The Sculpture of Early Medieval Rajasthan.

• Author: Brown, Robert L.
• Position: Review

By CYNTHIA PACKERT ATHERTON. Studies in Asian Art and Archaeology, vol. XXI. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1997. Pp. xiv + 130, 15 figures, 170 illustrations.

Cynthia Atherton attempts to produce a chronology of the stone sculpture that comes from Rajasthan from the seventh to ninth centuries (early medieval period). She does this primarily by stylistic analysis. Because most of the sculpture was made to be placed on stone temples, she investigates the sites in Rajasthan that have extant temples and discusses the sculpture and the architecture together. She deals very little with unprovenanced sculpture. This is, therefore, not a museum catalogue.

The architectural context of the sculptures works as well to provide extra evidence for a chronology, and there are a few inscriptions. But basically the argument rests with the development of the sculptural style, as there is very scant historical evidence that relates to temples and art. The situation is, in other words, a quintessential one for Indian art history, and one that makes the reading of Indian art history often difficult, if not sometimes dull, for all but a few specialists. There is, in fact, an added concern, as the stylistic project itself is perhaps problematical.

Let me outline the book's organization, and some of the most important arguments, returning at the end to the issue raised above. The book has four chapters, as well as an introduction and conclusion. In the introduction, Atherton speaks of the geographical area she will be covering, Rajasthan in western India. Her first chapter focuses on the site of Osian in ancient Marudesa (modern Jodhpur). She then moves, in chapter two, to other sites in Marudesa; then, in chapter three, to the east, ancient Sapadalaksa and Suresena (basically modern Jaipur and Alwar); and finally, in the fourth chapter, to the south, ancient Uparamala and Medapata (regions bordering on Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh). This organization moves from the "center" to the periphery, and at the same time follows the movement of the most powerful dynasty of the period, the Gurjara Pratiharas.

The Gurjara Pratiharas are for Atherton an important dynasty that from the mid-eighth to the first quarter of the ninth century dominated the area of Marudesa, and then moved their capital east to Kanauj (on the Ganges in modern Uttar Pradesh) in the second quarter of the ninth, from which place they briefly dominated much of north India. Atherton finds that the Gurjara...