Published in Journal of Indian Society of Oriental Art, vol. II, 1934, pp 70-82
Kurkihar is a very large village situated in the district of Gaya at a distance of about 16 miles from the town of Gaya. The village is accessible by a light motor car, as a part of the road is unmetalled. It is under the police station Wazirgunj and three miles from the railway station of Wazirgunj on the Gaya-Kiul branch. Reference may be made to Cunningham, Archaeological Survey Report, I, pp. 14-16, plates XII (plan), XIII (inscription).
About 240 pieces of metal images and other antiquities were accidentally discovered by the landlord in the village of Kurkihar in the year 1930. An English official mentioned the fact of the discovery to me. Steps were taken to move the Government of Bihar and Orissa to acquire the find under the Treasure Trove Act. After a prolonged proceeding the images were obtained by the local Government and made over to the Patna Museum.
The site of the discovery was visited by me. There are three well defined mounds of large dimensions. On two of these now stand the houses of tenants and on the third the house and establishment of the landlord are located. The images have been found in the last mound which is nearer the Bagesvari temple. By the side of the mound there is a large lake; on its banks numerous monolith votive stupas lie scattered. To the east of the mound, is the Bagesvari temple referred to above. Numerous stone images of the Pala period have been collected there. The whole village has been using the mounds as quarries for bricks for several generations. The landlord has constructed large buildings with these bricks and erected an expensive cowshed on stone pillars which one formed the colonnade of the monastery at the site. The present landlord was repeating the process of his forefathers, of excavating bricks for putting up a new structure, when the spade accidentally struck these images which had been carefully stowed away and buried in a corner of a room - a little below the ground level of the street and some 15 feet below the top of the mound. Smaller pieces were found packed in earthen jars and larger ones were piled on the ground, the heaviest ones downmost. The metal images buried in the monastery, which are now before us, prove that the religious foundation had existed for several centuries.
Like the metal umbrella of the Bodh-Gaya temple, these metal images were carefully concealed by the monks when the invading Muhammadan army was advancing. This must have been in the year 1197 A.D. when Bihar was effectively invaded by the Muhammadans for the first time and religious foundations were looted and destroyed. The images once buried could not be restored to the position of worship owing to the political and consequent religious revolution in the country following the fateful year of 1197.
The year 1197 thus fixes the latest date for the images. Dated images fashioned at least more three and a half centuries before their burial testify to a career of the Kurkihar monastery extending over that period at all events.
The metal composition of the images is approximately as follows:
(i) Copper………83.051%
(ii) Lead………….1.4%
(iii) Tin…………….13.009%
(iv) Iron……………1.081%
The pieces received at the Museum number 230 including pedestals, conches, miniature crystal stupas, bells, potteries, etc. The actual images are about 150. Three of the images are plated with gold. There were a few images of solid silver but they did not reach the authorities and the Museum.
As it is, the Kurkihar collection at the Patna Museum is the biggest metal group of a definite period in India. Although there are a few pieces which are pre-Pala, the collection as a whole is Pala. All the pieces have not been finally cleaned, but it is definitely that 105 are inscribed pieces.
The earliest inscribed piece is an image of Bodhisattva Vagisvara (Pl. XXVIII, Fig. 3) which was fashioned for a foreigner whose effigy is also attached to the pedestal. His name was Maleka and he is described as Balika, i.e., ‘of Bali’ island. The name of Bali (island), is mentioned as Bali in the Manjusri Mulakalpa, a work of c. 780 A.D.
There are eight dated inscriptions on the metal pieces where the reading is certain. I classify them in chronological order as follows:
1. Patna Museum No. 203, dated in the 9th regnal year of king Devapala (i.e., c. 826 A.D.), is the figure of the Brahmanical god Balarama.
2-3. Patna Museum Nos. 152 and 155. These are two images of Vasundhara (?) cast by the same artist whose name has been given and who has been described as a resident of Srimad Apanaka Mahavihara. These are almost duplicates and were both prepared in the 82nd regnal year of king Rajyapala (i.e., c. 10th century A.D.). Srimad Apanaka Mahavihara was evidently the name of at least one of the Kurkihar monasteries.
4. Patna Museum No. 184, cast by the same artist and in the same, 32nd, year of king Rajyapala. The image represents Uma-Mahesvara.
5. Patna Museum No. 143, a pedestal, which has two Nagas rising from the womb of the earth. According to the verses on the back of the pedestal, the figure installed on it was of the Buddha, cast in the reign of Rajyapala, whose regnal year is not noted, the whole inscription being in verses. These four are the only records on images of Rajyapaladeva’s reign.
6. Patna Museum No. 110, is a small figure of Cunda. It was executed in the 31st year of king Mahipala (c. 1000 A.D.)
7. Patna Museum No. 9, is a crowned Buddha with abhaya-mudra. It was cast in the 3rd year of king Vigrahapala’s (spelt here as Vigrahapala) reign, in a script which suddenly changes from the earlier script and may be described as proto-Maithili or proto-Bengali. This Vigrahapala is evidently Vigrahapala III, successor of Nayapala. The image may be dated c. 1050 A.D.
8. Patna Museum No. 8, is also an image of the crowned Buddha. Although executed on a somewhat smaller scale, it is almost a duplicate of the previous image. It was cast in the 19th year of Vigrahapala III.
Probably a few more pieces will be found to be dated in the reign of Vigrahapaladeva amongst the images yet partially cleaned.
We have thus dated images covering about two centuries and a quarter from Devapala to Vigrahapala III. Numerous pieces bear undated inscriptions consisting mostly of the Buddhist creed, which are referrable to the 10th and 11th centuries A.D.
There is one image of a gilded Buddha with varada mudra, Patna Museum No. 204, (Pl. XXIX, Fig. 1) which seems to me to be definitely Guptan from the point of style, but unfortunately it bears no inscription. It is the most corroded piece of the group and a class by itself. It evidently precedes the type of such figures as Patna Museum Nos. 3 and 4 and is more in the neighbourhood of the Gupta tradition. The Buddha here, though in the altitude of conferring boons, is contemplative, looking inwards. The left hand holds the end of the garment. The figure was plated with pale gold, patches of which still remain on it. The silver alloy decoration is absent. This seems to be the oldest image in the Kurkihar group.
The earliest inscribed, though not dated image, as mentioned already, is a representation of Vagisvara, Patna Museum No. 36. The image is in the teaching pose. In its left hand there is a lotus. It has an inscription in characters of the 8th century A.D. At the left hand corner below the pedestal, the kneeling figure is that of the donor who has non-Hindu features in addition to a beard.
Of the other images the following deserve special attention amongst images of the Buddha. The standing Buddha image, Patna Museum No. 3, stands on a pedestal crowned with an open lotus. The position is abhaya mudra, i.e., the Buddha offering to the world freedom from fear. The eyes and the urna between the brows are made of a composition of silver and tin which has retained its original pearl-like lustre and has remained bright and unchanged in seven centuries of burial underground. It looks on you compassionately with the fixed determination of a saviour. The figure wears an upper garment, the left hand holding the end of it. There was originally a prabhamandala attached to the back of the figure. I assign it to the 8th century A.D.
The other large image of Buddha, Patna Museum No. 4, stands on a cushioned stool composed of two full-blown lotuses placed one upon the other, back to back, which is a common motif throughout these images. The motif represents a cushioned seat which is evident from those in the seated images. Both the face and its expression are softer and just begin to tend to the feminine type which is consciously resorted to in Pala art. There it was realized, as amongst the Greeks in the 3rd century B.C., that a true godly type required a compromise between the male and the female types. This principle reverts again and again in both plastic and graphic arts in countries and circumstances widely separate in distance and age.
The class of images illustrated by the above two examples is the connecting link between the Gupta and Pala plastic traditions. The moulding of the body shows a direct descent from the Gupta age, but the face receives a new exposition. Here we might recall the information given by the Manjusri Mulakalpa, that when Buddhism declined (i.e., in the Imperial Gupta and Later Gupta period) a class of monk-artists arose who became philosophers in the science and art of image-making and who sought to revive Buddhism through the art-appeal of newly fashioned images. We may fix this period to be the 8th century A.D., which is the last period known to the Manjusri Mulakalpa. The life found in the faces of the two images under discussion, is new, not to be had in the Buddha images of the Gupta period while for the rest the treatment is still mainly Guptan. The Buddha in these images is not inwardly turned but turned outwardly, speaking to and blessing the creation. These may be compared with the Buddha image, Patna Museum No. 204.
The Buddha with bhumisparsa mudra, Patna Museum No. II, is seated on a pedestal with a lotus seat. There are three ruby pieces on the lion throne. This figure is a class by itself. The Enlightened One is calling mother Earth as a witness. The great moment in spiritual history is writ large on the face of the Lord, embarking on his mission of liberation. The body you see through the cloth - erect, breath suspended. The body having been subjected to the sacrifice of the self-imposed process of a long tapasya-cogitation, relates the story of the recent past leading to this critical moment. The free right hand by its length tells you that the ascetic is a superman. The Pala craftsman has succeeded in portraying the spirit and strength where generations of Gandhara workmen have failed. With an ascetic body and a face full of success and mission, the statue marks the zenith of Pala art. There is an updated inscription on the back of the pedestal in characters of the 8th or 9th century A.D.
The standing image of Avalokitesvara, Patna Museum No. 200 and the image of Balarama, P.M. No. 203. Both these bronzes have been deprived of their prabhamandalas. The seated image in lalitasana pose is masterful. It offers boons with a divine kindness. The face belongs to a familiar type we often come across in Bengal and is united with a body in which strength, grace and purity are remarkably blended.
The standing Tara image has a marked affinity with the seated image. It has the technique, but not the spirit. The two female attendants with their almost waving fly-whisks deserve notice. The figure in its own right has merits.
The following images make a group: the seated Lokanatha, the crowned Buddha, P.M. No. 156, the crowned Buddha, P.M. No. 205, and the standing image of Lokesvara, P.M. No. 33, of which the right hand is missing. It has an inscription in characters of the eleventh century.
Prabhamandala and crown of the crowned Buddha, P.M. No. 156, are missing. Regarding these crowned Buddha images it may be said that they suggest the Hindu theory of the Buddha as an avatar of Visnu. This compromise in art is wholly unsupported by Buddhist canons, and the artist invented it to draw the Hindu to his church.
Though a crowned Buddha, Patna Museum No. 9, has the dignity and serenity of the Buddha, and stands in contrast with the weak smiling Buddhas cited above. There is another piece allied to this, almost a duplicate at a little reduced scale, evidently by the same artist, dated in the 19th year of Vagrihapala (Patna Museum No. 8). P. M. No. 33, is a representation of Lokesvara. He too resembles images of Visnu, with four arms. A semi-human figure, Sucimukha, is looking up to him in devotion, in the pose of Garuda. The donor, a woman, kneels at the end of the pedestal. Decadence seems to have come into Buddhist art at this period, as it has lost, to some extent, vitality and become somewhat conventionalized.
The image of Lokanatha, has a very fine gold coating which makes it radiant. Its craftmanship is of high attainment. The character of Avalokiteswara is fully brought out in the figure. Yet, a long and well-established tradition ripening into conventionalism ushers in here the last stage of Pala art. The figure was richly bejewelled.
In the Patna Museum piece No. 39, is the background of a Buddha image. We have four crowned Buddhas in different mudras as decorative figures and one dying Buddha by the side of the Kusinara stupa. The figure at the left hand bottom is that of the mother of the Buddha and represents Buddha’s birth. In its grace this female figure is remarkable. The frame bears a long inscription in characters of the 11th century A.D.
Patna Museum No. 199, was originally a gilded one. This is the prototype of several Nepalese and Tibetan Saiva images, remarkable for their strength. It is perfectly modelled in the round and belongs to the Kurkihar school. Like that of Lokanatha, its necklace is touched with the white metal alloy (composition of silver and tin), end even the ‘Bhairava’ face is made to smile. It has a third eye on the forehead. The technique was carried to Java, Sumatra. Tibet, etc. The same peculiar silver composition is also found on Tibetan images.
There is a remarkable similarity of the lithic and bronze sculptures of Bihar in the Pala period. The plastic treatment is identical. The old theory of fashioning gods in a material form was, that the author should practice dhyana till the figure appeared to him in a vision. This was the method largely employed in Gupta times. This is the very method employed in another art up to this day. The masters of Indian music insist on this practice of dhyana with a view to attaining perfection in regard to certain Ragas and Raginis. The art of sculpture in the Pala period seems to have departed from this practice and figures were frequently made on a purely intellectual basis. Moreover they tended to be more realistic. The object of the Buddhist church art in the Pala period came very near the ideal and the object of the Italian church artists. Beauty and attraction were provided to the public to incite devotion. It lacked in spiritual intensity. Scope and subject of the Buddhist artist were limited like those of the medieval Christian image-maker. In this matter, the Brahmanical maker of images had comparatively a much wider field and horizon for the play of his imagination.
The Kurkihar monasteries seem to have had a reputation extending all over the Buddhist world. Cunningham found an inscription at Kurkihar which mentions a donor from Kerala “in the south” (Archaeological Survey Report, I., Plate XIII, no. 7). He also found there donations by people from Sakala (Punjab) recorded on characters of 800 to 1000 A.D. And we now find a pilgrim to Kurkihar from Bali. It may be, however, pointed out that Kurkihar is on the route between Gaya and Bihar.
As up to this time no inscription earlier than the Pala period has been found as the site (I have personally examined the stone sculptures collected at Bagesvari temple), the presumption arises that it was probably a Pala foundation and the place may not naturally be traceable in the accounts of the Chinese pilgrims. All the stones at Kurkihar without exception are of the kind employed by the Palas, and not a single trace I could find of the Vindhyan sand-stone which was the material favourite with the Guptas in this part of the country.
The most notable result obtained from that history is the new information regarding the chronology of art and metal images especially, from Devapala to Vigrahapala III.
The Kurkihar specimens are to be compared with those of Nalanda which belong almost to the same period and school.
Published in Journal of Indian Society of Oriental Art, vol. II, 1934, pp 70-82