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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Head of a Jina

  • Literature notes

    The absence of an uṣṇiṣa [see EAOS. 26] immediately distinguishes this head as having belonged to a statue of a Jina one of the saviours of the Jain religion [see EAOS.108], rather than the Buddha. The style and the nature of the stone indicate that Mathura or an associated site was the source of this sculpture, and indeed Mathura at this period produced greater numbers of Jina images than Buddhas. The heavy raised unbroken line indicating the eyebrows, the eyes with their peculiar treatment of the upper lids and the pouting lips all indicate a third or fourth century date, in the late Kuṣāṇa period. A smile is just beginning to steal across the lower part of the face, just as the eyes are becoming almond-shaped, precursors of the “spiritual” expression of Gupta Buddhas and Jinas. This and numberless other such figures, often quite crude in execution, may thus be considered in a sense transition pieces.
  • Description

    Early figures of Jinas or Tirthankaras (Jain saviour figures) resemble Buddha images in some respects, but lack the ushnisha or topknot on the head.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaIndianorth IndiaUttar PradeshMathura district Mathura (place of creation)
    Date
    2nd half of the 3rd century - 1st half of the 4th century AD
    Kushan Period (AD 50 - 600)
    Gupta Period (AD 320 - 600)
    Material and technique
    sandstone
    Dimensions
    17 x 15 x 12 cm max. (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented by Mrs Isa Cohn, in memory of Dr William Cohn, 1963.
    Accession no.
    EA1963.27
  • Further reading

    Harle, J. C., and Andrew Topsfield, Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1987), no. 12 on p. 11, pp. 10 & 49, illus. p. 11

    Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2 April-16 July 1995, Buddha in Indien: Die frühindische Skulptur von König Asoka bis zur Guptazeit, Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, ed. (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum and Milan: Skira, 1995), no. 81 on p. 133, illus. p. 132 fig. 81

    Ahuja, Naman, ‘Early Indian Art at the Ashmolean Museum - Catalogue in progress’, 2016, no. 106

Location

    • Ground floor | Room 12 | India to 600

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Publications online

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

    Indian Art in the Ashmolean Museum

    The absence of an uṣṇiṣa [see EAOS. 26] immediately distinguishes this head as having belonged to a statue of a Jina one of the saviours of the Jain religion [see EAOS.108], rather than the Buddha. The style and the nature of the stone indicate that Mathura or an associated site was the source of this sculpture, and indeed Mathura at this period produced greater numbers of Jina images than Buddhas. The heavy raised unbroken line indicating the eyebrows, the eyes with their peculiar treatment of the upper lids and the pouting lips all indicate a third or fourth century date, in the late Kuṣāṇa period. A smile is just beginning to steal across the lower part of the face, just as the eyes are becoming almond-shaped, precursors of the “spiritual” expression of Gupta Buddhas and Jinas. This and numberless other such figures, often quite crude in execution, may thus be considered in a sense transition pieces.
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