KANAGANAHALLI IN SATAVAHANA ART AND BUDDHISM: KING ASOKA IN FRONT OF TiffiBODHI TREE MONIKA ZIN The uniformly-shaped slabs discovered at Kanaganahalli, each measuring approximately 3 meters high, were once located on the stilpa dome (fig. 1). When the monument was unearthed, the lower parts of some of these slabs were discovered in situ, affixed above the drum and held in position by the "collar stones." The slabs are composed of two panels, one above the other, separated by a frieze of geese. A railing is depicted below the panels, and the coping stones of this railing bear inscriptions which label the nar­ rative contents of the representations located on the panels. My study, The Kanaganahalli Stupa: An Analysis of the 60 Massive Slabs Covering the Dome, presents a reconstruction of the original sequence of the slabs on the monument. 1 Establishing the order of the slabs was a painstaking task. The photographs taken during the excavations, providing documentation of the exact locations where each slab was discovered, did not include all of the slabs, and I did not have access to other documentary material that might have been more complete. The restoration of the reliefs was carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This was an enormous undertaking, and an achievement which cannot be valued highly enough. In order to accomplish this project, however, the reliefs were laid out on the ground near the stupa, in an area with enough space to permit the res­ toration work to be done. The slabs therefore ended up at a considerable distance from the locations in which they were originally discovered. Several of the slabs were placed in thematic groups at this stage. The reliefs depicting the events from the life of the Buddha, for example, were grouped on the ground according to the chronology of the narrative, not according to their original positions on the monument. In some instances, 1 Zin2018: 7-20; the book should be consulted for further discussion of issues broached in the present paper. Journal ofthe International Association ofBuddhist Studies Volume 41 • 2018 • 537-568 • doi: 10.2143/JlABS.41.0.3285751 538 MONIKA ZIN KANAGANAHALLI IN SATAVAHANA ART AND BUDDHISM 539 the position of the relief was marked by placing its number on the stones palanquin, but rather as arriving in a flying vi miina - correspond to the of the stupa drum, which remained in situ during the excavation process. gods on the other side of the dhamza wheel, and these two depictions cer­ Unfortunately, this occurred infrequently, perhaps because the excavators tainly form a unit with each other. The composition of the upper panels were unable to ascertain the original positions of the reliefs after they had follows the principle of axial symmetry, as the gods on both sides are been moved. figured as adoring the wheel that stands between them. The lower panels In the ASJ's official publication, Excavations at Kanaganahalli by are ordered in chronological sequence from right to left, showing Maya are K.P. Poonacha, the descriptions of the slabs divided into thematic asleep, with the Bodhisatva coming fromTu�i ta heaven in the shape of an groups. The representations of the jatakas, the reliefs depicting the life elephant, the interpretation of Maya's dream, and the birth of the future . are . story of the Buddha, and the depictions of historical kings descnbed Buddha. It is important to note that these three slabs were located facing in separate chapters. The book does not pay attention to the original posi­ one of the four entrances to the fenced enclosure of the stupa, above the or to the tion of the reliefs on the stupa dome relationships between neigh­ southernprojection, known as the ayaka, i.e. the platform on which offer­ slabs. Nakanishi, who visited the site during the excavations, also bouring ings could be placed. The centremost of the three slabs is unique when makes only a broad division between the areas on the stitpa dome where compared with its neighbours. Unlike the other slabs, it does not feature the jatakas were located, and those areas which featured depictions of the · a pilaster, that is, an ornamental vertical stripe, on its side. As we can events of the last life of the Buddha.2 In explaining the narrative content observe, the slab on the viewer's right has a pilaster on the left side, while of a given panel, the content of neighbouringslabs can be of crucial impor­ the slab on the left has a pilaster on the right side. The slabs following in tance. In many cases, panels of successive slabs visibly compose a the­ both directions were designed according to this principle: slabs are always matic unit, and must be read in horizontal order. A very telling example is separated by a single pilaster. The centre slab above the ayaka, featuring presented in the slab bearing the ASI number 05 (fig. 2).3 The lower panel the dharma wheel, is consequently the "switching slab" between the slabs of this slab presents Maya giving birth to the future Buddha, while in the with the pilaster to the left and the slabs with the pilaster to the right. These upper panel, we seeflying gods. Ifone were to perceive this slab as a distinct "switching slabs" prevent two pilasters from appearing next to one another. and self-contained unit, one could connect the flying gods in the panel above There are four "switching slabs" in total. Two are devoid of pilasters with the four gods standing located in the panel below. In fact, Poonacha completely, while two have two pilaster stripes each, one on each side. The (2011: 267) interpreted the panel in this manner, explaining that the deities dome of the Kanaganahalli stilpa was covered with 60slabs. Each quadrant in the panel above had carried Maya in a palanquin. When we reconstruct thus consisted of 15 slabs. There were three slabs above each iiyaka and the sequence of the slabs, however, we arrive at a different explanation twelve slabs between the iiyakas. The location of the slabs with certain (fig. 3):4 the gods in the upper panel - who are not depicted as carrying a positional features - e.g., a pilaster on the left or right - therefore followed a rather simple set of rules. These rules were made a bit more complicated z Nakanishi in Nakanishi/von HinUber 2014: 7--8; cf. also the earlier paper by Nakanishi by the fact that the "switching slabs" were not always located above the in Japanese (Nakanishi 2013a). iiyakas. While the centre slabs above the southern and the northerniiyaka 3 The numbers assigned by the ASI are underlined in this paper. ASI number 05, ill us.: projections are in fact "switching slabs," without decorative pilasters, the Ararnaki/Dayalan/Nakanishi2011: 70; Poonacha 2011: pl. 85; Zin 2011: fig. 3 (lo�er panel); Nakanishi 2012; Stone 2015: fig. 3.8 (part of the lower panel); Qmntao11l�_ 20�7: fig. 17 (lower panel); in Zin 2018: 2 (17), pl. 10. Drawings of the �anaganahalb rebefs . in the present study by the author are based on the photographs m Aramaki/Dayalan/ N�anishi 2013b: fig. 9 (upper panel); Zin 2015: pl. 3 (upper panel, detail with the wheel); Nakanishi 2011. middle slab, lowe r part: Gulbarga Museum, illus. in Zin 2018: fig. 50; in Zin 2018: l (16), 4 For the references to lhe left slab cf. the foregoing footnote; middle slab, ASI pl. 9; right slab: ASinumber 03, illus.: Aramaki/Dayalan/Nakanishi 2011: 63; Poonacha number 01, upper part: iUus.: Aramaki/Dayalan/Nakanishi2011: 63; Poonacha 2011: pl. 81, 2011: pl. 83; Zin2015: fig. 10; Zin2018: fig. 46; in Zin 2018: 15 (15), pl. 9. lN ART 540 MONIKA ZIN KANAGANAHALLl SATAVAffANA AND BUDDHISM 541 centre slabs above the eastern and western iiyakas are not. Indeed, they We may assume that the inscription which recorded the donation of the could not have been, since there is an unequal number of slabs with the covering "pa!(as" - probably the level stone plates covering the drum _ pilaster on the left and slabs with the pilaster on the right There are 19 of marks the point in time when the system was finalised. This inscription is the fonner, and nearly double as many, 37 in total, of the latter. "Switching dated to the 35m regnal year of Vas4;!:hlputra Sn Pu!umavi.s This is likely slabs" with decorative pilasters on both sides were placed irregularly in the date when the enlarged stupa, featuring 60 slabs (fixed behind the the areas between the eastern and southern iiyakasand between the western panas of the drum) and all fourayakas, was completed. The members of and northern iiyakas. the T<>Qa family, evidently rich citizens of the area, played a crucial role When we compare the styles of the reliefs on the slabs, we notice cer­ in the decoration of the stupa over several generations. The Todas. were tain dissimilarities. Several slabs display rather archaic features, clearly also active during the final stage, when the stupa was enlarged and the seen for example in the shapes of the eyes, which in some reliefs appear slab� �ere rea:ran�ed. This can be seen from the inscriptions recordingthe 5 as if glued onto the flat faces of the figures depicted (fig. 4). The depic­ family s contnbuttons on the slabs at the ayakas, and on other "switching tions in other slabs display quite developed forms. There, the eyes are slabs."9 The clusters of left-pilaster-slabs and right-pilaster-slabs were of shown with lachrymal sacks and eyeballs in eye sockets are visible behind primary importance in determining the sequence of the slabs.