Living Antiquarianism in India 431
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423 422 SUZUKI the exterior ofthe Eclo castle, abandoned after the Meiji Restoration ofrg68, NAYANJOT LAHIRI with numelons photogr:aphs taken by Yokoyarna Matsusaburo and hand-cols¡s¿ by Takahashi Yuichi rli.firìllI . (1828 q+). IN INDIA Morse, lapan Day by Day, z:ro6. LIVING ANTIQUARIANISM Morse, lapan Day by Day,2365. Morse, lapan Day by Day, z:to6 7. Morse, Japan Day by Por, rtt r. Morse, Japan Day by D¡11t,2'.166. Aoki Masaru ¡'f ,,li rl:IJ, Cltùka meibul:su ko tl li¡:Nt\;!lili (Tokyo: Shunjusha, 1959; reprint, Tokyo: Heibor.rsha, r988), r9-5r. Tl-retermantiquarianist?lmeansclifferentthingstoclifferentpeople.Thosewho of archaeology ancl history frequently 3o. For exhibitior-rs ancl lesealches sponsoled by tl-re govemment in early Meiji, a career oLlt of the study b¿ive rnade or -lokyo ,,the and clescriptio. of antiquities' see Koktu'itsu Hakubutsukan {rjil,ll ii.lrrlr]2fl'l , ecl., Tòkyo I(okuritsu it to refer to cliscovery, collection of I*clia' Hakubutsulcanhyalcunenshi 4ir;il,J¿l ìi. lr!ì14ifrì'll'i/lrt 'se Thus' historians lOne-hundled-yearhistoryof ;;;; .;",."r study of artefacts or lro'umentsl" the Tokyo National Mnser.rm] (lbkyo: Daiichi Hoki, 1973), rz2-rr4. antiquarian telìd to do who concern themselves with Practices For the politics of art history in the Meiji peliod, see Doshin archaeology who' Japtrnese Sato, the writings of European travelers of two things: either they explore Modern lapanese Art and the Meiji Støte: The Politics of Beauty, trans. Hiroshi olre their visited monuments and recorded (Los the sixteenth century onward' Nara Angeles: Getty Researclr Institute, zou), in particular pt, r, chap. 4, from and or they examine the surveys' excavations' t9-82. observations about such visits, civil and military officers For Masuda's life and activities, see Christine M. E. Art, Tea, and nineteenth-century 32 Guth, Industry: collections of eighteenth- ancl happened to be in Masuda Takashi and the Mitsui Circle (Princeton, N,l.: Princeton Ur.riversity Press, East India Company or rvho either served in the British the actors that 1993). elements and' on most occasions' India in other capacities' The For the provenance of the pair.rting, see the Goto BijutsLrkar.r Indians 33 /i1,1,):lliifù'í, ed., Donlo are primarily European' When nlake up this vision of antiquarianism no mq Masuda Dono no bi no sekai î,tijì Ø lll'l : ì,1lt lCrtín^¿) x lliiÐ lll.tl IUncler tlre antiquarian scholars' or founders oflocal in such histories' as collectors' eye of Masuda Don'o: The rnodern age of Japanese connoissenrship], exh. cat. frgure of collec- in the European antiquarian tradition (Tokyo: Goto Bijutsukar.r, 1998). societies, they too are molded tionandinterpretation'withstronglinkstotheinstitutionsofBritisblndia'' other kinds of antiquarians and parts of Inclia' though' there are In many their ofan antiquarian bent' who have spent autiquarian practices' Individuals and beyoncl' ancl sites in their neighborhoods lives searching out antiquities Schoolteachers out-of-the-way towns and villages' can often be eucountered in a sprightly common' fitendra Dutt Tripathi' with such interests are especially seventy-nine-year-oldformerSchoolteacheriSonesuchantiquariarr;hehasof central painted rock shelters in an area spent his life discovering ancient with religioLrs affiliations who happen Inclia called Narsinghguril' Antiquarians fighter Swami quite well known' The freedom to be prolific coltectols are also called the Arya to the Hindu reformist sect Omanand Sarasvati' who had links today the larg- mold' He set uP in |hajjar what is Samaj, was a collector in that his vast collection of i' the state of Haryana, using e st archaeological mrseum is attached to a tracli- and weapons' The musettm trntique coins, idols, pottery' which shows tire and an ayurvedic pharmacy' tional Sanskr iÏ gurukul (school) differentwaysitlwhichaspectsoflndiashistoricknowledgearrdantiqrrities have been here' Preserve<l as inde- about people who are best clescribed This essay, however' is r-rot IN INDIA 424 LAH I RI LIVING ANTIQUARIANISIV] 425 Fis. l. pendent secular antiquarians-those whete who usually work as individuals ancl who Shrine of Sitala Mata, 8th- to 12th-centur)/-cE might occasionally have institutional support. Rather, it is about commurrity sculptulal f ragments are practices worshlpped, Mawa¡, lndia. rooted in religion, practices that preserve objects ofantiquaria¡ inter- est. These material traces are not seen as the dead past; instead, they are fre- quently viewed as integral elements of the living present. This essay explores and analyzes some of these modes of "seeing"-the distinctive ways that people look at the material past of the landscape that they inhabit, preserve various elel¡ents of that material culture, and then incorporate those remains into their lives in order to make sense of the past. Such practices, I argue, have implica_ tions for and require acknowledgment in the history of antiquarianisrn and antiquarian practices. I will focus first on the Ballabgarh region, which shares its border with Delhi, forming a segment that lies within the Faridabacl dis- (in trict the state of Haryana), and the Ghaziabad district (in the state of uttar Pradesh), which is located to the east ofFaridabad. In the course ofarchaeo_ logical fleldwork in that area, I have had the privilege of observing the var.ious a shrine of Sitala Mata (the ways in which archaeological relics are understood and collected in many of Mathura sanclstone, have been kept' The other is the fragments (dating to the region's villages. I will demonstrate that these practices are not confinecl to goddess of smallpox), which contains more substantial (snake god) sculpture' a panel a slnall segment of north India but are also present in other parts of the subcon_ eighth to twelfth centuries CE), including a Naga of a full-breasted tinent. Finally, I will highlight that such antiquarianism was widely observed of seven or eight seated figures, and a detached sculpture and recorded by European antiquarians and archaeologists in the nineteenth female torso adorned with three necklaces (fig' r)' significant sculptural century, and, furtheç that these practices are likely to have premodern roots. Kheri Kalan is another village with an archaeologically and a memorial to collection. On a mound marked by both a modern temple shrine in an open-air sunken Visualizing Antiquarian Practices in and around Ballabgarh a locally revered holy man, there is a khera dadi The identifrable pieces' enclosure marked by sculptures cemented to its floor'. with the Hindu god The archaeological landscape in Ballabgarh is made up of many elements, fi-orn which range from Shiva lingas (phallic emblems associated the lower half of what mounds and scatters of artifactual debris to monuments, ruins, and sculptural Shiva) and the head of Ganesha (the elephant god) to relics.3 The collection, preservation, and worship of sculptural fragments in vil- seemstobeanimageofUma-Maheshwara(aformofParvatiandSiva'the to be generally lage folk shrines, as a modem practice, is both striking and widespread. vilrage divine couple, which symbolizes domestic harmony)' aPpear of Shiva (the god of destruc- shrines are of several types. The most ubiquitous are the various kinds of granra related to iconography associated with the worship sthanøs (village locations marked by worship), which are typicaly dedicated to tionintheholytrinityofHinduism).Apparerrtly,thesesculpturalpieceswere a kherø deota (homestead god), a khera dadi (o\d woman of the homesteacl), or unearthedfromthemoundwherethisshrinestands,andtheyhighlightthe shrine on the same spot' Bhumia (the god of the settled land).n These gods are all seen as manifestations possibility that Shiva was the tutelary deity of an earlier In Gharora' for of the inhabited, socially domesticated land and homesteads that constitute a In some villages, a singìe architectural fragment is worshipped' village. Architecturall¡ the shrines tend to be unpretentious, open-air platforrns example,asectionofwhatseemstobeanancientdoorjambliesonthewestern (see pl' r9)'' that either support miniature house-like structures or collections of stone; in edge of the village and is worshipped as akherø deotø several instances, the stones are broken sculptures frorn temples of premoclern Inmanyplaces,sucharchaeologicalandarchitecturalrelicsareviewed of miraculous cures of ail- antiquity that have now disappeared. through a filter of local religious beliefs. Expectations iron slag from the old At Mawai, for instance, fragmentary sculptures have been collected and ments, for instance, have come to be embodied in ancient placed in two worship aLeas.t One of these areas is a khera deota shrttte opposite villagerrrotrrrdatSilri.sTlrisplace,regarclecìlocallyasthebirthplaceofsurclas, with habitational debris goittg the Baba Surdas temple, where fragmentary sculpted pieces, mainly of mottled a medieval bhakti poet, is marked by a mound IN iNDIA 427 LIVING ANTIQUARIANISM 426 in a dramati- "evidence" because they have been preserved back to around rooo BCE that has also yielded large quantities ofslag. a body ofhistorical T¡... worship also speaks of modern folk worship' Their slag specimens are locally believed to be the bones of snakes and are sornetimes cally visible demonstration used as antidotes to ailments caused by poisoning. This residue volumesabouton-the-groundrealityandtheirrelevanceofscripturalsanctions of early rnetal- images' Texts dealing any worship of broken or mutilated working is believed