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The Sculpture of Rajasthan
Just as Rajasthan is known for the fine
quality of its paintings, there is no
escaping the overwhelming presence of its
great body of sculpture. One of the most
profuse forms of decorative art in
Rajasthan, particularly in the medieval
period, it was lavished on palaces and
forts, in temples and stepwells, and even in
the havelies or townhouses of the merchants
and traders.
For all that, the tools at the command of
the mason or sculptor were basic and crude,
and included the tanki or punch, the pahuri
or chisel, the hatora or hammer, and the
barma or borer. Using these simple elements,
and following the texts designed especially
for his use (Shilpashastra and Manasara),
the mason was able to achieve the perfect
jharokha or arch or pillar. Not
surprisingly, the texts are exhaustive on
detail. A pedestal, for example, is expected
to have 24 parts; the height, width and dia
of every shaft, arch or building detail is
strictly enjoined. But within these formal
limitations, the individual expression of
creativity is permitted.
There are two ways to examine the issue
of the sculptor's art- as in architectural
embellishment, and as standalone work. It is
important to remember that stand alone art
had little use in Rajasthan, and figures
were carved either for enshrining in
temples, or sculpture was part of the great
design of architecture.
Religious icon are almost always carved from
marble and the Makrana marble mines, close
to Jaipur, have supplied the marble for
these for centuries together. Even today,
for most shrines in India, images continue
to be carved in Jaipur where religious
iconography has developed into a fine art.
But Jaipur is merely a centre for creating
marble images. For sheer detail, there is
nothing to beat the excessive marble
sculpturing developed by the Jains at their
temples. Most Jain temples have large
statues of their tirthankaras enshrined in
the sanctum. However, in the temples of
Dilwara and Ranakpur, these have found a
fluid expression that remains without a
parallel in India.
The Jain community is a small one, but it
found patrons in the Rajput kingdoms where,
besides trading activities, the Jains were
able to serve in the courts as capable
administrators and ministers. They were
often also moneylenders to the maharajas. In
turn, the royal families showed their
gratitude in permitting the Jains to build
temples to their faith. Their faith too,
though peopled by divinities, does not
believe in the the concept of a supreme
creator. Their 24 tirthankaras are the
embodiment of guru-hood, though the term
means someone who helps you journey from one
life to another through a cycle of rebiths.
The tirthankaras are depicted either in the
seated yoga posture, or in a rigid, immobile
manner intended to show the 'dismissing' of
the body.
Jain temple architecture is characterised by
its profusion of sculpturing. The stone is
moulded, chiselled, scooped out, and
developed so that each grain becomes a part
of the grand design of the temple. Nor is
the work limited to a similar repetition:
pillars can be carved differently so there
is no one that is similar to another in no
one that is similar to another; each of
these is alive with images of gods and
goddesses, musicians and dancers, and there
are architectural embellishments of such
amazing fluidity that it is impossible to
disassociate architecture from sculpture. It
is all the more astonishing because where
the sculptural art can only be described as
excessive, the Jain faith is characterised
by a rigid austerity.
The best examples of Jain temples in
Rajasthan are at Mount Abu and Ranakpur.
Mount Abu's Dilwara temples contain four
principal shrines and are housed together.
Dated between the 11th and 12th centuries,
the temples must have used all their
administrative skills given that just one,
the Vimala Vasahi, took 14 years to build,
and used the labours of 1,200 labours and
1,500 stone masons.
Ranakpur consists of a fortified complex of
temples that arose in Mewar, when Rana
Kumbha gave the land in a grant to the Jains.
Located 100 km from Udaipur, the temples are
among the most beautiful raised by the Jains
in the country. At the heart of the complex
is the temple of Adinath, one of the
largest, most extensive, and characterised
by its excess and profusion of sculpture.
The Temple is an awesome 40,000 sq ft, and
has 29 halls supported by 1444 pillars, Not
one of these pillars is like any other, a
remarkable feat, and each is entirely
sculptured with arabesques, motifs, and
statues carved almost in the round. In the
centre is the sanctum with the four-faced
image, while above it rises the principal
spire supported by four others, each
surrounded by cupolas. The architecture is
characterised by a high plinth and boundary
walls with turrents. The temples consist of
columned courts, a vast central hall, and a
maze of pillars that divides into paths
leading to other courtyards.
The Jains also provided the basis for the
flowering of still more sculptured
architecture, this time in the desert
citadel of Jaisalmer, where their havelis
remain unparalleled. The Jain were a
prominent force in the politics of the court
of Jaisalmer, and were certainly rich enough
to order themselves residences more handsome
even than the king's palace. Instead of
marble, their choice of stone for their
residences was sandstone. Of the many
havelis in Jaisalmer, three are outstanding-
Nathmalji ki Haveli, Patwon ki Haveli and
Salim Singh's Haveli. Built in the 18th and
19ht centuries, these mansions use every
known architectural device to create
buildings rich with the stone masin's
expressions, so that each is like a textbook
on the subject. Fluted columns, balconies,
arches, domes, jharokhas, eaves, brackets,
cupolas, every little bit is carved, each
differently. The motifs are geometrical and
floral, and in a departure from the Jain
temples, there is no statuary.
The masons were Muslims, workers journeying
to India from West Asia before they were
persuaded to break they were persuaded to
break journey and set camp in Jaisalmer. It
is not impossible to believe that the
persuasion may not have been unduly gentle.
In any case, they developed a body of
sculpted rchitecture that, because of
Jaisalmer's isolation, was not repeated
elsewhere. Two stone mason brothers, in
fact, proved so adept at their task that
their names, Hathu and Lalla, are still
recorded in the annals of Indian art. While
statuary as a part of architecture, and
geometrical and floral expressions, found a
reflection in all part of Rajasthan, the
sculptors of Barmer, another region deep in
the heart of the desert, found creative
expression in their rich arabesques on the
red sandstone found locally. Barmer
developed, and continues to remain, one of
the prime centres for sandstone carving in
the state. |
