Gangetic Visions - 2
This is the (very long overdue) concluding part of the 'Ganga impressions' picture essay. I need to keep this going!
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The Allahabad museum has plenty of ancient and medieval sculpture plus assorted modern stuff - special mention should be made of a largeish collection of modern art and Nehru memorabilia. Photography is prohibited in the sculpture gallery but the ban is not very strictly enforced so one cheated a bit.
An unusual medieval 'Mother and Child' group:
A very pre-columbian looking face:
A remarkable ancient wall carving with figures that look like miscievous putti frolicking among creepers!
A rather odd medieval carving... Not too sure of the theme:
An interesting bit of Nehruviana. A sandalwood carving, a present to the great man from the civic authorities at Sirsi, Mysore, showing, of all things, Viswamitra's amorous escapade with Menaka. Wonder what was being conveyed - indeed, whether anything at all beyond the merely visual was being conveyed!
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Sarnath has a smaller but vastly superior musuem. It is focussed on ancient sculpture and is very well lit and maintained. But then, the powers that be have strictly banned all photography, which is ridiculous, especially in view of the absolute treasures they have.
A couple of observations:
1. The 4-lion capital, our National symbol, was described in our primary school textbook as depicting, on its pedestal, "the dharmachakra in the middle, a bull on the right and a horse on the left". We were told, the bull represents agriculture and the horse, the military - the "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" thing.
A lot of it was of course bunkum. For a start, the bull is not on the right and horse on the left - right and left make no sense simply because the blessed capital is a round thing. Apart from the bull and horse, there are two more animals on the pedestal - a lion and an elephant. From another angle, the bull will be on the right and to the left will be a lion(?) and from another the horse will be on the left and an elephant will be on the right. And all these 4 beasts represent the Buddha and probably, nothing much else. So, the national symbol is not the lion quartet but one specific view thereof. As to why this view was chosen, three of the lions have suffered damage - and the totally hidden lion has a broken face - so any other view of the quartet would have put the damage on display.
The lion capital is so superbly done - there is plenty online about its Achaemenid/Greek influences and the Mauryan polish and what not - and one could keep staring away at it for an hour and more. But, it is a terrible shame that an Indian is not allowed to photograph/video his/her National emblem; a shame that is infinitely worse than the Kohinoor still sitting in the London Tower. I would say, if the lion capital were to be shifted to the Brit Museum (where it would certainly receive the kind of treatment the magnificent colossal granite head of Amunhotep III has received), it would be a welcome development!
2. Most ancient sculptures here - the famous Preaching Buddha, a powerfully built Yaksha,... while not 2D reliefs are NOT fully 3D either - viewed from the side, they appear unnaturally flattened from front to back. Don't know why. The one exception to this is of course the lions.
Near the magnificent Dhamekh stupa stand this pair of ancient sandstone pillars:
They feature these marvelous 'Green Man' faces:
A 'door jamb' that still stands among the extensive ruins here...
---------------
The Allahabad museum has plenty of ancient and medieval sculpture plus assorted modern stuff - special mention should be made of a largeish collection of modern art and Nehru memorabilia. Photography is prohibited in the sculpture gallery but the ban is not very strictly enforced so one cheated a bit.
An unusual medieval 'Mother and Child' group:
A very pre-columbian looking face:
A remarkable ancient wall carving with figures that look like miscievous putti frolicking among creepers!
A rather odd medieval carving... Not too sure of the theme:
An interesting bit of Nehruviana. A sandalwood carving, a present to the great man from the civic authorities at Sirsi, Mysore, showing, of all things, Viswamitra's amorous escapade with Menaka. Wonder what was being conveyed - indeed, whether anything at all beyond the merely visual was being conveyed!
-----------
Sarnath has a smaller but vastly superior musuem. It is focussed on ancient sculpture and is very well lit and maintained. But then, the powers that be have strictly banned all photography, which is ridiculous, especially in view of the absolute treasures they have.
A couple of observations:
1. The 4-lion capital, our National symbol, was described in our primary school textbook as depicting, on its pedestal, "the dharmachakra in the middle, a bull on the right and a horse on the left". We were told, the bull represents agriculture and the horse, the military - the "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" thing.
A lot of it was of course bunkum. For a start, the bull is not on the right and horse on the left - right and left make no sense simply because the blessed capital is a round thing. Apart from the bull and horse, there are two more animals on the pedestal - a lion and an elephant. From another angle, the bull will be on the right and to the left will be a lion(?) and from another the horse will be on the left and an elephant will be on the right. And all these 4 beasts represent the Buddha and probably, nothing much else. So, the national symbol is not the lion quartet but one specific view thereof. As to why this view was chosen, three of the lions have suffered damage - and the totally hidden lion has a broken face - so any other view of the quartet would have put the damage on display.
The lion capital is so superbly done - there is plenty online about its Achaemenid/Greek influences and the Mauryan polish and what not - and one could keep staring away at it for an hour and more. But, it is a terrible shame that an Indian is not allowed to photograph/video his/her National emblem; a shame that is infinitely worse than the Kohinoor still sitting in the London Tower. I would say, if the lion capital were to be shifted to the Brit Museum (where it would certainly receive the kind of treatment the magnificent colossal granite head of Amunhotep III has received), it would be a welcome development!
2. Most ancient sculptures here - the famous Preaching Buddha, a powerfully built Yaksha,... while not 2D reliefs are NOT fully 3D either - viewed from the side, they appear unnaturally flattened from front to back. Don't know why. The one exception to this is of course the lions.
Near the magnificent Dhamekh stupa stand this pair of ancient sandstone pillars:
They feature these marvelous 'Green Man' faces:
A 'door jamb' that still stands among the extensive ruins here...
posted by R.Nandakumar @ 6:19 AM
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