Art of Mathura
The "Katra stele".[1] Seated Bodhisattva Shakyamuni in Abhaya mudra, with inscription "Amoha-asi (...) erected this Bodhisattva".[2] Northern Satraps, end of 1st century CE.[3] This is the finest and best preserved of the so-called Kapardin statues.[4]
Mathura is located in South Asia
Mathura
Mathura
Location of the city of Mathura in India, centre of the development of Mathura art.

The Art of Mathura refers to a particular school of Indian art, almost entirely surviving in the form of sculpture, starting in the 2nd century BCE, which centred on the city of Mathura, in central northern India, during a period in which Buddhism, Jainism together with Hinduism flourished in India.[5] Mathura "was the first artistic center to produce devotional icons for all the three faiths",[6] and the pre-eminent centre of religious artistic expression in India at least until the Gupta period, and was influential throughout the sub-continent.[7]

Chronologically, Mathuran sculpture becomes prominent after Mauryan art, the art of the Mauryan Empire (322 and 185 BCE).[8] It is said to represent a "sharp break" with the previous Mauryan style, either in scale, material or style.[8] Mathura became India's most important artistic production center from the second century BCE, with its highly recognizable red sandstone statues being admired and exported all over India.[8] In particular, it was in Mathura that the distinctive Indian convention of giving sacred figures multiple body parts, especially heads and arms, first became common in art around the 4th century CE, initially exclusively in Hindu figures, as it derived from Vedic texts.[6]

The art of Mathura is often contrasted with the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, which developed from the 1st century CE.[8] In particular, there is a debate about the origin of the Buddha image and the role played by each school of art. Before the creation of an image of the Buddha, probably around the 1st century CE, Indian Buddhist art, as seen in Bharhut or Sanchi, had essentially been aniconic, avoiding representation of the Buddha, but rather relying on its symbols, such as the Wheel of the Law or the Bodhi tree.

Mathura continued to be an important centre for sculpture until Gupta art of the 4th to 6th centuries, if not beyond. After this time much of the sculpture was of Hindu figures.

History

Early history

Mathura anthropomorphological artefact. Copper Hoard culture (2nd millennium BCE). Mathura Museum.

Some very early depictions of deities seem to appear in the art of the Indus Valley Civilisation, but the following millennium, coinciding with the Indo-Aryan migration during the Vedic period, is devoid of such remains.[9] It has been suggested that the early Vedic religion focused exclusively on the worship of purely "elementary forces of nature by means of elaborate sacrifices", which did not lend themselves easily to anthropomorphological representations.[10][11] Various artefacts may belong to the Copper Hoard culture (2nd millennium BCE), some of them suggesting anthropomorphological characteristics.[12] Interpretations vary as to the exact signification of these artifacts, or even the culture and the periodization to which they belonged.[12] Some examples of artistic expression also appear in abstract pottery designs during the Black and red ware culture (1450–1200 BCE) or the Painted Grey Ware culture (1200–600 BCE), with finds in a wide area, including the area of Mathura.[12]

Most of the early finds at Mathura correspond to what is called the "second period of urbanization" in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, after a gap of about a thousand years following the collapse of the Indus Valley civilisation.[12] The anthropomorphic depiction of various deities apparently started in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, possibly as a consequence of the influx of foreign stimuli initiated with the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, and the rise of alternative local faiths challenging Vedism, such as Buddhism, Jainism and local popular cults.[9]

Mauryan period

Mathura seems to have been a comparatively unimportant city of central northern India during the period of the Maurya Empire (ca. 320–180 BCE), whose capital was in eastern India at Pataliputra, but it was still called a "great city" by Megasthenes.[13][8] Mauryan art and architecture flourished during that period in other cities such as Pataliputra, Kausambi, Vidisha or Amaravati, but there are no known examples of stone sculpture or architecture at Mathura that can be securely dated to the Mauryan period.[14][8] Excavations have shown that the first construction consisted in a mud wall, dating to the end of the Maurya period, around the 3rd century BCE at the earliest.[13] It seems Mathura only rose to prominence as a cultural and urban center around 150–100 BCE.[15]

Terracotta figurines (4th-2nd century BCE)

A terracotta votive figurine from Mathura. The wide hips and fantastic floral headdress suggest a devotion towards fertility and abundance. She has lotus stalks in her head, and children clinging to her.[16] Height: 25.7 cm (10.1 ″). Mathura, 3rd–2nd century BCE.[17]

Although no stone sculpture or architecture from the Mauryan period are known in Mathura, some relatively high quality terracotta statuettes have been recovered from the Mauryan strata in excavations.[18] This would suggest that there was some level of artistic creation at Mathura during the period of the Maurya Empire.[18] The creation of terracotta figurines is thought to have been much easier than sculpting stone, and therefore became the mainstream form of artistic expression.[19] In Mathura, the first statuette were found in strata dating to the late 4th-2nd centuries BCE, and their production, together with associated terracotta miniatures of votive tanks and shrines, seems to have continued for close to a thousand years.[20]

Terracottas generally showed what appears to be female deities or mother goddesses, and from the 2nd century women in elaborate headdress.[19][21] The ancient Vedic text of the Shatapatha Brahmana describes such figurines as "broad-hipped, of smooth breast-region and slender waisted" and suggests that they are personifications of the earth, especially the earth goddesses Prithivi and Aditi, as "the container and supporter of the whole world", and the "repository of all Gods".[16] Their headdress is often decorated with lotus stalks, complete with conical lotus pistils with their seeds, which symbolize fecundity and beauty.[16] The lotus would remain an attribute of female deities in later periods.[16] Some terracotta statuettes also show a child or children clinging to the goddess, thereby emphasizing her role as a symbol of fecundity.[16] The cult of these female goddesses, characterized by small and easily manufactured figures, appears to have been essentially domestic.[20]

Several figures of foreigners also appear in the terracottas from the 4th and 3rd century BCE, which are either described simply as "foreigners" or Persian or Iranian because of their foreign features.[22][23][24] These figurines might reflect the increased contacts of Indians with Iranian people during this period.[23] Several of these seem to represent foreign soldiers who visited India during the Mauryan period and influenced modellers in Mathura with their peculiar ethnic features and uniforms.[25] One of the terracotta statuettes, a man nicknamed the "Persian nobleman" and dated to the 2nd century BCE, can be seen wearing a coat, scarf, trousers and a turban.[26][27][28][22]

Terracotta figurine production evolved with the adoption of moulds in the 3rd–2nd century BCE.[29][19]

Early depictions of Indian deities (190–180 BCE)

Early depictions of Indian deities
Samkarshana, Vāsudeva and the female Goddess Ekanamsha shown in a rock painting at Tikla, near Mathura, 3rd–2nd century BCE.[30]
Indian deities Samkarshana and Vāsudeva on the coinage of the Indo-Greek king Agathocles, minted not far west of Mathura c. 190–180 BCE.[31][32][33] These are considered as "the earliest unambiguous" images of these deities.[34]

The anthropomorphic depiction of various deities apparently started to appear in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE. Panini and Patanjali seem to mention depictions of Shiva, Skanda, Visaka, Vāsudeva-Krishna and Arjuna.[35] In particularly, the worship of Balarama-Samkarshana and Vāsudeva-Krishna seems to have originated in Mathura, where they were revered as members of the five Vrishni heroes, and spread from there.[36]

Before the introduction of stone sculpture, there may have been an older tradition of using clay or wood to represent Indian deities, which, because of their inherent fragility, have not survived.[37] Apart from the local terracotta figurines generally showing female fertility deities, there are no early remains of such representations of Indian deities. Probably the earliest known Indian depiction of these Mathuran deities is a rock painting found at Tikla, around 170 kilometers south of Mathura, on the road from Mathura to Tumain and Ujjain.[30] This rock painting is dated to the 3rd–2nd century BCE, based on the paleography of the Brahmi inscription accompanying it.[30] Here, the deities are depicted wearing a dhoti with a peculiar headdress, and are shown holding their attributes: a plow and a sort of mace for Balarama, and a mace and a wheel for Vāsudeva. A third smaller character is added, forming what can be called a Vrishni trio, in the person of a female, thought to be the Goddess Ekanamsha, who seems to hold a Chatra royal umbrella.[30]

The "earliest unambiguous" images of these deities, is an indirect testimony appearing with the coinage of the Indo-Greek king Agathocles, who issued coins with the image of Indian deities in Indian style, together with legends in the Greek and Brahmi scripts, circa 180–190 BCE.[34][33][38][32] The coins were probably issued in an area not far west of Mathura, if not in Mathura itself, since they depict Vāsudeva, whose cult was famous in Mathura, and employ the Brahmi script, which was in use in the region, rather than the northwestern Kharoshthi script.[31] The Indo-Greeks may have played a major role in breaking the Vedic tradition of representing deities through symbols only, rather than in human form, since Greek art did not have any such restrictions.[11]

The depictions of Indian deities, as witnessed by the Indo-Greeks transferred on their coinage, are generally thought to refer to Balarama-Samkarshana and Vāsudeva-Krishna, shown together with their rather unambiguous attributes, especially the Gada mace and the plow for the former, and the Vishnu attributes of the Shankha (a pear-shaped case or conch) and the Sudarshana Chakra wheel for the latter.[33][39] The worship of these deities is known to have originated in Mathura before spreading to other areas of India,[36][31] especially since Krishna and his brother Balarama were born in Mathura to the Vrishni king Vasudeva.[40] It is thought that local Indian images, predating the coins but now lost, may have served as models to the engravers.[39] According to Osmund Bopearachchi, the parasol-like headdress of these deities is actually a misrepresentation of a shaft with a half-moon parasol on top (chattra), as seen in later statues of Bodhisattvas in Mathura.[39] Although the style is generally Indian, the boots or the scabbards may have been added by the Indo-Greeks.[32] The heads of the deities are also adorned with billowing ribons.[32]

A dancing goddess in Indian dress also appears on the coinage of Agathocles and Pantaleon, and she is often interpreted as Lakshmi.[33] According to Harry Falk, such acts of devotion towards foreign gods, as can also be seen in the dedication of the Heliodorus pillar, was a logical practice for the Greeks, in order to appropriate the power of local deties: it "should not be regarded as a "conversion" to Hinduism, but rather as the result of a search for the most helpful local powers, upholding own traditions in a foreign garb."[41]

Early stone sculpture in Mathura (180–70 BCE)

Main polities and Buddhist centers around Mathura in 180–70 BCE.[42]

The period after 180 BCE has generally been called the "Sunga period", from the name of the Hindu Sunga Empire (c. 180–80 BCE) which replaced the Mauryan Empire in eastern India. This is now thought to be rather inadequate since the Sungas probably never ruled in Mathura: there is no literary, numismatic or epigraphic evidence of a Sunga presence in Mathura.[43]

Following the demise of the Mauryan Empire and its replacement by the Sunga Empire in eastern India, numismatic, literary and epigraphic evidence suggest that the Indo-Greeks, when they invaded India, occupied the area of Mathura for about a century from circa 160 BCE and the time of Menander I until approximately 60 BCE, with the Sungas remaining eastward of Mathura.[42][8] An inscription in Mathura discovered in 1988,[44][45] the "Yavanarajya inscription", mentions "The last day of year 116 of Yavana hegemony (Yavanarajya)", suggesting the presence of the Indo-Greeks in the 2nd–1st century BC in Mathura down to 57 BC.[42] On the contrary, the Sungas, are thought to have been absent from Mathura, as no epigraphical remains or coins have been found, and to have been based to the east of the Mathura region.[42] Coins of local Indian rulers of the Mitra dynasty, their names ending in "-mitra", but not using any regnal title such as "King", are also known from the same period and general area (150–50 BCE, mostly in the area of Sonkh), and were possibly engaged in a tributary relationship with the Indo-Greeks.[46][47]

Stone art and architecture began being produced at Mathura at the time of "Indo-Greek hegemony" over the region.[48][8] Some authors consider that Indo-Greek cultural elements are not particularly visible in these works, and Hellenistic influence is not more important than in other parts of India.[49] Others consider that Hellenistic influence appears in the liveliness and the realistic details of the figures (an evolution compared to the stiffness of Mauryan art), the use of perspective from 150 BCE, iconographical details such as the knot and the club of Heracles, the wavy folds of the dresses, or the depiction of bacchanalian scenes:[8][50]

Early Mathura statuary
150–100 BCE
"Parkham Yaksha" Manibhadra, 150 BCE[51]
"Mudgarpani" Yaksha ("Mace-holder"), 100 BCE[52]
"Agnipani" Yaksha ("Fire-holder"), 100 BCE[53]
Nāga, the Serpent God
150 BCE[54]
These colossal statues are about 2 meters tall.[55] Many have known attributes: Mudgarpani has a mudgar mace in the right hand, and had a small standing devotee or child in the left hand,[56][57] the Fire God Agni has an aureole with incised flames and held a water flask in the left hand,[53] the Nāga has a hood formed by serpents.[54] Mathura Museum

The art of Mathura became extremely influential over the rest of India, and was "the most prominent artistic production center from the second century BCE".[8] There is a remarkable unity in the style of artistic production across northern India during this early period, circa 150 BCE: the early style of Mathura is highly similar to contemporary examples found in Bharhut, Sanchi Stupa No. 2, Vidisha, Bhaja, Pauni, Amaravati, Jaggayyapeta, Bhubaneswar, Udayagiri (in Orissa), Pataliputra, Sarnath, Bhīta (near Allahabad)[59] and Kausambi.[60]

Colossal anthropomorphic statues (2nd century BCE)

Some of the earliest works of art of the Mathura school are the Yakshas, monumental sculptures in the round of earth divinities that have been dated to the 2nd–1st century BCE. Yakshas seem to have been the object of an important cult in the early periods of Indian history, many of them being known such as Kubera, king of the Yakshas, Manibhadra or Mudgarpani.[61] The Yakshas are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness,[62][63] and were the object of popular worship.[64] Many of them were later incorporated into Buddhism, Jainism or Hinduism.[61]

In the 2nd century BCE, Yakshas became the focus of the creation of colossal cultic images, typically around 2 meters or more in height, which are considered as probably the first Indian anthropomorphic productions in stone.[50][61] The colossal size and quality of these statues shows that they cannot just have been the object of a rural popular cult, but were rather produced in urban workshops and worshipped in shrines by an affluent urban community.[65] Although few ancient Yaksha statues remain in good condition, the vigor of the style has been applauded, and expresses essentially Indian qualities.[50] They are often pot-bellied, two-armed and fierce-looking.[61] The Parkham Yaksha, dated to circa 150 BCE on stylistic grounds and paleographical grounds, is monumental at 2.59 meters high.[66][67][68] An inscription says "Made by Gomitaka, a pupil of Kunika. Set up by eight brothers, members of the Manibhadra congregation ("puga")." This inscription thus indicates that the statue represents the Yaksa Manibhadra.[69] The Yashas are often depicted with weapons or attributes, such as the Yaksha Mudgarpani, dated circa 100 BCE, who in the right hand holds a mudgar mace, and in the left hand the figure of a small standing devotee or child joining hands in prayer.[56][61] It is often suggested that the style of the colossal Yaksha statuary had an important influence on the creation of later divine images and human figures in India.[37] The female equivalent of the Yashas were the Yashinis, often associated with trees and children, and whose voluptuous figures became omnipresent in Indian art.[61]

Some Hellenistic influence, such as the geometrical folds of the drapery or the contrapposto walking stance of the statues, has been suggested.[50] According to John Boardman, the hem of the dress in the monumental early Yaksha statues is derived from Greek art.[50] Describing the drapery of one of these statues, John Boardman writes: "It has no local antecedents and looks most like a Greek Late Archaic mannerism", and suggests it is possibly derived from the Hellenistic art of nearby Bactria where this design is known.[50] Under the Indo-Greeks, the cult of the Yakshas may also have been associated with the Bacchic cult of Dionysos.[70] Since the time of Alexander the Great visiting a city called Nysa in northern India, the Greeks had identified local devotional practices as similar to their cult of Dionysos.[71] They may have promoted a syncretic art which conflated Hellenistic Dionysiac imagery with the local cult of the Yakshas.[72]

In the production of colossal Yaksha statues carved in the round, which can be found in several locations in northern India, the art of Mathura is considered as the most advanced in quality and quantity during this period.[73] In later periods, from the turn of the millennium, Yashkas and Nagas evolved from being benevolent, powerful deities at the center of worship, to becoming frightening demonic creatures acting as subsidiary attendants in the major religions of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism.[65] They also became much smaller in size as they were dethroned by the new religions, suggesting the continuation of a cult at the domestic level.[65]

Simple reliefs (circa 150–100 BCE)

The "Mehrauli Yakshi", dated to 150 BCE, Mathura.[74][75]

Various reliefs in a style similar to those of Bharhut or Sanchi Stupa No. 2 can be found in Mathura, dating to approximately 150–100 BCE.[76] A dedicatory inscription by Dhanabhuti at Mathura records the donation of railings and a gateway to the Buddhists samgha.[43][77] It is now lost.[78] The Dhanabhuti in the Mathura inscription could be the same person as King Dhanabhuti in the Bharhut inscription, about 322 kilometers away, and this could suggest some cultural, religious and artistic connection between the two areas.[60][79] Reliefs are usually rather simple and consist in medallions on railings or balusters, structural elements of stone barriers or "vedikas" probably established around large stupas which have not remained to this day.[80]

The "Mehrauli Yakshi", one of the highest quality work among early sculpture, was found in Mehrauli in the cultural area of Mathura.[81] The high-relief and skillfully carved sculpture shows a female nature divinity, called a Yakshini, holding on the branches of a tree in the Salabhanjika pose, with a long double braid of hair descending down to the girdle.[75][81] The sculpture probably used to adorn the railing of a sacred site, such as a Stupa.[81] She is dated to 150 BCE, and prefigures by more than a century the Salabhanjika Yakshinis of Sanchi.[82][75][81] It is at the same time one of the most artistically beautiful and earliest of the Yakshi sculptures, with detailed patterning contrasting with the smoothness of the skin, standing at the beginning of a long tradition of Yashi sculptures in Mathura and India as a whole.[81] There are many similarities with the Yakshis found in Bharhut, although the Mehrauli Yakshi has rounder volumes, characteristic of the Mathura style and technical proficiency in carving.[81]

Some other sculpted figures also are dated to circa 150 BCE, due to their similarity with equivalent figures in Bharhut. This is the case of a male Chauri-bearer with its sharp lines and stiff expression, held at the Mathura Museum.[83] Sir John Marshall considered the early reliefs of Mathura and Bharhut as part of the same tradition, calling it the "Bharhut-Mathura School", while the reliefs of Sanchi were a second tradition, calling it the "Malwa School of Sanchi".[84]

Complex narrative reliefs (circa 100 BCE)

Linga inside a railing (left), being worshipped by Gandharvas winged creatures. Circa 100 BCE.[90]

By 100 BCE, the reliefs represent more complex scenes, defining, according to Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, an age of "iconic diversification and narrative maturation", as shown by the Kankali Tila architrave representing centaurs worshipping a Jain stupa, the dance of Nilanjana, and the renunciation of Rsabhanata, or the Katra architrave representing Brahmins with pots in a sacred precinct.[91][92] Another relief from the same period shows a Linga inside a railing on platform and under a pipal tree, being worshipped by Gandharvas, an early depiction of the phallic cult in Shivaism.[90]

Several of these reliefs are the first known examples of Jain sculpture.[93] These reliefs show more depth, and a greater richness in their composition.[92] These examples of narrative reliefs, although few remain, are as refined and intricate as the better known narrative reliefs of Bharhut, Sanchi or Amaravati.[94][92] The centaurs appearing in the Mathura reliefs, as in other places such as Bodh Gaya, are generally considered as Western borrowings.[95]