of patrons. Furthermore, the amber piece is of a pre-existing Mauryan style, the appearance of which in Afghanistan and the Northwest is an important marker for the westward spread of this Indic influence. Finally, the inclusion of fine moulds, the type from which the hundreds of terracotta plaques of the period would have been pressed, allows us to simultaneously be aware of "mass-production" for the urban middle classes in antiquity, as it informs us of the techniques involved in manufacturing these artworks.

Not all the figures share the same iconographic features. The complexity of the iconography of the ‘goddess' figure further to reveal how several different goddesses were being made in the same broad style. While some of them, like the wooden image of the goddess holding one of her breasts, appear to be important precursors to a famous Kushan period image of Lakshmi from Mathura, others are associated with the pillar cult, which we have always assumed was of tremendous importance at the time. The repeated association of these goddesses with the pillar however, enhances our appreciation of that cult in ways we had never known before. However, not all the images make their cultic affiliation as easy to decipher.

While the figures with some phantasmagorical iconographic feature or the other (such as wings, weapons, animal masks, etc.) may leave us in no doubt that they are at least semi-divine, at the same time, other images reveal completely different aspects of the feminine. Ladies are, for instance, often found in an attitude of adornment, in the familiar pose of playing with her earring, evocative of the nayikas of later years, while others are dancers. Dancers and musicians frequently make their appearance in both seemingly secular contexts as they do around religious rites. It thus becomes impossible to draw a distinction between sacred and profane performance, and shows us how the visual art at the time had become acutely aware of the language of mood and gesture.

In the Gallery you will see a very rare plaque from Bengal of a narrative showing a procession of women, some on foot and others riding elephants, with women drummers, trumpeters, flag and parasol bearers and even as mahouts, driving the elephants. Is this a special rite or festival? It is at the very least a powerful testimony of the space feminine imagery can inhabit in the age. These antiquities thus make us take a different view of the economic and social dynamics of the period, and allow us a peep into the world of popular worship, not confined to a literary or wealthy class alone. These works of art reflect a worldview wherein ritual, festivity and dance form an integral part of early religious worship forcing us to see the strong interplay between the visual and the performing arts. They also make us realise the artificial nature of boundaries that are normally constructed between ‘religious' and ‘secular' art.

The images make clear that there were several festivals and myths, deities  and rites that we know little about anymore. Some of these narratives have been selected for illustration here. A common group shows elephant-masked musicians dancing with other revelers outside a shrine. Another familiar image is of a hunt, usually royal, that focuses on the bravado of the prince. Royal figures are also frequently shown in courtly spaces, discoursing with attendants and cavorting with women... building up a body of contexts for narratives that are similar to what is found on the Buddhist stupas, and yet, the protagonists and details here are different.

Another type of object you will find illustrated here is the world of children's toys. Rattles and push toys may be fashioned into pot bellied yakshas that are both benevolent and malevolent. These objects no doubt performed a talismanic function. Demons are usually found killing or eating elephants and reptiles, they can also be seen as abductors of women. While the latter case makes us wonder whether the woman being abducted is Sita, which would make that group of plaques concerned with a central part of the myth of the Ramayana, it also points us in the direction of several other abduction myths in the Buddhist Jatakas. A completely different interpretation however, opens up with the crucial clues provided with the discovery of a number of small children's bangles in ivory. Carved on their inner surface, protecting the toddler, are a rows of squatting pot-bellied yakshas or yakshinis, exactly like the ones the rattles and push toys show. Ancient Sanskrit texts have information on magical talismans, at last we now have a clue as to what they would have looked like. Another one of the bangles, large enough in this case to be worn by a woman, bears scenes of yakshinis  and pillar worship, and mithunas. Clearly we have evidence now for the yakshini cult's association and common use in fertility rituals in which the pillar obviously played an important function.

Perhaps the next most prolific group of imagery is sexual or erotic in nature. Some are mithunas, which may show a loving couple standing beside each other, embracing, and so on. A charming fragment probably from Tamluk at the Ashmolean shows a young man tenderly approaching his partner who, embarrassed, has turned her face away from him. The sophisticated and tender handling of mood in such pieces convincingly articulate the knowledge of the highest aesthetic connoisseurship. Yet, the other pieces in this category reveal maithunas, shown as overt, explicit images of sexual activity. Hundreds of small terracotta plaques of couples in various sexual poses have been found in Bengal. What could they possibly mean? Are they mimetically transmuting ritual practices to votive visual aids? Are the scenes talismanic?  However our understanding of these tantalizing images may progress, what is clear is that they demonstrate how erotic imagery forms an integral part of the Indian iconographic lexicon right from its inception.

The website draws most of its pieces from Bengal, however I have tried to include some pieces from Kaushambi, Sugh and the Northwest Frontier to show how widespread these iconographies are. To stress this, the Gallery is arranged regionally rather than iconographically. Each region of production had its own iconographic and stylistic predilections, some narratives were more popular at some places that at others, while some types of images are unique to a site. This will allow the viewer to appreciate the style and oeuvre of a region. In time, I hope to add more sections to the Gallery that are devoted to thematic subjects as well.

Each of the sections and themes in this on-line exhibition are selected only to be a small taster. There are thousands of such fragile images of terracotta, ivory, wood and precious materials like gold, silver and bronze scattered across India and in collections all over the world. The sites they are found in, and very often the museums they are stored in need our urgent attention to ensure their safety and availability for research. They are instrumental in understanding the history of Indian iconography and religion apart from forming one of the most compelling episodes in the history of art and I hope this website will provide a necessary fillip for deeper scholarly investigation by urging you to participate, add your comments and start up a dialogue.

Naman P. Ahuja

Associate Professor,
Ancient Indian Art and Architecture
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi

26 June, 2007