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

47i
sentient beings'. (See Ramaprasad Chanda, 'The
Beginnings of Art in Eastern India', Memoirs of the
Archaeological Survey of India, No. 30 (Calcutta,
1927), 1.)
44. 2. This term describes the Buddhist relic mound
or tope : pronounced stiipa, the word will be written in
its anglicized form - stupa - throughout.
45. 3. Percy Brown, History ofIndian Architecture, 4.
4. E. B. Havell, The History of Aryan Rule in India
(New York, n.d.), 23-4.
5. S. Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, II
(London, 1906), 165. (It is necessary also to point out
that even the great capital of the Maurya Period,
Pataliputra, had a rampart of teak logs joined by iron
dowels.)
6. Beal, loc. cit.
7. Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report
(hereafter referred to as A.S.I.A.R.) (1906-7), 119 ff.,
plates xxxix and xl. More recent excavations suggest
that these mounds were actually stupas, perhaps as
late as the Pala Period. The core and foundations, as in
the case of Nepalese stupas, may still be dated in the
pre-Maurya era.
8. The symbolic aspect of these masts is suggested
in the words of the Rig Veda (x, 18): 'May the manes
hold this pillar for thee'.
9. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Vedic Antiquities (London,
1922), figures 3-5; A.S.I.A.R. (1911-12), 159 ff.
10. The dating of these 'hollow stupas' in the Vedic
Period has been questioned by some scholars; e.g.
Hiranda Shastri in A.S.I.A.R. (1922-3), 133.
46. 11. Jouveau-Dubreuil, figure 1.
12. Jouveau-Dubreuil, figures 7 and 8.
13. James Fergusson, Rude Stone Monuments (London,
1872), 474, figure 215.
14. Indian sculpture of all periods may be described
as 'additive', in the sense that the body is not conceived
as a biologically functioning unit, but is composed
of so many parts individually fashioned according to
manuals of artistic procedure and mechanistically
joined to form a symbol and not a realistic representation
of a deity. In other words, the individual parts of
the anatomy are not copied from their counterparts of
any human model, but are metaphorically made to
approximate certain shapes in nature which these
parts of the body resembled, so that the eyes are
shaped like lotus petals. It is as though the often extravagant
metaphorical descriptions in the Song ofSongs
were literally translated into a sculptural or pictorial
representation of the female body.
15. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Bulletin of the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, Dec. 1927.
16. Compare, for example, the types found at Susa
and in Luristan, illustrated in A Survey ofPersian Art,
ed. by A. U. Pope (New York, 1938), iv, plates 74 a-d,
and 45B.
47. 17. For the finds at the Bhir mound, see Sir John
Marshall, Taxila, 1 (Cambridge, 1951), 87-1 11.
18. Cf. J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, 'South-East
Asian Architecture and the Stupa of Nandangarh',
Artibus Asiae, xix, 3/4, pp. 279-90.
CHAPTER 4
49. i. The word 'Dravidian', regardless of its linguistic
or ethnic implications, is used here for convenience
to describe the autochthonous, pre-Aryan religion of
India.
2. In its beginnings the Aryan or Vedic religion in
India was, of course, identical with the Aryan religion
in Iran. A gradual transformation that took place long
before the time of Zoroaster in the seventh century
B.C. changed the Iranian religion into a cosmic dualism
of Good and Evil dominated by Ahura Mazda (the
Holy Wisdom), who is engaged in eternal conflict with
the powers of evil or Daevas. The rift between the two
branches of the Aryan religion must have taken place
at a relatively early period, for, already in the Brdhmanas,
the word deva means 'god', and asura, 'demon'.
They are derived from the same original terms that in
Iran had come to signify the exact opposite: 'ahura'
for Holy Wisdom and 'daeva' for demon.
50. 3. The word Veda means 'knowledge'. It is the
general name given by European scholars to four
collections of religious works, which* contain the
sacred knowledge necessary for the performance by
the priests of the rites of the Brahmanical religion.
The Hindus themselves use the word Veda in a much
broader sense to include other collections of sacred
writings such as the Brahmanas and Sutras.
4. The names of all the principal gods of the Vedic
pantheon may be recognized in the 'Aryan' Hittite
inscriptions at Boghazkeui dating from the fourteenth
century B.C.
51. 5. Earlier, Siva and Vishnu were separately worshipped
in the triune aspects of Creator, Preserver,
and Destroyer. The final development of the Trinity
including Brahma was probably a compromise to
resolve sectarian disputes.
52. 6. The word Brahmin, although a corruption of the
Sanskrit Brahman, is a convenient one to designate the
highest caste. It should not be confused with the
words Brdhmana, an early liturgical text, or Brahma,
the first member of the Hindu trinity. The word
Brahmanic is occasionally used as a synonym for
Hindu, and Brahmanism for Hinduism.
53. 7. By definition a Buddha (Enlightened One) is a
being who has in countless earlier incarnations added
to his store of merit by which in his ultimate life on