July 4: Here is Shaashi again, updating you all, after finishing 34 days of snap-snap field trips in eastern India and Bangladesh.
Aug 4: Back in Philly, hoping to update everyone soon not just on my analysis from the field-trips but also the photo archival research at the ASI Headquarter I squeezed in during the month of July in Delhi.
With these introductory sentences, I would have begun my mid-summer and the final post for 2023 summer work if to-do lists moved forward as smoothly as one had hoped. Post-field analysis of the data carefully collected during the super-packed weeks of exploration often consumes many more precious night-hours of energy reserves and more brain cells than the long walks in sweltering heat of the humid monsoon summer. Nevertheless, finishing two very successful months of research are bringing home many a theories and questions I raised in my project proposal (official and unofficial combined). A couple of those theories came out to be nothing short of conspiracy theories in hindsight. Such is the course of an inquiry. So I persist.
Looking through the patterns of damage and repair in early medieval stone images on this trip has been quite a journey. It was only possible because of the administrative support I received at over 19 major and minor museums in the two countries, and two generous summer grants – CASI’s and the Penn Museum Field Fund. Therefore, I want to begin by thanking everyone in the archaeology departments in India and Bangladesh as well as folks at CASI and the Penn Museum who have guided and encouraged me throughout this period.
A map showing all the places I visited in June 2023. The map illustrates the political borders of India in its east and the whole of Bangladesh.
BROKEN: INTENTIONAL VS ACCIDENTAL
As shared previously, in assessing categories of broken I am thinking of intentional damage to a stone artifact vs accidental damages due to structural collapse which might be due to different reasons such as earthquake or weakened superstructure in the absence of regular maintenance. It can also be caused by supposedly non-catastrophic acts of moving objects around which is common when an idol needs to be transferred to a new, usually enlarged, shrine in place of an older one. Intentional damages, on the other hand, are better understood through the acts of iconoclasm.
The word iconoclasm as an intentional process of destroying images to an effect first appeared in the context of Christian principles against heretical making and worshiping of divine images during the eighth and ninth centuries CE under the Byzantine empire. However, its traces in different forms are known throughout history spread across the globe and continues to happen to this day. Why? Because images (or simply objects) as icons and idols hold enormous symbolic power and always have. An iconoclastic act may include smashing the image as a whole or targeting specific features such as face, arms, etc in an effort to deactivate and thus effectively ‘kill’ the icon. The latter is furthermore distinct than the former as the image may continue to be used especially with some repair.
In the context of the Indian subcontinent the act of Islamic iconoclasm receives an overwhelming attention. However, the presence of broken images deposited in archaeological layers before the advent of Islam in the region and historical records of intentional blows at temples and the images kept within them demonstrates that such acts predate the coming in of the infamous iconoclasts. One such iconoclast was Bhaktiyar Khilji, the notorious guy to whom all the broken idols in the eastern India are associated with. The other contender are groups of Shaiva or Tirthika ascetics who have been recorded as violent towards heterodox practices of Buddhists and Jains (although they remain to be a less explored group of iconoclasts). Broken images continue to come up in diggings around the villages of Bihar and West Bengal in eastern India. A sweeping statement blaming an individual like Bhaktiyar Khilji or Muslims, broadly, to explain these damages is not only historically inaccurate but proves as fodder to the fire of communal tensions which have been on rise in India in the recent times.
Then, what is a better approach to making sense of these damages? A few explanations can be offered: a. objects were accidentally broken while transporting or during reinstallation and were therefore discarded; b. objects were ‘ritually killed’ or made ‘inactive’ by breaking certain features as discussed above, often followed by their burial; c. damages due to being dumped into earth with other stone piles in an effort to hide them away from or by the iconoclasts of the medieval period or perhaps hidden away from or by the looters during the colonial period as interest for their antiquity grew in the global art market. The latter two points of ritual killing and consequently thrown into the ground might be interconnected in certain scenarios when such acts were carried out by the followers of faiths other than the one promoted by the idols in questions.
An archival photograph showing 1917 excavation in progress at the now-UNESCO site of Nalanda Buddhist Monastery (India). Courtesy: ASI
RESULTS: INTENTIONAL OR ACCIDENTAL OR COLLATERAL
*More detailed analysis of these patterns will become part of my dissertation discussion. I intend to only share the more accessible results in this blog.
In a close study of early medieval sculptural art from the collections of the 19 museums and over 34 additional sites, documented during my summer fieldwork in the eastern Indian subcontinent, categories of breakages and repairs were juxtaposed. In this step geographical concentration of these categories was also taken into account without which one cannot fully understand this phenomenon. For example, damages in one region might be due to an earthquake while the other region, far from the epicenter, would have instead seen series of attacks from a violent mob/army.
In results it became clear that phenomenon like intentional battering of faces and busts is far more common in Bihar than in West Bengal and Bangladesh based sites. Similarly, the practice of repair is overwhelmingly concentrated in the very same regions of Bihar. Finally, the iconoclastic and thus intentional breakages could only be noted in six instances out of easily 2,000 objects (extremely humble count). I identified these based on overt blows to all anthropomorphic carvings on single piece of stone image. In a later analysis with archival material, three of these images became questionable which I have explained below using photographs.
Intentional damage itself can be borne out of two modes of destruction. One where the perpetrator(s) had a full or partial understanding of the icon they were desecrating and thus deactivating. The other would be when the damaged objects are collateral of an attack on the structure where they were housed. Distinguishing this form of damage from that caused by natural disasters or structural collapse becomes a challenging task, particularly in the absence of comprehensive information on the structural history.
Identifying intentional and careful chopping-offs involves close inspection and a keen eye for the specific marks left behind. These deliberate actions often manifest in precise blows, showcasing a level of intentionality that distinguishes them from the random effects of natural decay or unintentional damage. However, the challenge lies in recognizing these signs, especially when faced with the eroding effects of worship rituals over time, such as the regular application of vermillion, milk, oil, and other materials used in Hindu rituals.
What do these intentional and careful chopping-offs look like?
Vishnu, Belwa (Bihar), c. 11th-12th century CE. Now at the Bihar Museum, Patna (India). Courtesy: Bihar Museum
Let’s look at this image of Vishnu for example. This six-feet tall stone image was found from Belwa (Siwan, Bihar), a hundred miles away from its current location in the gallery of the new Bihar Museum in Patna (Bihar). One can cursorily notice that all the heads, whether of the central or the accompanying figurines, are missing. Does this make it a case of iconoclasm and thus intentional damage? It might, except for the fact that the central figure’s hands and weaponry are also absent. This could indicate a scenario where all protruding elements suffered damage from an external blow, including the delicate necks of the human figures. There is no shortcut to fully understand the leading causes to such damages without an understanding of the archaeological and historical context. In this specific example it would require one to trace the exact provenance of the said Vishnu image and examine if similar blows are seen on the other images. An argument can be reached based on their distinguishing patterns of intentional vs accidental damages. In the absence of such a context and lack of obvious chisel marks on the stone, an act of iconoclasm or vandalism cannot and should not be declared.
To further strengthen this reasoning, let’s consider another image. This one is a colossal stone image of Buddha with aṣṭamahāpratihārya depiction (eight miraculous events) at Jagdispur’s Rukministhan, not far from the UNESCO site of Nalanda Buddhist Monastery in Bihar. The image currently shows damage to multiple smaller Buddha heads around the stele. On initial observation, one might infer deliberate mutilation, especially since these peripheral images seem safeguarded by the pedestals of the carvings above (highlighted using white rectangles in the collage below) and thus are not the most protruded and vulnerable features. While some heads, including the central figure’s, have remained untouched, this discrepancy is usually explained through the argument that not all figures needed to be beheaded. Why behead some and leave others? It’s not a futile question to explore. Only that the iconoclastic angle becomes less probable as an archival photograph from 1915-18 shows most of these Buddha heads intact. I found two such photographs in my archival work at the ASI Headquarter (Archaeological Survey of India, Delhi) in July. Fortunately, the digital scans of these photographs and permissions came in my inbox just this morning allowing me to share it here. The edited composition below highlights in yellow the heads of smaller Buddhas which were found to be intact in the 1915-18 photographs (on the right) but are missing in the 2023 photograph (on the left).
A photo-collage showcasing the colossal Rukministhan Buddha image as photographed in 2023 (left) vs in 1915-18 (right). Left-side archival photograph courtesy ASI. Edits are mine.
This discovery indicates that the present damages are likely not the outcome of religious persecution during the medieval period, as previously speculated. It’s plausible that these damages either resulted from mishandling at some point or decay subsequent to the ASI photograph’s date. An even more compelling theory could be that these damages represent remnants of a theft attempt targeting the smaller Buddha heads, which is unfortunately a recurring issue in Bihar. A recent photo documentation by locals vividly illustrating such vandalism explains this more clearly. In the village of Mustafapur, also adjacent to the Nalanda excavation site, a stone Buddha image was found mutilated by villagers in 2014, prompting them to file a theft attempt report with the local police using these photographs.
A photo-collage showing photographs of the Mustafapur Buddha image before and after a theft attempt in 2014. Credit: http://nalanda-insatiableinoffering.blogspot.com/2014/01/vandalisation-of-buddhas-statue-at.html
If one were to encounter this Buddha image unaware of the theft attempt, an iconoclastic angle can easily be established. This is exactly why I am ever more careful in my conclusions. I would even say that I feel most confident in my research when things are complicated because they always are. If one is getting a straightforward answer, it is probably missing the bigger picture, ‘the rich and thick data’. My summer fieldwork has magnified this perspective manifold.
In my exploration of damaged artifacts I have come across not only the popular narrative but also the hidden nuances that underscore their existence in the first place. As this hunt for broken images in the eastern Indian subcontinent continues, I invite you to follow the part 2 of this post. Continuing along the same trail, I will explore the other two intriguing trends associated with damaged images: the practices of repairing and recycling. This will further complicate the notion of iconoclasm in the Indian context.
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