C’est ainsi que le monde dès qu’il l’a vu, ses premières tentatives de peintre et tout le passé de la peinture livrent au peintre une tradition, c’est-à-dire, commente Husserl, le pouvoir d’oublier les origines et de donner au passé, non pas une survie qui est la forme hypocrite de l’oubli, mais une nouvelle vie, qui est la forme noble de la mémoire.
(Merlau-Ponty Signes 1960)
Abstract
The focus of this research is the re-use of the Yakṣī image. The study of the evolution of a certain iconography induces one to face the problem of re-use in correlation to the transmission of images in time, and of their survival or transformation in historical and cultural environments different from the original ones. In fact, every different time period formulates its new iconography but above all it takes up again pre-existing images: these may be “revived” and, hence, may be rediscovered after an oblivion, or they may have “survived” either maintaining their original aspect or having suffered modifications. In the figurative domain re-use is often used as an explicit quotation in order to assert a new ideology, a new ruler, or a new religion. In this article we investigate the different aspects of the mechanism of re-use of the iconography of Yakṣī focusing, in the end, on the case-study of Cenna Keśava Temple at Beḷūr.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Abbreviations
EC = Epigraphia Carnatica
Epigraphical Sources
EC vi = Rice, B. L. (1901). Inscriptions in the Kadur District. Mysore: Mysore Gov. Central Press.
EC v = Rice, B. L. (1902). Inscriptions in the Hassan District. Bangalore: Basel Mission Press.
EC xi = Rice, B. L. (1903). Inscriptions in the Chitaldroog District. Mysore: Mysore Gov. Central Press.
EC xii = Rice, B. L. (1904). Inscriptions in the Tumkur District. Bangalore: Mysore Gov. Central Press.
Rice, B. L. (1983). Mysore Inscriptions, New Delhi: Navrang.
EC xiv = Krishna, M. H. (1943). Supplementary Inscriptions in the Hassan District. Mysore: Mysore Gov. Central Press.
Internet Sources
“India Sculpture added to Museum”, New York Times. 1918. 09 April, New York: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archivefree/pdf?res=9A01E2D61E3FE433A2575AC0A9629C946996D6CF.
Secondary Sources
Agarwal, A. (1989). Rise and fall of the imperial Guptas. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Agrawala, V. S. (1951). A catalogue of the Brahmanical images in Mathura art. Lucknow: Historical Society.
Asher, F. & Spink, W. (1987). Maurya figural sculpture reconsidered. Ars Orientalis (Vol. 19, pp. 1–25). Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution.
Bachofer, L. (1929). Early Indian sculpture. Paris: Pergasus Press.
Behrendt, K. (2007). The art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bignami, C. (2011). The Indian huntresses: Nymhs or Goddesses? Rivista degli Studi Orientali, LXXXIV, pp. 385–404.
Chanda, R. (1921). Four ancient Yakṣa statues. Calcutta: Journal of the Department of Letter IV, University of Calcutta.
Collyer, K. (1990). The Hoysala artists: Their identity and styles. Mysore: Directorate of Archaeology and Museum.
Coomaraswamy, A. (1927). History of Indian and Indonesian art. Leipzig: Karl W. Hiesemann.
Coomaraswamy, A. (1928). Yakṣas (Vol. I–II). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
Costabile, F. (1991). I ninfei di Locri Epizeferi: archiettura, culti erotici, sacralità delle acque. Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino.
Cunningham, A. (1884). Report of a tour in the central provinces and lower Gangetic Doab in 1881–1882 (Vol. XX). Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India Report.
De Caroli, R. (2005). Haunting the Buddha: Indian popular religions and the formation of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
De Francesco, S. (2009). Ninfei in Grecia e Magna Grecia. In F. Giacobello & P. Schirripa (Eds.), Ninfe nel mito e nella città dalla Grecia a Roma (pp. 99–114). Milano: Viennepierre.
Del Bonta, R. J. (1981). The Madanikas at Belūr. In J.G. Williams (Ed.), Kalādarśana. American study in the art of India (pp. 28–35). New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing Company.
Derrett, J. D. M. (1957). The Hoysaḷas. A medieval Indian royal family. Madras: Oxford University Press.
Embree, A. (1990). Utopias in conflict: Religion and nationalism in modern India. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Foeckema, G. (1995). Hoysala architecture. Varanasi: Motilal.
Gautama, V. V. (2002). Watson collection of Indian Miniatures at the Elvehjem Museum of Art: A detailed study of selected works. Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin.
Gopal, R. (2000). Cultural study of Hoysala inscriptions. Mysore: Directorate of Archaeology and Museum.
Kulke, H. (1993). Kings and cults. State formation and legitimation in India and Southeast Asia. New Delhi: Manohar.
Kramrisch, S. (1986). Painted delight: Indian paintings from Philadelphia collections. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art and University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lefèvre, V. (2011). Portraiture in early India: Between transience and eternity. Leiden: Brill.
Lévi, S. (1915). Le Catalogue géographique des Yakṣa dans la Mahāmāyūrī. Journal Asiatique, 5, 19–138.
Michell, G. (2012). Chola and Neo-Chola temple architecture in and around Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. In J. A. B. Hegewald & S. K. Mitra (Eds.), Re-use: The art and politics of integration and anxiety (pp. 86–106). New Delhi: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd.
Maity, S. K. (1999). Masterpieces of Hoysala Art. Bombay: Taraporevala.
Misra, R. N. (1981). Yaksha cult and iconography. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Mitra, S. K. & König, L. (2012). Icons, nations and re-use. Marianne, France and Bharat Mata, India. In J. A. B. Hegewald & S. K. Mitra (Eds.), Re-use: The art and politics of integration and anxiety (pp. 288?313). New Delhi: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd.
Mookerji, R. (1989). The Gupta empire. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Owen, L. (2012). Carving devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora. Leiden: Brill.
Panofsky, H. (1972). Renaissance and renascences in Western art. New York: Harper & Row.
Parisi Presicce, C. (2012). Costantino e i suoi figli. Il nuovo volto dei potenti. In P. Biscottini & G. Sena Chiesa (Eds.), Costantino 313 d.C. L’editto di Milano e il tempo della tolleranza (pp. 109?120). Milano: Electa Mondadori.
Quintanilla, S. R. (2006). History of early stone sculpture at Mathura, Ca. 150 BCE–100 CE. Leiden: Brill.
Richards, J. F. (1998). Kingship and authority in South Asia. Calcutta: Oxford University Press.
Roehring, H., Dreyfus, R., & Keller, A. (2005). Hatshepsut from queen to pharaoh. New York: Metropolitan Museum.
Sharma, R. C. (1994). Bharhut sculptures. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications.
Srinivasan, D. M. (1997). Many heads, arms and eyes. Origin, meaning and form of multiplicity in Indian art. Leiden: Brill.
Stein, B. (1984). All the Kings’ mana. Papers on medieval South Indian history. Madras: New Era Publications.
Sutherland, G. H. (1991). The disguises of the demon: The development of the Yakṣa in Hinduism and Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bignami, C. Re-use in the Art Field: The Iconography of Yakṣī. J Indian Philos 43, 625–648 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-014-9250-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-014-9250-7