The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

CHAPTER 13
THE ART OF KASHMIR
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The development of art in Kashmir presents us
with the evolution of a really autonomous
national idiom, in spite of the close historical
and geographical connexions of this region with
the great empires of the classical Indian and
Central Asian past. Seemingly isolated at a
height of six thousand feet above sea level in the
foothills of the Punjab Himalayas, the Vale of
Kashmir was intimately connected with the
empires of Asoka and Kanishka. Its geographical
isolation made for the development of
a truly indigenous culture. This geographical
separation became an almost complete political
isolation with the advent of the Mohammedans
in North India. Presumably, Kashmir was an
independent kingdom by the time of Harsha in
the seventh century a.d., when its territories
included not only the Punjab Himalayas but
ancient Taxila and parts of the province of Sind.
The region was visited by a number of Chinese
pilgrims, including Hsiian-tsang, and diplomatic
relations were maintained with the court
of T'ang China. The history of art in Kashmir
may be divided between an early period from
c. a.d. 200 to the seventh century and the great
period from the seventh century to a.d. 1339,
when the accession of a Mohammedan dynasty
terminates the great era of Buddhist and Hindu
building.
The first great era of artistic expression in
Kashmir came under the reign of Lalitaditya
(724-60). To this period belong the dedications
at Harwan and Ushkur. 1 The excavations
conducted at both these sites have revealed the
foundations of stupas located at the centre of a
large surrounding courtyard. This plan is
simply the enlargement of the stupa court
found in the monasteries of Gandhara, like the
arrangement at Takht-i-Bahi. The actual construction
of the masonry, varying from a mixture
of mud and pebbles, combined with ashlar,
to rubble walls faced with terracotta tiles also
employed as paving, seems like a provincial
variant of the type of diaper masonry universally
employed in the buildings at Taxila and elsewhere
in Gandhara.
Certain distinctive characteristics of architecture
in Kashmir are present even in the very
earliest examples. These characteristics are to
be discerned in the tympana, consisting of a
triangular pediment enclosing a trefoil arch, the
pyramidal roofs of the shrines, and the universal
employment of fluted pillars, faintly reminiscent
of the Classical Doric and Ionic orders.
Among the dedications of Lalitaditya was an
impressive Buddhist foundation at Parihasapura,
consisting of a stupa enclosed in a
square courtyard one hundred and twentyeight
feet on a side. This plan is repeated in later
structures at Martand [140] and Avantipur. 2
The plan of the stupa at Parihasapura is of
particular interest. It could be described as a
square with projecting stairways at the quarters,
making a cruciform design. The stupa originally
had two platforms providing passages for
circumambulation on two levels. Both the plan
and the elevation seem to bear a relationship to
the enormously complicated stupa at Barabudur
in Java. An actual influence is not beyond the
bounds of possibility, since in the fifth century
Gunavarman, a monk from Kashmir, introduced
Mahayana Buddhism to Sumatra and
Java. It is conjectured that the whole monument
at Parihasapura with its finial of umbrellas