Ajanta: A Cultural Study by M. K. DhavalikarReview by: Walter SpinkJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 97, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1977), pp. 250-251Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/599047 .

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.2 (1977) Journal of the American Oriental Society 97.2 (1977)

awakening his criticism and perhaps introducing a few new acquaintances.

This is a scholarly book, but not a book for scholars alone: a book that compares, but draws no conclusions, a picturebook in which the author is a concerned and erudite guide, inviting us to make of it what we will, a new synthesis of our own, perhaps.

ALBERT B. FRANKLIN

KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Ajanta: A Cultural Study. By M. K. DHAVALIKAR. Pp. vii + 157; 12 plates (black and white); XXI figure- plates; index, bibliography. Poona: UNIVERSITY OF POONA. 1973.

It is one of the ironies of history that our knowledge of ancient times is often enhanced by 'disasters. Settle- ments of Upper Devonia have been preserved by mud; Pompeii was buried like some huge treasure under showers of ash. The renowned Buddhist cave site of Ajanta, some 200 miles east of Bombay, suffered from no geolog- ical trauma, but its development was almost as suddenly brought to an end by a political cataclysm. Work stopped in the late fifth century A.D. when the Vakataka dynasty, under which it had been flourishing for a generation, was overthrown by a feudatories' revolt. It is difficult to understand why the splendid and still unfinished mon- astery never enjoyed any further patronage in later times, but the telling absence of revisions, repaintings, or repairs ascribable to any later period prove that this was indeed the case. It appears to have been virtually abandoned from around 485 A.D. until one hot day in April 1819 when an English officer, out tiger hunting, "rediscovered" it. Having lain dormant for so many centuries, it was remarkably preserved, despite the encroachments of the jungle. The paintings which adorn the walls and ceilings of the caves were generally intact and (because the Vaka- taka patronage was so brief) free of the thick deposits of smoke and grime which is caused by continued usage.

The beauty of Ajanta's paintings rightly justifies their fame. Except for those in a few Hinayana excavations, which date from a half millenium earlier and are poorly preserved, they were created at the height of the Gupta period-India's so-called "Golden Age." Typifying the consummate esthetic of the times, reflected equally in the poetry of Kalidasa, they are by far the best preserved paintings from this epoch in India's history, which pro- vided stylistic and iconographic foundations for much of the subsequent art of greater Asia. But their interest and their importance extends into another area as well: their diverse scenes provide us with a comprehensive picture of the life of the times. Even though the scenes are primarily concerned with Buddhist stories of consider- able antiquity, they show how people looked, what they

awakening his criticism and perhaps introducing a few new acquaintances.

This is a scholarly book, but not a book for scholars alone: a book that compares, but draws no conclusions, a picturebook in which the author is a concerned and erudite guide, inviting us to make of it what we will, a new synthesis of our own, perhaps.

ALBERT B. FRANKLIN

KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Ajanta: A Cultural Study. By M. K. DHAVALIKAR. Pp. vii + 157; 12 plates (black and white); XXI figure- plates; index, bibliography. Poona: UNIVERSITY OF POONA. 1973.

It is one of the ironies of history that our knowledge of ancient times is often enhanced by 'disasters. Settle- ments of Upper Devonia have been preserved by mud; Pompeii was buried like some huge treasure under showers of ash. The renowned Buddhist cave site of Ajanta, some 200 miles east of Bombay, suffered from no geolog- ical trauma, but its development was almost as suddenly brought to an end by a political cataclysm. Work stopped in the late fifth century A.D. when the Vakataka dynasty, under which it had been flourishing for a generation, was overthrown by a feudatories' revolt. It is difficult to understand why the splendid and still unfinished mon- astery never enjoyed any further patronage in later times, but the telling absence of revisions, repaintings, or repairs ascribable to any later period prove that this was indeed the case. It appears to have been virtually abandoned from around 485 A.D. until one hot day in April 1819 when an English officer, out tiger hunting, "rediscovered" it. Having lain dormant for so many centuries, it was remarkably preserved, despite the encroachments of the jungle. The paintings which adorn the walls and ceilings of the caves were generally intact and (because the Vaka- taka patronage was so brief) free of the thick deposits of smoke and grime which is caused by continued usage.

The beauty of Ajanta's paintings rightly justifies their fame. Except for those in a few Hinayana excavations, which date from a half millenium earlier and are poorly preserved, they were created at the height of the Gupta period-India's so-called "Golden Age." Typifying the consummate esthetic of the times, reflected equally in the poetry of Kalidasa, they are by far the best preserved paintings from this epoch in India's history, which pro- vided stylistic and iconographic foundations for much of the subsequent art of greater Asia. But their interest and their importance extends into another area as well: their diverse scenes provide us with a comprehensive picture of the life of the times. Even though the scenes are primarily concerned with Buddhist stories of consider- able antiquity, they show how people looked, what they

wore, and how they worked and cooked and fought and danced-in short, how they lived-in the late fifth cen- tury A.D. In them, as Dr. Dhavalikar says, "we witness the colourful panorama of ancient life in all its kalei- doscopic variety." It is this variety with which the au- thor's study is concerned.

In his volume, Dr. Dhavalikar concentrates on isolating and analyzing many of the multitudinous objects or motifs, large and small, which are represented in the paintings. The coverage can best be described by listing the categories mentioned in the table of contents: Ar- chitecture; Costumes, Textiles and Footwear; Coiffures and Head-Dresses; Personal Ornaments; Vessels and Household articles; Furniture; Arms and Armour; Musical Instruments; Conveyances; Royal Insignia; Flora and Fauna. In the chapters the author subdivides these categories into the specific forms represented in the paint- ings, briefly describing the varieties of coiffures, ear ornaments, shields, chairs, boats, and so forth, which the Ajanta artists so skillfully represented in their nar- rative murals. By selecting so many of these separate items for consideration the author makes us better ap- preciate the total wealth of detail relevant to our knowl- edge of the daily life of these times with which these paintings are invested. Furthermore, he provides an aid to our study by including a useful series of line draw- ings; for instance, no less than eighty different views of types of coiffures and headdresses are depicted. Anyone doing a very precise study would of course need to go back to the paintings themselves for further observations, but the detail-drawings would be a useful aid, despite the fact that most of them are included without mention of the particular paintings from which they are derived.

The author provides a number of interesting references to translations and studies of various ancient literary sources (the writings of Kalidasa, VatsySyana, Kalhana, Hsuan Ts'ang, etc.) where items depicted at Ajanta are described or mentioned; he extends this "concordance" by referring to various relationships with forms found in archaeological digs or at roughly contemporary temple sites. Understandably, given the plethora of material to be covered, these correlations are brief and scattered; but they suggest fruitful pathways for future research even though scholars will always have to be wary of a characteristic dogmatism in the prescriptions and pro- scriptions of ancient Indian commentators. The fact that the Yuktikalpataru states that the simha-simhasana type of throne (found in a Mahayana painting in Cave 9) is to be made of sandalwood and to be covered with a blue cloth does not mean that the Ajanta type neces- sarily conforms.

Dr. Dhavalikar's subject is so vast that even in this fairly lengthy study he can make only a general survey.

wore, and how they worked and cooked and fought and danced-in short, how they lived-in the late fifth cen- tury A.D. In them, as Dr. Dhavalikar says, "we witness the colourful panorama of ancient life in all its kalei- doscopic variety." It is this variety with which the au- thor's study is concerned.

In his volume, Dr. Dhavalikar concentrates on isolating and analyzing many of the multitudinous objects or motifs, large and small, which are represented in the paintings. The coverage can best be described by listing the categories mentioned in the table of contents: Ar- chitecture; Costumes, Textiles and Footwear; Coiffures and Head-Dresses; Personal Ornaments; Vessels and Household articles; Furniture; Arms and Armour; Musical Instruments; Conveyances; Royal Insignia; Flora and Fauna. In the chapters the author subdivides these categories into the specific forms represented in the paint- ings, briefly describing the varieties of coiffures, ear ornaments, shields, chairs, boats, and so forth, which the Ajanta artists so skillfully represented in their nar- rative murals. By selecting so many of these separate items for consideration the author makes us better ap- preciate the total wealth of detail relevant to our knowl- edge of the daily life of these times with which these paintings are invested. Furthermore, he provides an aid to our study by including a useful series of line draw- ings; for instance, no less than eighty different views of types of coiffures and headdresses are depicted. Anyone doing a very precise study would of course need to go back to the paintings themselves for further observations, but the detail-drawings would be a useful aid, despite the fact that most of them are included without mention of the particular paintings from which they are derived.

The author provides a number of interesting references to translations and studies of various ancient literary sources (the writings of Kalidasa, VatsySyana, Kalhana, Hsuan Ts'ang, etc.) where items depicted at Ajanta are described or mentioned; he extends this "concordance" by referring to various relationships with forms found in archaeological digs or at roughly contemporary temple sites. Understandably, given the plethora of material to be covered, these correlations are brief and scattered; but they suggest fruitful pathways for future research even though scholars will always have to be wary of a characteristic dogmatism in the prescriptions and pro- scriptions of ancient Indian commentators. The fact that the Yuktikalpataru states that the simha-simhasana type of throne (found in a Mahayana painting in Cave 9) is to be made of sandalwood and to be covered with a blue cloth does not mean that the Ajanta type neces- sarily conforms.

Dr. Dhavalikar's subject is so vast that even in this fairly lengthy study he can make only a general survey.

250 250

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Reviews of Books Reviews of Books

It is hardly surprising that he does not involve himself with the still much disputed question of the chronology of Ajanta during its Mahayana phase, and of Ajanta's connection with other sites. He does refer to some recent research on these matters, but this is unfortunately not reflected in his bibliography, which is almost entirely confined to books and articles written prior to 1963, when his dissertation, upon which this book is based, was

completed. Actually, a number of recent studies by various authors have greatly clarified the development of the site during its Mahayana phase; it is now possible to

place the various paintings at the site in a fairly reliable

chronological sequence which (in the opinion of this re-

viewer) extends for no more than a single generation in its totality. A fascinating study could amplify the kind of catalog which Dr. Dhavalikar has undertaken into a quite precise study of changing forms and fashions in this brief period when Indian culture was so startlingly in flower. One can readily appreciate how revealing such an analysis could be both for art historians interested

primarily in the development of style and iconography, and also for those who, like Dr. Dhavalikar, seek to explore the total cultural context which nurtured such sites.

WALTER SPINK UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Ritual Structure and Language Structure of the Todas. By M. B. EMENEAU. Pp. 103. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 64, part 6 (1974). Philadelphia: THE AMERICAN PHILOS- OPHICAL SOCIETY. 1974. $6.00.

Over the years we have come to expect from Prof. Emeneau detailed, meticulous and insightful work. The first two expectations are amply fulfilled in this book, but the third is, I think, only marginally fulfilled. That is: this study is, in its own way, undoubtedly a contribution to Dravidian scholarship in general and Toda scholarship in particular; but some serious questions arise as to its overall utility, the nature of its contribution, and the audience to whom it is directed. I will take these matters up below.

One should not look gift horses in the mouth: Toda is an 'aberrant' language by Dravidian standards (and even, in a way, by others); and the culture of its speakers is an unusual one, of great ethnographic interest. So any further information about either one is potentially valuable. But there is a limit to the amount of informa- tion of a certain type that the market will, as it were, bear: virtually everything we have, in fact, we owe to Emeneau: but very little of it is in a form in which it is of maximal utility to linguists-either Dravidianists or

It is hardly surprising that he does not involve himself with the still much disputed question of the chronology of Ajanta during its Mahayana phase, and of Ajanta's connection with other sites. He does refer to some recent research on these matters, but this is unfortunately not reflected in his bibliography, which is almost entirely confined to books and articles written prior to 1963, when his dissertation, upon which this book is based, was

completed. Actually, a number of recent studies by various authors have greatly clarified the development of the site during its Mahayana phase; it is now possible to

place the various paintings at the site in a fairly reliable

chronological sequence which (in the opinion of this re-

viewer) extends for no more than a single generation in its totality. A fascinating study could amplify the kind of catalog which Dr. Dhavalikar has undertaken into a quite precise study of changing forms and fashions in this brief period when Indian culture was so startlingly in flower. One can readily appreciate how revealing such an analysis could be both for art historians interested

primarily in the development of style and iconography, and also for those who, like Dr. Dhavalikar, seek to explore the total cultural context which nurtured such sites.

WALTER SPINK UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Ritual Structure and Language Structure of the Todas. By M. B. EMENEAU. Pp. 103. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 64, part 6 (1974). Philadelphia: THE AMERICAN PHILOS- OPHICAL SOCIETY. 1974. $6.00.

Over the years we have come to expect from Prof. Emeneau detailed, meticulous and insightful work. The first two expectations are amply fulfilled in this book, but the third is, I think, only marginally fulfilled. That is: this study is, in its own way, undoubtedly a contribution to Dravidian scholarship in general and Toda scholarship in particular; but some serious questions arise as to its overall utility, the nature of its contribution, and the audience to whom it is directed. I will take these matters up below.

One should not look gift horses in the mouth: Toda is an 'aberrant' language by Dravidian standards (and even, in a way, by others); and the culture of its speakers is an unusual one, of great ethnographic interest. So any further information about either one is potentially valuable. But there is a limit to the amount of informa- tion of a certain type that the market will, as it were, bear: virtually everything we have, in fact, we owe to Emeneau: but very little of it is in a form in which it is of maximal utility to linguists-either Dravidianists or

general linguists interested in Toda. With the exception of the (morphological and phonological) analysis in Emeneau 1958, and the historical study of the Toda vowel system in Emeneau 1970, the corpus of information on Toda is primarily lexical (e.g., the material in Burrow and Emeneau, 1961, 1968, 1972); the one large collection of texts, Emeneau's massive Toda Songs (1971), though provided with translations, is virtually unanalysed lin-

guistically. So aside from Emeneau 1958 there is, as far as I know,

no extant study of Toda that is 'structural', i.e., that treats the language analytically. In this light the title of the monograph produces expectations about its content, which are further stimulated by comments early in the text. The title alone would lead us to expect far more formal analysis and generalisation than we in fact get- both linguistic and ethnographic. Thus Emeneau calls his material 'sociolinguistic' (p. 3), and claims that 'breaks in the language fabric obviously correspond to breaks in the social and ritual structure'. And later (p. 5): 'the language of prose ['ordinary' usage as op- posed to prayer and song: RL] shows considerable variety in a way that parallels the hierarchical organization of the culture and its ritual'. There are also some general remarks about the invalidity of the 'completely homo-

geneous speech-community', and about 'speaker com- petence'(p. 3): but the theoretical context in which such terms are appropriate nowhere makes itself visible.

Whatever this book is, it is surely not (in any sophis- ticated sense) 'sociolinguistic'; and there is very little analytical treatment of anything that could reasonably be called 'structure'. The view we get of both 'ritual' and 'language' is fragmentary and anecdotal. The ritual is described only insofar as some aspects of it have a bearing on Toda lexis, mainly ononastics; and nearly all the Toda material in the book is onomastic in one way or another. Whatever the interest of onomastics (and to my mind it is linguistically marginal, and possibly in- appropriate as a subject for 'structural' consideration: cf. Lass 1973), it seems misleading to call a work largely on this subject a study of linguistic (or ritual) 'structure'.

The religious life of the Todas is centred around a set of procedures concerned with sacred buffalo herds and 'dairies', which are complex ritual organisations, with a highly specialised (male) priesthood, and a stratification of 'grades' (degrees of importance and sanctity). It is here that the 'break' alluded to above comes in, and where the ritual-linguistic relations are focussed.

First of all, since the priesthood is male, there is a kind of stratification in which we get the equivalences men: sacred buffaloes, women: non-sacred buffaloes. This is

explicitly mentioned in Toda songs; and this, plus the

hierarchy of dairies, and the separation of prayer (and

general linguists interested in Toda. With the exception of the (morphological and phonological) analysis in Emeneau 1958, and the historical study of the Toda vowel system in Emeneau 1970, the corpus of information on Toda is primarily lexical (e.g., the material in Burrow and Emeneau, 1961, 1968, 1972); the one large collection of texts, Emeneau's massive Toda Songs (1971), though provided with translations, is virtually unanalysed lin-

guistically. So aside from Emeneau 1958 there is, as far as I know,

no extant study of Toda that is 'structural', i.e., that treats the language analytically. In this light the title of the monograph produces expectations about its content, which are further stimulated by comments early in the text. The title alone would lead us to expect far more formal analysis and generalisation than we in fact get- both linguistic and ethnographic. Thus Emeneau calls his material 'sociolinguistic' (p. 3), and claims that 'breaks in the language fabric obviously correspond to breaks in the social and ritual structure'. And later (p. 5): 'the language of prose ['ordinary' usage as op- posed to prayer and song: RL] shows considerable variety in a way that parallels the hierarchical organization of the culture and its ritual'. There are also some general remarks about the invalidity of the 'completely homo-

geneous speech-community', and about 'speaker com- petence'(p. 3): but the theoretical context in which such terms are appropriate nowhere makes itself visible.

Whatever this book is, it is surely not (in any sophis- ticated sense) 'sociolinguistic'; and there is very little analytical treatment of anything that could reasonably be called 'structure'. The view we get of both 'ritual' and 'language' is fragmentary and anecdotal. The ritual is described only insofar as some aspects of it have a bearing on Toda lexis, mainly ononastics; and nearly all the Toda material in the book is onomastic in one way or another. Whatever the interest of onomastics (and to my mind it is linguistically marginal, and possibly in- appropriate as a subject for 'structural' consideration: cf. Lass 1973), it seems misleading to call a work largely on this subject a study of linguistic (or ritual) 'structure'.

The religious life of the Todas is centred around a set of procedures concerned with sacred buffalo herds and 'dairies', which are complex ritual organisations, with a highly specialised (male) priesthood, and a stratification of 'grades' (degrees of importance and sanctity). It is here that the 'break' alluded to above comes in, and where the ritual-linguistic relations are focussed.

First of all, since the priesthood is male, there is a kind of stratification in which we get the equivalences men: sacred buffaloes, women: non-sacred buffaloes. This is

explicitly mentioned in Toda songs; and this, plus the

hierarchy of dairies, and the separation of prayer (and

251 251

This content downloaded from 188.72.96.157 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:48:42 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions