Locating the Lost Gupta Period Rāmāyaṇa Reliefs from Katingara, Uttar Pradesh
Issue: Vol 12 No. 2 (2018)
Journal: Religions of South Asia
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies Islamic Studies
DOI: 10.1558/rosa.38806
Abstract:
This article collates a fascinating group of early fifth-century ce terracotta temple reliefs, some bearing short Brāhmī inscriptions. The panels entered numerous museum and private collections in India and abroad from the 1960s and early 70s. Of the panels, which comprise animated narrative scenes, amorous couples, lesser-divinities and composite creatures, it is those depicting episodes of the Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa that this article is specifically concerned with. Although the images share a bold, idiosyncratic style, and a likeness in scale, material and finish, they have never been acknowledged as having a shared origin, with most being loosely described as hailing from Uttar Pradesh. The central aims of this article are to analyse the iconography of this remarkable collection of panels and to put forward an argument for their place of origin being a small archaeological site near the village of Katingara, located in the alluvial plains beside the Kali Nadi river (a tributary of the Ganges) in District Etah, Uttar Pradesh. Katingara will also be positioned within the context of recorded early archaeological sites in the region. Importantly, the panels constitute one of the earliest and most extensive collections of terracotta Rāmāyaṇa images surviving from the Gupta period, and this is the first time since their illicit removal from Katingara that they have been 're-assembled'.
Author: Laxshmi Greaves
References :
Albrecht, Janico, Christopher Degelmann, Valentino Gasparini, Richard Gordon, Maik Patzelt, Georgia Petridou, Rubina Raja, Anna-Katharina Rieger, Jörge Rüpke, Benjamin Sippel, Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli and Lara Weiss. 2018. ‘Religion in the Making: The Lived Religion Approach.’ Religion: 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2018.1450305
Banerjee, Priyatosh. 1985. ‘A Terracotta Panel from Bhitargaon Showing a Ramayana Scene.’ Roopa Letha. http://ignca.nic.in/pb0020.htm (accessed 20 December 2015).
Bakker, Hans. 1991. ‘Ayodhyā: A Hindu Jerusalem, An Investigation of “Holy War” as a Religious Idea in the Light of Communal Unrest in India.’ Numen 38 (1): 80–109. https://doi.org/10.2307/3270005
Bhattacharya, Gouriswar. 1990. ‘Early Rāmāyaṇa Illustration from Bangladesh.’ In Maurizio Taddei (ed.), South Asian Archaeology 1987 Part 2. Proceedings on the Ninth International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe, held in Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice: 1043–65. Rome: Istituto per il Medio e Estremo Oriente.
—2002. ‘Visual Epics.’ In Danuta Stasik and John Brockington (eds.), Indian Epic Traditions—Past and Present (Papers Presented at the 16th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Edinburgh, 5-9 September 2000): 111–31. Rocznik Orientalistyczny 54 (1); Wydaw. Naukowe PWN, Warszaw
Brodbeck, Simon (trans.). Forthcoming. Krishna’s Lineage: The Harivamsha of Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata, Translated from the Sanskrit. New York: Oxford University Press.
Chakrabarti, Dilip K., Rakesh Tewari, R. N. Singh and K. K. Singh. 2002. ‘Kampil, Sankisa and Chakranagar: Sites in the Farrukhabad-Etah-Budaun-Mainpuri-Etawah Region of Uttar Pradesh.’ South Asian Studies 18: 109–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2002.9628613
Cunningham, Alexander. 1880. Report of Tours in the Gangetic Provinces from Badaon to Bihar in 1875–76 and 1877–78. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India.
Dallaporte, Annamaria and Lucio Marcato. 2001. ‘Where is Kampilya? Archaeological Research in Farrukhabad District.’ South Asian Studies 17: 161–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2001.9628598
—2012. Kampil: Archaeological Study of a Site in Ancient Kingdom of Panchala. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Devakarni, Virjanand. 2007. Prachin Bharat Main Rāmāyaṇ Ke Mandir. Gurukul Jhajjar: Haryana Pranttiya Puratattva Sangrahalaya.
Dye III, Joseph M. 2001. The Arts of India: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Richmond, VA: Philip Wilson.
Evans, Kirsti. 1997. Epic Narratives in the Hoysaḷa Temples: The Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, and Bhāgavata Purāṇa in Haḷebīd, Belūr, and Amrtapuṛa. Leiden: Brill.
Gaur, R. C. 1983. Excavations at Atranjīkherā. Early Civilization of the Upper Ganga Basin. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass.
Gaur, R. C. 1988. Selected Art Pieces of Aligarh Archaeology Museum. Jaipur: Publication Scheme.
Goldman, Robert P. (ed.). 1986. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki II, Ayodhyākāṇḍa. Trans. Sheldon I. Pollock. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
—1994. Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki IV, Kiṣkindhākāṇḍa. Trans. Rosalind Lefeber. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Goldman, Robert P., and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman (eds.). 1996. Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki V, Sundarakāṇḍa. Trans. Robert P. Goldman, Rosalind Lefeber, Sheldon I. Pollock, Sally J. Sutherland Goldman and Barend A. van Nooten. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
—2009. Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki VI, Yuddhakāṇḍa. Trans. Robert P. Goldman, Rosalind Lefeber, Sheldon I. Pollock, Sally J. Sutherland Goldman and Barend A. van Nooten. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
—2017. Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki VII, Uttarakāṇḍa. Trans. Robert P. Goldman, Rosalind Lefeber, Sheldon I. Pollock, Sally J. Sutherland Goldman and Barend A. van Nooten. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
González-Reimann, Luis. 2006. ‘The Divinity of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki.’ Journal of Indian Philosophy 34: 203–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-005-5018-4
Greaves, Laxshmi. 2015. ‘Brick Foundations: North Indian Temple Architecture and Terracotta Art of the Fourth to Sixth Centuries ce.’ PhD Thesis. Cardiff: Cardiff University.
Gupta, Saurabh. 2017. ‘Mamata Banerjee Compares Narendra Modi to Ravana, Mocks CBI.’ NDTV. https://tinyurl.com/1647863 (accessed 21 November 2017).
Handa, Devendra. 2006. Sculptures from Haryana: Iconography and Style. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
Kala, Jayantika. 1988. Epic Scenes in Indian Plastic Art. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications.
Kala, Satish Chandra. 1980. Terracottas in the Allahabad Museum. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications.
Lefèvre, Vincent, and Marie-Françoise Boussac (eds.). 2007. Chefs-d’oeuvre du Delta du Gange, Collections de Musée du Bangladesh. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux: Etablissement public du musée des arts asiatiques Guimet.
Pollock, Sheldon. 1993. ‘Ramayana and Political Imagination in India.’ The Journal of Asian Studies 52: 261–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/2059648
Pollock, Sheldon (trans.). 2007. Rāma’s Last Act by Bhavabhūti. New York: New York University Press JJC Foundation.
Poster, Amy G. (ed.). 1986. From Indian Earth, 4,000 Years of Terracotta Art. The Brooklyn Museum: New York.
Sanford, David Theron. 1974. ‘Early Temples Bearing Rāmāyaṇa Relief Cycles in the Chola Area: A Comparative Study.’ PhD thesis. Los Angeles: University of California.
Shankar, Ajai. 2001. ‘The Threat to Cultural Sites in India from Illegal Excavation.’ In Neil Brodie, Jennifer Doole and Colin Renfrew (eds.), Trade in Illicit Antiquities: The Destruction of the World’s Archaeological Heritage: 33–37. Cambridge: McDonald Institute.
Shrimali, K. M. 1983. History of Pañcāla. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.
Srinivasan, Doris Meth. 1984. ‘Significance and Scope of Pre-Kuṣāṇa Śaivite Iconography.’ In Listening to Icons. Vol. I. Indian Iconographic and Iconological Studies. New Delhi: Aryan Books International. (Originally published in Michael W. Meister (ed.), Discourses on Śiva. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1984: 32–46.)
Stadtner, Donald, M. 2015. ‘An Inscribed Gupta Terracotta Panel in the Linden-Museum.’ In Georg Noack (ed.), Tribus, Jahrbuch des Linden-Museums: 207–17. Stuttgart: Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
Vout, Caroline. 2013. ‘Visualising Epic.’ In Helen Lovatt and Caroline Vout (eds.), Epic Visions: Visuality in Greek and Latin Epic and its Reception: 18–31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zaheer, Mohammad. 1981. The Temple of Bhītargāon. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan.