Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas

Arts of the Indian Subcontinent and the Himalayas

An extraordinary range of cultures and art arose on the Indian subcontinent, which today includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. From the southern tip of India to the Tibetan plateau, diverse traditions that emerged over millennia were sustained and enlivened by cultural interactions.

Most surviving ancient art relates to the three world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism—that arose in India. Although each religious tradition understands ultimate reality to be formless, each also reveres gods, goddesses, and enlightened teachers who assume myriad accessible forms for their devotees. The art of depicting the divine body was thus of paramount importance. Artists created divine images that reveal fluid boundaries between human lives, the natural world, and the cosmos.

Worship at a Stupa

At the end of the Buddha's life, his cremated remains were placed in stupas (large hemispherical mounds) that became major sites for pilgrimage. This relief from the Bharhut stupa railing depicts two devotees circumambulating a garland-covered stupa and clasping their hands in the gesture of adoration. The sculptors represented each worshiper multiple times to convey movement over time and through space.

From the railing of the Bharhut Stupa India, state of Madhya Pradesh, Shunga dynasty, early 2nd century BCE Sandstone Purchase F1932.26

A Royal Couple Visits the Buddha

From the railing of the Bharhut Stupa

At the center of this panel, a thick flower garland adorns a wheel that is located above an empty flower-strewn throne. Together, these symbols represent the Buddha and his teachings. For centuries after the historical Buddha transcended the cycle of rebirth (samsara), artists refrained from depicting his human form. Instead, they portrayed the presence of the Buddha with thrones he had sat upon, trees he had meditated under, and paths he had walked.

India, state of Madhya Pradesh, Shunga dynasty, early 2nd century BCE Sandstone Purchase F1932.25

Four Scenes from the Life of Buddha - Panel 1

The Birth of the Buddha

The Buddha was born in a grove outside Lumbini, Nepal. In this panel, the Hindu god Indra attends the Buddha's miraculous birth from his mother's side and proffers a swaddling cloth. Queen Maya grasps a tree in a traditional Indic pose. She has the garments and hair style of a Roman matron. Gandhara was a cosmopolitan crossroads where several artistic traditions came together.

Pakistan-Afghanistan, ancient Gandhara Kushan dynasty, late 2nd—early 3rd century Schist Purchase F1949.9

Four Scenes from the Life of Buddha - Panel 2

The Enlightenment

After meditating for forty days beneath a pipal tree in Bodh Gaya, the Buddha approached the moment of omniscience. Evil demons, including two toppled soldiers beneath the Buddha's seat, have failed to distract him. Calmly lowering his right hand, the Buddha touches the earth goddess to witness his attainment of enlightenment. He is also depicted with the characteristic forehead mole (urna) and cranial bump (ushnisha) that symbolize his immense spiritual capacity.

Pakistan-Afghanistan, ancient Gandhara Kushan dynasty, late 2nd—early 3rd century Schist Purchase F1949.9

Four Scenes from the Life of Buddha - Panel 3

The First Sermon at the Deer Park in Sarnath

Surrounded by ascetics and deities, the Buddha raises one hand in the gesture of reassurance as he offers his first teaching at Deer Park in Sarnath. The wheel and animals on his throne represent, respectively, his teachings and the sermon's location in a Deer Park. His fine, symmetrical features, wavy topknot, and naturalistically draped monk's robe were adopted from the vocabulary of Greco-Roman art.

Pakistan-Afghanistan, ancient Gandhara Kushan dynasty, late 2nd—early 3rd century Schist Purchase F1949.9

Four Scenes from the LIfe of Buddha - Panel 4

Parinirvana

According to Buddhist traditions, the Buddha, at the age of eighty, lay down between two shala trees in Kushinagar and abandoned his physical body to enter the blissful state of nirvana. Only the first shala tree is visible here; the second was depicted on the now-missing right section. By depicting the Buddha lying on his side, artists clearly distinguished his liberation from the cycle of rebirth from an image of ordinary death.

Pakistan-Afghanistan, ancient Gandhara Kushan dynasty, late 2nd—early 3rd century Schist Purchase F1949.9

Head of a lion

Because the Buddha was born a prince of the Shakya (lion) clan, lions often appear on early Buddhist monuments. Although a fragment, this sensitively modeled head conveys noble strength. It was originally situated atop a gateway leading to the great stupa (reliquary mound) at Amaravati. Seen from below, the king of beasts would have indeed appeared a mighty protector of the Buddhist faith.

From a gateway pillar at the Amaravati Stupa India, state of Andhra Pradesh, Amaravati Satavahana dynasty, 2nd century CE Limestone Transfer from the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution F1978.34

Lower part of a nagaraja (serpent-king)

The thick coils behind this figure's legs identify him as a serpent-king. Believed to dwell within splendid kingdoms below lakes and rivers, serpent-kings were absorbed into the Hindu and Buddhist religions as semidivine protectors and devotees. The nagaraja probably stood on a low base outside the gates of a Buddhist stupa (reliquary mound) or a monastery. Its coils emphasize the robust monumentality typical of sculpture from Mathura, the southern capital of the Kushan dynasty. In the northern region of the Kushan dynasty (mid-first to third century CE), a different style, exemplified by the Gandharan reliefs that we saw earlier, emerged simultaneously.

India, state of Uttar Pradesh, Mathura Kushan dynasty, 1st-2nd century CE Sikri sandstone Purchase F1969.3

Standing Buddha

During the Gupta dynasty, sculptors created an image of the Buddha that became a model for Buddhist art throughout Asia. They merged an interest in robust human bodies seen in the serpent-king from Mathura with the graceful nuance of Gandharan sculpture. The result is a balance of humanity and transcendence. The style is exemplified in the radiating string folds of this monastic garment, which simultaneously reveals the body of the Buddha and dematerializes it through pattern.

India, state of Uttar Pradesh, Mathura Gupta dynasty, 320-485 Sandstone Purchase F1994.17

Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion

As Indian Buddhists developed new paths for attaining enlightenment, Buddhist imagery became more varied. In the early years of the Common Era, the bodhisattva, an enlightened being dedicated to alleviating suffering, emerged as a spiritual paradigm and a focus of worship. Associated with Mahayana (Great Vehicle) teachings, bodhisattvas wear princely garb and smile compassionately.

This sweetly smiling Avalokiteshvara with fish-curved eyes extends one palm in the gesture of generosity. In his other hand, the bodhisattva of compassion holds a lotus in full blossom.

The bronze was created shortly after the Buddhist ruler Yeshe Ö (947-1024) invited scholars and artists from Kashmir to revitalize Buddhism within his kingdom in western Tibet. Its sculptor clearly delighted in balancing fluidly realized limbs and naturalistic elements, such as the draped antelope skin, with the linear abstractions of a lotus-petal belly and trilobed neck.

West Tibet, Ngari Guge kingdom, 1000-1050 Brass alloy with copper and tin inlay, colored wax, traces of gilding, and pigment Purchase F2001.2a-d

Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi as the Goddess Parvati

Artists' treatises outlined archetypal metaphors, such as pliant bamboo-shoot arms, for the depiction of goddesses, but the texts also stipulated perfectly straight shoulders for deities, as can be seen in the images of Shiva in this gallery. Here, sloping shoulders and a regal expression suggest that this is a portrait-sculpture of Queen Sembiyan Mahadevi. She is adorned like the goddess Parvati, who is known as Uma in south India. Sembiyan Mahadevi's son commissioned the sublimely graceful bronze to be carried in temple processions on her birthday.

India, state of Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, ca. 990 Bronze Purchase PI929.84

Shiva Vinadhara (Holder of the Vina)

The figure's eloquently swaying pose captures the spirit of Shiva Vinadhara, who is revered as the essence of sound and the deity who brought music to the world. Shiva's two front hands are poised to play the lutelike vina, while his rear hands hold aloft his loyal antelope companion and battle-ax. The smoothly worn front surface results from the precious substances, such as milk, poured upon the deity in worship. The rear of the sculpture reveals its original detailed surface.

India, state of Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, ca. 950 Bronze Purchase F1997.28

Child-Saint Sambandar

This delightfully plump, dancing child is dynamic from every angle. Born in the seventh century in a south Indian town, Sambandar sang his first devotional verse as a young child in a temple courtyard. After a golden cup of milk miraculously appeared in his hand, he explained its source by pointing upwards, the gesture seen here, towards an image of the goddess Parvati. The child-saint's four thousand verses are still sung today, and his image is honored within all major south Indian temples devoted to Shiva.

India, state of Tamil Nadu, Chola dynasty, 12th century Bronze Purchase F1976.5

Garland of sacred double seeds

Rudraksha beads are sacred to the god Shiva, and many diminutive images of lingams, the abstract and most sacred form of this deity, adorn the necklace.The double Nandi (Shiva's bull vehicle) on the gold pendant echoes the rare double-rudraksha seeds with which the garland is strung. On the upper part of the pendant, the goddess Parvati worships her husband in his lingam form.

India, state of Tamil Nadu, late 19th—early 20th century Gold, double rudraksha seeds, diamonds, and rubies Purchase F1990.8