Book review: R. Mahalakshmi,ed.,Art and History: Texts,Contexts and Visual Representations in Ancient and Early Medieval India

The book under review moves beyond conventional approaches to art historical studies in Early India, undertaking a combined method of study. This is an important academic departure which will attract scholars of Indian history and general readers of Indian art. The concept and coinage of the expression ‘combined method’ is based on D.D. Kosambi’s pioneering work. Art, especially in early Indian history, occupies a very significant position from the points of view of interpretation and reconstruction, and scholars in the past have brought out varied facets of this genre. Edited by R. Mahalakshmi, this is a collection of essays by fifteen scholars with themes that blend art and history. The authors have analysed the intersection between these two fields through multiple lenses of textual descriptions, contextualizing textual data, and visual representations in the time bracket of the ancient and early medieval periods in Indian history.

In the introductory portion, the editor has discussed the pioneers of Indian histories of art, addressing the question of spirituality and art, as well as the very important issues of artistic prescription and execution, artists and patronage. These issues are reflected in the central themes of the book around which all the essays have been woven: texts, contexts, and visual representations. All the essays in this collection highlight the visual element, strengthening their arguments through additional information from varied genres of texts and contextualizing data to give a better picture of the historical context.

The first set of four essays revolves around the theme ‘Visualizing Power: Sacred and Temporal’, with two essays focusing on numismatic sources by Suchandra Ghosh and Dev Kumar Jhanjh, and the other two by Niharika K. Sankrityayan and Mahalakshmi, focusing on iconography with an emphasis on thematic issues. Ghosh, in her essay ‘Power of Image and Image of Power in the Indo-Iranian Borderland: Case Studies of Bactrian Greeks and the Indo-Greeks’, focuses on the period between the second century bce to third century ce. She highlights the selected area as a polyethnic zone and shows how the porosity of the borderlands allowed foreign powers to enter through this space. The essay discusses the cosmopolitan ambience of the borderland where multiple contrasting powers coexist with and contest against each other amidst political turmoil and conflict. The author uses the visual symbolism of the numismatic evidence to show their impact on the communication of messages by the royal authority. Royal portraits as imageries of power and the mode of communicating messages to the subjects to shape power was achieved by the rulers,who were supposedly outsiders or foreign powers. The essay successfully brings out the visual impact of these small peripatetic numismatic specimens as political statements and cultural signifiers. Dev Kumar Jhanjh’s essay ‘The Ābhīraka Coin: Search for a New Identity’ focuses on the coins of an ethnic group in the north-western part of the subcontinent, that is, the Ābhīrakas. The author focuses on the visual element of the numismatic specimens they issued, and contextually uses the textual data and the coin devices to trace the new identity of this migrating power. However, an exploration of the evolution of the reverse device and its typological progression could have taken this essay further. The third essay by Niharika K. Sankrityayan also focuses on a single power—that of the Cālukyas of Badami—and for visual representation, opts to discuss the Brahmanical iconography in their temples. She discusses how an emergent power uses the patronage of religious institutions as a tool to expand state power. Connotations of Śiva images in Cālukyan architecture have been discussed, along with how the kings used visual representations of divine imageries to convey the supernatural power of political authority. The author carefully and skilfully discusses puṇya and politics, temple urbanism, and the concept of legitimization. The final essay in this segment is by the editor herself and, chronologically in sequence, focuses on early medieval Tamil Nadu. An excellent essay on an unexpected linkage between art and irrigation, the paper has been aptly titled ‘Controlling the Waters: Divine Imagery and Royal Enterprise in Early Medieval Tamil Nadu’. It deals with the visual representation of Śiva as Gaṅgādhara and focuses on the river Ganges and its depiction in the southern part of the subcontinent: far away from its geographical locale. The discussion opens with a thesis on the Asiatic mode of production, and a rich historiography. This research is made interesting by the portions in which the author discusses the emergence of local goddesses associated with water and irrigation, myths of Gaṅgādhara, and the description of the king Rājendra Cōḻa ‘bringing’ Gaṅgā to South India as Kāverakanyakā. The essay reflects on the power of flowing water and the symbolic visual element of water, corroborating it with textual and mythological elements. It is highly interesting how the author associates this with the management of water resources for kingship and state power, and further with state formation. The interplay of power and benevolence comes out distinctly in this well-articulated and erudite essay. Though the dominance of a river from the northern part of the subcontinent in the peninsular south is hinted at throughout the essay, it does not drive the discussion.

The next segment is titled ‘Conceptualizing the Divine Feminine: Forms, Meanings and Symbols’. This portion includes three essays. The first one, by Sneha Ganguly, entitled ‘Giving Ākāra to the Goddess: Kālī in Textual and Visual Traditions’ focuses on visual representations of Kālī, intertwining them with textual data from Puranic sources. Anthropomorphism, Kālī’s dark texture and its connotations, Puranic myths regarding Kālī, and the shaping of Kālī’s iconography are discussed. The next paper by Megha Yadav moves in time and addresses a different religious genre: ‘Prajñāpāramitā: The Making of the First Buddhist Goddess’. It shows that by the end of fifth century ce, the philosophical concept of Prajñāpāramitā transformed into an iconographic form worshipped mainly by the Mahayanists. The figure of the goddess is studied as a personification of wisdom, speech, and state of mind and her different forms are brought out. The essay discusses the development of aṣṭasāhasrikā (8,000) to pañcaviṁśatisāhasrikā (25,000) the shaping of the iconography. However, the author overlooks the existence of and influences from parallel non-Buddhist traditions. The last essay in this segment is ‘Representation of Sixteen Mahāvidyās in the Dilwara Jaina Temple’ by Virendra Singh Bithoo, which focuses on a set of sixteen Mahāvidyās sculpted on the Jaina temples of Rajasthan at Dilwara, constructed in the thirteenth–fourteenth century ce. It begins with a discussion on the concept of vidyās in Jainism and textual references to the mahāvidyās. Then the author discusses nāmi and vināmi narratives, which needed more clarification for readers not well-versed with these traditions. He also analyses the representation of mahāvidyās in the Dilwara temple and the gradual increase in the numbers of arms of the mahāvidyās. Besides the visual element, the author also discusses philosophical reasons for the depiction of these sculptures in this temple. The Jaina concept of the three jewels and temple architecture have also been discussed here, but it is not clear how and why the author wants to associate the description of the three parts of the temple architecture with the concept of the three jewels.

The book moves on to the next theme,which focuses on ‘Religious Traditions, Visual Representations and Regional Contexts’. It opens with a brilliant essay by V. Selvakumar entitled ‘Icons and Patterns of Worship from the Fringes of South India: The Religious Landscape of Northern Tamil Nadu’. The essay focuses on the images outside the main settlement in frontier/border areas, or along the water tanks which the author terms ‘fringe’. These sculptures range from local deities to Puranic gods and goddesses, hero stones, rock art sites, shrines under trees and natural forms. Shrines, temples, megalithic burials, and memorials form a composite religious landscape. He draws our attention to the continuity of the sacred spaces of the early pre-agrarian societies centering around natural forces, which feature even in the medieval and modern periods. Along with the deities, he also discusses the saints from these fringes and their association with religious complexes within and outside the ‘fringe’. The author finally proceeds to discuss the religious context of hills and caves and shows how hills gained importance due to their water resources and locational command over their surroundings. Interestingly, the author argues that the concept of divinities gained cognate form in the period between the prehistoric to the early historic, whereas these divinities gained a proper iconographic form in the early medieval period, when ideas and concepts from North India also blended, and the evolution can be traced. The archaeology of early medieval Tamil Nadu has been largely neglected in comparison to epigraphic and architectural studies. Based on an onomastic chrono-cultural study, he demonstrates that in the early historic period, villages were named after natural markers such as hills, flora, and fauna from the locality or vicinity. However, from the time of the Pallavas, the kings made an organized effort to create religio-cultural landscapes by naming temples cities and tanks after the ruler. Selvakumar shows how temples became powerful mediums for asserting the king’s authority on landscapes. Finally, the essay discusses the integration of the non-brāhmaṇa and marginalized social groups, and the role of the Bhakti Movement in the early medieval phase.

The next essay is by Umakanta Mishra, titled ‘From Virajᾱ Tīrtha to “Allegorical” Nᾱbhi Gayᾱ: Exploring the Changing Religious Landscape of Jajpur (Sixth to Fourteenth Centuries ce)’. He sifts through epico-puranic literature and archaeological evidence to explore the religious landscape of this site in Odisha,and traces its conversion from a multi-religious site into a Vaishnavite religious centre. The paper discusses the evolution of Virajā-Kṣetra as a religious and political centre in four chronological phases, by tracing the religious landscape from the fifth to eighth centuries ce, then discussing the coexistence and Śaiva– Buddha equations under the Bhaumakaras, in the eighth to tenth centuries ce, and then focusing on the Śaiva–Śākta assertion and evidence of animosity between the Brahmanical religion and Buddhism during the realm of the Somavaṁśīns, from the tenth to twelfth centuries ce. Finally, he discusses Nābhi Gayā, Vaiṣṇava domination and the emergence of the Jagannātha cult at Jajpur in the thirteenth/fourteenth centuries ce. The last paper in this segment is based on a set of Buddhist images and their patronage, focusing on the site of Kurkihar in Bihar. In her essay ‘Donors of Kurkihar Images: An Investigation into Their Socioeconomic Background’, Sayantani Pal brings forth epigraphic records to read the patronage issues and movements of the donors of these sculptures. She also traces the socio-economic background of these donors. In addition, religious networks and connections have been mapped by reading the interactions of the members of the locality with outsiders, especially monks and nuns from South India.

The next theme is ‘Social Imaginaries and the Ocular’, which includes three essays. ‘The Marriage Rite of Śiva-Pᾱrvati: Specimens of Early Medieval Indian Temple Art’ by Neha Singh addresses the issues of marriage, monogamy,and childbirth from social perspectives. In this context, the author brings in the myths and depictions of Śiva, Satī, Pārvatī, and the birth of Skanda, Harihara and Ardhanārīśvara. This essay focuses on the representation of Kalyāṇasundara in sculptures and the ritual of Pāṇigrahaṇa. Singh discusses the institution of marriage and attestation of the ideal forms of marriage through prescriptive texts and visual representations. The second essay, by Sujata Rakshit, is titled ‘Imagery of Lovemaking: Representation of the Erotic Body in the Temples of Early Medieval Odisha’. Rakshit discusses eroticism and beauty through an in-depth analysis of the erotic art in the religious architecture of early medieval Odisha. The last essay in this segment is by Malavika Binny, ‘Of Men, Stones and Stories: Revisiting the Vīrakals of South India’and begins with a brief survey of secondary literature on hero stones. Binny uses literary sources to discuss the social and occupational aspects of the dead persons whose memorials had been raised. The author very interestingly brings in forests and hills, where there is a profusion of such hero stones, and discusses the locations, iconographic aspects, and varied functionalities of these stones or stone monuments even beyond their sepulchral and commemorative angles. This essay gives us a glimpse into the early historic society of South India and helps us to read the psyche, approach, perception and understanding of the people who raised these stones. The author also touches upon late medieval and early modern hero stones. She critically analyses these so-called hero stones and Satī stones to show that even death can be read from a gendered perspective.

The last thematic segment is on ‘Prescriptions and Representations’ and includes two essays by Anisha Saxena and Y. S. Alone. The former gives a very interesting title to her essay: ‘The Gaṇa Who Consumed Himself: Kīrtimukha in North Indian Literature and Art, 400 ce–900 ce’. This huge time bracket has been selected to carry out a detailed survey of the mythical Kīrtimukhas depicted in the temples and their description in the Puranic texts. The essay highlights the myths regarding the origin of the Kīrtimukhas and the different styles of representation of the Kīrtimukhas in early temples. It shows that the motif in the Buddhist context was mainly a decorative element and is successful in bringing out the changing connotation of the visual representation of this architectural motif. The last essay in this collection is by Yashadatta Alone, and is an example of erudite scholarship and immense rigour. This essay is about the ‘Buddhist Theory of Representation’, a less analysed topic and a valuable addition to the study of Buddhist art and philosophy. It discusses the philosophical angle and is highly valuable for a student of Buddhist philosophy and theories. However, the essay does not blend smoothly into the intersection of art and history.

This book is a welcome addition to the field of historical analysis of art as it succeeds in capturing different types of creative expressions in varied contexts. The diversity of sources converges in the integrated approach of taking visual representations not merely as a supplement but as a recognized element of interpretation. This approach makes the book interesting and refreshing.