earliest historical records of Vaishnavism are the Besnagar Heliodora inscription and the Ghosundi inscription, both of the second century B. C. E. The former testifies to the erection of a Garuda pillar to Vasudeva, god of gods. Heliodora, who was the son of Diya and a native of Taxila, was ambassador from the Yavana Antialkidas to Bhagabhadra. He calls himself Bhagavata. The Ghosundi inscription witnesses to the erection of a hall of worship to Samkarshana and Vasudeva.
Vishnu is a Vedic deity and although he is represented by but few hymns, his personality is vividly portrayed. He measures all things with his three wide strides, the third passing beyond human discernment to the high places of the deity. This conception of the third step of Vishnu as the highest heaven and goal of all things, had obviously much to do with his elevation as the supreme being. In the Mahabharata this Supreme Being is addressed as Narayana, Vasudeva, and Vishnu.
Later Vishnu found a more intimate place in popular worship by means of his ten incarnations (avataras).
The earliest iconographical presentations of the god are two standing, four-armed figures, one on either side of the door-guardians of the Chandragupta Cave at Udayagiri (401 C. E.).
Unlike Buddhism and Jainism, the Hindu sects are not organized into Hindu definite congregations. Whatever the shrine be, one of the magnificent temples of Bhubaneswar or Khajuraho, or a red daubed stone by the roadside, the worship is individual. For certain ceremonial purposes the aid of priests is sought, and all the larger temples have their hosts of attendants. But there is never a congregation worshipping in unison. Architecturally speaking, the Hindu shrine is the dwelling-place of the god, although various pavilions or porches dedicated to the preparation of the offerings or to music and dancing stand before it.
The earliest structural Hindu shrines existing are the flat-roofed Gupta temples, square in plan with a veranda supported by four pillars, the doorway being elaborately carved. At Ajanta the cell in the centre of the back wall of the oblong, many pillared caves, is cut on exactly the same plan, the doorways corresponding very closely. The introduction of the linga shrine at Badami and Ellora eventually altered the plan radically by placing the shrine in the body of the hall as at Elephanta. The great medieval temples consist of high-towered shrines, each with its entrance pavilions.
Avalokitesvara seated between two tara and two donor figures, late 10th century or early 11th century C. E. Bronze alloy inlaid with silver and copper, height: 34.5 cm. Private collection, Kashmir.
As portrayed in the Brahmajala Sutta, primitive Buddhism gave no place to aesthetics; music, song, and dance were classed with sorcery and iconography, unprofitable to the wise. Manu and Chanakya also adopted this slighting attitude towards the arts. However, that is of little account, and Bharhut and Sanchi are not less fine because they are not supported by the argumentative analysis of the schoolmen. The art of the Early Period is a spontaneous growth, endued with native virility. Essentially narrative, it is vividly perceptive. The history of Indian art must be written in terms of the action of a literary, metaphysical mode of thought upon this naive, story-telling art, resulting in the formation of an immense and intricate iconography. Around this iconography has grown a still more abstruse, secondary literature, in which the least variation of detail is seized upon to sanction the subdivision and endless multiplication of types of icons.
Images are roughly divided into two classes, the fixed and the movable (achala and chala). They are likewise roughly described as standing (sthanaka), sitting (asana) or reclining (sayana). Also they may further be described in terms of the nature of the manifestation: as terrible (ugra) as is Vishnu in his man-lion incarnation, or pacific (santa). The images of Vishnu are further classified according to their natures as Yoga, Bhoga, and Vira, to be worshipped respectively according to the personal desires of the worshipper.
This classification of gods and devotees according to their innate natures refers directly to the classification by natures of the Sankhya philosophy, primeval matter being distinguished by the three properties (gunas) of light (sattva), mutation (rajas), and darkness (tamas). It is clear that the needs of the worshipper specify the type of the image worshipped. Complex manifestations, whose many attributes are symbolized by their many hands are considered Tamasic in character, and their worshippers of little understanding. To the wise, images of all kinds are equally superfluous.
Indian aesthetics must be regarded as being of late date, a supplement to aesthetics, the iconographical literature of the medieval period. Much of the Agamas is of great iconographical interest, but these late literary canons have no aesthetic light to shed, although they do indicate something of the religious, hieratical atmosphere which deadened artistic creation in the last period of medieval decadence. Indian aesthetics are based upon the conception of aesthetic value in terms of personal response or reproduction. This value is known as rasa, and when it is present the object is said to have rasa and the person to be rasika or appreciative. Rasa produces various moods in the rasika varying in kind according to the initial stimulus; from these moods emotions spring. The mechanics of this system is worked out in detail in the Dhanamjaya Dasarupa and the Visvanatha Sahitya Darpana. The whole system is based upon and illustrated by literature, and cannot be applied directly to sculpture and painting.
Mayadevi Birthing the Historical Buddha, 9th-10th century C. E., Pala dynasty, Bihar. Stele and biotite schist, 58.4 × 35.6 × 13.3 cm. Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey.
The Mauryan Period
Lion capital of the pillar erected by King Ashoka at Sarnath (today the National Emblem of India), c. 250 B. C. E., Maurya dynasty (Ashoka). Polished Chunar sandstone, height: 215 cm. Archaeological Museum, Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh.
A short time after the death of Alexander in 323 B. C. E., the throne of Magadha or Bihar, then the premier kingdom of Northern India, was seized by Chandragupta, surnamed the Maurya, known as Sandrokottos to Greek authors. In the course of a victorious reign of twenty-four years this able prince caused his influence to be felt over all India, at least as far south as the river Narmada, and acquired from Seleukos Nikator, first his enemy and then his ally, the valuable provinces lying between the Indus and the Hindu Kush mountains which now constitute the major part of the kingdom of Afghanistan.
Chandragupta was succeeded by his son Bindusara, who, in or about 273 B. C. E., transmitted the imperial sceptre to his son, Ashoka, the third and most renowned sovereign of the Maurya dynasty. For forty-one years (273–232 B. C. E.) Ashoka ruled his immense empire with great power and might, maintaining friendly relations with his neighbours, the Tamil states of the extreme south and also with the island kingdom of Sri Lanka and the more remote Greek monarchies of Macedonia, Epirus, Western Asia, Egypt, and Cyrene.
Early in life the emperor became a religious convert and as the years rolled Ashoka’s on his zeal increased. Finally, his energies and riches were devoted almost patronage of entirely to the work of honouring and propagating the teaching of Gautama Buddhism – Buddha. With one exception he abstained from wars of conquest and was thus free to concentrate his attention upon the task to which his life was consecrated.
The imperial palace at Pataliputra, the modern Patna, the capital of Early Chandragupta Maurya is described by Greek and Roman authors as excelling the royal residences of Susa and Ekbatana in splendour. Although no vestige architecture of such a building has survived (with the possible exception of some brick foundations) there is no reason to doubt the statements of the historians. The result of much excavation seems to support the literary evidence that Indian architects before the time of Ashoka built their superstructures chiefly of timber, using sun-dried brick almost exclusively for foundations and plinths. No deficiency in dignity or grandeur was involved in the use of the more perishable material; on the contrary, the
