
Gupta dynasty was founded by
Chandra Gupta I

Development of Mahayana
Buddhism

Classical Age in north India

Cave paintings at Ajanta

Sakuntala, Jataka,
Panchatantra and Kamasutra were written
 Aryabhatta’s Astronomy.
Kumardevi and Chandragupta I
(Minted by their son Samudragupta)
335-370 ce
Gold Dinar
Weight: 7.8 gm
Obverse: King and queen


Buddhism split into two sects, Mahayana and
Hinayana (Theravada) .

Mahayana laid stress on the concept of the
Bodhisattva or `one destined to be the Buddha' and also conceived of Eternal Buddhas who resemble gods or deities.

Hinayana regarded the Buddha as a man and had a doctrine, Theravada , stressing the salvation of the individual.

The interaction of Mahayana philosophy and
Hinduism gave rise to Tantric Buddhism or
Vajrayana.

.

During the 4 th century c.e. in a remote valley, work began on the
Ajanta Caves to create a complex of
Buddhist monasteries and prayer halls.
 As centuries passed, numerous
Buddhist monks and artisans dug out a set of twenty-nine caves, converting some to cells, and others to monasteries and Buddhist temples.
 These caves are adorned with elaborate sculptures and paintings which have withstood the ravages of time


The Ajanta caves depict the stories of Buddhism spanning from the period from 200 bce to 650 ce.
 The 29 caves were built by Buddhist monks using simple tools like hammer
& chisel.

The elaborate and exquisite sculptures and paintings depict stories from Jataka tales .

The caves also house images of nymphs and princesses.

Scene
From
The Jataka


Samskrta: Sanskrit
 “perfected, classified refined”
 “Correct speech”
 Codified and frozen in the Astadhyahi : the rules of grammar

Considered ideal language for classics

Prakrta: Prakrit
 “original or natural”

Dialects that changed and developed with spoken language


Kavya – the “poetry” of the classical canon

Permeated with the culture of the
Gupta courts

Kavi , learned poets, wrote under the patronage of kings for audiences of connoisseurs
 sahrdaya –
“with heart, responsive”
 rasika – “enjoyer of aesthetic mood”

Highly formulated norms and conventions

Many works on poetic theory


Mahakavya : great poem or court epic – contains lyric stanzas with elaborate figures of speech and emphasizes description

Natya : drama
 employs both prose and verse
 includes Sanskrit and Prakrit
 wider range of characters
 lyrical description more than dramatic action
 Muktaka : short lyric poems

Bhartrhari: pointed epigrams
 Kalidasa: idyllic verses on nature

Amaru: erotic vignettes
 Katha or Akhyika : narrative tales

Pancatantra: collection of animal fables
 Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara (Ocean to the Rivers of Story): picaresque, marvelous tales, romances


The Nagaraka
– gentleman, citizen, courtier – cultivated life as art with the 4 aims for human conduct:

Dharma : religious duty

Artha : wealth, politics, public life

Kama : erotic pleasure and the emotions
 Vitsyayana’s Kamasutra

Moksa : liberation from the chain of birth and death in which souls are trapped because of Karma
 Karma implies fluid relationships between divine, human and animal worlds
 gods become human, humans may achieve bodhisattva status or may be reincarnated as animals


Courtly ideal wives like
Sita – chaste, loyal, submissive, long-suffering

Wives in merchant-class stories – chaste, independent, powerful

Courtesans – erotic, beautiful, intelligent, ruthless, rapacious, independent

Religious contemplatives
– figures of authority and free agents

nd
rd

Pancatantra: The Five Strategies

Collection of folk tales and fables within frame tales

Brought by Arabs into Europe – model and source for 1001 Nights ,
Boccaccio’s
The Decameron ,
Chaucer’s
The Canterbury Tales ,
Grimms’
Fairy Tales , La
Fontaine’s
Fables , etc.

Central concern is niti
– conduct
– political expediency and social values

Visnusarman allegedly used the fables to teach 3 dim-witted princes the science of politics

 Book I : “The Loss of
Friends”
 “Leap and Creep”
 “ The Blue Jackal”
 “Forethought, Readywit and
Fatalist”
 Book II : “The Winning of
Friends”
 Book III: “Crows and Owls”
 strategies of alliance and war
 “Mouse-Maid Made Mouse”
 Book IV: “Loss of Gains”
 Book V: “Ill-Considered
Action”
 “The Loyal Mungoose”


Drsyakavya : poetry to be seen as opposed to sravyakavya : poetry to be heard
 Bharata’s Natyasastra – authoritative text on dramatic aesthetics and theory

Abhinaya
: “a symphony of languages”
– verbal text, stylized gesture, facial expression, eye movement, music, dance

8 fundamental emotions, bhava , expressed in 8 major rasas , stylized representations of the emotions – universal rather than particular
 No tragedy in Indian drama – impossible in the Hindu and Buddhist conception of the universe of karma linking humans with nature and the cosmos through networks of volition, action and response – open-ended cycles of time
Video on Indian Natya

 Performed at seasonal festivals and celebrations such as weddings, the dramas were regarded as rites of renewal and order

Characters are types, not individuals

Contrasts and complements among diverse elements:
 lyric verse and prose dialogue
 erotic and heroic moods
 heroic king and gluttonous buffoon
 Sanskrit spoken by noblemen, Prakrit spoken by women, children and men of lower caste
 domestic and public worlds; worlds of the court and of nature; worlds of the human and divine
 emotional universes of men and women


The dramatist and poet is regarded as the greatest figure in classical
Sanskrit literature.

His three surviving plays are
Abhijnanasakuntala (Sakunatala
and the Ring of Recognition),
Vikramorvasi, and
Malavikagnimitra.

These court dramas in verse, nataka , relate fanciful or mythological tales of profound romantic love intensified and matured by adversity.

In Kalidasa's two epics,
Raghuvansa and Kumarasambhava, delicate descriptions of nature are mingled with battle scenes.
 The other poems of Kalidasa are shorter and almost purely lyrical.
th
th


Nataka : heroic romance
– play about love between a noble hero and a beautiful woman

Dominant mood: the erotic rasa : tension between duty, dharma , and desire, kama

King Dusyanta falls in love with Sakuntala, daughter of the nymph
Menaka and foster daughter of the ascetic hermit-sage, Kanva.