SUBJECT: Art of South and Southeast Asia Before 1200

Stokstad Chapter: 9

RESOURCES

Student discussion readings for this lecture:

  • MacGregor #

Student discussion videos for this lecture:

Optional in-class video resources for this lecture:

  • Hindu Temple: and interior atmosphere:
  • NATO Bamiyan Buddhas:
  • Sanchi:
  • Borobudur:
  • Michael Wood’s The Story of India (PBS)

LECTURE NOTES

Key question for the lecture:

We’ve talked about the idea of the “ideal” in Greco-Roman art

Today, our question for exploring South and Southeast Asian Art are very similar – where and what is “ideal” here? How is it expressed in material culture?

  • The goal for today is to introduce major concepts in Buddhist and Hindu Art and Architecture in South and South East Asia. Some of our questions:

-How is sacred space expressed in Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture in India? How do elements such as pose, expression, gestures, adornments and symbols, or scale suggest a deity/the holy in these religions?

-How does architecture signify its religious context? (Pilgrimage, circumambulation)

-Where does Buddhism originate? Who is Buddha?

-What is the role of aniconism in early Buddhism? How is Hinduism quite the opposite in terms of its use of many figures?

-What is a mandala, and how is this conception of space used in both religions?

 In New York, the Rubin Museum of Art is a great resource, with a collection of 2000 artworks that spans the larger Himalayan cultural sphere, determined by significant cultural exchange over millennia, includes Iran, India, China, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Timeline: from Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2500 BCE) through 3rd century BCE (King Ashoka) to medieval Hindu temples (11-12th century CE).

Historical/Geographic outline:

What do we mean by South and Southeast Asia?

  • Southern Asia = Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Burma and Tibet are also sometimes included in the region of South Asia.
  • Southeast Asia = countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia eg. Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam etc.
  • This is a huge area, and there is no way we can do it justice in one lesson, so we are going to focus on specific and selective examples of art and architecture in India, and on the major world religions of Buddhism and Hinduism.
  • India is also home to other religions, especially Islam after the 9th century, but we will not focus on this aspect.

Objects covered:

  1. Seal Impressions
  2. Mohenjo Daro
  3. Ashoka Pillar and Lion capital
  4. Great Stupa at Sanchi Pradesh; (stupa and temple diagram)
  5. Standing Buddha
  6. Bodhisattva; Mudras diagram
  7. Vishnu Narayana on the Cosmic Waters
  8. Shiva Nataraja of the Chola Dynasty
  9. Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho
  10. Rajarajeshvara Temple to Shiva, Thanjavur

LECTURE

  1. Seal Impressions
  • Earliest culture in South Asia is the Indus Civilization, in NW India and Pakistan
  • Also known as the Harappan culture (Harappa was the first discovered site)
  • Remember the seals from the ANE? What were they used for/evidence of? Administration, society forming.
  • Society formed here too, along the Indus River.
  • Each seal is about an inch by an inch, not sure what their exact use was but animals a common theme
  • Began to be found in late nineteenth-early twentieth century, and this is when excavations started too.
  1. Mohenjo Daro

See

And also PBS’ The Story of India

  • Archaeological excavations in the 1920s unearthed the ruins of two vast cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-daro (Mound of the Dead), that attested to the ancient roots of Indian civilization.
  • Both sites, now part of Pakistan, are among the chief urban settlements of the Indus Valley Civilization that developed along the floodplains of the Indus River and its tributaries and flourished between 3000 and 1900 BCE
  • The river valley’s fertility, augmented by the monsoon rains, made farming and herding a mainstay of the civilization’s economy, which was also supplemented by internal and external trade.
  • Among the key characteristics of the Indus civilization sites, which have now been found over a vast swath of Pakistan and northwestern India, is their uniformity.
  • The cities were constructed with standardized size bricks and feature a rectilinear street plan, granaries, drainage and sewage systems, and multi-story homes.
  • The civilization also developed a uniform system of weights and measures as well as a form of writing, which has yet to be decoded.
  • The city lacks ostentatious palaces, temples, or monuments. There's no obvious central seat of government or evidence of a king or queen. Modesty, order, and cleanliness were apparently preferred. Pottery and tools of copper and stone were standardized. Seals and weights suggest a system of tightly controlled trade.
  • The city's wealth and stature is evident in artifacts such as ivory, lapis, carnelian, and gold beads, as well as the baked-brick city structures themselves.
  • A watertight pool called the Great Bath, perched on top of a mound of dirt and held in place with walls of baked brick, is the closest structure Mohenjo Daro has to a temple. Possehl, a National Geographic grantee, says it suggests an ideology based on cleanliness
  • Wells were found throughout the city, and nearly every house contained a bathing area and drainage system.
  • In number and extent, the Indus civilization was the largest of the civilizations in the ancient world.
  • Although the reasons for the Indus civilization’s decline are not absolutely known, mounting geological evidence suggests that climate change may have been a factor.

Source article:

WATCH: Introduction to Michael Woods’ PBS The Story of India

(Pt 1

(Pt 2 - Harappa

(Pt 3 - Harappa cont

Pt 4 - - Buddhism

  1. Ashoka Pillar and Lion capital
Q: Which three major world religions are born in India? How do they connect?

India is home to several major world religions, three of which were initially formulated there:

  • Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism
  • Each of these faiths constructed distinctive objects in honor of its gods.
  • Buddhism: belief structured around one figure, the Buddha
  • Hinduism: Multiple gods allowed/ worshipped -- Vishnu is one of the most important, Shiva, Devi, Bhrama

In the earliest period of our chronology, around 2000 BCE, there existed a powerful priesthood known as Brahmins, which constituted the upper crust of society

  • They developed a series of religious texts called the Vedas, the basis of what would later become Hinduism
  • Within this period the class structure in India becomes static, which lasted through Indian society – caste system, complex, still inexistence today
  • Buddhism and Jainism reject the authority of the Vedas, and the hereditary class structure of Vedic society
  • Buddhism and Jainism were open to all, regardless of social position
  • Islam began in the Arabian peninsula and reached the Indian subcontinent in the 9th c. By the 13th c it was well established.
  • The area’s latest religion is Sikkism, formulated in the 16th c and a singular outcome of the Hindu-Islamic encounter.
  • Christianity arrived within years of Christ’s death.

Buddhism:

  • Founded by Siddharta Gautama (the Buddha) in c. 6th century BC, NE India. Buddhism gains wide acceptance.
  • Its peak was during the Pala Dynasty (750-1200 CE).
  • It was eventually transmitted throughout other parts of Asia while in India Hinduism gained prominence.
  • The great appeal of Buddhism is its teachings of wisdom, compassion and humility. Its emphasis on moral and ethical perfection, a democratic outlook and a casteless society also widened its attraction.
  • Buddhism was also deliberately made compatible with other older and established religions like Daoism in China and Bon in Tibet. Followers of these religions could easily incorporate Buddhist teachings.
  • And Buddhism was a proselytizing religion attracting many new adherents.

Who was Buddha?

  • Buddha (c. 563-483 BCE)
  • Born as a prince, groomed to become a ruler
  • Shakyamuni = “wise man of the Shakya clan
  • At the age of 29, after the birth of his son, he leaves the palace and wandered, finally coming across human suffering from which he had been shielded
  • So he turned to meditation and was enlightened at age 35.
  • Without contradicting existing belief systems, he revealed a path of deliverance that was, for the first time, accessible to all.
  • Preaches until his death aged 80.

See the Life and Death of Buddha Frieze from Gandhara (first area to produce figural reps of Buddha, located in Pakistan/Afghanistan today)

  • With the incorporation of the Buddha’s human image into art after the 1st century AD, sculptors began to depict legends surrounding the youth of Siddhartha, including stories of his birth and death.
  • These legends and historical events were eventually consolidated into a clear story line that usually centers on four main events in the Buddha’s life, referred to as the Four Great Miracles.
  • Thereafter, these four events were frequently depicted on narrative relief panels such as this.
  • Such panels were often placed around the base of important stupas and can be considered in chronological order.

FIRST: represents the miracle of the Buddha’s birth. Siddhartha, complete with halo, emerges from the right hip of his mother Maya as she stands beneath a tree.

  • Halo signifies divine radiance, is a symbol of honor that routinely appears on South Asian images of deities and royalty.
  • Artistic and cultural elements borrowed from ancient Greek and Roman art include the wreaths around the women’s heads, the long-sleeved blouses and gowns, and the cornucopias held by several figures.
  • We’ll see in a moment other statues of the Buddha that may have been influenced by Ancient Greece
SECOND
  • The miracle of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
  • The Buddha sits beneath a tree in meditation. Animals and figures try to distract the Buddha from his quest for knowledge. Despite all this activity around him, the Buddha remains serene.
  • With his mudra, or hand gesture, of touching the ground, the Buddha calls the earth to witness his realization of enlightenment and thus his victory over the evil Mara.
THIRD
  • Illustrating the miracle of the first sermon at Sanarth, the third panel shows the Buddha preaching to a crowd of monks and ordinary citizens.
  • The wheel is a pre-Buddhist symbol of kingship, and some Hindu gods are shown holding one. Although the Buddha gave up his earthly possessions and kingdom, this wheel refers to his spiritual authority and teaching.
  • His first sermon is thus referred to as the first turning of the wheel of the dharma [or law].
FOURTH
  • In the fourth and final relief, showing the miracle of the Buddha’s journey to nirvana, local chieftains appear above him and express their intense grief.
  • The monks, on the other hand, seem to be at peace, signifying understanding that the Buddha’s passing is not death but rather a release from the endless cycle of rebirth.

So, these frieze carvings are made in the 1st AD, but Buddha is born and lives in the 6th century BC, and thus there is Buddhist art that comes long before panels like these…..

It was the North of India that emerged as the center of the first Indian empire due to its control of the river trade, forests and rich deposits of minerals.

  • The Emperor of this region, Ashoka (r. 269-232BCE), was the first major patron of Buddhist art. He succeeded his grandfather who had brought the whole of Northern India under his control in the 4th century BCE. He created the Mauryan Empire.
  • After inheriting the empire, Ashoka made a dramatic conversion to Buddhism after witnessing the carnage after his conquest battles. He became a Buddhist and a pacifist and instructed his subjects to practice compassion and ethical behavior.
  • The pillars of Ashoka are a series of columns dispersed throughout the northern Indian subcontinent, and erected by Ashoka during his reign in the 3rd century BC.
  • Originally, there must have been many pillars of Ashoka although only ten with inscriptions still survive, averaging between forty and fifty feet in height
  • Inscribed in Bhrami script
  • The code of behavior (dharma) inscribed on them also showed political astuteness (you need a belief system to unite a disparate people) and ingrained a social responsibility in an empire where tensions between urban merchants and the Brahmin caste threatened stability.
  • Adopted as the National Emblem of India.

Lion Capital

  • Lions signify the Buddha himself (Shakyamuni)
  • The Buddha’s teachings are sometimes known as the ‘lion’s roar’.
  • 4 animals around the abacuslion/ horse/ bull/ elephantsignify 4 rivers of the world
  • Face 4 cardinal directions ~ suggesting the universality of Buddhism
  • Wheel = Buddhist law, signaling his legitimacy as a ruler
  • Axis mundi – will also be seen in the design of the temples and stupa – connection between earth and heaven

Relating back to our question of how do these forms signify the divine before the figure of Buddha is allowed?

-Axis mundi = connection between heaven and earth

-Think of Hammurabi’s stele and the code written on it signifying laws for his people – these perform a similar function connecting heavenly scripture with earthly ruler and his subjects.

-The lions are a stand in for Buddha – in early Buddhism, the Buddha was not portrayed as a human figure, as we’ll see in our next site, the Stupa at Sanchi.

  1. Great Stupa at Sanchi Pradesh; (stupa and temple diagram)

Class exercise: Formal analysis

What do you see?

Turn to your partner and discuss for 60 seconds, be prepared to share.

  • This is the foundation of Buddhist sacred spaces.
  • What is sacred here? What do you see? What elements of the architecture can you point out? What might happen in this space that is part of pilgrimage or ritual?
  • Take a few minutes and really look at the space – make short notes

Great Stupa, Sanchi. India. Founded 3rd century BCE, enlarged 150-50 BCE.

  • This was begun by King Ashoka, but in this incarnation was completed after the fall of his Maurya empire. V well known.
  • It is called a stupa. Stupas were erected at the sites that were important to the story of Buddha eg. The site of Buddha’s birth, renunciation of his wordly goods, attainment of enlightenment and his passing into nirvana, as well as being built over the relics of previous Buddhas.

Acts as a reliquary (contains remains of the Buddha). Relics can be:

  • Mantras written out on paper
  • Physical relics of a Buddha such as hair or nails, or objects used by him
  • Fragments of his bones, teeth and so forth
  • Other relics remaining after his cremation

-The first visual images of the Buddha did not portray a human likeness, but were these large burial mounds with relics

-When Buddha died, his cremated remains placed in eight reliquaries and buried in solid earth mounds (stupas)

-Under Ashoka’s reign the Buddha’s ashes were divided into 84,000 parts and enshrined in stupas throughout India.

-The Great Stupa of Sanchi was built of an important trade route and thus visited by many

The physical characteristics of the stupa: a wheel drawn around a central axis

CIRCLE – MOSQUES, PARTHENON

-The wheel = already seen in the pillars, underlying tenets of the faith

-Also is a poetic link to be made with Buddhist cyclical rather than linear concept of time, vast revolving wheel with cycles of creation, destruction and re-creation

-Was meant to be circumambulated, Circumbulating them is a means of accumulating merit like prayer does in Christian or Muslim faith

-OPEN TO ALL TO COME AND WORSHIP IN

Because donations to monasteries and temples were helpful in reaching the goal of release from the cycle of rebirth for individual worshippers, numerous books, ritual objects, statues, other images and temples were created.

-Local people would pay to have reliefs or inscriptions made, so sometimes favourites are repeated

-Anaconism – Buddha revealed in different types of symbol rather than in his figure.

-The first visual images of the Buddha did not portray a human likeness.

-Images of the stories of the Buddha’s previous lives (jataka stories) proliferated. This is all despite of the fact the faith was founded by the teachings of a man who did not approve of the making of images to aid in worship and preached a doctrine against worldly possessions.

Toranas – gateways

-The gateways primarily tell jataka stories - stories form the life of the historical Buddha.

-These toranas contain detailed forest scenes and towns, which offer a wealth of information about contemporary life. The toranas also provided religious instruction in an age of limited literacy by showing people stories from the lives of the Buddha.