ABSTRACT

The image of the ascetic is nearly as old as the history of art in the Indian subcontinent. The earliest images identifiable as ascetics appear in the third and second century bce in contexts associated with Buddhist, Jain, and Brahmanical beliefs. 1 Originally rendered as individual figures in stone and terracotta, ascetics became ubiquitous among the reliefs on gates surrounding early Buddhist stūpas. In later centuries, the repertoire of visual representations was expanded by different groups of artisans to include images of gurus and divinized saints. This enlarged repertoire included new representations of acts of asceticism that expressed the ascetic's potential for liberation. During the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, ascetics began appearing along the walls of Hindu and Jain temples where they took on various roles within larger visual programs, the specific nature of which varied according to position and placement. In some cases, ascetics functioned as supporting figures, either as attendants to primary deities or as practitioners engaged in the performance of various rituals, the latter of which were frequently relegated to friezes along the vedībandha (base moldings) and pīṭha at the temple's lower levels. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, icons of divinized sages were frequently found in more central positions on the temple wall, where they acted as fully embodied manifestations of gods. As human aspirants moved toward a state of becoming divine, even the most powerful of gods, such as Śiva and Viṣṇu, took on the forms of yogins, whose strength was born in part through the practice of asceticism. 2