Animals in Stone

Section Two India

Edited by J. Bronkhorst

VOLUME 21

Animals in Stone

Indian Mammals Sculptured ‘Through ‘Time

By

Alexandra van der Geer

LEIDEN *« BOSTON 2008

This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Cc BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The terms of the cc license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder.

On the cover: Pairs of animals (sloth bears, human-faced lions, rhinoceroses, horses and guardians with dogs) flanking the steps leading towards the brick podium of the Nyata Poul or Siddhi Lakshmi temple at Bhaktapur, Nepal, 17th century. Photograph: courtesy Ron Layters.

The publication of this book has been financially supported by the J. Gonda Foundation (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences).

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Geer, Alexandra Anna Enrica van der, 1963- Animals in stone : Indian mammals sculptured through time / by Alexandra van der Geer. p. cm. — (Handbook of oriental studies. Section 2, South Asia ; 21) Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-90-04-16819-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Animal sculpture—India. 2. Stone carving—India. 3. Animals—India. 4. Animals—Mythology—India. I. Title. NB1940.G44 2008 730.954—dce22 2008029644

Copyright 2008 by Alexandra van der Geer. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.

Fees are subject to change.

PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

Contents

Acknowledgiments®..is ii aaa ail aie eas ix Tistet Figures! ietcc seu eate ache en ee ae es xi Test Of Abbreviations tricia uidis A RAA lxvii Timetable mognar a o Sk ean T O E R A lxix Introduction’ \.inetistdl auch nibh aida a aada l Chapter One Antilope cervicapra, the blackbuck «0.0... eee 55 Chapter Two Axis axis, the spotted deer ssec 64 Chapter Three Bandicota indica, the bandicoot rat... eee 74 Chapter Four Bos gaurus, the gaur ...eeeeeeessecseeeeceeeeeneeeneeeneees 83 Chapter Five Bos indicus, the zebu .esssceeeseseeeersersrrese 88 Chapter Six Bos primigenius, the aurochs ...ssseceesesseeeeeeeeee 111 Chapter Eight Bubalus bubalis, the water buffalo... 119 Chapter Eleven Canis aureus, the golden jackal oo... eee 150 Chapter Thirteen Capra hircus, the domestic goat oc. 169 Chapter Fourteen Capra sibrica, the Asiatic ibex s.es 174 Chapter Fifteen Cervus wnicolor, sambar deer ossessi 180 Chapter Sixteen Cuon alpinus, the red dog .ssssessscesseeeeesse 187

Chapter Twenty Felis spp., the small cats... eeeeeeeneceteees

Chapter Twenty-One Funambulus spp., the striped palm SQUIET a REA tse. cea scgs fi atathest satteatieerea sects eesatdysadavedeae sai eestseeasieess

Chapter ‘Twenty-Four Herpestes spp., the Indian mongooses ...

Chapter Twenty-Five Hylobates hoolock, the white-browed 2A 8] 0701 vesei.sish ior ecapbsdei tet deca cehat N ence erat

Chapter ‘Twenty-Six mgricollis, the Indian hare...

Chapter Twenty-Seven Lutrogale perspicillata, the smooth Indian Otter scestasbehisbacel ssc ai a E taides sede canoe nd hats

Chapter ‘Twenty-Eight Macaca mulatta, M. radiata, the rhesus monkey and bonnet macaque ou... eseeeeceseceeeeeeeeeeeeeetaeeeseees

Chapter Thirty-One Mus musculus, the common house mouse Chapter Thirty-Two Ovis aries, the domestic sheep... Chapter Thirty-Three Panthera leo, the ion wees Chapter Thirty-Four Panthera pardus, the leopard oo... Chapter Thirty-Five Panthera tigris, the tiger... eee

Chapter Thirty-Seven Rhinoceros unicornis, the Indian THIN OCETOS: Y al aia E E A AA dana dens NR ee te

Chapter Thirty-Eight Semnopithecus entellus, the common lan Ours csidd shunts aii a Adios Ses tied. a ttn ae ds

Chapter Thirty-Nine Sus scrofa, pigs and boars oo... eeeeeeeeeeees Chapter Forty Tapirus indicus, the Asian tapir oo... eee

CONTENTS vil

Chapter Forty-Three Who are Missing? wo... eeeeereeeee 424 Chapter Forty-Four Concluding Remarks eee 430 Bibliography- wis. ain saea nadia Gen dice ea asi aed 435 Glossaryciiae ae rah BAA Rte ah tea eck eacei Bae 449

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As a veterinary medicine student, in 1985, my interest in Indian art and archaeology was strengthened during a bachelor course given at the Faculty for South Asian Languages and Cultures by Karel van Kooy. As a result of his great enthusiasm, it was that I decided to add as many art history lessons as possible to the curriculum of my secondary study, that of Indology. The rest of this curriculum was devoted to Sanskrit, in which I evidently finished my PhD. This classic language, had my interest, not only because of the inspiring lessons and admiration for classic literature of my teachers, the late Leendert van Daalen and Henk Bodewitz, for which I am very grateful, but also because it is the key to the understanding of Indian culture and religion. In the field, I learned to appreciate archaeological objects and to observe preserved details by Fabio Martini of the University of Sienna, Italy. Needless to say, my love for animals was well fed during my primary study, that of veterinary medicine. Later, it was John de Vos of Naturalis, Leiden, who learned me to see differences in external appearance of the various mammalian species. The late Paul Sondaar taught me the principles of zooarchaeology. ‘The combination of art history, archaeology, literature, mythology and zoology finally culminated in this project, Animals in Stone.

I am particularly grateful to Janet Kamphorst for information on Rajasthan’s history and folklore, especially concerning the horse-riding heroes, princely hunting and the mother goddesses. Next I would like to express my gratitude towards Stephen Nash (Stony Brook University, New York) for monkeys in art, Eleni Voultsiadou (Aristotle University of ‘Thessaloniki, Greece) for fauna in Homer’s time, George Lyras (University of Athens, Greece) for his expertise on living canids and for taking photographs for study at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Kurt Behrendt (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) for information on animals in the art of Gandhara, Michael Dermitzakis (National University of Athens, Greece) for the geological history of the Indian subcontinent, Arlo Griffiths (Kern Institute, Leiden University, the Netherlands) for dating of several Indian texts, and Susan Huntington for our discussion on the absence of the donkey from Indian lithic art.

This study necessarily included travels abroad to visit zoological gardens, natural history museums and their comparative collections, and x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS art museums, collections and sites. I want to express my sincere thanks to the people of these institutes for granting me permission to visit the collections and specimens in their care. My thanks are especially due to the following persons: John de Vos and Cor Strang (Naturalis, Leiden), Amy McEwen (Asian Society, New York), Wolfang Stein (Munich, Germany), Mark Alvey (Field Museum, Chicago), Katrin Krohmann and Andreas Allspach (Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt) and a host of local guides who showed me sculptures in India in situ.

Thanks are further due to the following persons, who helped me with images and copyright issues: Dory Heilijgers and Gerda 'Theuns-de Boer (Kern Institute, Leiden), Gerard Foekema (Amsterdam), Jackie Maman (Art Institute, Chicago), William Stanley and Lawrence Heaney (Field Museum, Chicago), Elizabeth Bell (Asian Society, New York), Pauline Scheurleer (Ryksmuseum, Amsterdam), Ruth Janson (Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York), Anjali Goswami (University of Cambridge, Cambridge), Dorothy Sutton (The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio), Alexis Vlachos (Athens, Greece), and several photographers whose names are acknowledged in the figure and plate captions.

I am grateful to the members of the board of the Jan Gonda Foundation of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (Amsterdam) for their approval and funding of this project. I am further grateful to the International Institute for Asian Studies of the University of Leiden (the Netherlands) for giving me the possibility to work on this funded project for the granted two years and allowing me to use their facilities thereafter. The stimulating support of the previous director Wim Stokhof and the present director Max Sparrenboom is very much appreciated.

Further, I would like to thank the following persons for critically reading the manuscript in one or another version: Janet Kamphorst, Johanna de Visser, George Lyras, Kees and Joris van der Geer. I thank Patricia Radder and Albert Hoffstadt of Brill Publishers for their guidance throughout the production process. I finally thank two anonymous readers, who critically examined the manuscript in its earlier stages and gave valuable comments for its improvement.

In a more personal sphere, my gratitude and appreciation goes to my daughters Carmen and Anna, who patiently waited while I was far away from home, or got carried away behind my computer to finish yet another version of this book.

Alexandra van der Geer