Narration in Gandharan Reliefs Muhammad Shehzad Haider Master of Architecture 1997 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Architecture in the faculty of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales, Australia, 1997. U N S w 1 2 SEP 1997 LIBRARY Dedicated To My Parents Contents Acknowledgments List of Plates Introduction 1 Gandhara: 7 Geography 7 Evolution of Gandharan Art 9 Foreign Influences in Gandharan Stone Reliefs 15 Types of Narration in Gandharan Stone Reliefs 22 Monoscenic Narratives: the theme of Action 22 Monoscenic Narratives: Being in a State 25 Conflated Narrative 26 Continuous Narrative 26 Linear Narrative 29 The stone Bas-Reliefs of Gandhara 31 Themes of Narration 32 The Jatakas 32 Life of Buddha 38 Characteristics of Gandharan Stone Reliefs. 56 Notes 59 Bibliography 62 Acknowledgments This paper would not be completed without the guidance of my supervisor, Mr. Michael Tawa who always put me on the right track during the process of my research and presented me with questions that has to be answered. Special thanks to Premporn Khemavuk who always supported and encouraged me during my thesis and helped me in getting information regarding the topic. Besides using the vast collection of books in University of New South Wales, I am also much obliged to the library of University of Sydney that has a good collection of valuable books regarding my topic. I would also like to thank Amir Arif for his moral support during my thesis. LIST OF PLATES 1. Presentation of the Bride to Sidhartha 14 2. Birth of Chandakka and Kantakka 14 3. Hellenistic silver bowl, detail. Leningrad, Hermitage 14 4. The First Meditation 16 5. Ploughing Scene. Sarcophagus Relief 16 6. Raising of Lazarus. Detail from a Greek Manuscript. Rossano Cathedral. 18 7. Conversion of Angulimalya 18 8. Joshua meets the Angel. Vatican Library MS. Pal. Gr. 431 18 9. The attack of Mara 20 10. Two Merchants offer food to Buddha 20 11. Visvantara Jataka 23 12. Buddha with Indra and Brahma 23 13. Dipankara Jataka 27 14. Jataka of the Elephant with six Tusks 27 15. Syama Jataka 30 16. Nanda Panel 30 17. Syama Jataka 35 18. Sibi Jataka 35 19. Dream of Maya 40 20. Birth of Buddha 40 21. Figure of Yakshini (Mathura) 42 22. Bath of Buddha 44 23. Life in Palace (a), The renunciation (b) 46 24. The great Departure 48 25. Chandakka and kantakka Return 48 26. The first Sermon 50 27. Buddha in the Fire Temple 50 28. Death of Buddha 53 29. Sorrow over The Death 53 30. Cremation of Buddha 53 31. Distribution of relics 55 32. Buddha to be in Tushita Heaven 55 Most of the plates are printed from Ingholt, H. Gandhara Art in Pakistan. While some are printed form Hallade, M. Gandhara Style, and Nehru, L. Origins of the Gandharan Art. Introduction According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'narration' is defined as the action of relating or recounting. An account or narration can be of a history, tale, story, recital (of facts etc.). Different mediums of narration in the visual arts are painting, theater, sculpture and of course the scientific screen image. In every day conversation the term narrative is equivocal. The most inclusive meaning of narrative refers to any written or spoken representation. I will not use narrative in this generalized sense, instead, I will confine my use to a more specific meaning of the term, that is the kind of organizational scheme of composition expressed in story form in Gandharan reliefs. Story is the relating of an event or series of events either real or imagined. Roland Barthes, one of the most important literary theorists concerned with narrative, opens his Introduction to the Structural Analysis of the Narrative, with a statement about the centrality of narrative in the lives of people: “The word "narrative" covers an enormous variety of genres which are themselves divided up between different subjects, as if any material was suitable for the composition of the narrative. The narrative may incorporate articulate language, spoken or written; pictures, still or moving; gestures and the ordered arrangements of all the ingredients. Narrative is present in myth, legend, fable, short story, epic, history, l tragedy, comedy, pantomime, painting,... stained glass windows, cinema, comic strip, journalism, conversation. In addition, under this almost infinite number of forms, the narrative is present at all times, in all places, in all societies; the history of narrative begins with the history of mankind; there does not exist and never has existed a people without narratives.”1 At the cultural level, narrative serves to give cohesion to shared beliefs and to transmit values. Narratives are to be differentiated from chronicles, which simply lists events according to their place on a time line. Narrative provides a symbolized account of actions gathered together into a meaningful story that includes a temporal dimension. History is the narrative statement of happenings in the past. According to Polkinghorne, In historical narrative the events in the first order are meant to be real rather than imaginary. History, literature and myth share the extract of the historical experience of a people, a group, or a culture. The knowledge provided by narrative history is what results from the application of the systems of meaning originally elaborated by cultures in their myths and in some cultures later refined by their literature. Thus, historical narratives transform a culture's collection of past happenings (its first order referents) by shaping them into a second-order pattern of meaning.2 The sculptor or painter can also adopt a variety of modes to present the same or similar narratives to his viewers. Historical facts can not be established by the idea that direct observation is the only secure foundation for knowledge. 2 It is these historic images of the past that provides us with the history of great civilizations and acts as a film depicting the glory and the mastery of the cultured and civilized beings. Each great civilization has its particular style of narrating historical and mythological events. Examining reliefs in the light of elements such as treatment of human form, background, spatial depth, concept of time, and space, it is concluded that for the artist, the protagonists of a story, together with the elements of space and time are the three major components of narrative. It is traditionally accepted that a narrative has two aspects- a story or content that generally consists of a sequence of events, and the form or expression, the means by which the story is communicated and its actions are presented. Gandhara, the north west region of present Pakistan and adjacent eastern Afghanistan has experienced a glorious past. The peculiar art of Gandhara is one of the well established and mature arts in the near regions. The narration in the stone reliefs of Gandhara is of distinct style with its own themes. Much has been written about the history and art of Gandhara in genera! but my particular interest lies in narration in the stone reliefs of Gandhara that needs more exploration and detail study. In my research, I have tried to give an idea of the nature and characteristics of Gandharan narrative in stone reliefs that is an important record of the life of Buddha historically as well as mythically. The precedent for this research is Lolita Nehru’s , Origins Of The Gandharan Style. Nehru has traced the history of Gandhara, and has detailed the origins of the its style. However, the characteristics of the bas reliefs of Gandhara do not fall into the scope of her research. I have carried out my study by examining Gandharan reliefs in the following modes of visual narration used by the artist to tell tales from Buddhist legend. Monoscenic Narratives: The Theme of Action A single identifiable moment of action is depicted here to narrate a story. Monoscenic Narratives: Being in a State In such depictions, the narrative content is reduced and reliefs present the scene in which actin has already taken place. Conflated Narrative: While multiple episodes of a story are presented, the figure of the protagonist is conflated instead of being repeated from one scene to the next. Continuous Narrative: It depicts successive episodes of a story within a single frame, repeating the figure of the protagonist in the course of the narrative. Linear Narrative: It contains the repeated appearance of the protagonist at different times and places. Scenes are separated from one another by a variety of compositional means and each episode is contained within a separate frame. In addition, the physical characteristics of Gandharan reliefs are evaluated under the main composing elements such as time, space, figural treatment, and background, which characterize Gandharan reliefs. 4 The study is carried out starting with the geography and brief introduction to the evolution of Gandhara art. Foreign influences on the art of Gandhara are studied with reference to Greek, Roman, Parthian and indigenous Indian art to evolve the independent and unique stylistic approach of the artists of Gandhara. The development of Gandharan art is also a part of this chapter. This is followed by the types of narration used by Gandharan artist in reliefs. In the next chapter, themes of narration in Gandharan stone reliefs are discussed in detail. The reliefs are discussed according to the described set of elements. The final chapter outlines the characteristics of Gandharan reliefs as a conclusion to the topic under discussion. These characteristics are evolved by examining the reliefs in previous chapters under the outlined set of composing elements. Notes (pp. 1-5) 1.