Last week I went again to the Cleveland Museum of Art and continued my exploration of its large Asian collection. You may remember that I already wrote about the galleries devoted to the art of Japan, Korea and the Himalayan region. On this latest visit I went to the gallery devoted to the art of India. India was the birthplace of Buddhism, an important part of the culture of those other countries. I probably should have started there in the first place to put things in their proper historical framework.
India however was also the birthplace of a religion that predated Buddhism... Hinduism. In fact, Hinduism has been called the oldest continuously practiced religion in the world, with its roots going back thousands of years. It is a complex religion with many gods, goddesses, demons and heroes, and some of them have numerous incarnations or avatars. The Indian gallery of the museum is filled statuary and carvings of some of those deities.
There is a trinity of three supreme gods... Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
Brahma is the god of creation although he is not as venerated today as the other two gods. This granite statue of Brahma is from the late 900s. The god's four arms represent his supernatural power and his four heads, one facing in each of the cardinal points, signify that his creation extends in all directions.
Vishnu is the preserver of the universe and represents goodness. This sandstone head of the god dates from the 4th century.
Here we see a large statue of Vishnu flanked by his two wives, Bhu, the earth goddess to the left, and Shri, the goddess of good fortune to the right.
This bronze dating from around 1250 portrays Vishnu in his Man-Lion avatar.
The third member of the trinity is Shiva, the Destroyer God, who is both fearsome and benevolent. Here he has three faces. To the right is his feminine incarnation which is also his wife, the goddess Parvati. To the left is Bhairava, who embodies Shiva's destructive force. He rides a bull, Nandi. At the bottom are his children, the elephant-headed Ganesha and the warrior Skanda.
The most recognized form of Indian sculpture is this image of Shiva, the Lord of Dance, within a ring of fire. This bronze is from the 11th century.
In this sandstone carving from the 700s, Shiva and his wife Parvati are shown at home on Mount Kailasa. Shiva presses down his big toe to keep the demon Ravanna under control.
The inner sanctum of temples dedicated to Shiva contains a phallic sculpture known as a "linga". Emerging from this "linga" is the face of Shiva, represented here as a powerful yogi with three eyes.
Ganesha, a very popular god, is the elephant-headed son of Shiva. He is the god of wealth and abundance.
Kali, another aspect of the goddess Parvati, is the wrathful destroyer of evil.
This bronze from around 1000 shows the monkey general Hanuman, a hero in the epic poem Ramayana. He is able to fly and can lift mountains.
The Buddhist religion originated in India in the 6th century B.C. According to tradition it was founded by an Indian prince named Siddartha. He left the luxury of his palace and sought a spiritual life. Centuries after his death he came to be called Buddha... the Enlightened One.
This carving from the 9th century depicts the birth of Buddha. His mother, Queen Maya, gave birth while traveling to her parents' home. The newborn is received by the god Indra, and the creator god Brahma looks on in the lower right. Buddhist art always showed the Hindu gods in subservient positions.
According to tradition, Siddartha received enlightenment while sitting under a "bodhi" (ficus) tree. The limestone slab from a Buddhist monument shows people venerating the "bodhi" tree.
This stone sculpture from the 800s shows Buddha as he attains enlightenment. Stylized branches of the ficus tree are at the top.
A bronze image of Buddha from the late 800s.
For centuries Buddhism was one of the major religions of India. However after the 12th century, a period of wars and invasions culminating in the Muslim invasion, led to its decline. Monasteries were destroyed, and monks fled north into the Himalayas. By the 14th century, Buddhism had been nearly eradicated from the Indian subcontinent. However, the religion had spread to many other parts of Asia, where it continues to this day.
In the next entry from the museum we will see art from one of those areas, Southeast Asia.
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