Organizer and Chair: Walter Smith, Appalachian State University
Discussant: Gary Tartakov, Iowa State University
Despite the unfashionable status that the term "style" currently has in the discipline of art history, it is contended here that the concrete tangibles of the work of art, its visual, formal, and physical properties are of central and crucial concern to art historians, particularly those of South Asia, where the study of art's formal aspects is in many ways still at a rudimentary level. This is seen particularly in the ways in which "regional style" has been discussed. The various "regions" remain extremely broadly defined. They are generally labeled dynastically, sometimes according to historical geography, but rarely with much insight into the role of minor dynasties in the formation of regional characteristics, or into what can be called "inter regionality," which would consider how workshops and individual artisans crossed over regional/dynastic boundaries, creating styles that transcend narrow regional definition. This leads to the question of the suitability of regional labels at all, at least to the extent that they have been used in the past.
The papers presented in this panel seek to revise, refine and go beyond the narrow confines previously associated with the idea of regional style. They will show that region is still a useful concept, but will also demonstrate that no single region can be seen as a monolithic unit, but rather as a player in a multi faceted dialogue. Smith's paper on the sculpture of Malwa will demonstrate intense inter regional activity in the aftermath of the Gupta period. Mason will show just how fluid the concept of region is, with certain aspects of the northern Indian temple building tradition firmly entrenched in particular areas, while others traveled, undergoing transmutation in the process. Levin's discussion presents a view of the art of Sri Lanka as in dialogue with that of South India, rather than merely as its provincial reflection.
This panel will be of interest not only to art historians, but also to cultural historians and anthropologists who deal with the formal aspects of literature, ritual practice, and the dramatic arts, and who, it is anticipated, will contribute questions and insights to the general discussion.
Walter Smith, Appalachian State University
The area of northern India generally referred to as Malwa (southwestern Madhya Pradesh) was known in the period under discussion (7th 9th centuries) as Dasarna (western Malwa) and Avanti (eastern Malwa). Only a few sculpted remains survive from the 7th century, a few more from the 8th and 9th. The temples which were the sculptures' original supports survive for the most part only in the most fragmentary ruins until the 9th century. A study of post Gupta art in Dasarna and Avanti, then, must be confined almost solely to sculpture.
Although numerically few, these works are of outstanding quality, showing that artistic work continued unabated in the politically unsettled Gupta aftermath. Sculpture from this period has been characterized as uncertain, groping for new aesthetic direction following the collapse of Gupta ideals. It will be shown here instead, that the formalistic modes established in Gupta times were far from dead or forgotten, but were being transmuted during a time of reassessment.
The artistic interaction of various regions of western and central India is key to an understanding of visual form in sculptures from Dasarna and Avanti the 7th 9th centuries. Sculptures from Dasarna (particularly the area of Sagar) seems relatively conservative, partaking of an artistic vocabulary strongly connected to the Gupta art of Mathura. Avanti, by contrast, seems much more experimental, and is strongly connected visually to artistic trends prevalent in southwestern Rajasthan (Uparamala). The site of Hinglajgarh in particular presents what could almost be called a hybrid style, bearing elements relating it to works from northern Gujarat (Dungarpur, near Samalaji) and southern Rajasthan (Udaipur, Chitor, Ajmer). Evocative as they are of these western Indian forms, sculptures of Hinglajgarh cannot be mistaken for work of Rajasthani production, hence the tendency to classify it as a "Malwa" style. But as comparisons between Hinglajgarh and Sagar show, the art of Avanti and Dasarna is far from homogeneous, even though the two areas share many characteristics. Further, since there was so much interaction, it is difficult to make distinctions like center vs. periphery, and mainstream vs. margin, terms often used in discussing regional styles in South Asian art.
Various questions arising from the foregoing will be debated: How useful is the designation "Malwa style"? Were Dasarna and Avanti only at the receiving end of formalistic transmission? What were the mechanisms of artistic interaction between Rajasthan and regions to the east? And, what role does the art of Dasarna and Avanti play in the development of the at first glance homogeneous forms of temple sculpture in northern India of the late 9th century onward?
Darielle Mason, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
North Indian temples were constructed to fulfill complex and at times contradictory requirements: physical, symbolic, social, and aesthetic. The variety of the built record and its specifics show clearly that, over the centuries, there was a continual, many branched attempt to reach an ever-evolving ideal, together with an extraordinary openness to new solutions. The dynamic nature of temple building practice is underlined by the fact that no two structures are ever exactly alike. It can be shown that, at any one time or place, architects and craftsmen had in their working vocabularies multiple possibilities or options for each individual element which constituted the building and for the organization of those elements.
While, to some extent, it is by their corpus of options that a single craft group or interrelated groups can be defined, a group's options necessarily changed over time. Older forms no longer adequately filled needs and dropped out of use. New, more appropriate ones appeared. Sometimes the origins of new options can be traced within a single craft tradition, traditions which, on the whole, were firmly rooted geographically. At other times, options were adopted and adapted from 'foreign' traditions, based in other regions.
In this paper, I will explore questions of formal change and cross regional transmission through examples drawn from field work on the tenth century structures of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and western Madhya Pradesh. Why and how do some forms, both simple and complex, thrive and evolve within a regionally rooted tradition while others do not? Why and how do forms travel from one region to another? What can be deduced about the selection criteria for forms and how does a 'foreign' tradition utilize and reinvent 'borrowed' forms?
As a case study, I will focus on the forms of the towers (sikharas) of extant temples in northern Gujarat and southern Rajasthan dating from between about A.D. 900 and 1025 and their coordination with the wall planes on which they rest. In the interplay of options found among these monuments, I will trace the development of a particularly successful 'solution' to a multifaceted need, a solution which took root and thrived within the region. I will then explore how the individual forms engendered for this solution, and the solution itself, were 'borrowed' and used in other regional traditions.
Cecilia Levin, University of San Francisco
At the turn of the century the great pioneer in the field of South Asian Art History, Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, described Sinhalese art as "essentially Indian." This statement comes from a scholar who was himself half Sinhalese. Yet, in the almost half a century since Coomaraswamy's death little effort has been made to view the artistic heritage of Sri Lanka from a new perspective.
South Asian art historians now acknowledge that the artistic legacies of countries once strongly magnetized toward the cultural and philosophic orb of India are unique entities that can no longer be awkwardly classified as "provincial Indian" or "from Greater India." However, there still remains a need for the present generation of scholars in various South and Southeast Asian disciplines to conceive a framework for evaluating these previously considered "satellite" cultures according to new guidelines. A suggested springboard would be the identification of indigenous trends which have remained constant throughout the artistic evolution of these cultures as well as an analysis of the ways by which Indianized forms were adapted and transformed.
In 1992 the first major exhibition of Classical Sri Lankan Art was presented to American audiences. It is envisioned that this event may now launch an interest in furthering a revised understanding of the art of this island nation. The proposed topic will suggest new approaches to the evaluation of Classical Sri Lankan Art. The primary focus will be on the 11th century, when Sri Lanka was regarded as a province of the great Cola Empire and it is assumed that the artistic styles of this great South Indian power held sway on this island, through the mid 13th century, or the end of the Polonnaruva period. An integral component of this study is a further investigation into the nature of Sri Lanka's relationship with various artistic centers on the Indian Sub continent during this period. It is believed that this will provide a more accurate means for evaluating the stylistic development of contemporary Sri Lankan sculptural forms. Also to be questioned is the limitations of the link between these two nations, as evidence will reveal a more Pan Southeast Asian character to religious art during this time.
This study of Classical Sri Lankan art will also propose an augmented view of its tradition-limited by its lack of extant material-through the examination of the aesthetics of other artistic and literary forms produced during the same era.
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