Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

ARCHITECTURE

Gaya is the greatest and the most sacred shrine to the glory of Lord Buddha. On the banks of the river Niranjana, it was here that Sakyamuni Gautama attained su- preme knowledge to become Bud- dha, "The Enlightened One". The Bodhi tree is now marked by a raised platform. This temple is unique in India, for instead of the usual curvilinear contours it has a spire in the shape

In cave 5, a large-scale representation of Varaha, the incarna- tion of Vishnu, appears with the body of a man but the head of a boar lifting the earth (personified as the female goddess, Prithvi). The relief may be read literally as the story of the rescue of the earth and in the secular realm it has been suggested that the representation of Ganga and Yamuna on either side symbolises the region of Madhyadesa, heartland of the Gupta empire, while the Gupta king (especially Chandragupta) are similar to Varaha, who rescued his people. Often, political meanings are hidden in religious imagery, and are not contradictory. The object of worship in Cave 4 is the ekamukhalinga; the linga being a dramatic symbol of Shiva with a representation of one or more human heads. It implies the unifica- tion of the sexual energy of the universe with the intellect. The growing popularity of Hinduism led to the construction of temples dedicated to various Hindu deities throughout north and north-central India. Ritual needs, sectarian differences and re- gional patterns necessitated the development of individual types. The Sanchi temple was an example of an early type of Gupta temple but by the end of the fifth century A.D. the Vishnu temple at Deogarh shows considerable advancement in the development of Hindu temple architecture. It anticipates the development of the northern-style sikhara. The main shrine occupies the centre of a square plinth and originally 4 subsidiary shrines were present, one at each comer of the plinth, called Panchyatana type (5 shrines). The elaborate temple consists of Mithunas (couples) on doorways, guardians, river goddesses and all the standard iconography on a Hindu temple doorway. The major sculptures are those of Vishnu Narayana as Anantasayana, Nara Narayana and Gajendramoksa. In the Anantasayana relief, the four-armed Vishnu reposes on the serpent (Sesa) while from his navel emerges the 4-faced creator Brahma (3 are visible) signifying the beginning of the creation of the creator. The story of Gajendramoksha is concerning a king who had. been changed into an elephant (Gajendra) by a curse. When a crocodile seized the leg of the elephant, the struggle lasted for a 1000 years till the elephant invoked Narayana and was saved. After the disintegration of the Gupta political state (mainly due to the invasion of the Hunas) regional patterns along linguistic, ar- tistic and cultural lines increasingly became the hallmark of Indian civilisation. Bengal

of a pyramid. Four smallertowers at the corners of the basement were added later togive balance to the original structure. Inside the shrine sits a huge gilded Buddha, his handstouching the earth. Legend has it that the Buddha called the earth to witness the austerities he practised to attain enlightenment. There is an unbe- lievable peace that pervades the atmosphere, giving credence to the legend. The monastic establishment at Nalanda was an inter- national seat of learning and liberal scholarship where there now exists a stupa temple No. 3, which is a product of several different phases of construction, consisting of decorative stucco figures of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. In western India in the wake of the decline of the Guptas, arose Hindu art,especially during the Maitraka dynasty when over 100 temples in Saurashtra were built although manyare now in ruins. The invasion of the Arabs was only a prelude to the large-scale advent of Muslims whose iconoclastic zeal was a leading cause for the decline in the production of monumental art in north India. The regional art here is due to the merging of the earlier Gandhara and Gupta styles. Unique sculptures at Samalaji

(especially in the rep-

resentationof Vishnu Visvarupa 8- armed, 4-

faced seated on An-

anta) shows the trend toward elaboration. As Visvarupa (hav- ing all forms) Vishnu appears as the Universal in whom all things are em- bodied and from whom all things emanate. This is described in the Bhagavat Gita a work appended

emerged as a force in Buddhism helped by Buddhists from other parts of Asia, such as China and S.E. Asia. By the Pala period (8th century A.D.) many Buddhist establishments or viharas dotted the region of modern Bihar. Although most of the sculp- tures of the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. have been lost there are those in stone at the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya owning debt to Sar- nath idioms. In Bodh

Ma-

to

the

habharata

when

Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna in a form that embodies every aspect of the universe. While such a vision is impossible to portray in art, the artist has 'tried to suggest the multiplicity inherent in it. Mahayana Buddhism entered into a very active period (concur- ring with the emergence of production of Hindu temples) in western India under the Vakatakas. The spectacular efflorescence at Ajanta