De Clercq, Eva

English

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

book reviews 95© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/15728536-05901255Charlotte Schmid(2010) Le Don de Voir: Premières representations krishnaïtes de la région de Mathurā(Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient Monographies 193), Paris: Ecole françaised’Extrême-Orient, 749 pp. isbn 978-2-85539-131-1. €50,–.This voluminous monograph displays the doctoral research of CharlotteSchmid, submitted in 1995, on the early representations of Kṛṣṇa in Mathurā,the city and region with which this god is associated closely since the earlytextual sources. The starting point is the collection of Kuṣāṇa period icons ofa four-armed male deity, holding a mace, discus and conch, which for mostof twentieth century Indology were commonly identified as early representa-tions of Viṣṇu. By consequence the earliest iconographical representations ofKṛṣṇa—as a child—were then thought to date only from the Gupta period,rather late compared to the textual evidence of the Mahābhārata indicatingthe existence of a Kṛṣṇa cult, which, moreover, as is clearly stated in the Bha-gavadgītā, stresses the importanceof seeingGod (hence the author’s title of herbook, “The Gift of Seeing”). Following N.P. Joshi, D.M. Srinivasan and H. Här-tel, Schmid argues that these icons were not representations of Viṣṇu, but ofVāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa instead, the adult deity as represented in the Mahābhārata,rather than the child god represented from the Gupta period onwards. Againstthis background, in eight chapters she elaborately discusses all the earliest rep-resentations of Kṛṣṇa, including those of his brother Balarāma-Saṃkarṣaṇa,whose importance rivaled or even superseded that of Kṛṣṇa in the early period.Following an interdiscipinary approach, Schmid combines her interpretationof the archeological data with a close reading of the textual sources, especiallythe Mahābhārata and its “appendix”, the Harivaṃśa, but also Vedic hymns,kāvya, etc., finding mutually supportive evidence. With this interesting com-bination of data andmethods, she presents a clear image of the earliest historyof Kṛṣṇa representation, and also adds valuable insights to the debate of thedevelopment of his cult and of Vaiṣṇavism and the Hindu traditions in gen-eral. Nevertheless, the actual evidence is scanty, and the author is always verycareful to underline the relative character of her findings because of this fact.The book is written very eloquently, provides an interesting read as it is, andserves as an excellent reference book for Kṛṣṇa-related iconography in KuṣāṇaMathurā.In the first chapter Schmid summarizes and discusses the main theories onthe oldest textual evidence regarding Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva, his brother Balarāma-Saṃkarṣaṇa and Viṣṇu, namely alleged attestations in Vedic literature, in Pāṇi-ni’s grammar, citations from Megasthenes’ description of India and Patañjali’sMahābhāṣya. It is only the last of these which affirmatively attests to the96 book reviewsIndo-Iranian Journal 60 (2017) 75–100presence of a cult of Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva, the hero as he is later described in theMahābhārata. All previous identifications are uncertain, as Schmid highlights.Patañjali, himself from Mathurā, is important for establishing a link betweenKṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva and this city. The first real narrativematerial on Kṛṣṇa is foundin the Mahābhārata proper (i.e. excluding, for now, the Harivaṃśa). Strikingly,the Mahābhārata connects Kṛṣṇa to Dvārakā, rather than Mathurā, a city hereonly rarely mentioned in connection to him. Moreover, his companion here isArjuna, instead of Balarāma. The Mahābhārata further testifies to an assimi-lation of Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva with the creator divinity Nārāyaṇa, whom Schmidprefers to see as independent from Viṣṇu. So according to the oldest textstrata, Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva and Nārāyaṇa are central, whereas Viṣṇu is of lesserimportance.These results of early textual evidence are in chapter 2 parallelled witharcheological and epigraphical data. Schmid here first discusses a handful ofinscriptions dating from ca. 150 to 50bce, all mentioning Vāsudeva, the Bha-gavān, and his followers the Bhāgavatas, sometimes together with Saṃkarṣaṇa,and in relation to Nārāyaṇa. There is no trace of Viṣṇu here. Then the authorelaborates on iconographic evidence from the pre-Mathurā period, startingwith the clearest examples, namely coins from the 2nd c. bce found at Ai-Khanoum (modernAfghanistan). These show images of Saṃkarṣaṇa-Balarāmaand Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, each on one side, positively identified by the attributeswith which they have remained associated up to this day: the plough (hala)and pestle (musala) for Balarāma, and the conch (śaṅkha) and discus (cakra)for Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa. Schmid then reverts back to Besnagar, the site of the old-est inscriptions she previously described, where she hypothesizes that somesymbolic representations on capitals may indicate a cult not just of Vāsudevaas indicated in the inscription, but of a Vṛṣṇi collective in this early period.Then Schmid discusses the first “real” images of Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva and Balarāma,dating from around the beginning of the common era: two sets from Chilas,modernNorthPakistan,which are positively identified by inscriptions, andonefromMalhār, in modern Chattisgarh.Chapter 3 focuses on Mathurā, beginning with a discussion on the mytho-logical origins of the city, and its factual history from the 6th c. bce onwards.From the 1st to the 3rd c. ce, Mathurā was the Indian capital of the Kuṣāṇaempire. This period is described as a “laboratoire iconographique”, duringwhich series of icons emerged from different religious traditions: Buddhist,Jain, different Hindu traditions such as Śaiva, goddess worship, and, of course,Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa. Schmid continues with a depiction of Kṛṣṇa inMathurā fromthe early textual sources, composed parallel with the Kuṣāṇa presence in Ma-thurā or at least predating the Gupta era: the Harivaṃśa (hv), the Buddhistbook reviews 97Indo-Iranian Journal 60 (2017) 75–100Niddesa and Ghata Jātaka and the Arthaśāstra. In her discussion of the hv,its date and development, Schmid apparently does not mention the theoryof Horst Brinkhaus (1990) that the Kṛṣṇa story was in fact the latest additionto the hv, instead of its kernel. Although it may not make that much differ-ence to her central arguments, a more thorough overview of recent scholar-ship on the hv, its composition and layers, including articles such as that ofBrinkhaus, would have been worthwhile, given the importance of this textin her research. The synthetic monograph of John Brockington (1998), alsoabsent from the bibliography, would have been a good starting point for this.Schmid then commences her description of actual icons, as well as inscrip-tions testifying to worship of Kṛṣṇa in the area: those of Mora, predating theKuṣāṇa period, and instances of triads of Vāsudeva, Balarāma and a female fig-ure.Whereas the icons of the previous chapters were few and isolated, chapter 4deals with a larger collection of about thirty images, representing a new phase,namely the icons of four-armed Kṛṣṇa alone, previously identified as Viṣṇuinstead of Kṛṣṇa. Schmid discusses the icons in great detail regarding theirattributes, comparing them to descriptions in texts and occurrences in othericons, their clothes, ornaments, and head dress. Aside from the four-armedicons, Kṛṣṇa also appears in a few rare narrative reliefs in Mathurā during thisperiod. Here the deity only has two arms, in a episode representing the killingof Keśin.In the fifth chapter Schmid discusses the occurrences of individual iconsof Kṛṣṇa’s older brother Balarāma in Mathurā prior to the Gupta period, inparticular his connection with the nāga (serpent) cult. In addition to the iconsalready identified as Balarāma, either by the presence of his standard attributes(plough andpestle) or by the presence of Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, Schmid identifies anadditional set of nāga deity icons, without Balarāma’s standard attributes, asnevertheless being of Balarāma, on the basis of his single ear pendant, as wellas his forest garland (vanamālā), and his association with a cup. She elaborateson how Balarāma’s importance decreased from the Gupta period on, parallelto Kṛṣṇa’s rising importance. Aside from depictions of Balarāma as a nāga,there are also narrative scenes, devoid of the nāga aspect, regarding Balarāma’sadolescent battles with Dhenuka and Pralamba, and in some icons of ViṣṇuŚeṣaśāyin, the snake is clearly identifyable with Balarāma.Chapter 6 focuses on the fantastic aspects of Kṛṣṇa-Vāsudeva iconography. Itreverts back to themultiple armsof Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, anddiscusses various pos-sible rationales behind their presence: to accommodate themultiple attributes,or as a sign of superior powers. Schmid connects these to other fantastic icono-graphies, at the center of this chapter, including the infamous Nand’s column,98 book reviewsIndo-Iranian Journal 60 (2017) 75–100which, as Schmid stresses, symbolizes creative powers, and connects it to thecreator-aspectNārāyaṇa. Another statue, that of the caturvyūhas, the four ema-nations, dating from the end of the Kuṣāṇa period, indicates the developmentof the pāñcarātra system out of the bhāgavata cult, and provides a link to theensuing Gupta period. The chapter concludes with some isolated icons repre-senting a deity with an animal head, horse and boar. At first glance one wouldsee in these early forms of Viṣṇu’s avatāras hayagrīva and varāha, but throughcareful analysis of the images and parallel texts, Schmid connects them ratherto the creative deity Nārāyaṇa instead.In Chapter 7, some rare instances of Viṣṇu representations during the firstthree centuries of the common era in Mathurā are discussed. Contrary toVāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa and the Vṛṣṇis, Viṣṇu is not even mentioned in epigraphy. Itis only in the Gupta era that he becomes more present and significant. Thefirst icons Schmid describes here are three icons of an eight-armed deity inaction. At least one of these has been identified as the Viṣṇu of the trivikramamyth, subjugating the demon king Bali. Schmid, however, nuances this iden-tification and demonstrates parallels to the Vedic trivikrama aspect, of Viṣṇudefeating demons and crossing the worlds, without the presence of Bali (whois absent from the reliefs). There is already some agreement with some aspectsof Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, hinting at their later identity. From the end of the third ~beginning of the fourth century, Viṣṇu begins to appear, first in a form verysimilar to the four-armed Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, with just a difference in a partic-ular hand gesture, and in the switching of some arms. In some cases a halois added. To identify these as Viṣṇu and the Kuṣāṇa era icons as Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa, despite their great similarity, is, as Schmid argues, correct because theiconography of Kṛṣṇa changes over time: new forms of Kṛṣṇa emerge, leav-ing the four-armed form for Viṣṇu. The changes in iconography thus reflectdevelopments within the religion, themselves suggested by epigraphical evi-dence. Under Viṣṇu many different deities were assimilated, albeit with aparticular hierarchy with Nārāyaṇa and Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa as his most impor-tant parts. Another aspect of Gupta development is that the Kṛṣṇa characterbecomes more identified with a cowherd deity, especially represented as achild-god, in Kṛṣṇa. This child Kṛṣṇa is represented as a human, still grow-ing into his divinity: he has only two arms and none of his attributes. Theiconography of the child Kṛṣṇa (as well as that of the other child-god Skanda)is further linked to the specific conception of divine kingship of the Gup-tas, and their obsession with lineage, argued by evidence from some inscrip-tions.The eighth and final chapter focuses on another episode of the Kṛṣṇa biog-raphy, popular during the Gupta period for representation, namely the liftingbook reviews 99Indo-Iranian Journal 60 (2017) 75–100of Mount Govardhana. Schmid commences with a study of this myth in thehv, discussing it in the light of the Kāliya story, and the Vedic myth of Indra’sslaying of Vṛtra, and concluding that the Govardhana myth testifies to Kṛṣṇavanquishing Indra, and taking over his position, parallelling a practical changein the cult. After the textual study, she describes the occurrences of KṛṣṇaGova-rdhanadhara icons in North India dating from the Gupta period, and goes intogreat detail in her examination of the single image of Govardhanadhara fromMathurā, discussing at length issues related to these representations and theirlink to Mathurā. She speculates on the relationschip of the Govardhanadharamyth with local deities, namely yakṣas, but also and especially the nāga cult.In this last, the notable absence of Balarāma comes to the fore. Schmid furtherconnects the myth with that of Viṣṇu as vāmana and trivikrama, and drawsparallells between representations of Kṛṣṇa on the one hand, with those ofViṣṇu’s avatāras on the other, by focusing on the sequence of Pāthaghāṭā inBihar, a sequence that apparently represents different episodes of the Kṛṣṇaor Viṣṇu myths, identified by Schmid as surrounding the episode of Śiśupāla’sdeath.Summarizing the main findings from her previous chapters, Schmid pro-vides additional support for her work by drawing parallels between the occur-rences in text and stone of Kṛṣṇa/Viṣṇu and their development, and those ofSkanda/Śiva. After themain text of the book, the author provides a descriptionof the corpus and a photographs of most of the icons.Though the book has been composed to a high standard, there are someinstances of carelessness. In footnote 924, for instance, the author refers toher own articles on goddess representations, Schmid 2004, 2006 and à paraître,none of which are listed in the bibliography. Another example concerns themultiple references to a textual source, the Bālacarita, for which no contextor even an author is mentioned anywhere. This reader assumed it to be theplay named thus attributed to Bhāsa. The work does not figure in the bibli-ography (primary sources), and references made in the text to other authorsdiscussing the work (Couture 1992, Couture 1994, on p. 423) do not figure inthe bibliography at all, or are unclear (p. 423, reference to Couture 2006, butthe bibliography lists a Couture 2006a and 2006b). Also, though Schmid isexplicit that she was not able to take into account the work of Sonya Quin-tanilla (2007), it would have been of considerable added value if she never-theless could have spared the extra time to engage with it, at least for thosepassages where they share the same material or interest, for instance in Quin-tanilla’s identification of the Balarāma of Nanakpur (2007: 93), absent fromSchmid’s book. But in spite of these criticisms, there should be no doubtthat Charlotte Schmid’s book is the result of sound scholarship and that it100 book reviewsIndo-Iranian Journal 60 (2017) 75–100will remain a very significant reference book on Kṛṣṇa for a long time tocome.Eva De ClercqGhent UniversityEv.DeClercq@UGent.beReferencesBrinkhaus, Horst (1990). “Zur Entstehung und Textgeschichtlichen Entwicklung desHarivaṃśa”. Proceedings of the xxiv Deutscher Orientalistentag in Köln (8. Supple-mentband der zdmg), pp. 415–425.Brockington, John L. (1998). The Sanskrit Epics. Leiden: Brill.Quintanilla, Sonya R. (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, ca. 150bce–100ce. Leiden: Brill.

Charlotte Schmid (2010) Le Don de Voir : Premières representations krishnaïtes de la région de Mathurā (Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient Monographies 193), Paris: Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, 749 pp. isbn 978-2-85539-131-1. €50,–.

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Charlotte Schmid (2010) Le Don de Voir : Premières representations krishnaïtes de la région de Mathurā (Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient Monographies 193), Paris: Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, 749 pp. isbn 978-2-85539-131-1. €50,–.

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Ghent University Academic Bibliography