Monuments of

Unseen Presence, ism in his classic The Buddha and his the Buddha and Sanchi Edited by �- Dhamma, many Ambedkarite Vidya Oehejia groups (with the conspicuous Marg Publications, 7 996, Rs 7 550 exception of the TBMSG) have yet to escape a kind of 'political Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from ' still tainted by the the Great internecine caste politics which By Robert Knox Ambedkar aimed to eschew. With British Museum Press, London, £40 this in mind, however, the essay gives a clue as to how future Borobudur: Prayer in Stone Buddhists may view Edited by Peter Schoppert Sanchi. Thames & Hudson, London, £40 For those new to Sanchi these essays are leavened with a detailed Reviewed by Pratap Rughani tour through the celebrated toranas (gateways) of Stupa No. 1 from he Buddhist monuments of Marg's contribution, Unseen Vidya Dehejia and by Debala Mitra's Sanchi, Borobudur and Presence, the Buddha and Sanchi, summary of the discovery and TAmaravati are among the edited by Vidya Dehejia with pho­ restoration of the monuments. most significant flowerings of devo­ tographs by K.B. Agrawala, is an Mitra, formerly Director General of tional art of any age, culture or innovative collection of short essays the Archaeological Survey of India, country anywhere. Recorded in the presented in a handsome volume has been closely connected with World Heritage list of monuments of that brings a contemporary feel to Sanchi for five decades. Mitra's outstanding artistic and and archi­ what has been traditionally an acad­ excellent brief guide, Sanchi, first tectural value, the Sanchi and emic preserve. Its eight essays pick published forty years ago, is in its Borobudur complexes are once up themes at the contemporary end sixth impression. It costs Rs 12 and again principal centres of Buddhism of art history and archaeology. The remains one of the most effective spanning two millennia of Buddhism collection includes glances at Sanchi distillations of archaeological schol­ in Asia through its , from perspectives informed by post­ arship for the lay reader. and avatars. modernism, as with Laura Scanlon's For those who do not make the Today, since their rediscovery and essay "Moving through Time: journey to Sanchi, Marg's book gives restoration, Sanchi and Borobudur Layering Stories at Sanchi," through a catholic introduction and offers a are alive once more as pilgrimage to contemporary history in Gary range of ways to engage with the centres for Buddhists, tourists and Tartakov's discussion of the New monument. art lovers. With the completion of Buddhists or Navayana approaches It's a creative collection that the British Museum's gallery housing to Buddhism at Sanchi. Tartakov achieves moments of fresh perspec­ the bulk of its collection from draws out some of the devotional tive by embracing an interdiscipli­ Amaravati there has never been a implications of the great 'untouch­ nary approach. "It is not what we see better time to see and compare the able' hero Dr Ambedkar's interpreta­ but the way we see that is empower­ Buddhist traditions that gave rise to tion of the . It's a fasci­ ing," Scanlon writes. "We can expe­ these epic monuments. nating choice, since the of rience the sights at this site and with­ Three recent publications on Indian Buddhism is headed by in these panels as multiple, intercon­ three different Buddhist mark Ambedkar's followers, but Tartakov's nected, simultaneously linked in the growing international interest in reading of Buddhist practice in these and layered over time, just as the and architecture from communities is an idealised view. text upon these pages links and lay­ its genesis in north and central India Rather than a keen awareness of ers a present model of causality from the third century B.C. Amedkar's interpretation of Buddh- with a past one to construct this

7 0 THE INOIA MAGAZINE OF HER PEOPLE AND CULTURE + FEBRUARY 1997 AMARAVATI Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stfipa

contingent reading of metaphor." about all that we have access to; The essays themselves are of an much of the original sculpture was intermediate length - not long either raided by European bounty enough for a detailed investigation hunters or burned for lime or build­ nor so lightweight as to be ignored ing materials used by Indians in the by Buddhist historians, critics and construction of the Amaresvara tem­ artists. In this sense the book is a ple. Of the pieces sent to London kind of bridge to a wider audience. (where they lay unclaimed in the It may not persuade some purists Three recent docks for a year) two of the finest but the overall project is laudable were then mounted on the outside and Marg deserves success in aim­ publications on three walls of the India Museum in ing to bring the glories of Sanchi to Whitehall, where Victorian smog a wider audience while seeking live­ different Buddhist damaged the stone structure. ly perspectives on these timeless Others were set in concrete so that themes. stupas mark the only one side of their sculpted sur­ If there is a way to improve the faces was on view and by the end of book then for me it would be to cor­ growing international the 1950s parts of the railing on dis­ rect the variable quality of the pho­ play in the Front Hall were also tographic reproduction on the curi­ interest in Buddhist art found to be damaged by exposure ously shiny paper. Though there are to varying humidity and air pollu­ several striking images, colour and architecture from tion. Worried by the decaying pati­ appears to be washed out, at times na, the museum authorities disman­ producing some overly flat images its genesis in north and tled the display and for the next thir­ which are blown up to a size that ty years the sculpture lay largely for­ their resolution cannot sustain. central India from the gotten back in the British Museum Unfortunately, these are concentrat­ basement. ed in the first chapter, making it dif­ third century B.C. Knox's aim with the new display ficult to forget this impression is a "reconstruction rather than an entirely despite stronger work as the board. Though hidden, at least here interpretation," creating the condi­ book progresses. they were safe and no one has felt tions for a response that could par­ Introducing the book, Dehejia more keenly the wanton neglect of allel the way people may have origi­ recalls how the Begum of Bhopal the collection than Knox, who has nally \liewed the stupa. His research­ actually contemplated presenting now helped secure a gracious home es were helped by the discovery of one of the toranas to the British for them. Elliot's 1845 sketches of Amaravati Museum in London (with another to Amaravati, Buddhist Sculpture that give some further clues to the be presented to Emperor Napoleon from the Great Stupa was published arrangements of the stupa's railing. Ill in 1868 to be erected in Paris) but to coincide with the opening of the "This is more than 'Art for Art's was persuaded to have casts of the new Amaravati display in a de­ sake'. I see arl history as only one toranas taken instead. humidified and air-filtered gallery at element in uriderstanding its politi­ The British Museum, meanwhile, the British Museum financed by the cal and social statement," Knox says. was already growing fat on the trea­ Japanese newspaper company Asahi The book's primary function is as sures of other parts of the Indian Shimbun. It's a scholarly work aimed a careful museum catalogue of the subcontinent and a welcome record at those with an informed interest collection but Knox does venture a of the surviving fragments of the and marks the latest turn in a com­ useful discussion of the principles of Amaravati Stupa 'marbles' is now plicated journey that had seen the stupa architecture and includes a available in a museum publication stupa fragments spirited from their history of the sometimes spctacular by Robert Knox, Keeper of Oriental home for two millennia in Amara­ story of Amaravati - by turns one of Antiquities and a key figure in vati, near present-day Vijayawada in criminal neglect, greed and inspira­ achieving the current display of the Andhra Pradesh, to the cold heart of tion. He includes the attempts of the collection now on public show after the Empire. acquisitive curator Sir Augustus thirty years in the BM's broom cup- What was taken by curators is Wollaston Franks to snaffle "a load

FEBRUARY 1997 • THE INDIA MAGAZINE OF HER PEOPLE AND CULTURE 71 of the new marbles" out of India for business: Rene Burri, Bruno Barbey, the British Museum despite impend­ Louis Frederic, Hiroshi Suga, Raghu ing legislation to outlaw the whole­ Rai, Michelangelo Durazzo, Paul sale removal of large parts of the Chesley, Rio Helmi, Bernard great monuments from India. Hermann, Ping Amranand and Luca The story of desecration, preser­ lnvernizzi Tettoni. This is a truly vation and celebration does not impressive book that excels even divide neatly on national lines. Thames and Hudson's very high Indian and British protagonists both standards. It may cost more than the secured the destruction of the coffee table, but as books go it's Amaravati Stupa and have enabled hard to imagine one that will give the remaining collection to be more pleasure. enjoyed today. In time, Knox antici­ Professor Soekmono is pates, the sculpture of Amaravati Indonesia's most widely respected will be seen to be comparable to archaeologist. For two decades he that of the Parthenon's 'Elgin led the campaign that eventually Marbles,' also located under the exhibit the most important collec­ resulted in the restoration of British Museum's substantial roof. tion of early Buddhist sculpture out­ Borobudur. He notes the myth of Unlike the Greek sculpture, the side the subcontinent. For those orientalist scholars that the monu­ Amaravati Stupa has excited no who want to see this aesthetic alive ment was 'lost' from the tenth to the demands for repatriation. "We have once more, Amaravati is invaluable. eighteenth centuries till its 'discov­ never had any claims to objects from The sculpture is hardly known yet ery' by Raffles in 1814, when in fact India. The riches of India largely ranks alongside the Elgin Marbles indigenous writings make clear ref­ remain in India," Knox adds. and the Assyrian reliefs as perhaps erence to it. Soekmono describes Certainly the thoughtful and ele­ the greatest treasures of the British Borobudur as a pusaka for Indonesia, gant display gives a valuable oppor­ Museum. As consciousness of this "an object which is an expression of tunity for the gallery-going public to dawns we can anticipate a clearer cultural heritage and which has a experience something of the scale of appreciation of the contribution of strong mysterious and magical the aesthetic and spiritual achiev­ Indian art to global heritage. flavour. A pusaka is a sort of sacred ments of ancient India. It is an Paradoxically, deported to the British heirloom, which lends strength to a achievement too to recover some­ Museum, Amaravati is ideally placed family, or in this case the Indonesian thing of this from the few surviving to cast its influence anew. people." fragments. If Amaravati is at heart a record, Indonesia is a largely Muslim The book is well illustrated with Borobudur; Prayer in Stone is an country but Borobudur bears testi­ archive photographs of the monu­ exploration as well as a documen­ mony to the influence of Indian ment from 1880 supplemented with tary of the largest Buddhist monu­ Buddhism. Unfortunately, its fame the Elliot sketches in addition to a ment in the world. Originally com­ has led to terrorist attacks; several new and complete catalogue in missioned and published by dagobas were blown up as part of an colour and black and white of the UNESCO, now by Thames and anti-government protest. The displayed collection, precisely pho­ Hudson, Borobudur is a rare work of restoration, however, is immaculate. tographed by John Williams of the photographic flexibility and imagi­ Borobudur now holds 504 life-size British Museum Photographic nation aimed to deliver an under­ seated Buddha statues all sculpted Section. standing of the great monument out of single stone blocks and 72 Amaravati has now to be re­ grounded in the experience of princes "kept in cages" at evaluated. "This is one of the most eleven leading photographers and Borobudur, according to Japanese magical collections in the world. It's their interpretations of the space in tradition. like seeing Greek sculpture for the its living as well as its historical Borobudur; Prayer in Stone is a cel­ first time," Knox says. The new dis­ worlds. The photographers are some ebration as well as a historical docu­ play gallery and this publication of the most respected names in the mentary of perhaps the most ambi-

72 THE INDIA MAGAZINE OF HER PEOPLE AND CULTURE + FEBRUARY 1997 tious art restoration projects this to the fourth gallery terminating in hard rock to yield a supple, plastic century. It was Prof. Soekmono's life the attainment of the Ultimate form of Buddha bodies. Ananda work and his abiding inspiration: Truth." Coomaraswamy's description of "An excellent training programme, It's a sublime journey for many Borobudur "like a ripe fruit matured either for the pilgrim-devotee or for who have travelled far, yet the cen­ in breathless air" is one of several the field technician, is always based tral photographic interpretations in perspectives that finds its echo in r, on a wish .... For the ardent Buddhist the section called "A Divine the portraits here. it is the highest wisdom that leads to Inspiration" manage to combine it Further contributions from acad­ the Ultimate Salvation, and for the with a feel for the juxtaposition of emics Jacques Dumarcay and J.G. technician the highest degree of local lives. These images capture De Casparis introduce and interpret expertise that leads to the appropri­ and interpret the monument aspects of the monument and its ate fulfilment of his duty. In both through close observation of its visi­ cosmology. cases Candi Borobudur is the tors. From tourists to pilgrims, In its own way Borobudur; Prayer embodiment of such a deeply felt schoolchildren and local people in Stone finds inspiration from the wish. It is the manifestation in stone there is a particular energy that Ratu Boko inscription (792 A.D.) of a prayer. It is a prayer in stone." communicates itself in their connec­ quoted on the inside cover, which is In terms of tion with the monument. It is no seen as a kind of blueprint for Borobudur is a pilgrimage point par mean feat to achieve, but having Borobudur's sculpted galleries: excellence. The three spheres begin brought such a photographic cast I pay homage to the Cosmic with the kamadhatu, where a person list to play at Borobudur anything Mountain of the perfect Buddhas ... is largely governed by desires. less would be disappointing. endowed with the awe-inspiring Through practice of mediation, The penultimate section marked power of wisdom - whose profound gradually the rupadhatu is attained, 'The Reliefs' presents a judicious caves are knowledge, whose rock is a middle section where desires are selection from a series of panels fo excellent tradition, weakened and wither but "name bas reliefs describing the Karmavi­ whose brilliance is owing to its relic; and form" still bind the pilgrim. bhangga, the Lalitavistara, the the Good Word Borobudur then opens out onto its Jataka/ Avadana and the Gandar­ whose streams are love, whose upper section, where the individual vyuha. In all, over 1,500 panels from forests are meditation, - truly has broken through all bonds to the which perhaps a hundred are pre­ the Mount of Few Desires which is mundane world. This is the arupa­ sented in a creative tension of soft not shaken by dhatu. This journey is described in (often lateral), late afternoon light the eight horrible winds; the world the narrative reliefs starting with held in sharp and close focus. It's a qualities . • "the law of karma at the base, the combination of qualities suggested search for perfection from the first by the sculpture itself, hewn from Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts

By P. Sainath ignoring it. So why should we read and passion about their lives. Such a Penguin India, 1996, Rs 295 Sainath's books on the topic? For representation achieves a com­ one, this is a very unusual work. It mendable balance between the two Reviewed by Arnita Baviskar takes a grim subject and illuminates primary modes of viewing the poor: it with wit, warmth and clarity. No either as hapless victims or as overty is unpleasant. Most dreary statistics on the poor here, no heroes. From the 69 stories that of us India Magazine-read­ breast-beating, nor soft-focus pretty make up Everybody Loves a Good Ping people only know it at pictures of distress. The stories in Drought emerges the complex reali­ second hand. When we do this book are about real people who ty of poverty as it is experienced: the encounter other people's poverty, are battling against the odds to sur­ suffering as well as the struggle, the we are much more comfortable vive, yet who speak out with reason anger as well as the numbness, the

FEBRUARY 1997 + THE INDIA MAGAZINE OF HER PEOPLE AND CULTURE 7 3 absurdity as well as the relentless he or she remains trapped within an logic, with humour as well as with EVERYBODY institution that is fundamentally cunning. LOVES A GOOD skewed against the interests of the Sainath's book is the outcome DROUGHT poor. of an intensive research project The rest of Sainath's stories S1ories from India's PoonistOislricts spent studying India's ten poorest strongly suggest that social change districts. Most of the stories were is ultimately wrought by the poor originally published in The Times of themselves through their collective India and did a lot to shore up the action. While I support this argu­ eroding credibility of a newspaper ment unreservedly as a basis for increasingly devoted to covering political practice, I also feel a sense fashion and beauty contests. In book of disquiet. Inherent in it is a ten­ form, the stories retain their journal­ dency, common in Leftist and pop­ istic crispness and brevity, but have ulist writing, to lay the entire burden been organised into sections such as P.SAINATH of history, whether revolution or health, education, displacement, 0 reform, on the shoulders of the WINNER OF THIRTEEN AWARDS drought and debt. Each section masses. What about the social trans-

Some of Sainath's stories strongly suggest that social change is ultimately

wrought by the poor themselves through their collective action.

While I support this argument unreservedly as a basis for political practice, I also

feel a sense of disquiet. Inherent in it is a tendency, common in Leftist and

populist writing, to lay the entire burden of history, whether revolution or

reform,on the shoulders of the masses.

begins with an introductory essay that defender of the poor, purveyor formations engineered by technolo­ that draws on considerable statistical of development - comes under gy, one wonders. Is there any place data to provide a well-argued special scrutiny. Sainath shows in this narrative for unintended con­ overview of the subject. Taken colossal corruption of the state, its sequences? These are larger ques­ together, the essays and the stories feeble attempts at doing good, its tions about theories of social change construct a powerful account of a cynicism and vacuity. Yet every now and it would be grossly unfair to difficult subject. and then, there is mention of a sen­ expect Sainath's book to offer defin­ No document about the poor sitive and dynamic bureaucrat, usu­ itive answers to them. The fact that can remain silent about their ally an IAS officer, who succeeds in Everybody Loves a Good Drought oppressors - moneylenders, the doing good. This is a weak point in brings such issues to the fore is a labour contractors, the large Sainath's analysis. Not because there reflection of its sophistication. landowners. Yet their deeds are are no good bureaucrats - such Besides being intelligent and well minor misdemeanours compared to wonders can surely be found - but informed, the book is outstandingly the vast inequities perpetrated by because exceptional individuals well written. It will help enormously the market and the state. Markets make little difference to the working in removing stereotype images of do not respect anything other than of the system as a whole. The the poor that infect the popular money, so it would be natural to enlightened District Collector may �ind .• expect the poor to be shortchanged manage to mitigate some of the there. But the role of the state - harsher features of oppression, but

1997 7 4 THE INDIA MAGAZINE OF HER PEOPLE AND CULTURE + FEBRUARY