Sculptures as the Trademark of Sovereignty in the Hoysala Kingdom

• Authors: Bignami Cristina
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Among the various sculptures created by Hoysaḷa artists between the 12th and 13th centuries emerges a curious iconographic couple: a man wearing a long robe and an unusual headdress, accompanied by a woman, completely naked, with sandals on her feet, surrounded by snakes. Both these figures have a stick. The recurrence of this subject in many temples and the important position in the register of sculptures suggest that this iconography was already codified in the early 12th century, that is during the rise of the dynasty. The focus of my study is to analyze the development of these representations in correlation with the religious and political context: at the beginning the two iconographies were sculpted together, while in the course of time they began to be carved separately. This new exploration adds to the iconographic analysis and the study of the epigraphic sources and it aims at relating the artistic production with the construction and legitimation of the dynasty. Controversial interpretations of the meaning of these representations open up a lively debate about local cults in medieval Karnataka and the versatile royalty of the Hoysaḷa dynasty.

Keywords

EN

Hoysala; Kālāmukha; Karnataka; royal legitimation

• Publisher: Księgarnia Akademicka
• Journal: Cracow Indological Studies
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 18: Cosmopolitanism andRegionalism in Indian Cultural Dynamics
• Pages: 169-209

Contributors

author

Bignami Cristina

References

• EC VI = Rice, B. L. 1901. Inscriptions in the Kadur District. Mysore: Mysore Gov. Central Press.
• EC V = Rice, B. L. 1902. Inscriptions in the Hassan District. Bangalore: Basel Mission Press.
• EC VII = Rice, B. L. 1902. Inscriptions in the Shimoga District (Part I). Mysore: Mysore Gov. Central Press.
• EC VIII = Rice, B. L. 1904. Inscriptions in the Shimoga District (Part II). Mysore: Mysore Gov. Central Press.
• Bhatsoori, K. 1995. Antiquities in the Government Museum, Shimoga: A Study. Shimoga: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums.
• Bignami, C. 2015. Belur, the Royal Tīrtha of the Hoysaḷa Dynasty. The “Miscellanea” of Local Elements Contained in a Sacred Place. In: T. Pontillo, C. Bignami, M. Dore, E. Mucciarelli (eds.). 2015. The Volatile World of Sovereignty: The Vrātya Problem and Kingship in South Asia. Delhi: DK: 464–498.
• —. 2014 Re-use in the Art Field: the Iconography of Yakṣī. In: Journal of Indian Philosophy (The re-use of texts in Indian philosophy, ed. by Elisa Freschi), [November 2015], 43: 625–648.
• —. 2012. The Indian Huntress: Nymphs or Goddesses?. In: Rivista degli Studi Orientali [2011]: 387–404.
• Choubey, M. C. 1997. Lakulīśa in Indian Art and Culture. Delhi: Sharada Publishing House.
• Coelho, W. 1950. The Hoysala vamsa. Bombay: Indian Hist. Bombay. St. Xavier’s College Research Inst.
• Coomaraswamy, A. 1928. Yakṣas. Voll. I-II. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
• Del Bonta, R. J. 1981. Bramaśiraśhhedakamūrti, Brahmahatyā, and Ritualistic Suicide in Medieval Karṇāṭaka. In: C. Sivaramamurti et al. (ed.). 1981.
• Chhavi-2, Rai Krishnadasa Felicitation Volume 2. Banaras: Bharat Kala Bhavan: 119–22.
• De Caroli, R. 2004. Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religion and the Formation of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dehejia. V. 1986. Yoginī, Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition. New Delhi: National Museum.
• Derrett M. J. 1957. The Hoysaḷas. A Medieval Indian Royal Family. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dikshit, D. P. 1980. Political History of the Chālukyas of Badami. Delhi: Abhinav Publications.
• Eck, D. L. 1981. India’s Tīrthas: Crossings. In: History of Religions, 20(4): 323–344.
• —. 2012. India. A Sacred Geography. New York: Harmony Books.
• Foekema, G. 2003. Cālukya Architecture: Medieval Temples of Northern Karnātaka Built during the Rule of the Cālukya of Kalyāṇa and Thereafter, AD 1000–1300, Vol. 3. New Delhi: Manoharlal Publishers.
• Guy, J. 2007. Indian Temple Sculpture. London: Victoria & Albert Museum Publications.
• Ishwaran, K. 1983. Religion and Society among the Lingayats of South India. Leiden: Brill.
• —. 1992. Speaking of Basava: Lingayat Religion and Culture in South Asia. Boulder: Westview Press.
• Kasdorf, K. E. 2013. Forming Dōrasamudra: Temples of the Hoysaḷa Capital in Context, unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Columbia University.
• Keul, Y. 2003. Yoginī in South Asia: Interdisciplinary Approaches. New York: Routledge.
• Kinsley, D. 1988. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Krishna Kumari, M. 1990. Social and Cultural Life in Medieval Andhra. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House.
• Ladrech, K. 2002. Bhairava à la massue. In: Bulletin d’Études Indiennes, 20(1): 163–192.
• Ladrech, K. and R. Loizeau. 2008. Deux figures oubliées de l’art hoysaļa. In: Arts asiatiques, 63: 3–20.
• Lazzaretti, V. 2010. Transposed Sacred Places in Varanasi: Connecting Local Sites to Pan-Indian Places of Pilgrimage. In: D. Picard, C. Amaral (eds.). Proceedings of the TOCOCU 1st Biannual Conference: Lisbon, Portugal, 9-12 September, 2010. Sheffield: TOCOCU.
• Lévi, S. 1915. Le Catalogue géographique des Yakṣa dans la Mahāmāyūrī. In: Journal Asiatique 11e séries. 5(1):19–138.
• L’Hernault, F. 1998. La personnification du Meurtre de brahmane. Annali dell'Università degli Studi di Napoli, 58(3–4). Napoli: 365–372.
• Lorenzen, D. N. 1991. The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas. Two Lost Śaivite Sects. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass (1st print 1972).
• Mallebrein, C. 1999. Tribal and Local Deities—Assimilation and Transformation. In: Devī: The Goddess in South Asian Art. Washington: A. Sackler-Gallery: 137–156.
• Mishra, P. K. 1999. Studies in Hindu and Buddhist Art. Delhi: Abhinav Pubblications.
• Misra, R. N. 1981. Yaksha Cult and Iconography. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
• Panofsky, E. 1955. Iconography and Iconology: An Introduction to the Study of the Renaissance Art (revised edition). In: Idem, Meaning in the Visual Arts. New York: Garden City (1st edition New York 1939).
• Quintanilla, S. R. 2007. History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, Ca. 150 BCE–100 CE. Leiden: Brill.
• Radcliffe Bolon, C. 1997. Forms of the Goddess Lajjā Gaurī in Indian Art. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass (1st print 1992).
• Simmons, C. 2015. The Goddess and the King: Cāmuṇḍēśvari and the Fashioning of the Woḍeyar Court of Mysore, unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Florida.
• Sontheimer, G. D. 1997. King of Hunters, Warriors, and Shepherds: Essays on Khaṇḍobā. Ed. by A. Feldhaus, A. Malik and H. Brückner. New Delhi: IGNCA-Manohar.
• Srinivasan, D. M. 1997. Many Heads, Arms and Eyes. Origin, Meaning and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art. Leiden: Brill.
• Sutherland, G. H. 1991. The Disguises of the Demon: The Development of the Yakṣa in Hinduism and Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Veluppillai, U. 2013. Cīkāli: hymnes, héros, histoire. Rayonnement d’un lieu saint shivaïte au Pays Tamoul, unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 3.
• Wangu, M. B. 2003. Images of Indian Goddesses: Myths, Meanings, and Models. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications.

Identifiers

DOI

10.12797/CIS.18.2016.18.08