"A Comparative Study of Buddhist and Brahmanical art forms", 1994

Ph. D. from Delhi University. 

The name of my thesis is: "A Comparative Study of Some Fundamental Buddhist Brahmanical Thoughts and Art Forms" As is well known. Indian art and culture have a long legacy or history and they were deeply inspired by old myths, usages, and beliefs, and religious ideas which were propounded by thinkers of various schools and sects. It is interesting to note that Indian art associated with Buddhist and Brahmanical thoughts is highly composite in nature, indicating that there was a lot of interrelation or interaction between them.

Buddhism is not total revolt against Brahmanism. While Buddha revolted against the eleborate Brahmanical retuals and animal slaughter, he accepted the best of the existing system. In formulating his religion, Buddha was greatly influenced by the liberal thinking of the Upanishadic sages, the prevailing idea of the yoga, the theory of Karma and the value of mendicant life. At the same time Buddha propagated many new ideas, such as the four noble truths, the noble eightfold path, such as the four noble eight -fold path, the pratityasamudpada etc.  In the course of time, the Buddhist philosophy became highly developed and intricated and side by side its art and iconography. This gave rise to syncretic or composite art forms, the study of which forms the main basis of this thesis. It must, however, be said that Buddhism showed a great igenuity in assimilating Brahmanical thoughts. Its art forms, when carefully studied, reveal its deep involvement in many respect in the ancient tradtions of the land. To explain our views, we may refer to certain typical instances such as the birth of Buddha, the influence of Indra- Agani myths on the personality of Buddha and of the concepts of various Brahmanical deities on the growth of the Buddhist pantheon.

So far as the birth of Buddha is concerned, the Buddhist art shows the Bodhisattva issuing from the right side of his mother. This story is based on the story of Indra's birth as narrated in the Rigveda. Indra also came out from the side of his mother.

Regarding the influence of Agni myth on Buddhism and Buddha, it can be pointed out that some of the mahapurushalakshanas of Buddha are based on the attributes of Agni. Again, in art, Buddha is sometimes depicted with flame-haloes compare figures from Kashmir, Central Asia, Ceylon and Thailand.

Again, there are striking affinities also between several Buddhist and Hindu deities in this connection, it may be pointed out that Buddha is called Pitamaha in certain Kushan inscriptions. His another appellation in some Kushan inscriptions is Bhagwat. In canonical texts pitamaha is an epithet of Brahma and Bhagavat is also an appellation of Krsna in Bhagvadgita. This shows that Hinduism and Buddhism drew inspiration from a common source. Saivite impact is noticed in the Buddhist conception of Siva-Lokesvara (combined Siva and Lokesvara form). The Visvarupa concept of Kirhsna in the Gita and that of Avalokitesvara and Vairochana of the Mahayana cult were both derived from the Purusha-sukta hymns of the Rigveda.

The Indian view of life has been guided all through by certain concepts like Bhakti, Yoga, Dhyana, Samadhi, religious harmony, etc. These concepts and their impact on Hindu and Buddhist art and culture have been discussed in my Ph. D thesis. The composite nature of Indian art and thought has also been amply highlighted.

The thesis has been divided into the following five chapters:

Chapter One:  

Introductory

This Chapter gives a brief outline of Hindu and Buddhist thoughts and their contributions to the development of Indian culture as a whole. There are many similarities between these two groups of thoughts as they had a common heritage in many respects. Both of them draw largely on Vedic religious ideas. Hinduism and Buddhism had however their own line of development while Buddha revolted against Brahmanical rituals and animal slaughter, he accepted the best of the existing system, namely the intellectual Upanishadic thinking and the prevailing idea of knowledge, the Yaugic practices and the value of meditation etc.

Chapter Two:  

Ideas common to the Bhagavadgita and the Buddhist Tripitaka

The doctrine that true knowledge leads to supreme bliss (that is the absorption of the individual of the individual soul in Brahman) went hand in hand with the theory of the transmigration (samsara) of the soul. These views which developed in the oldest Upanishads was accepted by Buddha without questing. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad we meet with the beginning of the doctrine of Karma or action which regulates next birth. When the body returns to the elements, nothing of the individuality is said to remain except the Karma according to which one becomes good or bad. This is perhaps the germ of the Buddhistic doctrine which though denying the existence of soul altogether allows karma to continue after death and to determine the next to birth.

Buddhism teaches:

'"My action is my possession, my action is my inheritance, my action is the womb which bearsome."

Both the Bhagavadgita and Buddhist  texts agree that beings are born again and again in different spheres of life as driven by their Karmic forces.

This chapter deals also with the importance of Bhakti (devotion) and yogic practices mainly meditation in Hindu as well as Buddhistic thought and art.

Chapter Three:  

The place of Yoga in Indian and Buddhist art as discussed extensively in this chapter.

Chapter Four:  

It deals with the iconographic forms of Buddha, Bodhisattvas and Tara and their Hinud counterparts.

Chapter Five:  

It discuss some popular religious beliefs providing common links between Buddhism and Hinduism.

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