Indian Antiquary Vol 52

SR No.: 032544
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 53

MC, 1923!
THE PROJECTED ILLUSTRATED MAHABHARATA
THE PROJECTED ILLUSTRATED MAHABHARATA.
BY SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, BT. IN vol. III, pt. I, of the Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute, Poona, for July 1921, but published in January 1922, there is a paper by the Chief of Aundh on the lines to be followed in drawing the pictures for the Institute's edition of the Mahabharata. The Institute has been fortunate in securing a heavy Government subsidy supplemented by a princely donation from the Chief himself, who is anxious that the money shall be properly spent, i.e., that the illustrations shall reproduce the period of the actors in the story as accurately as may be. He has fairly and dispassionately stated his views as tothe principles that should guide the artists employed. With these views I may say at once I heartily agree.
In ascertaining what these principles should be, the point that raises controversy is (to quote the Chief) the fact that "no caves or statues or carvings belonging to the epic period are available, nor is there any literary evidence which may unimpeachably be assigned to the epio period." To this I 'inay add that it is not even yet definitely settled what was "the epic period.". In the circumstances it is clear that all we can go upon is circumstantial evi. dence for such all-important points in pictorial representation as dress for man and beast, vehicles (animal or other), dwellings, processions, manners and customs, insignia and so on. And such circumstantial evidence as we have is based perforce on tradition, ancient or modern. The whole argument, therefore, rests on the value of tradition in such a matter as this or in allied matters.
In my judgment tradition is of very great value-specially if it can be traced back to a period when writing was unknown, or but sparsely used, or known only to a limited class. In guch cases tradition is at least of equal value with written or inscribed documents, even if these can be shown to be contemporary. In literary matters it is not difficult to show that this is the case. The circumstances in which Sir George Grierson and Dr. Lionel Barnett recovered the practically unwritten Kashmiri text of the Lallá Vákyani, 600 years after the author's date, make a case in point. The unquestioned accuracy with which a hafiz will repeat the Kurân, a Jew the Hebrew Scriptures, and many a Christian of the days gone by could repeat the Bible, and members of Brahmanical and Buddhist Schools appropriate portions of what I may call the Indian Scriptures, are other cases in point. Yet another illustration of the value of literary tradition is the fact that some thirty years ago the broken stones of the Kalyani Inscriptions at Pegu were set up again, despite many lost gaps, with complete accuracy because the text-recording the upasampada ceremony of ordination-was of supreme importance to the Buddhist hierarchy of Burma, and agreed word for word, even letter for letter, with the traditional written texts to be had in abundance in unvarying MSS.
The accuracy of pictorial representations of such ephemeral matters as the light and shade and the colouration of a landscape, of cloud effects and so on, are as much a matter of memory as the words of a text or the notes of a long musical work, and the fact that these can be, and are habitually, carried without error in certain types of brain is beyond cavil. In ancient sculpture and pictures allowance must of course be made for want of knowledge in perspective and anatomy, but this does not detract from the accuracy of tradition in such matters-dress, vehicles, dwellings, collective movements and manners-as go to the correct reproduction of a scene enacted before the date of the ancient artist. I therefore submit that we can safely trust his productions as to such points as the above.
As the Chief of Aundh says, we possess an ancient tradition of this kind in the sculptures and actual pictures at Så nchi, Bharhut, Bhilsa, Ajanta, Ellora, Java, Amaravati and so on,