Naman P. Ahuja Research Fellow atthe Ashmolean, Oxford 47 Gloucester Avenue London NWI 7BA, England \ (C42 Defence Colony New Dethi 110024, India Pk:D. Early Indian M Terracotta; the emergence of an iconography and yariations in style. 200 BC — AD 200 London University, 2001 remember the disorient ation and Loneliness 1 elt when 1 first arrived in Banaras o start the field-work for my dissertation. Iwas armed With copious notes and photocopies, a camera and a list of the luminaries who resided there. Scholars to whom I had to somehow muater Sough courage 1 mect, and reveal how litle knew. few weeks into my say and stil procrastinating about calling on Anand Krish. 1 tun nto Naval at she Kala Bhavan, who promprtyinvted me to their family home There, Iwas embraced, fed, enterained and made to think, Anand Krishna jt and I found ourselves deep inthe minutiae of the variable Fantons ofthe same raga in diferent gharanas, the changing role of feminine representation from Shunga terracotta to Rajpu Jue ou that he had been a fan of my grandmother's since the early 1950s and conversation and hospitality ust flowed on. f painting. It with faith in By subject and encouraged by family in Banaras. This very modest article comes with evry prayer to wish him and us the benefit of hs mind ‘and heart for years to come Selected Publications: Mailed Terracotta from the Indo-Gangetic Divide: Sug, crea 200 BCE-S0 CE, Karty Indian Terracottas, (4. . Pal, Mag Bombay. [Co-Author] Divine Presence: Arts of India and the Himalayas. Casa Asia, Barcelona, Spain, Five Continents Futons, Milan fin English Catalan snd Spanish], 2003, Ania 500 BC-500 AD, Adlas of World Art, [Ea] John Onians, London, 2004, [Forthcoming] Wi. Bhandare: The Govddess with Two Fish: New Evidence for an Early Historic Iconography in Indian Numismatics and ‘Minor’ Avs Proceedings of South Asian Archaeology, Bonn, 2003 With Shanno Khurana) Raga Daruan: Comparative Case Studies in the Musicology of Eight Rare Ragas in Hindustani Vocal Musi Journal of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi =Chansing Gods, Enduring Rituals: Observations on Early Indian Religion as Sen trough Terracotta Imagery . 200 BC-AD 200, Proceedings af South Asian Archaeology, Pars, 2001 Amazes ofa Forgotten Pantheon: Indian Gold, ory and Terracotta c. 200 BC-AD 200, Proceedings of the Amigos do Orientes Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon [published in English and Portuguese by Oriental Art)THE ANANDA-VANA INDIAN ART Dr. Anand Krishna Felicitation Volume Editors Naval Krishna & Manu Krishnahe collestion of Spink and Son, London, 482 THE STYLE OF Earry Historic TERRACOTTAS FROM THE INDO-GANGETIC DIVIDE FurtHER Stupies Towarbs A DEFINITION OF Naman P. Ahuja Ina previous article, to which this forms a Sequel, we initiated a discussion on the characteristics, both iconographic and stylistic, of terracotta objects, fromthe Indo-Gangetic Divide with special focus on Sigh, in Jagadhri District, Haryana! There we looked pirticularly at the prolific output of images of achild scribe, a kingly yaksha like personage with a tall headdress and pot belly, the nature of ornament, coiffure and fine drapery, and found that objects from thetegioncan be stylistically recognised as exhibiting subtly distinct features that differentiate them from their close counterparts in Mathura and Taxila, The style vas found to be in transition: with its foundations in Plate the general tradition of mould-made plaques that was The Indo-Gangetc Divide: Principal Early-Historc Sites Widespread across northern South Asia — from Bannu [NWFP] to Mahasthangath [Bangladesh] —but at times mixed, in this region, with some extra-Indian influences that must have come from the contemporary Indo-Greeks, Parthians and Scythians in the pre-Kushan period, Moreover, the plaques have a sophistication that rivals that of better known centres for such art in India Jike Chandraketugarh in Bengal or Kaushambi in U.P. This article discusses three hitherto unpublished terracotta plagues from the Indo-Gangetic Divide. References are made to other pieces — some of which are in private hands fin both India and abroad] and others that wi fated and are mostly in the collection of the Chandigarhnanela-vana of Indian Art Museum —to contextualise them, orto suggestamore appropriate provenance for previously mislabelled pieces. At the outset, it must be said that the imagery from Sugh is taken here as prototypical of the entire region. There is every reason to believe that both the stylistic and iconographic predilections of the imagery from this site would have closely corresponded with that of the other ancient sites in the Divide. The sites of Ropar? Sanghol’ and Sunet* in Indian Panjab and Sugh, Agroha,® Kurukshetra’ and Naurangabad® in Haryana were bustling ancient cities that lay in one of the most fertile regions of north India connecting major urban centres like Mathura and Hastinapur with Taxi? [PL 2: Map] The land enjoys the benefit of the famous, rivers of Panjab and many minor rivers that catch the waters of the Shivalik hills like, for instance, the Ghaggat, which is largely seasonal now, although it was of enormous importance in the Proto-Historic period. The region has been cultivated and been under constant occupation for millennia, Repeatedly used as a battleground, it has also been as much a route for invasions as ithas been for migrations [whether forced orvolitional]. Itboasts some of the subcontinent’s oldest roadways. Its people are renowned for repeatedly rebuilding their civilisation anew with char: progressive pragmatism. Laudable as that may be, these factors make any extensive archaeological excavation inthe area difficult All the same, many significant finds in the area, some under controlled stratified excavations and some other fortuitous discoveries, leave us in no doubt about its prosperity in the Early Historic period. Dateable Indo- Greek coins with Kharoshti and Greek inscriptions and indigenous coins of both tribal republics like Kada, ‘Agroha [Agrodakai and tribal monarchies ike the Audambaras, Kunindas and Mitras with Brahmi and Kharoshti inscriptions give the most significant evidence for the emergence of states, governments, urbanism and concomitant social and economic activities like the escalation in trade. Numismatic studies have identified several new issues of coins in addition to the ones that have been collected from this area from the nineteenth century onward, and have brought to light other gana-sanghas, tribal or clan based polities like the Savitriputrakar, in addition to further ‘evidence for the Yaudheya, Kuninda, Atjunayana, Trigarla, Agastya, Vemaka, Mitra, Rajanya chiefs and kin that are known from this area, The period we are therefore addressing here was contemporary with the last decades of the Indo-Greeks and during the period of Shaka - Parthian dominance in the western extremities of istic Pha Fragmentary Celestial Nymphs Yakshint (21, Sugh, Teracotta © Ist cent, BCE; Chandigarh Government Museum. 50Terracottas from the Indo-G Plate 4, Plate 5. Fragmentary Yakshini / Goddess, Sugh, Terracotta, c. Ist cent. BCE Fragmentary Celestial Nymph /Dancer (2) Sug Collection ofthe Gurukul, Jhajjar Terracotta, c. Ist cent. BCE; The Gurukul Ihaljr Panjab. The sites are further associated with characteristic pottery, and the distinctive nature of the post-Mauryan moulded plaques found in the area build up a rich interrelated body of evidence that allows us to date the and reconstruct the region's history. This is further enhanced by te One of the most remarkable pieces to emerge from Sugh shows a lady ina dramatic and unusual asara [ph 8] where she stands with her weight firmly on her right leg, The left leg is sharply bent with its heel touching her right thigh and toes charmingly captured in tense flexion. Her arms are held in astrained pose — the elbows raised higher than the shoulders, forcing them to be sharply bent so the palms are in line with her breasts —far from the relaxed ease with which abhaya mudrd is shown in contemporary iconography. While it would not have be ‘unusual to see one of her hands deployed in abhaya muda, here both the palms face us. In fact, a parallel for this ‘gesture can be found in two depictions of festive dancers at Bharhut, and there can be little doubt that this lady is shown here in an attitude of dance. That is not of course to say that the dance was not a religiously cl performed by one of the many Apsaras or Gandharvas that abound in early Indian myth and imagery, which it may well have been, except we are not in a position to assert that here with any certainty.'* In terracotta, this pose is known from several other fragmentary pieces, all discovered, so far, from Sugh Two of them preserve only the upper portion. One of these, in a private collection in London, is impressed from the same mould as the piece illustrated here. [PI 6] It preserves the headdress completely where we can see six elaborate racemes of foliage issuing like fountains on either side of her head." It seems the artisans of this region always took great care in depicting flowers that characteristically bear small variations and fineness in detail. [See pl.7, for example). They are invariably shown as huge sprays, larger than comparable examples from other Indian sites, This can be seen even when the weapon shaped ornaments — so typical of the iconography of this, period — are shown. The general convention from other regions is to show the weapons on one side of the headgear, balanced on the other side by foliage that is more or less equal in size to the weapons. In Ropar and Sugh however, the weapons look small in relation to the foliage against which they are offset. [Pls. 1, 4) tal references.'" arged oneThe Ananda-vana of Indian Art Plates 6,7. Fragmentary Celestial Nymphs / Dancers (2, Sugh, Terracotta, c. Ist cent. BCE; Private collection, London. ‘A posy of seven carefully delineated flowers surrounded by petals or leaves is positioned on top of her head from which floral ribbons are suspended. Three strings of pearls or beads are worn high on her head below Which i a distinctive treatment of the hair arranged and trimmed to form a neat rectangular space on her forehead ‘Although this later feature is found in almost every post-Mauryan site, itis endemic inthe sites of the Divide, The second comparable piece, in the collection of Swami Omanand Saraswati of the Gurukul, Jhajjar[pl. 13] iseven more fragmentary and we can only see the lady's head, torso and right arm clearly. She holds this arm in the same pose, but her head is held ata tilt bringing out the quality of being a moment in dane. The last comparable fragment from the same collection shows the portion from her waist tothe knees. [PI.5] She isin the same dsana and furthermore, her jewellery and ornamentation, with its distinctive girdle made up of square medallions overa delicate slim belt of daisy-like rosettes that holds up a distinct finely pleated, diaphanous garment, Ieave usin no doubt that we have here yet anther impression of the same scene. In the more complete plaque we can see that the fold of this lower garment looped over the belt falls like a bulbous sash along her right leg while a similar fold on the other side is partially visible under her bent left leg. It is worth noting that this costume has been recorded in other excavated pieces from Sugh in the Chandigarh Museum [no. 199-23]. [PI. 3] Rows of beaded tassels that fall on her thighs must be suspended from a waistband worn just below her breasts that is concealed by the long necklace that falls below her navel. This is not visible here, but is a convention seen in scores of pieces from various sites including an excavated piece from Sugh in the Chandigarh Museum. [PIs.3, 10] ‘A very close stylistic parallel is to be found in another plaque in a private collection in Europe that showsa typical Early Historic, post-Mauryan heavily adomed goddess. [PI 1] The plaqueis fired toa deep orange colour With the lower portion darkened to a smoky grey on account of being in a reducing atmosphere. She has one hand kimbo [katisamhista-hasta or katyavalambita hasta} and the other falling by her side holding an indistinguishable attribute [perhaps an earthen pot?]. With the diagnostic possession of weapons in her hair, she isthe ieonographically 52consistent and ubiquitous goddess of the period. [Compare pl. 4)’These iconographic features are all too well known to describe hiere and I shall concentrate instead on the specific stylistic traits thathelp us attribute the piece to the Indo-Gangetic Divide. These include the large racemose inflorescence that spraysbehind the weapons, the posy balanced direetly above her head, the routine use of simple floral motif’ as ornament [as seen on theribbons that fall from her head, on the disc- shaped earrings, torque or scattered randomly in the background space], the uppermost bracelet composed of large roundels, the small amount of movement and care taken in the articulation of her digits and the same finely pleated drapery wound around her legs piral which, importantly, is bunched at the end and falls by her side in the same bulbous terminus beside her knee asthe pieces na ris A diminutive pot-bellied gana like yaksha carrying a shallow basket of offerings Of food and fruit shielded by a palm frond, stands to her left, He wears his hair in tight curls and is adorned by simple earrings like looped chains with a small pendant, a short necklace, a single bracelet of strung beads. He wears short pleated dhoti and his anima- ted movement sometimes causes the end of the scarf flung across his torso to billow under his arm, Several examples of this attendant figure are recorded from Sugh. (Pls. 11, 12, 14] At times he is found as an independent figure, pressed froma mould reserved exclu- sively forhisimage. [Pls. 11, 12] In these cases ‘wemustimagine entire compositions of several plaques arranged ina tableau that might have been used in domestic shrines that gave prominence to the goddess with weapons, or some other major cult figure. It should be Plate 8, Celestial Nymph / Dancer (2), Suh, Terracot,¢. Ist cent. B Private collection, London,The Anan nctian Avi noted here that this iconography is widespread and is paralleled at sites in the Upper and Lower Ganga Valley [A free standing piece with this iconography from Ahichhatra is inthe collection of the Allahabad Museum [No. Ah. 4674] [PL 11) The last example to be discussed here is an icono- graphically interesting plaque in the collection of the ‘Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. [PL 9] It shows a standing male figure wearing a coat [fur lined cloak with a mask?] a goat or ram ona tether with his right hand. With ps the animal’s hom. A small dagger or knife is, the left, tucked into his beltbelow his right hand. In his neck he wears three pendants with two resembling triramas sandwiching a long bead or amulet container elaborate earrings in each ear —one shaped like a flat dise the other cylindrical. This is the best preserved of the few known images of this iconography from northern India and is from Sugh: two similar pieces have been excavated at Rajghat,"® one is known from Tamluk and one from Chandraketugarh " and one from Taxila.!* The popularity ofthis image therefore was widespread. Although the piece is pressed from a mould, no mould has been found yet bearing this iconography. Moti Chandra catalogued a similar piece as a hunter’,.” however it might be worth speculating that it perhaps repres goat being led toa sacrifice, a subject that was popular in both practice as well as in myth. Skanda known to be associated with goats in the Mahabharata Plate 9. [3.217] and a ram. Shiva too can be associated with a goat Male Figure witha Goat or Ram, Sugh, Terrace for he famously ordered the sacrifice of one in order to use 6. Ist cent, BCE: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford aren eioth the neck of his father-in-law, Daksha. This image may thus refer to either of those deities. An iconography of “Lubdhaka’ has also been suggested by Agrawala However he does not make it clear as to whether he uses the word Lubdhaka simply as the Sanskrit for ‘hunter’ [which had been used by Moti Chandra later] orif there is specific character by that name that he is referring to.” The headdress ofboth, the Tamlukand Ashmolean [Sugh] pieces may be interpreted as zoomorphic. However, that does not immediately take us any neareran identification forthis figure. One may, all the same, speculate if itis in the same vein as the much later manifestation of Shiva as Gajasura-Samhara-Murti where the god can either be seen to wear, lift or be seen dancing inside the He also wears two its head to replace the one he had in his an arcass of the elephant he vanquishes. Finally, we must admit the possibility thatif indeed the headdress is zoomorphic. it might belong tothe same tradition of masked rituals as seen in other examples of the same period.”* There have been some significant discoveries of terracotta plaques at Sugh over the past few decades. 54oltas from the Inde-Gangetic Divi Plate 10, Plates 11, 12. Pragmenury Celestial Nymph I Yakshin’ (2, Sugh, Terracotts, Dwarf Po belle Anendants, Sugh, Terracotta, c. Ist cent. BCE «Ist oent, BCE: Chandigarh Government Museum. Allahabad Muscum & Private collection, Some of these are of extraordinary sophistication and exhibit a characteristic gracefulness and elegance. The ‘general idiom of these pieces from the Indo-Gangetic Divide seems to form a sub-style within the oeuvre of South, Asian post-Mauryan terracottas. The workmanship at Sugh is closely associated with the best talent at other sites, inthe region, which can also reveal very similar pieces. Like pieces form the rest of the subcontinent, these too are moulded. The plaques rat in colour froma ated, of consistent body, and well fired. These like Chandraketu ey to creamy beige that is mostly fired below vitrification, burnt terracotta orange to red. It will always be found to be well le are not qualities we can assume for pieces from other Indian sites clay type varies from grey to red to a distinct pale ath for instance, where the Many pieces have previously been mislabeled, or have not been attributed to a site, as not enough has been known to recognise their style as being fairly typical of the Indo-Gangetic Divide. Itis worth, pieces in this regard, The first of these is the child-scribe in the collection of the Museum of Fine / INo. 1927. 132] that was collected by Coomaraswamy.”* The piece has been discussed previously where it was shown to belong very much within the tradition of making this iconography at Sugh from wher images have been recorded. I shall concentrate instead on the other pieces. The next two are illustrated in the 1986 exhibition catalogue of Indian terracotta in New York.*S One of these is in the Cleveland Museum of Art [No.1973.24] and the other used to be in the collection of Anthony Gardner in London. The fourth is in the Neumann collection in Switzerland ® and the last, in the collection of the Bharat Kala Bhavan [No. 21937] ‘They all constitute a group that have been thought of as coming from either Kaushambi or Northern India in ‘general. However, certain stylistic traits make it clear the pieces must come from the Indo- Gangetic Divide and probably from Sugh in particular. e about twenty such, 55The Ananda-vana of In their fine drapery, large floral sprays, wide h lidded eyes, and omament— details that we have discussed above — these pieces are very much in the style of the rest of the objects from the Divide. We do not find the same exuberance of florid stippled detail of Chandraketugath or the iconographic variety of Kaushambi or Chandraketugarh ‘The Divide has not revealed the kind of large plaques with ‘multiple figures in square compositions as at Chandra- ketugarh. As has already been seen in the case of the multiple images of the child-scribe, certain iconographic types are tobe found in large numbers at Sugh. Sometimes these are distinctive to the region, atothers, as in the case of the dwarf figure or the common goddess with weapons or standin; mithuna couples, the iconography and style may be close to images from Ahichhatra or Kaushambi. Further, there ‘may be multiple impressions from the same mould, equally, Plate 13. we may find the same iconography pressed from many Fragmentary Celestial Nomph / Dancer (2, Sugh, Terracotts, different moulds. In the case of the child scribe, it was found Co TS a eaealada that although the pose and size of the images showed limited slate varied. Similarly, here we find that the contents of the that certain images were popular enough to be variation, the actual Brahmi inscription on the boy's basket carried by the dwarf yaksha also vary, maki worked on several times ‘Three representative examples were illustrated in this essay. The first two were selected to bring out the specific stylistic traits found in the Indo-Gangetic Divide, Atthe same time, the case ofthe goddess with weapons, the attendant figure and the last piece, of the man with a goat or ram, showed how images from Sugh share more than a passing resemblance in both form and iconography with those from other sites, parti Ahichhatra, Mathura and Kaushambi and by extension with Taxila. In such cases we might speculate that plaques must have travelled from major production centres to other urban centres. By the same token, judging from the regional variations itbecomes clear that every region, if not every city, must have had its own artisans to illustrate local deities, myths and fashions. In many ways this fits in neatly with our existing views about the nature of pluralism within a unified Sub-continental whole, tly sites such as 1. NeP Ahuja: Mouled Terracotta from the Indo-Gangetic Divide: Sugh, clrea 200 BCE-50 CE, Indian Terracotta Seulpture. the Early Period, (Es). Pal, Marg: Mumbai, 2002 pp. 46-57 Fer ments of diferentobjects: pl. 1:1 apvos 25 cms ph 3: HM em ph: 12x 11.Sems pl. §: HS em: ph 6: H.8.9 om pl. :H. Jeans IS TY Us pl 9. HL 13.8 cis pl 10: H. 8 om; ph M1: 9 x 4 em; ph 12: H. 12.5 cm, pl. 13: 1.9.5 em, ph 14: H. 85 cw. +> ‘The sequence at Ropar [30 58°N, 76° 32°F] has often been taken as rpresetative of the Early-Histric cultural picture in the Indo-Gangetle Diside Te mnatns the best known site in the region, and the most extensively excavated. The ste was excavated by Y.D. Sharma on behalf of the AST from 1952-55 Indian Archacology. a Revigse , New Delhi, 1983-4, p. 4s 1954-5, p. 9 56Terracottas from the Inde-Gangetic Divide Sep Sharma: Past Pars of Living a Unfolded by Excavations ot Rapa Lat Ka. Nos 12, Bombay, pp. 121-129. 1955-56 Par inintcs tho Eary-Histori phase [600-200 BCE) and forms the Fe iin on which cur pid of ty 5 ball: ke. te ely part of Peiod TV (200 BBCE-CE 700 I coo isn ni Lthioa, Pj a famous fr te Kashon Matra ed sndtone ees Se rately pesca ere, Peo IV bas ove soe Pos Mauran ros es epmens a Hsien + 1958-09, p25; 196-70 3; 19711 3 97172 I suet Ato in Diner Ludhiana, Panob, An Early Histor st, with only a few cay teracos SES itr sysialy comitent with tes from the et of the Dive iechasalogeal Surves of India, Annual Report 14, pp. 65-67 Alshusshvaranand Indological Journal pp. 177-78 S, suph IM, 721°] is four Kilometres Bast of Jgadhari in Haryana, Alba oy aaa calarly aenion, und oly three of four of the teacotas published: mata) Feet far been known frm the days of Sit Alexander Comingham's inl xP>y fm te os wc he iene Thancsar ard Saph with ancient Sthaneuvar and Osho ee dium Ancient Geography of India 1928, (Rpt) Deli 2002, pp, 395.90, 6 Poiana ep for excvation ander Surj Bhan on betalf of the Dept. of Anes 5 Thee wee ea Archeslogy, Pan Univer in January 1964 and October 1566 SA cvs at Sugh (1964 and 1963) daurnal of Haryana Studs. Vo. BIT: pp. tT Pr atshacalogy, a Review, 1963-6: pp. 27-8, 1965-66: pp. 35.6 Salam Archaeology the Divide Tat deserve further ateaon. On a small pat of Sein Soh pencned. A money in he hws of the resent ian of Sup fata a Chane age [3 fn north-west of Sh both ull of bunt Bek Bagot (in Hisar Dist wan exxtated over a mb of seasons ad fs shown see Ae PW afer th nial explorations by Rodgers in 888-89, the ste was reexsavated ty HLL, Srivastava in 1938-38 Tht Srivastava: Excavation at Agroha, Bunjab, Mem. ASL 1952, De ee arcinmlans-a havics, New DeB 1973 79, 6b9: 197290 311 OO Ako menone in Ind AS as Agvoha Revised, Brac-Prabha:Perepstsesin-Indolos3- Est avnalee Tl) D.C. Bhaachryyn & D. Handa, New Delhi, 1989 pp. 239-25) Le oneal msi, Ageha ha evened fe bck seres of he Hance period, various terracotta objects Seer ed ter cone The leped “Agoda Agac onan” on tect has abit’ the iemtgy of Agroha with Plate 1. Dwarf Por-bellied Attendant, Sue, Ist cent, BCE; The Gurukel, Saja. Honour of Prof BN. Fae ps8'N, 260} fabled a th se of the Mahabharata war, fad sexe te ene SE through history and is also see The modem town includes Thane, famous for tinge capil of ts Sos Harsha. Hardly any moulded aan ey aun hae, however hes arclaclgiel finds Hike pry ant ads tty wo 28 slyHistric presence. On te refeens fei Vakshas / dies of Kurukshetra al Yes is fp areca, Prac-Prabhs rapes in Tndoons. saosin onan c Profs BN. Mukherie. Tha Dc, Bhatacaryys & D. Handa, New Delhi, 1989, pp, 208-224 ae eared fn teste have bon collect nde sare and rin the nets of sas and beat td 8. In Dist Hisar, fcasinaly, sone seulpare sraphicatly compelling imagery of the Bhagavata! I) oy ine Kustan period, several otter sites also Become important in. this regon ant £9 By Ihe Ku per ecorde from Sune in Ludhiana Dis, Sanghel in Gurgaon Dis, Sondh near Sin Mice cy of muisnatcflds ofthe aa ee he folowing recent stor wih mae comple’ SISOS D Pa research Cai an Seals, Dehi, 1985 wh a chapter o» Poach Marked cons Co TAGs BP 9.25: Han: Sade In oa say of el Anclen Past 2 dana f-Harans Sas.) 1: 1197 Lahey Inligenods States of Northern India. «200 BC ‘S20,AD, Caleutta, 1974 B, Labi: Indsnens Snes py. New Del 1972 omogaph focuses on the eal republican ses and ie SUS this region. ination tothe textual references to Sugh mentioned by me previously INP. Ahuja: op. cit, 2002, p. 47: UE Ae pie 07 yan (Vara Som asin 8.4.2 on he pling of Uroghah 00s Ns ancl to Patan Fe repay Inthe Kaa (43-06) aml 2 io reference fom Panel 320 oe Should read as 1.3.25, The 1386 J ie cel aston ell own ad hed in ox comprtenve hones ant wes on numisoais and foo elaborate to mention here aoe anar et on one ice of the Psat il, su ge of Bharat and om he Aja iter Deh FS regia lasted Oe us Supa of Bhachi, London, 1679, [Rp] Delt, 1998 pl. XV and 1 3 A. Coanngta: Te scupiurs de Bharhat, Pars, 195, pl VI, lowest register of We: 23 37The Ananda-vana of Indian Art 13. The importance of festivies, possession ant masked performances in religous experience and practise in contemporary India is refered to st sreater length in by me elsewhere 'N.P. Abuja: Early Indian Moulded Terracotta: the Emergence of an Ieonography-and Variations in Ste, «200 BC London University, 2000-2001 and referred with some examples again in NP. Ahuja: Changing Gods, Enduring Rituals: Observations om Early Indian Religion as seem through Ter 200, Proceedings of South Asian Archacolagy, Paris 2001, [Forthcoming] "A similar pose is known fiom a 2nd century CE Savana reli from Amaravat in the Indian Museum, Caleta, where a celebrant in the entral pane is shown dancing behind the Bodhsatva’s carriage, Although not exactly the same, the pose is close to this figure AD 200, PhD, ta Imagery €. 200 BC = AD 14. Ibis pethaps worth noting the absence of the weapons we so commonly find in the headdress of terracotta figurines from this period. The ‘weapons lend iconic gravity and martial prowess 10 the images which might have been consieted inpproprate fora dancer 15, This is the most typical arrangement of pendants in comtemporary male imagery found across Northern and Central India. A famous suite of ual pieees of sol jewellery fashioned inthis shape i preserved in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Ast [Ace. Nos. 73.9 ~ 73.68], Inthe collection of the Bharat Kala Bhavan, IM. Chandra: Terracona in the Bharat Kala Bhosan, Chhas 1, Golden Jubilee Volume, 1971. fig. 60, p. 13: and YS, Agrawal: Rajghat Terraconas, JISOS. Vo. 9, Calc, 194, p10, pl I fg. 5. Another comparable piece from an unrecorded site in the collection ofthe Sate Muscum, Lucknow [No. 9.216] appears to come from an Upper Gangetic Valley ste S.C. Kala: Terracottas of North ind ‘sllestion af the State Museum Laeknow. Delhi, 1993, p30. pl 4, 17, SS Biswas: Terracotta Art of Bengal, Delhi, 1981, pl. LVIML a and bp. 190; “The Tamluk piece is in the site museum and the Chandraketugarh piece isin private collection. Biswas dates them to the second to thi ‘entuies CE without explanation, when intial picees have been excavated from said contexts in Taxa [inra. and safely associated with other finds and the sisle of siilar objects from the fist century BCE an the rest of the Subcontinent 18, Exeavated from Bir mound stratum Tl Sir J. Marsal: Tila, 3 Vos, Cambridge, 1981, pl.133. fg 3. 19, M, Chandra, op. cit, 1971 20. SS. Biswas, op cit 1981 VS. Agrawal op cit 1981 M, Chand: op city 1971 The term is used again by SS. Biswas op cit, 81, who follows Agrawala, He also proposes the unlikely suggestion that it might be young Krishna as & cowherd- when we have no evidence foe Krishna association in the iconography ofthis piese and neither i ther any othr piece that might be clsiid ss young Krish a this dt, Lahaka is ako the name of Sis, the Dog sar. however, we do not have any evidence forthe personfiation of the planets or constellations in Indian iconography a this date SX. Saraswat Found the figure to be a hermaphrodite (A Survey of Indian Sculpture, Calcutta 1957, Pl. XIX, fig. 86, p. 1161, While Ido believe that that might be the case in some ealy terracotta figurines, this figure and iconography is, in my opinion, certainly male ‘These we been diseussed by above, see note 12 above Intaly published as» “female deity” coming from an unknown ste J, Paulson: From River Banks and Sacred Places: Ancient Indian Terracottas. Boston, 1977, ‘atulogue fo accompany a reprint of Coomaraswamy’s pioneering essay Early Indian Terracotta, B December 1927, Boston, pp. 90-96) A. Poster: Figures in Clas: Terracottas from Ancient India, Brooklyn, 1973, no. 34 24. NP. Alia: op pp. 8-50, AG. Poster: Erom Indian Earth; 4000 Years of Terracotta Art, The Brooklyn Muscom, 1986, nos. 33 and 34, and pl. 4. p14. In 90.38 ote the nate of the ricemes in the hea, the distinctive fold ofa angled Nap ofthe turban decorated with smal floral mi, the rounds in er eaty and the rpical short necklace comprised of similar lowers, the uppermost bracelet made up of large roundels imitating lotus pods, the delicacy ofthe drapery and girdle and heavy lidded eyes. An identical estpent of turban i to be found in am excavated piece from Suph in the collection of the Rarukshetta Museum, In no. 34, note the same featires in addition to the movement inthe fingers, individual natre of the Mowers and the repeated use ofa distinct nandavuria ot risa Uleur de ts ike] feral ems section motif made up of two aldorsed sgmate petals on ether side of vertical stem, Iiustrated in 4. K. Bavtze: Early Indian Terracotas, Leiden, 1995, Pl, XL. The uewtment ofthe weapons and the way they are ost asin the foliage in this pice similar to many’ others found at Ropar and Sugh including figs. 9 and 10 bee 53, pp. 37 ~ 38 [being an updated in-of the Muscum of Fine. Ars. 27. lasted in M. Chandra: op city 1971, p. 8, fg, 23. Note the typical vat inthe excesively large floral sprays, The lower garment is wound stoan in the same manners fig. L with he characteristic delincation of fine pleats and bulbous sashes draped along ine plaque, The jewellery ad orament fre compare closely withthe picees discussed in this essay, legs on either side of