Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s collection of Indian art by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield (published Oxford, 1987).

Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

Publications online: 143 objects

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Stone coping piece

  • Literature notes

    Bodhgaya in Bihar, where, towards the end of the 6th century B.C., the Buddha’s seated under a pīpal tree, achieved Illumination is probably the holiest of the places associated with the Buddha’s life [EAOS.3]. Over the exact spot now towers the Mahābodhi temple, but earlier shrines have stood there surrounded by the stone railings which in the early periods demarcated a sacred enceinte [see EA1983.24]. Portions of two railings remain, to the later of which the Ashmolean’s coping belonged. It was probably archaic when it was carved, its erection probably due to the presence of the older (2nd-1st century B.C.) railing already there.

    On one side runs a series of lotus or spiral roundels, separated by what may be highly conventionalised thunderbolts (vajras) on the other, a peacock, its tail, as often happens in the Gupta period, breaking out into swirls of foliage precedes a makara [see EA1971.13]. A pair of geese faces in the opposite direction. All are favourites, throughout the ages, of classical Indian myth, literature and sculpture. The style is that of the late Gupta or early post-Gupta period.
  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndiaeast IndiaBihar Bodhgaya (place of creation)
    Date
    6th - 7th century AD (AD 501 - 700)
    Material and technique
    coarse-grained granite
    Dimensions
    35.5 x 79 x 31 cm approx. (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Accession no.
    EAX.391
  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 29 on p. 22, p. 9, illus. p. 22

    Ahuja, Naman, ‘Early Indian Art at the Ashmolean Museum - Catalogue in progress’, 2016, no. 122

Location

    • First floor | Room 32 | India from 600

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum by J. C. Harle and Andrew Topsfield

    Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

    Bodhgaya in Bihar, where, towards the end of the 6th century B.C., the Buddha’s seated under a pīpal tree, achieved Illumination is probably the holiest of the places associated with the Buddha’s life [EAOS.3]. Over the exact spot now towers the Mahābodhi temple, but earlier shrines have stood there surrounded by the stone railings which in the early periods demarcated a sacred enceinte [see EA1983.24]. Portions of two railings remain, to the later of which the Ashmolean’s coping belonged. It was probably archaic when it was carved, its erection probably due to the presence of the older (2nd-1st century B.C.) railing already there.

    On one side runs a series of lotus or spiral roundels, separated by what may be highly conventionalised thunderbolts (vajras) on the other, a peacock, its tail, as often happens in the Gupta period, breaking out into swirls of foliage precedes a makara [see EA1971.13]. A pair of geese faces in the opposite direction. All are favourites, throughout the ages, of classical Indian myth, literature and sculpture. The style is that of the late Gupta or early post-Gupta period.
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