Post Mauryan Period

Answer : The Post-Mauryan period saw the development of local or regional styles of sculptural art-Gandhara and Mathura in the north and Amarvati in the lower Krishna-Godavari valley.

Gandhara School : A great deal of Gandhara sculpture has survived dating from the 1st to probably as late as the 6th on 7th Century, but in a remarkably homogenous style, almost always in a blue-grey mica schist, though sometimes in a green phyllite on in stucco or very rarely in terracotta. Except for a handful of Hindu icons, scultpture took the from either of Buddhist cult objects — Buddhas and Bodhisattvas primarily — or of architectural ornament for Buddhist monasteries, such as friezes and stair-risers, to beautify rather rought masonry or to decorate the lower portions of stupas. They show almost exlusively events in the life of the historical Buddha, chiefly his birth, Great Departure and Pariniravana.

The characteristic Gandhara sculptures, the standing or seated Buddha, reflects the essential nature of Gandhara art. The iconography is purely Indian. The seated Buddha, is almost always cross-legged in the traditional Indian way. He was the physical marks of a Buddha, chief among them, the usina, the urna and elongated ears. Usina simply means a peak topknot of uncut hair. Urna is believed to be a hairy mole, which marked the Buddha's forehead. The Gandhara Buddha never wears earrings or ornaments of any sort in his elongated ears. The Gandhara Buddha is invariably shown making one of the four significant and unchanging hand gestures, known as mudras, one of the most caracteristic features of Indian iconography.

The Western classical element resides in the style, in the treatment of the robe (the heavy folds of the robe) and in the physiognomy of the Buddha, the head is certainly based on the Greek God, Apollo. The main centres from where the art pieces of the Gandhara school have been found are Jalalabad, Hadda, Bamaran, Begram and Taxila. The chief patrons of the Gandhara art were the shakas and the Kushanas.

Mathura School : The origin of the Mathura art form is traced back to the 2nd century BC, and by the 1st century AD it had become a major school of art. Mathura produced sculptural works in quantitites rivalled only by Gandhara, and while were eagerly sought after and imitated all over northern India. It was here in the Kushana period that the brahmanical icon was born; and also the Jina image, creating its own style of the Buddha and Bodhisattava image.

Jains produced distinctive cult objects in the form of the Sarvatobhadrika images (four standing Jinas back to back) and the ayagapatas or votive tobelts, square slabs bearing relief sculptures on the side, possibly used as altars near a stupa for depositing offerings. Some show figures or scenes or stupas, other are carved with decorative patterns and such ancient Indian symbols as the svastika and the twin fish, adopted by the Jains as well as the Buddhists.

The great of standing Buddhas of Mathura are usually well over life size but with very little depth. They nonethless exude a sense of power with their excessively wide shoulders, thin prominent breasts, and deep navels. They invariably stand with their feet well apart and usually with a lion or a sheaf of lotuses between the feet. The surviving heads bore an usina of a peculiar shape - hence the name Kapardin (from Kaparda). The hair was a smooth close fitting cap and foreheads were marked with the urna. The right shoulder is invariably bare, the upper garment looped over the left arm, the left hand resting on the hip, the right hand raised, palm outwards in abhaya posture. The standing Buddhas from Mathura were installed at Sravasti Sarnath (by bhikshu Bala in the period of Kanishka I and Kausambi. Small seated Buddhas from Mathura were installed at Sanchi Abhichhatra and as far east as Bengal and north-west as charsadda, outside Peshawar. The seated Buddhas from Mathura are even more important than the standing over because it is this form, the Yogic position called padmasana, (his legs tightly folded so that the soles of both feet, decorated with the Buddhist triratna and Dharmachakra' signs face upward) which the great majority of Indian images have continued to take untill the present day and because their iconography is richer. The two turbaned male figures holding chowries on either side of the Buddha are the first of the attendants which had thenceforth flanked many Indian deities. There is a plain halo around his head and on the ground of the statue, the branches and leaves of a pipal tree, the symbol of the enlightenment appears in low relief.

Most of the inscriptions record the setting up of a Bodhisattava image at this time and not of a Buddha — a large standing Bodhisattava in the round, who in contrast to the Buddha, wears jewellery and usually a rolled scarf over a shoulder and looping down below the knee, but the robust and well flushed bodies are the same.

The appearance of Hindu icons at Mathura coincides with the emergence of the two great theistic cults, the saiva and the vaisnava, each with its own pantheon, but their number is insignificant in comparison to Buddhist and Jaina images. The two prominent icons, to speak of an established iconography, are : lingas with one face or faces of Shiva projecting from them, and the goddess Durga slaying the demon buffalo (Durga Mahisasuramardini). Small icons of Varah Vishnu, recognizable by his characteristic crown, shiva as Ardhanari, (half man half woman, the division being vertical), Sasthi and Kartikeya have all been found. The iconography of the principal Gods was still in the process of formation.

Considering the quintessentially Indian aesthetic sense in most Mathura sculpture (carved out of the characteristic red sandstone with beige spots), it would not be right to think of Mathura as culturally isolated. Its position being an important trade routes from Konkan to the lower doab and Pataliputra on the one hand and Gandhara on the other make this unlikely.

A significant dimension of Mathura art is that it also produced free-standing sculptures of kings and other notables, for examples, of the great Kanishka, portraits which are rare in Indian art.

Another things worth noticing about this school is that it depicts various patterns of life on the votive pillars, e.g. scenes from forests.

Amaravati : Except for the splendid standing Buddhas, none earlier than the 3rd on 4th century AD, which later provided the model for those of Sri Lanka and South-east Asia, early Andhra sculptures consists almost exclusively of reliefs. The sculptural reliefs all in marble like limestone of Palnad, decorating the monumental stupas at Amaravati, date back from 2nd century BC and others not so outstanding are from Nagarjuna Konda. Lesser stupas with sculptural reliefs were erected at a few other sites. Among them is Jagaayapeta, the source of the famous chakravartin (world-emperor) relief.

The relief at Amaravati represents the traditional narrative arts taking themes from Buddha's life and from Jataka stories. In the narrative scenes the superlative beauty of the individual bodies (they are well-modelled with long legs and slender frames and sensual expressions) and the variety of poses, many realizing new possibilities of depicting the human form, as well as the swirling rhythms of the mass compositions, all combine to produce some of the most glorious reliefs in world art. Kings, princes and palaces figure prominently in sculptural representations. For example, the story of King Udayana and his queen is depicted on a relief, as is also a scene of a king on march with horse riders and footmen and a king in his court receiving presents, etc.

Answer : Sanchi is the only place where all the examples of Buddhist architecture are available. There are three stupas which are to much artistic. The main Stupa is 16.4 metre in height with a circumference of 36.5 metre at the ground level. There is a hornika at the top with the sign of Ashoka’s Dhamma under a Chhatradanda. The stupa is made of red-stone surrounded by a egg-shaped way known as the Pradakshinapath. There are two stairs on the southern part to reach the Pradakshina-path. The entire structure is surrounded by a ground way of stone-bricks.

This stupa was built by Ashoka in the 3^rd cen­tury after his entry to Buddhism. The remains of Gautam Buddha’s two disciples-Sariputra and Moglayan-are preserved in a casket in the centre of the base of the stupa. Encircling the stupa was a fenced path. At the four points of the compass there was a break in the railing with a gateway which gave the sculptor scope to show his skill. This stupa was renovated and enlarged during Sunga period. Various animals, birds, plants, Vamanas and Yaksha Yakshinis in form of statues upon the outer walls of the stupa are the best examples of artistic features of ancient India. We can enjoy the scenes of civil and village life here.

Answer : A political events in India after the close of the Mauryan period became diffuse, involving a variety of kings, eras, and people. Whereas the people of the peninsula and South India were seeking to define their personality, northern India found itself caught up in the turmoil of happenings in central Asia. Yet beneath this apparent confusion there was one factor which gave continuity and consistency to this period-and that was trade. Through all the political vicis­situdes of Shungas. Satavahanas, Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Kushanas, Cheras, and Cholas, the mer­chant continued to grow from strength to strength. The activities of the mercantile community deeply influenced the socio-religious structure of the land.

There were by now quite considerable num­bers of strangers in the port towns and trade cen­tres of the sub-continent, though many of these people had become Indianized in habits and behaviour. The assimilation of these into a caste based society was a problem for the social theo­rists. Social laws were becoming rigid and the theo­ries of Manu, the patriarch who is the traditional author of the Manava Dharmashastra or Law Code, written sometime during the first two cen­turies A.D., were now quoted as the authority on social laws. Theoretically, the four castes were precisely and clearly defined and rules pertain­ing to their lawful activities and functions domi­nated all social activity. Yet in practice there were many discrepancies.

Conversion to Hinduism was technically dif­ficult because of the inter-connection of caste and Hinduism. A large non-Hindu group could be gradually assimilated through its becoming a sub-caste, but the conversion of a single individual would create the problem of providing him with an appropriate caste and caste depended on birth. It was therefore easier for the Greeks, Kushanas, and Shakas to become Buddhists, as many did. As Buddhism at that time was in the ascendant its prestige made the adjustment of the newly con­verted much easier.

Brahman orthodoxy had also to come to terms with people of non-Indo Aryan origin, such as the Greeks and the Shakas, who had political power and could not therefore be treated as outcastes. The ‘fallen Kshatriya’ status conferred on them was a shrewd manoeuvre. The presence in India of foreigners who achieved positions of political and economic importance created considerable social problems and must have further challenged the theoretical structure of caste. Doubtless the opportunity was not missed by those in an infe­rior caste to try and move up the scale by associat­ing with the foreigners. Expansion in trade and commerce also meant an increase in guilds and the employment of many more artisans. The latter were largely drawn from the Shudra caste, some of whom in changing their occupation and loca­tion probably improved their caste status.

These problems were more prevalent in the north, which was still the stronghold of Aryan culture. Elsewhere the process of Aryanization-the imposing of Sanskrit and the Aryan cultural pattern-had to be consciously fostered, as in the case of the Satavahana kings who pursued an Aryanizing policy through the use of Sanskrit and Prakrit rather than the local dialect (which was contemptuously described as ‘goblin language’) and by instituting Vedic ceremonial. Still further south it was the proselytizing missions of Jainism and Buddhism which brought Aryanization with them.

During this period there was much activity in the writings of Law books (Dharmashastras). The rising importance of the Vaishyas and the creation of new sub-castes, owing to the more liberal atmo­sphere of urban life, must doubtless have caused concern to the upholders of traditional social law and usage, and the time had come when social relationships had to be precisely defined. Not sur­prisingly the most important of Law books reiter­ate at every step that the Brahman is inherently superior in every way to other members of society and is to be shown the utmost respect, even by the wealthy Vaishyas.

Buddhism hovers in the background of most activities in this period, and it enjoined the sup­port of the rich and powerful elements. The Bud­dhist order thus tended to move away from the common people and isolate itself, which is turn diminished much of its religious strength, a de­velopment which one suspect the Buddha would not have found acceptable. Improvement in com­munications led to an increase in pilgrimages, which in turn led to the spread of new ideas. Bud­dhism had become very active in sending missions to various parts of the sub-continent and outside, and in the process of proselytizing; Buddhism also began to receive new ideas. This inevitably led to re-interpretations of the original doctrine, until fi­nally there were major differences of opinion and the religion was split into two main sects. This schism, as well as the growing tendency of the Buddhist clergy to live off the affluent section of society, bred the seeds of decay in Buddhism.

At the Fourth Buddhist Council held in Kash­mir in the early second century A.D., the schism was recognized. The more orthodox Buddhists maintained that theirs was the original teaching of the Buddha and they were called the Hinayana sect or the followers of the Lesser Vehicle. Those that accepted the new ideas were called the Mahayana sect or the followers of the Greater Ve­hicle. Eventually, Hinayana Buddhism found its stronghold in Ceylon, Burma, and the countries of south-east Asia, whereas Mahayana Buddhism became the dominant sect in India, Central Asia, Tibet, China, and Japan.

Jainism was not without support during these centuries. The teaching of Mahavira also suffered a schism, the Jainas being divided into the sky-clad (Digambara, i.e., naked) or orthodox sect and the white-clad (Shvetambara) or more liberal sect. They moved from Magadha west wards, setting first at Mathura and Ujjain and finally in Saurashtra on the west coast, where they have re­mained prosperous and eminent members of soci­ety. Another group moved southwards to Kalinga where they enjoyed, but only for a short time, royal patronage under Kharavela, in southern India their main concentration was in Mysore and the Tamil country. By and large Jainism, supported as it was by a similar section of society as Bud­dhism, underwent crises much the same as those of Buddhism, but nevertheless it remained more faithful to its original teachings. Jainism main­tained itself as a ‘parish religion’ with more deter­mination than Buddhism: and hence the number of its adherents has remained fairly constant.

Brahmanism did not remain unchanged through all these centuries, nor was it impervious to the effects of Buddhism and Jainism. Some of the Vedic gods had quietly passed into oblivion and some were being reborn as new gods with additional attributes. This was the time when the Brahmanical religion assumed features which to­day are recognized as Hinduism. Of the three gods, Vishnu and Shiva gained a vast following and through ensuing centuries the Vaishnavas and the Shaivas remained the two main sects of Hindu belief, each believing that its god represented the Absolute. Brahma receded into the background.

It was during the first century A.D. that an­other religion-Christianity-entered India by way of the trading ships from the west. The coming of Christianity is associated with the legend of St. Thomas, who, according to the catholic church of Edesa, came twice on missions to India. The first took him to the north-west to the Parthian king Gondophernes, but this tradition is open to doubt. The story of the second mission appears to be more credible. St. Thomas is said to have arrived in Malabar in about A.D. 52. After establishing a number of Syrian churches of Syrian churches along this coast, he traveled overland to the east coast to a place near Madras city, subsequently called Beth Thuma, where he began to preach. But here his preaching of a new religion was strongly opposed and he was killed in A.D. 68 at Mylapore in the vicinity of Madras. The Syrian church survives in strength in the region of Malabar and may well have been founded in the first century A.D. Considering the frequent com­munication between the Mediterranean world and South India during this century, it is not beyond belief that one of the disciples of Christ came to India to preach Christianity.