I had been to the Bronze Gallery at the Chennai museum two years ago and written about the remarkable Chola bronzes and their iconography as explained by the erudite Chithra Madhavan. Last week, I was in the company of my friend of comparable scholarship on the Amaravathi Gallery at the same museum. He has given a nearly 2 hour lecture on the history and artistic merit of the limestone sculptures at this gallery.
The Amaravathi we are talking about is an ancient town dating from the 2nd century BC, located 35km from Guntur. You might know that the Andhra government is now building a new capital city of the same name near this town. One of the great Buddhist stupas (called Mahachaityas) was built in Amaravathi over a 400 year period spanning 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE. In 1797, the ruins of the stupa was discovered by the East India Company's Colin Mackenzie who later returned to excavate and also arranged for the limestone slabs bearing the Buddhist sculptures to be moved to the Madras Museum.
So that is what you see in the Amaravathi Gallery, a big air-conditioned hall containing a sizable collection of relief - rectangular slabs and circular panels called medallions - and other sculptures. Many of the sculptures depict stories and scenes from the Jataka Tales and others portray events in the life of Buddha. The sculptural composition might seem chaotic to an untrained eye, but starts making magical sense, when an expert describes the story behind and delineates the various sections of the panel that are sequenced chronologically, often from bottom to top. To take a simpler example, the medallion to the right shows one of the miracles performed by Buddha where he tames Nalagiri, an elephant that was sent to kill him. The left part of the panel is the first frame where you see the elephant charging, frightening people running helter skelter with maidens looking on from their windows on top. On the right, you see the subdued elephant in front of Buddha who you see in the far right.
The Jataka Tales are stories of previous births of Buddha as Bodhisatvas, in some of which he is born as an animal. The fascinating story of Chaddanta, the 6 tusked elephant is shown in one of the more complex panels. Chaddanta had two wives, Culasubhadda and Mahasubhadda. Culasubbha felt Chaddanta had a preference for Mahasubhadda and leaves him ( the bottom of the panel shows her moving away and the other two elephants show Chaddanta and his other wife) and is reborn as queen Subhadda . Chaddanta is still alive and she sends a hunter to kill him and get his tusks. Chaddanta charges the hunter, but seeing his saffron robes stops and learns his intent. The noble beyond belief Chaddanta then offers to have his tusks cut. But since the hunter could not do it, Chaddanta cuts the tusks using its own trunk, gives them to him and dies. When Subhadda looks at the tusks the hunter brings back, she realizes her folly and dies repenting her deeds.
Perhaps the most stunning panel at the gallery is the one depicting the ascension of Buddha's begging bowl to heaven. A man who has renounced everything has few possessions and you can imagine the reverence that Buddhists have for the begging bowl he used. You see a total of 43 human figures surrounding and lifting up the bowl. The composition is unique, where you see the back of some of the figures which is quite unconventional. Everyone's body and face seem to be turned towards the central figure - the bowl - which is placed off center as it is higher up closer to heaven.
The sculptures of Amaravati are unique in the use of limestone and they are reminiscent of European sculptures made of similarly colored white marble (although limestone is not quite marble). We see granite and sandstone in most Indian temples. My friend tells me that these are probably the oldest surviving stone sculptures from the historic period in South India. After visiting many Hindu monuments in the last few years, it was nice to see these great examples of Buddhist art and to hear the stories they tell.
- Balaji
The Amaravathi we are talking about is an ancient town dating from the 2nd century BC, located 35km from Guntur. You might know that the Andhra government is now building a new capital city of the same name near this town. One of the great Buddhist stupas (called Mahachaityas) was built in Amaravathi over a 400 year period spanning 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE. In 1797, the ruins of the stupa was discovered by the East India Company's Colin Mackenzie who later returned to excavate and also arranged for the limestone slabs bearing the Buddhist sculptures to be moved to the Madras Museum.
So that is what you see in the Amaravathi Gallery, a big air-conditioned hall containing a sizable collection of relief - rectangular slabs and circular panels called medallions - and other sculptures. Many of the sculptures depict stories and scenes from the Jataka Tales and others portray events in the life of Buddha. The sculptural composition might seem chaotic to an untrained eye, but starts making magical sense, when an expert describes the story behind and delineates the various sections of the panel that are sequenced chronologically, often from bottom to top. To take a simpler example, the medallion to the right shows one of the miracles performed by Buddha where he tames Nalagiri, an elephant that was sent to kill him. The left part of the panel is the first frame where you see the elephant charging, frightening people running helter skelter with maidens looking on from their windows on top. On the right, you see the subdued elephant in front of Buddha who you see in the far right.
The Jataka Tales are stories of previous births of Buddha as Bodhisatvas, in some of which he is born as an animal. The fascinating story of Chaddanta, the 6 tusked elephant is shown in one of the more complex panels. Chaddanta had two wives, Culasubhadda and Mahasubhadda. Culasubbha felt Chaddanta had a preference for Mahasubhadda and leaves him ( the bottom of the panel shows her moving away and the other two elephants show Chaddanta and his other wife) and is reborn as queen Subhadda . Chaddanta is still alive and she sends a hunter to kill him and get his tusks. Chaddanta charges the hunter, but seeing his saffron robes stops and learns his intent. The noble beyond belief Chaddanta then offers to have his tusks cut. But since the hunter could not do it, Chaddanta cuts the tusks using its own trunk, gives them to him and dies. When Subhadda looks at the tusks the hunter brings back, she realizes her folly and dies repenting her deeds.Perhaps the most stunning panel at the gallery is the one depicting the ascension of Buddha's begging bowl to heaven. A man who has renounced everything has few possessions and you can imagine the reverence that Buddhists have for the begging bowl he used. You see a total of 43 human figures surrounding and lifting up the bowl. The composition is unique, where you see the back of some of the figures which is quite unconventional. Everyone's body and face seem to be turned towards the central figure - the bowl - which is placed off center as it is higher up closer to heaven.
The sculptures of Amaravati are unique in the use of limestone and they are reminiscent of European sculptures made of similarly colored white marble (although limestone is not quite marble). We see granite and sandstone in most Indian temples. My friend tells me that these are probably the oldest surviving stone sculptures from the historic period in South India. After visiting many Hindu monuments in the last few years, it was nice to see these great examples of Buddhist art and to hear the stories they tell.
- Balaji
No comments:
Post a Comment