HINDUISM IN MAG ART
By Joan K. Yanni
Docents taking tours into the
Asian room sometimes skip over the Hindu art there--probably because it isn’t
as familiar as the Japanese, Chinese or Buddhist works. But Hinduism is an old
and fascinating religion, and the objects in the MAG collection are interesting
examples to examine.
Hinduism was founded around
1500 BC. According to the World Almanac, there are about 837,000,000
Hindus in the world, mainly in India Pinnacle Road
Hindus believe in one supreme
spirit, called Brahman, and many gods who are aspects of that spirit. The most
important are Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the
destroyer. They are often called “The Hindu Trinity.” Each has a wife, or
consort: Saraswati, goddess of wisdom and learning, is the wife of Brahma;
Lakshmi (Laxmi), goddess of wealth and good fortune, is the wife of Vishnu, and
Parvati is Shiva’s wife.
Brahma has four heads,
to look in all four directions. Vishnu, often pictured with blue skin, is
believed to have appeared on earth in various reincarnations, or avatars,
to save humans from perils or evil. The most important of his aspects are the
gods Rama and Krishna . Krishna
is famous for his mischievous and amorous nature. Minor gods who represent some
aspect of Brahman are also venerated. One of the most popular is Ganesha,
the elephant headed god, son of Shiva and Parvati. Others are Surya, the sun
god, who rides across the sky in a golden chariot, and Chandra, the moon god,
who rides in a silver chariot.
MAG has a small bronze
sculpture of Ganesha (81.10). The arms of our Ganesha are broken, but he
probably had four. Traditionally he is shown with one tusk, also missing from
our figure. Ganesha is the bringer of good fortune and the remover of
obstacles. He is prayed to before one sets out on a new project. He is
always happy, often dances, and his large belly can be rubbed to bring good
luck.
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| Ganesha |
How did he get an elephant
head? Legends vary, since they are passed on orally. The most often told is
that Shiva was away from home for a time and Parvati became lonely and created
a “son” for herself from clay. One day she was bathing, and asked Ganesha to
guard the door and let no one pass. Shiva returned home to find Ganesha at the
door, refusing to let him in. Angered, and not knowing who Ganesha was, Shiva
cut off his head with his sword. Parvati emerged to find her “son” dead. Sobbing,
she told Shiva he had killed their son. Brahma heard their distress and
promised to revive Ganesha if they
would send their servants to bring
the head of the first being
they met and put it on Ganesha’s body. They first met an elephant; thus Ganesha
got his head.
Ganesha’s single tusk is
another story. One is that, angered because he thought the moon was laughing at
him, he tore off his tusk and threw it at the moon. Another is that the sage
Vyasa was composing a very long epic poem about life and death and needed
someone to write it down. Ganesha agreed to do this. As he wrote down the long
poem, Ganesha’s pen broke, and, not wishing to interrupt the sage, he pulled
off his tusk and used it as a pen until the poem was complete.
The largest Hindu sculpture in
the MAG collection is a limestone figure of Surya, the sun god (82.48). He is
accompanied by two attendants, Pingala and Dandi. All three have halos, but
because they are not as important as the god, the attendant figures are
smaller. Surya holds lotus flowers in both hands, sign of rebirth, since a
lotus closes its petals at night and opens them again in the morning. Pingala
holds a pen and ink pot to record man’s deeds, and Dandi, a bodyguard, holds a
sword. All three figures are linked together by a draped scarf.
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| The God Surya |
The goddess Lakshmi (68.48),
again a small bronze, was probably carried in a religious procession. She also
holds a lotus and represents abundance and prosperity.
Other MAG Hindu sculptures
include a torso of an attendant figure (61.9), probably a temple decoration,
and a mysterious three-headed god (61.12), with cobras coiled around the heads.
The heads could be those of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the monkey on the
left might represent Prince Rama, from the epic story in the Ramayana. (See
below.)
The Gallery owns a number of
Indian paintings, which are rotated to keep them from fading. On view at the
present time are four paintings, watercolor or oil on paper. In the left
case, two scenes from the Ramayana, the Indian national epic, are
displayed. (53.58 and 53.55). The Ramayana tells the story of the exile
of Prince Rama and the abduction of his wife Sita by the demon king Ravana.
Rama must kill Ravana to rescue Sita. But the demon king cannot be killed by
gods or demons, so an army of bears and monkeys is summoned to defeat him. One
painting shows part of a battle, the other portrays the victorious Rama, his
brother Lakshmon, and Sita being taken home in a vehicle pulled through the sky
by birds. Bears and monkeys accompany them.
The second pair of paintings
(83.52 and 80.44) show the god Shiva, Parvati, his consort, and a
musician. Nandi, sometimes called Vahana, the white bull on which Shiva
rides, is in the picture. The second is a painting of Shiva in his role as
unifier of opposites: life/death, ascetic/erotic, creator/destroyer, and
male/female. The paintings are always intricately detailed and need careful
examining.
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| The God Shiva |
Sources: Krishnaswami, Uma, The Broken Tusk; Kanitkar,
V.P. Hinduism; Ganeri, Anita, What Do We Know about Hinduism?
Ions, Veronica, Indian Mythology
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