Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 188

172
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ SEPTEMBER, 1930
In a drinking scene on one of the roof panels of Cave I a bearded person in pointed cap, long-sleeved tunio and jewelled belt, seated on a round cushion, is drinking from a shallow saucer, while a kneeling attendant holds a flat dish filled with fruit and flowers. Two female attendants in long-sleeved robes stand by with flagons. These have long necks and sharply pointed bottoms and belong to a fairly well represented class of vessel, some of which are gadrooned and fluted. The form is thoroughly unceramic and strangely un-Indian too from modern standards, suggestive rather of certain Afghan and Yarkand forms. They have obvious Sassanian parallels. The same problem of material attaches to certain cups which differ in nothing from the ordinary drinking cups, except in size and in the fact that the rim is pierced to take a ring, which could be possible only in metal. On the whole the coppersmith has followed the potter closely in the matter of form in India. The little standing cups are not found in modern India, but the form has been preserved in metal and occurs occasionally in brass and Bidari ware. The form is by no means specifically Indian, although its development in Indian ceramics can be traced from an early date, for it appears in early Persian pottery at Rhages and SultanAbad.
With regard to the use these little oups were put to, and to certain Bacchanalian scenes at Ajanta, which are paralleled in Kushan sculpture, it will be remembered that the importation of wine into India is recorded in Roman sources. Vines, moreover, are still cultivated in the NAsik district, and the toddy-palm (Palmyra) and the MahuA tree are indigenous. Also the opportunity is acknowledged in the Vessantara Jataka (Cowell, No. 547) where it is written: "Food to the hungry give, strong drink to those who drink require." The frankness of the acknowledgment is mitigated by the scholiast, who writes that the bountiful prince knew "that the gift of spirits brings no fruit with it, but gave it nevertheless that tipplers might have the noble gift and might not be able to say that they could not get what they wanted." G. METAL WORK
Very little can be said of the metal work at Ajanta. There are lamps on turned stands like candlesticks, and in the coronation scene in Cave I the gadrooned pots, from which water is being poured over the young prince, are very metal-like and somewhat reminiscent of the modern Tanjore swámi work. The only other metal articles recognizable are mirrors. These are ciroular and have a central knob behind, pierced to take a ring or cord. This form is, perhaps, especially associated with China, tanged or handled mirrors being common all over the east, in bronze, brass and steel in Muhammadan times, and notably in bronze in Java at a period closely succeeding that of Ajanta. However, mirrors of any kind are rare as archæological finds in India. Only three seem to be recorded, under the misleading title of “plaques." These come from Tinnevelly urn-burials; two are tanged to take wooden, or perhaps ivory, handles, and one has the knob at the back. They are of bronze, the face being slightly convex, In spite of the archæological rareness of mirrors in India, modern Newari-made copper and brass mirrors for Tibetan ritual use are common.
The distribution and material of these mirrors raises the important question of the occurrence of various metals in India. After iron, copper is undoubtedly the metal of India. Tin is reported among Indian imports, but tin-bronze is almost entirely wanting in India, except in the related Tinnevelly and Nilgiri urn- and cairn-burials and certain bronze icons, probably of the Chola period. Once across the Brahmaputra, one returns to an area of bronze; the cire perdue castings of Burma, Siam, Java and Cambodia are almost wholly in bronze. Tibet is on the half-way line. The emigrant Newari metal workers from Nepal have taken with them into Tibet the Indian copperworking tradition, while certain bronzecagtinge exist which show strong Chinese influence. Brass as a whole is a late medium in India, and also in Central Asia it appears, for Henderson makes the astonishing statement that in 1870 brass was mistaken for gold in Yarkand, copper being in general use. Just as copper is the casting medium of India, cire-perdue is on the whole the method employed. The amusing Kondh marriage toys and the beer-syphons used by certain Assamese tribes are cast hy this method nowadays in brass.