The Theory Of Greek Influence On Indian Art - 2
Katha - Vivekananda Kendra
Nothing
is clearer at Ajanta, than the existence of two separate and
almost divergent ways of treating the Buddha. One of these we see
in the Buddha of the Shrines, which represents the moment of the
First Sermon at Benares. Buddha is seated on his throne, and Devas
are flying into the halo behind his heas. On the predella below
his seat are the symbolic animals, and in their midst the Wheel of
the Law. The dress of the Master is the Indian Chuddar of fine
white muslin. And in some form or other there is always a
suggestion of the lotus in the throne, although it may take form
of folds of drapery. In all these respects we have a very distinct
approach to the type of Buddha which is fixed in our minds as
representative of Sarnath and also of Sanchi. The face here is
characterised by a much greater masulinity than that of
Sarnath-whose ostentatious technical perfection shows it to be a
late example of the style -but there are all the same elements in
the composition as a whole: the flying Devas, the wheel, the
lotus, and the halo; and the dress is of the same fine and barely
visible order. In Number Fifteen, especially, a greatly hightened
beauty is obtained by the fact that the halo is detached from the
head of the figure, thus producing a shadow, which gives an air of
life and freedom to the statue. This is only one out of many signs
that the type is not rigidly fixed, but is to be seen at Ajanta as
at Sanchi or Sarnath itself, playing round a general symbolistic
convention. This Buddha is integral to Caves Seven, Eleven,
Fifteen, Sixteen, and Seventeen, at any rate, and about the fact
that these caves precede Cave Nineteen in date, there can be no
doubt. A similar type of Buddha is also integral to the series of
CAves numbered Six to One, but since it is probable that these
were excavated after Seventeen, we dare not base upon them any
argument which might depend upon their being anterior to Nineteen.
Therefore, we shall here rely upon the Sarnath Buddha, as found
during the evolution of the type, in Caves Eleven to Seventeen
only.
With Cave Nineteen we come suddenly upon a new type. Here the
Buddha on the great Dagoba is standing in what is now commonly
known as the teaching attitude; though in truth the mons and their
students who used the Vihara, probably thought of the attitude of
the First Sermon as that of the teaching Buddha. Be this as it
may, the standing Buddha of the Dagoba is clothed in a choga over
and above his muslin underclothing. And this choga is not unlike
the garment also to be found on the glod coins of Kanishka. It is
in truth a yellow robe, and not merely the yellow cloth, of the
Buddhist monk. It is in any case a clear and indubitable sign of
the intercourse between Ajanta and the colder regions of the
north-western India, and marks the influence of the latter at this
particular moment upon the Buddhist symbolism of Central India.
This influence is borne out in many ways by subordinate evidence,
into which we need not enter at present. The point now is, Had
India already owed the idea of the Sarnath Buddha itself to this
same stream of north-west influence on her arts?
Ordinarily speaking, we are accustomed to take for granted that an
artistic style has arisen more or less in the neighbourhood of the
place in which we find it. It requires no argument to convince us
that Velasquez was the product of Spain or Titian of Venice. Even
if we had not been informed of this we should have assumed it. To
this rule, however, India has so far been an exception. The
synthetic study of her past suffers from having been largely
initiated by foreigners. The modern method has been forced upon
the country from outside, and it is diffcult for outsiders to
believe that the same thing has not happened before, that it is
not indeed somewhat distinctive of Indian development. The German
scholar Grunwedel, writing on Buddhist art, reiterates his sincere
conviction over and over again that India derives her new impulses
from foreign sources. Fergusson, with the prepossessions of his
long work for Indian architecture fresh upon him, finds more
difficulty in minimising the purely native elements in Buddhist
art, and though not untouched, is yet vastly less impressed by the
pre-eminence of Gandhara type, when he comes upon them, than are
his sucessors. And perhps it is useful to know that neither of
these writers is so assured of the negligibility of the
indigenous contributions to Buddhistic symbolism as the lastest of
all, Mr.Vincent Smith, in his Early History of India. This is
worth mentioning, because it may serve to remind us that even in
as matter which has seemed so fixed and determined as this of the
Gandharan influence on Buddha types, we really have to deal rather
with a strong the cumulative drift of opinion or prejudice or
preconception - as we may choose to call it- than with established
facts. Vincent Smith is not better able to form an opinion than
Fergusson. Indeed he is less fit in many ways; yet his opinion is
much more fixed. What the one man threw out as a tentative
suggestion ther other uses as if it were an axiom. Evidently even
the best of us is apt to believe as he would with, or as he has
prepared himself to think, and there is a large fraction of
predespositon in every robst conviction. Therefore the formidable
concensus of opinion which at present exits on teh origin of
Buddhist iconography, does not in the leaset exonerate us from
examining carefully the grounds of that opinion. On the contrary,
it rather challenges us to do so. Of the three famous names cited,
it is precisely that of him who attaches least importance to
foreign influences in Buddhist art. And it is the man who knows
least of Indian art at first hand, and is presumably most
influenced by popular opinion, who delivers it over most
cheerfully to a foreign origin and the assumption of native
inadequacy and incompetence.
The main theme of my life is to take the message of Sanatana Dharma to every home and pave the way for launching, in a big way, the man-making programme preached and envisaged by great seers like Swami Vivekananda. - Mananeeya Eknathji
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