| Here is an easily defined
Early type: the figures bold yet approachable; a balance between the hierarchic
and the human, the, elevated and the compassionate. Again, architectonic forms
dominate the to Vie, an essentially indigenous device; what is of recent
importation is the expanded subject matter. By the reign of Kyanzittha
(1084-1113) the Pala influence, in physiognomy and physiology, is certainly
evident, indeed, to such an extent that it has been claimed that these images
must be the work of visiting Bengali artists. Such a hypothesis is unlikely,
the indigenous evolution is clear and, though a Pala mariner of interpreting
face and body is present, the Ananda reliefs lack the aloofness of their Indian
counterparts. The all-encompassing sweetness, enveloping warmth and benign
sense of welcome expressed so succinctly in the Ananda reliefs may be derived
from the gentle art of Mon-Dvaravati, together with a touch of that Pyu taste
for monumentality. A further development from the sculpture of the Naga-yon
hall to the An anda is in the reduction of the narrative to the predella all
emphasis is on the Buddha, raised, or elevated, to a supramundane scale. Luce
noted a number of reliefs in the Ananda cross-passages that illustrate scenes
identical to those in the outer ambulatory, these he convincingly explains are
rejects from the main series on account of their expressive freedom and lack of
symmetry." Kyanzittha sought an art that was to be educative through its human
appeal, but never through familiarity. Kyanzittha, like any proper Buddhist
king, was concerned with order:
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| Predellas he approved: a
large Buddha above, in one or other of the accepted poses; below, a small
predella, to identify the scene. But the means to do so are often meagre: four
monks in worship hardly suffice. And though the total effect of such a relief
may please, or even move the devout, it gets monotonous. If the architectural
background forced some unity on the design, it also numbed movement, life and
action ...The tendency has been to petrify religious sculpture in a lifeless
hierarchic groove; and by cutting out distance, chiaroscuro and perspective to
confine it to two dimensional decoration.
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| Luce's interpretation is
valid, however, what he ignores was the Pagan conception of the Buddha. Though
anthropomorphically depicted, he was never to be represented on the human scale
and usually his image in temple shrines was colossal, that is, supramundane.
When it was physically impossible to depict a Buddha on a colossal scale his
`might' was expressed by the reduction of gods, men and events to a lesser
size. Though superhuman in his physical dimensions, the Buddha's compassion
embraces all, a sensation readily conveyed by the moving nature of Kyanzittha's
images. The scene where the bodhisattva Gotama cuts off his hair is quite
dynamic: an energetic and potent image, hardly monotonous.
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| The Ananda relief style,
the product of a clear, local evolution, refreshed by a wave of Pala influence,
was to be short lived. Though a number of stone reliefs from this period, and
later, are to be seen in the Pagan museum, the main events of the Buddha's life
were rarely depicted in stone relief after this period, and never again on the
scale of the Ananda series. In the Myinkaba Kub-yank-nge, there is a stone
relief series that dates to the Late Period, however, this seems to be an
isolated survival of an Early Period tradition." Though the Buddha legend
remained a central theme in mural paintings, the scarcity of good stone made
such programmes unentertainable. Maybe, Kyanzittha's purification completed,
there was less need for so didactic an art, and the more decorative medium of
painting, or less costly and more rapidly produced, stucco work tended to
replace stone relief scenes.
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| Intermediary between the
three standing shrine images of the Naga-yon and the four colossal standing
figures of the Ananda, in each case constructed from wood, are the four bronzes
of the Shwe-zigon which again suggest that the Pagan sculptors' idiom evolved
locally, and was not the work of immigrant artists. The quality of casting of
these images is very fine. Like other standing images from the Early Period,
the robes hang with striated folds, the bodies are curvaceous, with a thin
waist and broad, well-rounded hips. Again, they achieve a compromise between
aloofness and compassion. Considering that these are among the earliest bronzes
from the Pagan dynastic periods, with little other than a few Pyu bronzes
predating them, the sudden advent of skilful and large scale bronze casting at
Pagan is prodigious (these images average over 3.5m high). It is easy to
surmise that this was the work of visiting bronze casters, yet, in style and
form they correspond to contemporary local work in stone. Smaller versions of
this type of standing bronze image of the Buddha, in vitar kamudra, may be
found in the Ananda Kyaung-taik and in one monastery near Chauk. These
exquisite images are the ultimate manifestation of the Pagan bronze casters'
genius: smooth whilst rich, sensitive whilst strong, sweet yet succinctthe
finest visual expressions of Kyanzittha's brilliant reign.
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| The Pala wave of
influence in Buddha images was short lived; by the start of the Middle Period,
c.1120, faces broaden, bodies seem shorter, squatter and quite stout by
comparison. Standing Buddhas, as individual portable works, such as bronzes, or
as temple icons, no longer seem to be in vogue, unless when required in a scene
from the bodawin, now generally expressed in paintings or stucco, not stone.
The often colossal seated images in brick and stucco, that fill the temple
shrines, are neither human nor hierarchic; an integral component of the temple
design, these brick and stucco projections were no longer conceived to conduce,
assisted by tricks of light and shade, some metaphysical relationship between
hpaya and devotee. Conversion and purification now completed, the `true' faith
firmly established, temple icons had less need to create an impact; a token,
perhaps standard ised, presence replaces the tactile pull of Kyanzittha's
images. Some conventional bhumisparsa buddha stele, usually of sandstone, from
the Middle and Late Periods do survive, whilst little in bronze from these
otherwise artistically prolific, periodsremains. Stucco carvings of the eight
bodawin scenes were, in varying scale, conveniently included along the eight
wall faces, between the transepts, of the temple shrine outer wall. In certain
instances the bodawin was arranged along the inner wall, in place of the
lei-myethna or four cosmic buddhas, for example at South Gu Ni or at
Mye-bon-tha, where the bodawin was reduced to an essential four scenes, or
'potted life'." There is still some, intensity about these lesser images, for
stone is a more expressive medium than piled brick coated in plaster. One head
in the Pagan Museum expresses the Late Period image succinctly, the
allpervasive smile is both human and divine, approachable, its supra-mundane
qualities instantly recognisable.
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| The development of the
bodawin in sculpture, whether stone or stucco, was paralleled in mural
paintings. Approximately contemporary to the Nagayon hall reliefs, similar
scenes were painted along the outer walls of the Pa-hto-tha-mya and Myinpya-gu
ambulatories. In the Late Period, a painted version of the Bedouin, as in
stucco versions reduced to either four or eight scenes, proved a popular
alternative to a sculptural medium.
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| By the end of the Late
Period, such an equilibrium between the tactile and the aloof, that had reached
its high point around 1100, becomes increasingly displaced by a
sentimentalising tendency towards the cherub-like sweetness that was to
characterise the art of the Ava periods. As in wall paintings from this period,
sinuousness displaces tension; they charm with humour and some wit, they do not
move the beholder with the intensity and spiritual radiance of the Early Period
image.
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| CROWNED IMAGES |
| In the periods of Burma's
art that follow those of the Pagan Dynasty, large crowned and seated images of
the Buddha in bhumisparsamudra were frequently placed as the main image of a
temple. In the Pagan Period crowned types were rarely used for the main image,
though a number of portable bronze crowned images have been found. Images of
Gotama, the Buddha, crowned and royally adorned, are often confused with those
of Mettaya who may be depicted in a similar manner. The principal difference
between these two is in the mudra and type of regalia. Gotama, though crowned,
retains his monk's robes and is seated in a characteristic earth touching pose
Mettaya wears a bejewelled costume, adorned with much finery, and his hands are
placed in his lap, in dhyanmydra In the case of some Pyu Mettaya images which
have been found at Pagan, -the posture used, common to- seated bodhisattva, is
lalitasana. If
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| crowned, Gotama, or
Jambupati as sorne scholar refer to him, though the term is not generally used
i Burma, may be confused with Mettaya; in turn Mettay may be confused with the
bodhisattva Lokantha, version of the. Mahayana bodhisattva Avalokitesvara The
earliest images of Gotama crowned, wearing hi monk's robe and' subduing Mara,
in bhumispar samurai, found in the region, are Arakanese, from th pre-Pagan
site of Vesali. Pamela Gutman has pub lished this version and other crowned
images fror Arakan and discusses the adaption, from Pala protc types, of their
physiognomy and physiology to sui local tastes. No Pyu-crowned version of
Gotama i known, though other crowned figures, bodhisattv, and Hindu divinities,
abounded in Pyu centres. Got ama, in royal costume, may well have found his way
to Pagan by way of such Arakanese bronzes. Likewise Luce identifies an
Arakanese type close in style to ; bronze from the original Maha-muni shrine of
Met taya. Images and their iconography are always interchangeable and the later
jambupati images may well have been adaptions of Pyu Mettaya versions Stone
tablets. called andagu, that may have beer copied from Pala models. also show
an image o Gotama crowned. The lambupati image thus may have come to Pagan,
either directly from Bengal, in the case of votive tablets, or indirectly, in
the case o' bronze castings, through Arakan.
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| What was to evolve was a
distinctive image Gotarna crowned, that has since become a highly venerated
type of image for Buddhists throughout the Theravada world. Essentially this
representation is a merging of the Buddha and cakkauatti conception. both are
concerned with the dhamma, in the Buddha's case sacred dhamma, in the
cakkavatti case temporal dhamma: and each is associated with the cakke or
'Wheel', and each ranks a stupa for burials= This envision of the Buddha as a
princely figure. though popular amongst the Arakanese, earlier and contemporary
to the Pagan Dynasty, was not to develop in Burma till later and at Pagan it is
confined to portable bronze or andagu images. In no temple or shrine does a
permanent Jamhupati image feature as the central icon. However, from the
inscriptions. we know that it was popular to dress and adorn images with fine
royal garments. The plain and unadorned image one finds in today's deserted
temples. was thus originally royally regaled, and was treated, as epigra phy
details, with the reverence due to an actual king, ritually bathed and perfumed
on a daily basis. entertained with music and dance, and attended by slaves,
bonded to serve into perpetuity.''' No doubt coronets and other jewellery, long
since pilfered, embellished these images, as is the practice in a number of
popular shrines today. The .inscriptions that record the dedication of these
lavishly maintained images were usually explicit that they were in honour of
the' last buddha, Gotama. By honouring Gotama a path was prepared to
salvation-Mettaya.
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