ABSTRACT
The image of the ascetic is nearly as old as the history of art in the Indian subcontinent. The earliest images identifi able as ascetics appear in the third and second century BCE in contexts associated with Buddhist, Jain, and Brahmanical beliefs. 1 Originally rendered as individual fi gures 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 specifi c nature of which varied according to position and placement. In some cases, ascetics functioned as supporting fi gures, 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
This chapter traces the emergence of the living guru as a deifi ed fi gure whose physical presence became a core component of larger temple sites. In the process, it ruminates upon the dynamic relationship between representation and presence by examining how the actual living body of the guru may have resonated with a range of visual images and established architectural spaces. In approaching this task, I take into account three discrete yet interrelated factors: [1] sculpted images of ascetics, [2] architectural space and the built environment, and [3] the living bodies of actual ascetics who circulated in and around Indic society. I see the three factors as having engaged in continuous dialogue across multiple media that, by their very nature, modulated between moments of movement and stasis. In the case of sculpted imagery, the living ascetic was evoked in two ways. The fi rst was through visual representations, both of generic fi gures engaged in specifi c ritual
acts, and of portraits of specifi c historical sages. 3 Here the relationship between signifi er (representation) and signifi ed (living presence) was established iconically through resemblance, or the act of creating an image that looks like a guru. 4 The second was through the materiality of sculpture as medium, which, by its very nature, projects into three dimensions and becomes present within real space. In the case of architecture, the relationship between building and body was established indexically, through the system of proportions used in the construction of a building, in the shape of the internal and external space defi ned by a building’s plan, and in the selective use of ornamentation along the surface of its walls. 5 Of the three, the actual living body itself remains the most elusive because of its inherent ephemerality. However, I suggest that the body remains traceable even today through its lasting imprint on visual images and architectural spaces.
