What is the development history of ancient Indian sculpture art?

Sculpture is a kind of plastic arts, which can endow hard rocks with aura and metal with life.

In terms of materials, there were both stone carvings and bronze carvings in ancient India; Thematically, there are both Buddhist sculptures and Hindu sculptures.

No matter in which field or material, Indian sculpture has made remarkable achievements.

According to textual research, Indian ancestors began to create sculpture art at least during the Indus civilization.

A large number of seals found in the Indus Valley are engraved with animals, leaves and gods at the bottom.

Most of these seals are carved with soapstone, agate, ivory, bronze and other materials.

They are generally square, but some are round; An ancient Indian seal usually engraved with cattle.

Ancient Indian seals engraved with unicorns are 3 to 5 cm long, but some are as long as 7.5 cm.

Although most of the upper parts of these seals are engraved with hieroglyphics, which may be more important in practical use, animal carvings often occupy most of the area, thus taking the lead.

Because most of the carved animals are male, it seems that the people who carve and use seals are male; It seems that it can be concluded that during the Indus civilization, men dominated the family and society.

The diversity of animals carved on the seal is amazing.

The most common carved animals are cows, cows, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, elephants, tigers, sheep, antelopes, deer, rabbits, crocodiles, snakes and other common animals in real life, as well as animals that exist in people's fantasies and legends or are artificially combined for novelty.

Due to the special position of cattle in Indian social and religious life, the image of cattle appears most frequently in seals, and the sculpture is also the most vivid.

They * * * body seems to contain infinite power, slightly lower head seems to be about to attack.

Although these realistic or naturalistic sculptures are very primitive, even today, their techniques are very skilled.

In this way, a practical product decorated with carved columns for peacocks has become a work of art for appreciation.

There are also some seals carved with images of people or gods, but they are far less vivid than animals in charm.

This is the first attempt of Indian ancestors to sculpture art.

Their preference for animal subjects was inherited by later artists.

Sculpture in Peacock Dynasty occupies a particularly important position in Indian art history.

During this period, stones began to be widely used in Indian architecture and sculpture.

This is of great significance to the development and inheritance of Indian art.

The surface of the stone used for carving is very smooth.

This feature has even become an important basis for identifying stone carvings during the Peacock Dynasty.

The rule of Ashoka is a glorious chapter in the history of Indian sculpture.

In order to publicize his merits and promote Buddhism, he ordered people to look for natural rock walls or build stone pillars to print and carve letters in many parts of the empire.

The monolithic stele he built is a typical representative of stone carving works in this period.

These stone pillars are mainly erected in important places of activity before the Buddha's death or on important routes leading to these holy places.

Although Indian architecture and sculpture were influenced by the Persian Empire at that time, the practice of erecting memorial columns was out of India's inherent concept.

Probably the embodiment of the tradition of worshipping the pillars of the universe in ancient India.

More than 30 Ashoka stone pillars have been found all over India.

The number of figures carved by the Peacock Dynasty is very small.

In the ancient sculpture art and civilization centers such as mathura, the holy city of Uttar Pradesh, more than 20 huge stone medicine forks left over at that time were discovered successively.

Two headless male statues have been found near Patna, the capital of Bihar.

They are considered to be the earliest existing statues of Jain saints.

In addition, a drug fork statue carved with gravel was found in Patna. Although its head and hands have been damaged, it can still be seen that this is a skilled and successful job.

There is also a world-famous Buddhist art treasure house in Sanji, about 50 kilometers northeast of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh.

That is the Three Ponds Tower, 1989 is listed as a world cultural heritage.

Its carved fence and tower gate are extremely important sculptures after the peacock dynasty, among which the relief of tower gate is particularly representative.

These works were made from the 1 century BC to the early 1 century AD, when the kingdom of Andulo was owned by south-central India.

At that time, Andulo grew stronger and controlled many important trade routes and seaports in India.

Buddhist businessmen and wealthy citizens generously contributed to the expansion and maintenance of Sanqi Pagoda.

The original wooden fence of this tower was replaced by a stone fence.

The sculpture of Sanchi is a rare work with large scale, exquisite skills, exquisite knife work and ingenious modeling.

It has reached the level of perfection in art, thus becoming a representative work of early Buddhist sculpture in India.

Carving of Capricorn Fish in Ancient India (BC 100)* * * Bronze statue (3000 BC) The famous Ashoka Pillar, 242/24 BC1.

/kloc-0 In the middle and late 20th century, under the influence and interaction of foreign cultures such as Persia, Greece and Rome, the Indian Buddhist sculpture art has undergone rapid changes.

In this context, the world-famous Gandhara art came into being.

Gandhara art is a kind of sculpture art that expresses Buddhist content in Greek artistic style, which represents the highest achievement of ancient Indian sculpture art and is the crystallization of the integration of Indian art and western art.

Gandhara region is located in Peshawar Valley near the confluence of Indus River and Kabul River in Pakistan today.

It is the northwest gateway of the Indian subcontinent and the center of the trade network connecting India, China and Central Asia with the Mediterranean and the surrounding Greek and Roman world.

This special and important geographical location makes it a meeting point of eastern and western cultures.

It not only interprets the historical drama of the Indus River and the comings and goings of foreign invaders, but also integrates Indian culture with foreign cultures such as Persia, Greece and Rome, thus forming the art of marriage between East and West-Gandhara art, which lasted for centuries.

The creator of Gandhara art not only absorbed the nutrition of foreign culture, but also continued the fixed pattern of Indian style gestures and sitting posture, and absorbed the unique sign language of dance and drama in life to express the inner world of characters, creating the standard format of Buddha gestures and sitting posture.

This format later formed the standard model of Buddha statues in Asian countries.

The Buddha statues of Gandhara are represented by Prince Siddhartha and Buddha statues.

The statue of Prince Siddhartha was made by Athena, the patron saint of the harem in the second Guifrost era in India, and was unearthed in Gandhara.

This is a typical Greek statue in the 2nd century BC, which is now in the Lahore Museum.

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The statue is 2 1 foot wide.

In the statue, the prince sits cross-legged, with pale hair, slender bones, sunken eyes, uneven ribs and clearly visible bones and blood vessels.

But he was calm and thinking about the true meaning of life.

Siddhartha's thin figure has a great contrast with his facial expression, which just reflects his tenacious character and perseverance in pursuing the truth of life and has a shocking expressive force.

The Buddha statue was created in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, with a height of1.42m. It is an artistic masterpiece combining the characteristics of the Greek sun god Apollo and Buddha.

The Buddha wears Roman-style "Tao Ge" cassock, and his image is simple and solemn.

Gandhara art was inherited and developed by later generations.

During the Gupta dynasty, with the revival of Hinduism, carving Hindu statues became a common practice.

Statues of Vishnu, Shiva, Dark Sky, Sun God, Mother Difficult and other gods and goddesses came out one after another.

A large number of exquisite statues of Hindu gods, such as Vishnu and Shiva, and their incarnations constitute the rock encyclopedia of Hindu images.

Cave 16 excavated in the 8th century is the largest.

This Shiva Temple is 30 meters high and 90 meters deep.

Shiva's statues and sculptures showing their achievements are almost incredible craftsmanship.

Elephant Island Grottoes excavated in the same period are purely Hindu grottoes.

Nine high reliefs depicting Shiva are carved on both sides of the porch and the rock wall in the cave, of which "Shiva's three faces" are the most famous.

In central India and southern India, a large number of Hindu temples have extremely colorful sculptures with extremely high artistic value, which are dizzying.

Different from Buddhist sculpture, Hindu sculpture is characterized by exaggerated modeling, strong movement and rich changes.

The Tammen, the famous Tanmen in Sanqi Pagoda, was very good at bronze carving in ancient South India.

Among them, the bronze statue of Shiro Dynasty is the most famous in India.

Themes include gods and goddesses, saints, kings and queens, and animals.

All sizes and shapes are available.

Because of King Zhu Luo's devotion to Shiva, Shiva idols are very popular, especially all kinds of bronze dance king Shiva idols are the most popular.

The bronze statue of Shiva, the dancing king, created in 1 1 century is a rare artistic treasure in the world.

Shiva is depicted as a naked male dancer with three eyes and four arms, surrounded by a halo of flame.

The hourglass tambourine is held in the right hand, like the famous lion stigma in Saarna.

It was built around 242-232 BC.

Sign the creation of the universe; The flame is held at the top left, symbolizing the hot work of burning the universe regularly.

The balance of these two arms symbolizes the dialectical unity of creation and destruction of cosmic life.

The front right arm hand is fearless, and the front left arm hand is an elephant gesture that simulates the drooping trunk.

The right foot symbolizes the ignorant dwarf, and the left leg is held in the air, symbolizing liberation.

Shiva held her head high and her hair sideways, full of dynamic beauty.

This bronze sculpture symbolizes the creation, protection and destruction of the universe through the mysterious dance of Shiva, revealing the philosophical understanding of the evolution of the universe by ancient Indians.

Because * * * religion opposes idolatry, after * * * invaded India, Buddhist and Hindu architectural sculptures were damaged to varying degrees.

During the * * * regime, Indian sculpture art was basically in a state of stagnation.