Bronzes from Bangaladesh- A Study of Buddhist Images from District Chittagong

Dr. (Mrs.) Debala Mitra opens in her Book Bronzes from Bangladesh: a study of Buddhist images from District Chittagong yet another new vista in the history of metal sculpture of Indo-Bngladesh subcontinent. For the first time she brings Chittagong to limelight as an important center of Buddhist art. The cumulative evidence of her study proves the existence of a distinctive local school with an identities own in the sphere of metal sculpture; at the same time, here is a tradition which by no means is cut off from the mainstream of the artistic tradition of the subcontinent.

Divided into eight chapters besides a glossary and an index, this book profusely illustrated book devotes exclusively to the metal images from the district of Chittagong the main collection from a place called Jhewari not for from Chittagong town. In the first chapter the images have been grouped on the basis of their art-style and forms. Also, the results of the compositional analysis of the alloy of ten the metal objects form Jhewari hoard have been presented. The second chapter, apart from incorporating earlier notices, gives an account of discovery of Bronzes and their present locations (with the exception of six). In the their chapter attempts have been made to reconstruct, on the basis of literary data (including Chinese and Tibetan) and epigraphic evidence, the history and antiquities of District Chittagong which with the sea port and literary area played no doubt an important role in the history of Buddhism and the dissemination of the faith. In the remaining in the five chapters the author has furnished the detailed descriptions of the Bronzes of District Chittagong available in the Indian Museum, Asutosh Museum, Temple monastery at Chittagong town and private Collections.

Dr.(Mrs.) Debala Mitra is an archaeologist of international repute. She led good numbers of expeditions in different part of India and Nepal; and these her excavation at Tilaurakot and Kodan in Nepal and Ratnagiri in Orissa rank foremost. Though her specialized fields of research are Buddhist and Eastern Indian art, architecture and iconography, her contributors to Indian epigraphy, numismatics and history are also substantial.

Born in 1925 at Ajagarh, Distinct Khulna, now in Bangladesh, she was educated at Khulna, and later on in Paris. She had a brilliant academic career and was recipient of several general scholarships, medals and prizes from the University of Calcutta and B. C. Low gold medal from the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

Dr. (Mrs,) Debala Mitra joined the Archaeological Survey of India in 1952 and is now its Director General.

She is the author of the (i) Buddhist Monuments, (ii) Excavation at Tilaurakotnd and Kodan and Explorations in the Nepalese Tarai, (iii) Telkupi-a submerged temple Site in West Bengal, (iv) Ajanta, (v) Sanchi, (vi) Bhubaneswar, (vii) Konarak, (viii) Udayagiri & Khandagiri, (ix)Pandrethan, Avantipur, and Martland, (x) Ratnagiri (1958-61) and (xi) Bronzes from Archutarajpur Orissa, besides numerous scholarly articles. Noted for meticulous details and objective assessment of facts, all her works stand out as models of archaeological research and investigation.

I did not have the opportunity of seeing any part of the district of Chittagong. Yet, when I saw the metal images from the hoard of Jhewari in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, I could not resist the temptation of writing on these bronzes. My search in the course of working on these icons revealed some others from this district in two more museums and private collections. I could also lay my hands on the photographs of some of the images housed in the Temple-monastery in the town of Chittagong. All these afforded my study on eighty-six icons apart from a miniature temple and a stupa, also of metal. The majority of the icons represent Buddha himself. Among the limited number of the images of Bodhisattvas and goddesses some are interesting in view of their singular iconographic features.

These metal images had an important place in the history of the sculptural art of Eastern India and Bangladesh. Though not cut off from the mainstream of the artistic tradition of this part of the subcontinent, many of these metal sculptures with their style and features reveal the existence of a distinctive local school with an individuality of its own. The flourishing period of this school was the ninth-tenth century A.D., though images continued to be made long afterwards.

THE district of Chittagong in Bangladesh yielded a good crop of Buddhist metal images, the largest hoard of which was found at Jhewari. The exact find-spots of most of the other images are not known, though many of them are stylistically affiliated to some of the images from Jhewari. Preponderant among the images are the icons of Buddha, the number of images of other Buddhist divinities being limited. The predominating type among these images of Buddha is again the one in the bhumisparia-mudra, which is the mudra found widely represented in the icons of Buddha in Eastern India and Bangladesh. In the absence of cognizances it is not known if all of them stand for Buddha or some of them were intended to represent the Dhyani Buddha Akshobhya. In these images in the bhumisparia-mudra we do not usually find the representation of the branches of the Bodhi (ptpal. Ficus religiosa) tree which is available on many images of Eastern India.

As excavation or even a proper exploration has not been conducted at Jhewari, it could not be determined if the images belonged to a Buddhist establishment at Jhewari itself and were cast here or were collected and concealed here on the eve of a calamity or with a certain motive. In any case it is appa rent that most of these metal images were cast within this district itself in view of the fact that a group of images of Buddha (some of which are fairly large in dimensions) presents a distinctive art-form and style; certain features of this group are also present in some other groups of images from this hoard. It is also not unlikely that the leading centre of the metal-casting was near the Chittagong town whereat flourished, according to the Tibetan texts, an important Buddhist establishment called Pandita-vihära. It is also likely that there existed more than one metal-casting workshop within this district.

**Contents and Sample Pages**