SHUNGA ART

INDEX
• INTRODUCTION
• BHARHUT STUPA
• SANCHI STUPA
• BHAJA CAVES
• CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
• Shunga Empire was an ancient Indian dynasty( Brahmin Dynasty) from Magadha
• Time period : 184 – 75 BCE
• Established by Pushyamitra Shunga, after taking the throne of the Maurya Empire.
• Capital: Patliputra
• Mostly Central & Eastern India
• Brahminism religion
• Shunga art was marked by its native style, simple & folk experiences
 Bharhut Stupa
• Is situated in Bharhut, a village located in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh.
• Discovered by Major General Alexander Cunningham in 1873.
• The Bharhut Stupa may have been first built by the Maurya king Ashoka in the 3 rd
century BCE, but many works of art, particularly the gateway [ toranas ] &
railings, were apparently added during the Shunga period.
• An epigraph on a pillar of the gateway of the stupa mentions about Shungas, there
is no other instance of the name “Shunga” in the epigraphical record of India.
The gateways (left) were made
• The railings contain numerous birth stories of the Buddha’s previous lives, or by northern
Jataka tales. (probably Gandharan) masons
• The Bharhut stupa represents the aniconic phase of Buddhist art. Buddha has been using Kharosthi marks, while the
represented in the form of symbols. railings (right) were made by
masons using marks in the
local Brahmi script.
 YAKSHAS & YAKSHIS
The Bharhut stupa railings have numerous images of the yakshas and yakshis, which have
been part of India’s society from time immemorial. At Bharhut, we find the earliest images
of the Yakshas and Yakshis which later become the part of later art. These embody the spirit
of nature and serve to remind us of the divinity that underlies all that is around us. The
Yakshas and Yakshis represent the protection of nature and its great fertility, which ensures
the continuance of life.
The north gateway of the Vedika at Bharhut shows Kubera whom the Yaksha and Yakshis
attend. We find the images of Yakhsi Chandra and Vrikshika, the one who is shown
intertwined with a tree. One more Yakshi called AsokaDohada, the one who hold an Asoka
Tree leave in her hand and also a child in her womb (two hearts) and intertwines with the
tree like a creeper, representing the fertility. One of the sculptures is of Laksmi on the railing
of the Bharhut, which is earliest image of this diety.
GREEK SOLDIER BARHUT STUPA
The style is generally flat, with low bass relief, and all characters are depicted wearing the Indian
dhoti, except for one foreigner, thought to be an Indo-Greek soldier, with Buddhist symbolism. A
pillar of the vedika has a depiction of a Greek warrior. He wears boots and a tunic and has short
hair and a headband.
NAGRAJA
On another railing, there is a Nagaraja, the serpent king, who is in human form but has a serpent
hood. Like yakshas and yakshis, Naga deities serve to keep us conscious of the power, the
protection and the fertility of nature.
QUEEN MAYA’S DREAM
Queen Maya’s dream, preceding the birth of the Buddha, is also a major theme on the railing of the
Bharhut “stupa”. According to Buddhist legend, Maha Maya dreamed that a white elephant with
six tusks entered her right side, which was interpreted to mean that she had conceived a child who
would become either a world ruler or a buddha.
In the early art of Buddhism, the figure of the Buddha was never represented. Instead, there were
symbols of him, such as a seat, footprints, the Bodhi tree, the wheel and the “stupa”. The sculptural
reliefs of the railings are a virtual library of early Buddhist iconographic motifs.
SANCHI STUPA[2 ND
CENTURY BCE]
On the basis of Ashokavadana, it is presumed that the stupa may
have been vandalized at one point sometime in the 2nd century
BCE, an event some have related to the rise of the Shunga
emperor Pushyamitra Shunga who overtook the Mauryan Empire as
an army general. It has been suggested that Pushyamitra may have
destroyed the original stupa, and his son Agnimitra rebuilt it. The
original brick stupa was covered with stone during the Shunga
period. The Great Stupa under the Sungas.
The style of the Shunga period decorations at Sanchi bear a close The Sungas nearly doubled the
similarity to those of Bharhut, as well as the peripheral balustrades diameter of the initial stupa, encasing
it in stone, and built a balustrade and
at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya.
a railing around it.
Foreigner on a horse. The Lakshmi with lotus and two child
Griffin with Brahmi script inscription.
medallions are dated circa attendants, probably derived
115 BCE. from similar images of Venus

Lotus within beads and

Female riding a Centaur. reels motif.
 BHAJA CAVES
Bhaja Caves is a group of 22 rock-cut caves dating back to the 2nd century BC located in the city of
Pune, India. The caves are 400 feet above the village of Bhaja, on an important ancient trade route running
from the Arabian Sea eastward into the Deccan Plateau (the division between North India and South
India).
The caves have a number of stupas, one of their significant features. The most prominent excavation is
its chaitya (or chaityagrha - Cave XII), a good example of the early development of this form from
wooden architecture, with a vaulted horseshoe ceiling. Its vihara (Cave XVIII) has a pillared verandah in
front and is adorned with unique reliefs. These caves are notable for their indications of the awareness of
wooden architecture. The carvings prove that tabla – a percussion instrument – was used in India for at
least 2300 years, disproving the centuries-held belief that the tabla was introduced to India by outsiders or
from Turko-Arab. The carving shows a woman playing tabla and another woman, performing dance.
CHAITYA AT BHAJA CAVES
• The chaitya at Bhaja Caves is perhaps the earliest surviving chaitya hall, constructed in the second century
BCE. It consists of an apsidal hall with stupa. The columns slope inwards in the imitation of wooden
columns that would have been structurally necessary to keep a roof up. The ceiling is barrel vaulted with
ancient wooden ribs set into them. The walls are polished in the Mauryan style. It was faced by a substantial
wooden facade, now entirely lost. A large horseshoe-shaped window, the chaitya-window, was set above the
arched doorway and the whole portico-area was carved to imitate a multi-storeyed building with balconies
and windows and sculptured men and women who observed the scene below. This created the appearance of
an ancient Indian mansion.
• Chaitya is 26 feet 8 inches wide and 59 feet long, with semi-circular apse at back, and having aisle 3 feet 5
inches wide, separated from the nave by 27 octagonal shaft. 11 feet 4 inches height. The dogoba is 11 feet
diameter at the floor. This resembles the Kondana Caves. The pillar has 7 different symbols of Buddha
shown in floral form, buds, leaves, fan.
Chaityagruha at Bhaja Caves Wooden Ceiling in Main
Chaitygruha

Setting of the entrance

 CONCLUSION
• The advent of the Sunga rule in India ushered in an important phase in the domain of Indian art.
• The period saw a remarkable growth in purely Indian art and thus a remarkable development in
Indian form of sculpture.
• The Sunga style of art, unlike the Mauryans, was not mainly the result of a single centralized
patronage.
• The artistic activity during this period has to be viewed as a part of the process of the civilization
that emerged in the Gangetic valley and central India.’
• Sunga art pieces can be classified into stone sculptures and terracotta. Sculptures of this age
represent one of the most important epochs of the ancient Indian civilization.
THANK YOU