कुषाण प्रस्तर मूर्तियों में समाज एवं धर्म - Society and Religion in Kushan Stone Sculptures

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When I was asked to write the foreword for the thesis of Dr. Rani Shrivastava, entitled "Kusana Prastara Murtiyon men Samaja evam Dharma" (Society and Religion in Kusana stone sculptures). I agreed to do so on two grounds: Firstly, as her work deals with objects made in the time of Kusanas, a dynasty of foreign origin which captivated me since years; secondly, as I heard of her studies when visiting the Government Museum at Mathura and thus saw her work emerge. Her thesis had been submitted to the University of Lucknow in 1985, where she received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Unfortunately, its publication had been delayed due to reasons unknown to me.

To study sculptures of the time of the Kusapas with the aim of tracing social conditions and religious leanings of the people who donated or made them, implied that she had to analyse the preserved stone objects mainly of two important "Kunstlandschatfen" (art regions) which had formerly been dominated by early and later Kusana kings. The first concerned is the North-west of the ancient Indian Subcontinent. It comprises centres and areas, such as Taxila, proper Gandhara, Swat, and Kapisa, etc. The second is the art centre of Mathura and neighbouring areas.

As regards the sculptures of the first "Kunstlandschaft" in the North-west, generally designated nowadays as "Gandhara", Dr. R. Shrivastava chiefly depended in her studies on photographic illustrations, published by H. Ingholt in "Gandharan Art in Pakistan", New York 1957, John M. Rosenfield in "The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans", Berkeley and Los Angeles 1967, and in the Catalogue of "The Exhibition of Gandhara Art of Pakistan", Tokyo 1984. But concerning the investigation of stone objects from the second important art region of the time of the Kusana, Mathura and areas influenced by this famous artcentre, she studied the relevant sculptures in situ, having lived at Mathura for several years.

One of the merits of her thesis are the results of her studies of sculptures in the various go-downs of the Government Museum, Mathura. As visitors to this Museum know, some of the reserve collections are not always easy of access and moreover, for technical reasons, it takes time to study the objects in detail in the godowns.

Her thesis, written in Hindi, is divided in three sections, comprising fourteen chapters.

Section One mainly deals with the political history of the Kusanas. They cons-tituted the political authority which largely determined the fate of the people living in the territories controlled by them. This is the reason why the name of their dynasty "Kusina" is sometimes applied to the art objects, created during their time, although it should be remembered that hardly any sculpture, donated by a Kusana king person-ally, survived. The only certain royal products of the reign of the Kusanas are their coins, struck in royal or local mints. Even the so-called portrait-sculptures from the derakula at Mat near Mathura were caused to be made by administrators or representatives of some early Kusapa kings. Section Two is the most voluminous part of her thesis and comprises eight chapters.

It discusses the organization and condition of the societies in the above-named two chief art regions. The society of Mathura of the time of the Kusanas has been described in the traditional way regarding the four varpas and the four asrama s, as Mathura obviously formed part of Aryavarta. Whether, however, the social order in the Metropolitan cities and rural areas of the North-west was organized in quite the same way is not easy to ascertain today. But several recently discovered Kharostri records strengthen the impression that also the societies in regions at the periphery of the ancient Indian Subcontinent had been strongly influenced by the system characteristic for ancient India.

Dr. R. Shrivastava's observations in this section on the position of women during the reign of the Kusanas regarding their relative freedom are interesting. She also dis-cusses dress, ornaments and hair styles of both men and women, as depicted in reliefs of stone carved in the time of the Kusanas. Particularly her studies of the hair-styles are revealing Some of the stone carvings illustrated by her in this connection have not been published so far. As regards the technical terms used in the description of the objects she demonstrates her knowledge of relevant Pali, Sanskrit and Prakrit texts. Moreover, while analysing certain sculptures, she identified several dance-poses on the evidence of the Natyasastra. See for instance Plates 54 and 57 and some of her drawings which show different poses of the hands and feet of the dancer. Musical instruments, furniture and utensils of daily use in private houses and in shrines are likewise studied in Section Two.

Section Three summarizes the evidence of religious faiths as substantiated in preserved works of art of the two above mentioned art and cultural regions. The best mirror of the religious inclinations of the people at Mathura are of course the stone images which served for cult purposes in shrines and temples. They comprise a great variety at Mathura, such as images of the Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmanical faiths, as well as icons of folk deities, such as Yaksas, Nagas, River-goddesses, Matskas, etc. Regarding cult sculptures from the North-west, attention is drawn by her to the cult of Haritl.

Her conclusions culminate in the assertion that during the roughly three hundred years of rule of the Kusanas socio-economic conditions at least at Mathura had been in a flourishing state. One of the proofs for this statement is the relatively large number of images donated by persons who were affluent enough to remunerate the craftsmen who made them. Among the former must have been well-to-do traders, as Mathura was known to have been an important commercial and industrial centre situated at the crossroad of trade-routes from the North-west to the South-east and South of the Indian Subcontinent.

Dr. R. Shrivastava acknowledged the pioneering efforts of scholars in the field of research on the Kusinas, such as "The "Scythian" Period..." by J.E. van Lohuizende Leeuw (Leiden 1949), "India under the Kusanas" by B.N. Puri (Bombay 1965) and "Mathura and its Society-The Saka-Pahlava Phase" by B.N. Mukherjee (Calcutta 1981). The last-mentioned scholar already in 1981 discussed in his book not only conditions of the society at Mathura during the time of the Sakas and Pahlavas, but also in that of the Kusanas in exhaustive foot-notes. But whereas he chiefly used evidence from inscriptions, the author of the present book used the sculptures, among them also inscribed ones, as a sort of questionnaire for her inquiries regarding the religious feelings and socio-cultural conditions of the people who created them.

A bibliography, a list of illustrations and 241 half-tone Plates, partly of unpublished objects in the Government Museum, Mathura, as well as over 900 drawings prepared by herself conclude her meritorious thesis.