Sculptural Art In Early Buddhist (Hinayana) Caves of Western Maharashtra (A Stylo-Chrono Study)

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This work presents a comprehensive style analysis of sculptural art in the early Buddhist caves of western Maharashtra (1st cent BC to 3rd cent AD). The sculptures in these caves are some of the earliest art works in stone dating to the early historical period from the region. No independent studies on the sculptural art present in these caves have been undertaken though studies focusing on architecture and chronology have been going on for almost a century and a half. In studies conducted, sculptures tend to carry the date of cave's architecture, which many a time does not synchronize. In this work, through comprehensive style analysis of sculptures, their chronologies have been deduced afresh and extend to the cave.

This work presents a comprehensive style analysis of sculptural art in the early Buddhist caves of western Maharashtra (1st cent BC to 3rd cent AD). The sculptures in these caves are some of the earliest art works in stone dating to the early historical period from the region. No independent studies on the sculptural art present in these caves have been undertaken though studies focusing on architecture and chronology have been going on for almost a century and a half. In studies conducted, sculptures tend to carry the date of cave's architecture, which many a time does not synchronize. In this work, through comprehensive style analysis of sculptures, their chronologies have been deduced afresh and extend to the cave.

The Hinayana Buddhist rock cut-caves of western Maharashtra are some of the most enigmatic and awe inspiring edifices in the world. Scholars have been working on them for over a century and a half, primarily focusing on architecture and chronology. The chronology of these caves, have been construed analyzing and interpreting factors like paleography and Satavahana history. Due to varied comparative sources used in paleographic studies and subjective interpretation of Puranic records, the dates derived for the individual caves have been divergent. No independent study has been undertaken on the sculptures present in the caves, as a source to deduce dates. In studies conducted so far, sculptures tend to get assigned the dates deuced for the cave's architecture, and many a times they do not synchronize. This work focuses on the study of sculptural data present in the caves with a perspective to understand their styles and dates, through comprehensive style analysis. Sculptures from ten early Buddhist cavesites have been subjected to style analysis. Analysis reveals that the whole gamut of sculptures in the Hinayana caves can be stylistically and chronologically categorized into two broad periods with five sub periods each. This categorization is assisted and attested by careful stylistic comparison with securely dated sculptures and also previously used parameters like epigraphic records, paleography, architectural elements and historical data. The coherent chronology of sculptured caves has also been extended to a few uninscribed and unsculptured caves by judicious comparative analysis. The text of this work deals with the descriptive and analytic account of sculptures from every site and the stylo-chrono developments of certain common motifs. In this study, irrefutable identification are also offered for the narrative reliefs in Bhaja cave 22 which have baffled scholars over the years and some ticklish issues in Satavahana chronology have also been successfully addressed. This work is a revised version of my doctoral thesis entitled An Analytical Study of Sculptural Bas-reliefs in Early Buddhist Caves of Western India, submitted to Tamil University, Thanjavur in 2004. The preliminary study of this work was undertaken with the funds from the Small Study Research Grant provided by Nehru Trust for Indian Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum, New Delhi, in 1994-95. Observation, research and new findings have necessitated revisions in the draft of the PhD thesis.

In producing this work, I owe my deep sense of gratitude to a host of people. First my sincere thanks would be towards Shri. M.N.Deshpande former Director General, Archaeological Survey of India for inspiring and instigating me to work on the sculptural art of early Buddhist caves of Western Maharashtra. I owe my thanks to my research guide Dr.K.Rajan, for his constant encouragement during the course of the work and also to Dr.N.Athiyaman from the Tamil University Thanjavur for all the help rendered.