Amaravati art

The book is an exploration of ancient Indian art from the perspective of gender. It focuses on the period from 180BCE to CE 320-  a period of great turmoil in the politico-economic, socio-cultural and religious sphere that gave rise to contesting ideologies and gender complexities in ancient India. it delves into the development of engendered representations in art, with the emergence of aesthetic and sexual archetypes and stereotypes of women: goddesses, mother, wives, nuns, semi divine yaksis, ogresses and others. It examines the nature of these archetypes and stereotypes that were constructed on basis of gender roles and how these were reflected by various attributes of the representations; nudity or its absence, ornamentation, gestures, direction of the gaze and context. it delves into notions of agency, patronage, intention and patronage patterns in early Indian art.

The present book explores a revelatory Andharan style relief recently discovered in Sri Lanka. This groundbreaking work adds to the growing body of archaeological evidence of important exchanges between the Buddhists of Sri Lanka and their co-religionists in the Krishna Valley. This relief is the most ancient document attested to date depicting the events that took place during the first seven weeks following the enlightenment of the Buddha. Its unique iconography leads the author to closely examine contradictions between literary evidence and visual representations of what is known as the sambodhi, or “perfect awakening” of the Buddha. According to the classic Buddhist texts the Mahāvastu and the Lalitavistara, the Buddha spent seven weeks after his enlightenment near the Bodhi tree. By contrast, the Buddhist canonical text the Vinaya-Piṭaka describes this period as only four weeks long. Sri Lankan and Burmese artists have preferred to depict the seven-week account. Furthermore, the “seven-week” motif depicted in this Andharan relief follows the chronological order given in the important Pāli texts the Nidānakathā and the Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa. The textual confusions and artistic contradictions excavated by this book uncover a bigger picture of the complex ways in which the story of the Buddha’s story was imagined in the earliest period of recorded Buddhist history. The present study is the first in a series of books by this author on Buddhist art.

The article discusses coins of the Sada dynasty, the precursors to the Satavahanas and early patrons of the Buddhist monuments of the 'Amaravati' School. It focuses on re-attribution of a number of Sada coins, giving an historical overview of their finds and reportage, and outlines their role in the monetary environs that sustained the building of the monuments.

In the early 1960s the German Indologist Klaus Bruhn noticed that an image of Vardhamāna Mahāvīra was on auction in the Hamburg-based auction house Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, although it should be in a temple on a mountain south of Rajgir, Bihar. In a short note on ‘The Safety of Indian Art’ (1961) – as his text was titled – he challenged the view “that a piece of art is safer in some big collection than in the Indian countryside”. He prophesied that the growing demand for works of Indian art will result in further cases of mutilation and displacement. During his research on the decorative panels of the Stūpa near Chandavaram, the present author realized that Bruhn’s prophecy had come true in the early 2000s. A number of museums, including the site museum near the Chandavaram Stūpa, had been repeatedly raided by brutal bands of robbers. The author was successful in tracing down one of the stolen artifacts in the National Gallery of Australia. The piece had been stolen from Chandavaram in 2001, was provided with a fake list of previous owners and sold to the NGA, who named it ‘Worshippers of the Buddha’. After having been informed about the real provenance of the relief the NGA returned it to India within a few months. Since the theft of the piece in 2001 had not been reported to Interpol, the very few published images of the Stūpa’s excavation made it hard to connect the ‘Worshippers of the Buddha’ with Chandavaram. Other objects that were stolen around the same time would have been found already, if the images of the excavation had properly been published.

A figure showing a fleur de lis design on the top of the head is associated with Indra on two interesting reliefs from Nāgārjunakoṇḍa. The flower motif on the head is very similar to the half part of the vajra as it is depicted on some panels from the Buddhist Andhra sites. There are many clear analogies between this image and the iconography of the āyudhapuruṣa, the personification of divine weapons, and the author suggests identifying this figure with an unusual example of vajrapuruṣa, the anthropomorphic vajra. Generally, the earliest images of the āyudhapuruṣas are believed to be those found in Udayagiri, cave 6, dating back to the early Gupta period. Nevertheless, if the interpretation of these specimens from Nāgārjunakoṇḍa as vajrapuruṣa is correct, it shows that the personification of the divine attributes was already known at least one century before. The author traces the textual references to vajrapuruṣa and describes the few examples of this subject found in Indian and Nepalese art, pointing out that this particular iconography, unlike other āyudhapuruṣas, is represented in Buddhist art.

Bopearachchi, Osmund. <em>Seven Weeks After the Buddha's Enlightenment: Contradictions in Text, Confusions in Art</em> (Delhi: Manohar, 2016). <br> Gautama Buddha -- Enlightenment.<br> Gautama Buddha. <br> Enlightenment (Buddhism)

The present book is the first of five volumes that I wish to publish in the near future on Śrī Laṅkān art. The next book will be on the sculptures of the Classical Period (5th-10th century CE). The third book will cover Buddhist and Hindu sculptures of the Polonnaruwa period (11th-13th century). The fourth one will be on the Yapahuwa and Kandiyan periods (13th-20th century). The final volume will focus on the mural paintings extending from the 2nd century to the 20th century CE.

Recent demands for the return of the Kohinoor have aroused interest in other Indian artefacts that were taken to Britain in the colonial period. Among these, the Amaravati sculptures are prominent. This article responds to a call for the repatriation of Amaravati sculptures by looking at the 'taking away' in historical context and discussing India's treatment of its own share of these sculptures