Sixth Century Indian Sculptures from Samalaji: Style and Iconography (Volumes I and II).

Abstract

The name "Samalaji sculptures" by which these fifty some Hindu sculptures are known refers to the modern village in Gujarat (Dist. Sabar Kantha) where they were originally found in 1934. These are important sculptures because of their artistic merit and because they document the presence of a late Gupta idiom in a region of which little is otherwise known from the sixth century and earlier. The Samalaji sculptures also include some of the first sets of full-size, free-st and ing matrka images (mother goddesses) from the period. Since their discovery, however, they have never been the subject of a full-length study evaluating relationships among works from the site or their relationships to other sites in the region. Other scholars have judged them to be works carved over an extended period of time, from the late fourth to mid-sixth centuries. Little attention has been concentrated on the iconographic makeup of the site as a whole. Using earlier writings on art, archaeology and iconography together with new photographs of these and related groups of images, this study addresses itself to questions of relative sequence within the site, the actual dates of the sculptures, the site's iconographic composition, and what this art historical evidence seems to indicate about ancient political affiliations of this region. The chronological questions are approached through stylistic analysis within the site and through comparisons to more securely dated sites in Malwa and the Konkan. Iconographic issues are approached from the premise that since matrkas of this period were worshipped in groups of seven, any collection of eight or more fragments must represent two or more original matrka heptads. From the resulting network of Samalaji's chronological and iconographic relationships, hypotheses regarding the site's ancient dynastic connections are proposed. The major conclusions of this study are summarized here. The stylistic features of all the Samalaji sculptures are so similar that all must have been carved within the same brief timespan. This period can be fixed to the years 520-540 or 550 A.D. on the basis of stylistic similarities with sculptures from M and asor and the Konkan cavesites and because of the lack of stylistic relationships to a variety of earlier sites. Three general categories of sculpture are defined: the matrkas, other images belonging to a (')Siva temple, and images belonging to a brief Vaisnavite phase. Among these extant images, the largest number by far are matrka sculptures which can be assigned to two or possibly three different heptads. The iconographic characteristics of these and related heptads from Rajasthan and the Konkan demonstrate rather conclusively that the sixth century was a period of consolidation of various mythological and sectarian traditions involving the matrkas and their companions from the ranks of the gods. Finally, it is suggested that Samalaji may have been part of ancient Malwa during the reign of Yasodharman and that the site could not have been within the realm of Maitraka dynastic patronage or the subject of a sixteenth century Tibetan reference to an old school of Western art. Based on a clearer underst and ing of Samalaji's dates and its relationships to other sites, further study may be able to clarify Samalaji's place within the broader concept of a Western Indian regional style.