Portraiture in Early India: Between Transience and Eternity

290 Pages·14.425 MB·English

by  Lefèvre Vincent.

Portraiture in Early India
Handbook of Oriental Studies
Handbuch der Orientalistik
Section Two
South Asia
Edited by
Johannes Bronkhorst
VOLUME 25
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ho2
Portraiture in Early India
Between Transience and Eternity
By
Vincent Lefèvre
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011
Cover illustration: Couple of donors—Veranda of Karle caitya (India, Maharastra)—
First century BC (Photograph by Vincent Lefèvre)
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lefèvre, Vincent.
Portraiture in early India : between transience and eternity / by Vincent Lefèvre.
p. cm. — (Handbook of Oriental studies. Section 2, South Asia, ISSN 0169-
9377 ; 25)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-20735-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Portraits, Indic. 2. Art and
society—India. I. Title. II. Series.
N7615.I5L44 2011
704.9’4250954—dc23
2011019264
ISSN 0169-9377
ISBN 978 90 04 20735 6
Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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To Bruno Dagens

CONTENTS
Foreword ............................................................................................. xi
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ xiii
List of Figures ..................................................................................... xv
Plates
Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xxi
Introduction Portraiture, a Problematic Issue ........................... 1
Chapter One Identifying Portraits ............................................... 23
1. Painted portraits ....................................................................... 23
2. Portraits in the round and devotional portraiture ............. 31
2.1. Life-size and free standing portraits ............................. 31
2.2. Devotional portraiture .................................................... 35
3. Coins .......................................................................................... 39
4. Double-meaning images ......................................................... 41
5. Naming the image .................................................................... 46
Chapter Two Viddha / Aviddha. Different Kinds of Portraits
for Different Kinds of Purpose ................................................... 53
1. Some study cases ...................................................................... 53
1.1. Narasiṃha Gaṅga ............................................................ 54
1.2. Kṛsṇ ̣adevarāya .................................................................. 55
1.3. Rājarāja I ........................................................................... 57
1.4. Jayavarman VII ................................................................ 58
2. The likeness issue: textual evidence ...................................... 59
3. Physiognomic portraits ........................................................... 65
3.1. Portraiture and identity .................................................. 65
3.2. Portrait as a substitute .................................................... 68
3.3. The Pratimānātạ ka or the ambiguity of likeness ....... 72
4. Typological portraits ............................................................... 76
5. Portraiture as social and historical marker ......................... 80
Chapter Three Portraits, Worship and Divine Images ............ 85
1. Portraits, commemoration and death .................................. 85
2. Portraiture and funerary and/or dynastic temples ............. 90
viii contents
2.1. The Pratimānātạ ka .......................................................... 90
2.2. Kusạ̄ ṇa dynastic shrines ................................................. 91
2.3. South Indian ‘funerary’ temples ................................... 94
2.4. ‘Funerary’ temples in Southeast Asia ........................... 98
3. Divine portrait, human portrait ............................................ 102
3.1. Myths on the origin of images ...................................... 102
3.2. Divine images as portraits ............................................. 105
3.3. Ritual installation (pratisṭ ḥ ā) of portraits ................... 109
4. Portraiture and deification ..................................................... 112
Chapter Four The Origin of Portraiture and the
Representation of Heroes ............................................................. 119
1. Portraiture in pre-and proto-historical times ..................... 119
2. Portraiture in the Early-Historical period
(Maurya-Śuṅga times) ............................................................. 123
2.1. Early human figures ........................................................ 123
2.2. Portraits or Yaksạ s? ......................................................... 124
2.2.1. The issue: statues and the cult of Yaksạ s ......... 124
2.2.2. The debate: Yaksạ or royal portrait? ................. 126
2.2.3. The Yaksạ in ancient literature .......................... 128
2.2.4. Back to the portrait interpretation? .................. 131
2.2.5. The case of Bharhut ............................................. 134
3. Portraits and the first ‘divine images’ at the beginning
of the era (Kusạ̄ ṇa period) ..................................................... 136
3.1. Stories on the origin of the images of Buddha
and Mahāvīra .................................................................... 137
3.2. The Vṛsṇ ̣i Vīras and the first representations
of Kṛsṇ ̣a ............................................................................. 144
Chapter Five The Royal Portrait, Portrait Par Excellence? ...... 149
1. The king as model .................................................................... 150
1.1. In normative treatises ..................................................... 150
1.2. The king as visual source ................................................ 155
2. Portraiture as political instrument ........................................ 158
2.1. Diplomacy, propaganda and legitimization ................ 159
2.2. Historical reliefs ............................................................... 161
3. Allegorical portraits ................................................................. 164
3.1. Allegorical portraits under the Guptas ........................ 164
3.2. Allegorical portraits under the Pallavas ....................... 168
contents ix
3.3. Portraiture and political metaphors ............................. 180
Appendix Vaikuṇtḥ aperumāl ̣Temple, Kanchipuram:
Iconography of the Surrounding Galleries ........................... 183
Concluding Remarks ......................................................................... 189
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 195
Index .................................................................................................... 217