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LOST AND FOUND? A NOTE ON TWO IMAGES OF DANCING ŚIVA FROM BANGLADESH¹

Anna A. Ślączka

One often reads about images being ‘lost’. Disappeared from villages where they were once worshipped, impossible to trace in a museum where they were still present a few decades ago, gone. Reading about it is painful for every art historian and art lover. Some stories, however, have a good ending. This short article describes one such case, of an image thought lost, but then ‘found back’ in a remote village. The second image discussed here is a sculpture hitherto not mentioned in English-language publications. Its ‘discovery’ demonstrates that not everything in South Asian art has been registered and studied and that we have to keep our eyes open.

The positive tone of this article – an image found back, an image discovered – seems especially appropriate for the auspicious occasion of presenting a felicitation volume to Professor R. Nagaswamy, one of the greatest specialists of Indian art who published extensively on all kind of topics, including Śiva’s dance.

1.     The image from Natghar:

The image, a stela about 4´6˝ in height, depicts Śiva dancing on the back of his bull-vehicle, a distinct iconographic type found almost exclusively in Bengal (Plates 2.1-2.2).² The first scholar to describe this image was Bhattasali (1929), according to whom it was ‘found in the village about 70 years ago [i.e., around 1860] and has been worshipped since then’. The said village is Natghar, located on the bank of the Titas River, in Nobinagar upazila (sub-district), in Brahmanbaria district. Bhattasali published a black-and-white photograph of the Śiva, but its quality is not very high and the details are difficult to see.³

Subsequently, the Natghar sculpture was mentioned by, probably, all the authors writing about Śiva’s dance in Bengal art. But despite the apparent interest no other, more recent, photograph ever appeared in print.⁴ Moreover, the old picture from Bhattasali was never reprinted:⁵ all the photographs in post-Bhattasali publications labelled ‘Natghar’ show, in fact, the Śiva from Ranihati (Outshahi).⁶ The latter belongs to the same iconographic type, of Śiva dancing on the back of the bull. The mistake is found first in Calambur Sivaramamurti’s famous monograph Nataraja in Art, Thought and Literature, followed by Gaston, Bhattacharya and Mukherjee.⁷ Haque and Dasgupta also mention the Natghar stela, but do not (attempt to) illustrate it.⁸

The confusion continues also with regard to the image’s location. According to some authors, the Natghar sculpture has been preserved at the Bangladesh National Museum in Dhaka.⁹ Since, according to the colleagues in Dhaka, it was not accounted for in the museum, I begun to consider the unpleasant possibility of it being lost. Until last year, 2018, when I unexpectedly came across another, more recent photograph of it, still under worship, in its own village of Natghar. The stela is housed in a shrine and seems to be in a perfect state of preservation (Plate 2.3).¹⁰

This new photograph, now in colour, is not very sharp, but nevertheless better than the old one. Importantly, it is now possible to see more detail and to confirm Bhattasali’s identification of some of Śiva’s attributes. The god has twelve arms. The uppermost arms are raised, with the hands touching the top of the crown (or the piled up ascetic hair), and the fingers almost meeting. It must be stressed that the gesture is neither a typical añjali (as suggested by Bhattasali), nor are the fingers interlocked with the two index fingers stretched up as seen on a few other images of this type.¹¹ The second pair of hands is also raised and holds a giant snake, with its head, surrounded by snake hoods, and a human-like torso, visible on the proper right, the tail on the left. The front, or principal pair of hands play the vīṇā, with a metal (?) bar to set the pitch, held between the thumb and the index finger of the left hand, touching the strings. The remaining attributes are, from top to bottom on the proper right: a rosary; a trident, identified by its prongs, now clearly visible; and a ḍamaru drum decorated with a delicate pattern of parallel lines. On the proper left, top to bottom, Śiva holds an elongated object with some ‘decoration’ on top (possibly a khaṭvāṅga),¹² a round object still impossible to identify on the photograph, and a snake-noose with its thick coils. The round object could perhaps be a strangely depicted skull-bowl, often held on the left side in the 12-armed variety of dancing Śiva in Bengal. But it could also be a fruit or a seed, even if unaccounted for in this type of images. As usual on this type of images, Śiva is flanked by his consorts, Gaṅgā (on the proper right), standing on a makara and holding a water vessel and Gaurī (proper left) on a lion and holding a mirror. The lowermost part of the stela depicts attendants in dancing posture and bearing tridents (one of them, typically, an emaciated, skeletal figure and one playing music), and a few donor figures. The top of the stela is unfortunately not well-visible on the photograph. A flying vidyādhara can be distinguished on the proper left, but the image – a decorative motif? - on the very top cannot be identified.

Apart from the fact that now some attributes can be identified with certainty, the new photograph proves beyond doubt that the old picture published by Bhattasali was indeed showing the Śiva from Natghar, and that the subsequent authors made a mistake.

2.     The ‘discovered’ image:

This interesting stela is still under worship as indicated by the fresh flowers that decorate it (Plate 2.4).¹³ The sculpture belongs to the same iconographic type as the Natghar one and depicts a twelve-armed Śiva dancing on the back of his bull. The same as in the previous example,

the uppermost arms are raised above the head with the tops of the fingers meeting above the crown; the second pair of arms holds the giant snake, its anthropomorphic torso on the (proper) right. The principal hands hold the vīṇā and we notice the bar for setting the right pitch.¹⁴ The remaining attributes differ slightly from those on the Natghar image. These are, on the proper right and from top to bottom: a rosary, a ḍamaru drum and a gesture resembling the varada.¹⁵ On the left, from top to bottom, there is a skull-bowl, a trident and a water vessel. When compared with other stelae of this type, the present image stands closest to those from Ranihati (BNM 67.244) and Uttar Raikhal (BNM 40) where the same attributes can be observed, with only the position of the skull-bowl and the trident swapped. Almost the same attributes and hand-gestures are also seen on another stela from the Bangladesh National Museum in Dhaka, acc. no. BNM 80.644.¹⁶ The way the water vessel is represented and held is almost the same on all four images.

The God is accompanied by his consorts, on the proper right Gaṅgā, with her snake-hoods and a fly-whisk in the hand, and on the left Gaurī holding a mirror. Both are standing on their usual vehicles. Four smaller attendant figures flank Śiva’s body on the height of his knees: the two usual ‘dancing attendants’ or gaṇas, the skeletal and the pot-bellied one; a figure standing upright, possibly Sūrya holding two open lotuses; and a male figure slightly turned towards Śiva and not holding any attributes (or in any case they cannot be seen on the available photograph). The bottom of the stela, below the lotus pedestal, is not visible on the photograph.

The most interesting is the upper part of the stela. We find here, from the left, Gaṇeśa, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Skanda, bordered by two flying vidyādharas– all rather standard.¹⁷ But the topmost position is taken by a curious hybrid figure: a bull whose headless neck transforms into a liṅga, merging two powerful symbols of Śiva into one. Although rare, it can also be seen on  two  other  stelae  already  mentioned  as being similar to the present one: the one from Uttar Raikhal (BNM 40; Plate 2.5) and the one with the accession number BNM 80.644 where the bull-liṅga  is accompanied by the same group of deities (Plates 2.6-2.7).¹⁸ The bull-liṅga is not restricted to images of the dancing Śiva. It is also found occupying the top on the impressive stela depicting Mahiṣāsuramardinī, recently sold at Christie’s New York (Plate 2.8)¹⁹ and, possibly, another one showing Umā-Maheśvara.²⁰ The bull-liṅga is one of the ‘iconographic curiosities’ unique to Bengal and no textual basis has been found for this form so far.²¹ Still, a similar concept is perhaps expressed by images found in and around Kalinjar, Madhya Pradesh, India, showing Śiva’s bull carrying the liṅga on the back; the liṅga replacing, as it were, its hump (Plate 2.9).

The image under discussion has not been published before, at least to my knowledge. Unfortunately, I was not able to gather much data about it, including its exact location, before sending this article to print. I decided to discuss it here, nevertheless, because its existence might be of interest for the scholars of Bengal art. More study and high definition photographs of both sculptures – the one from Natghar and the present one – are certainly needed.²²

Notes and References:

1.           I would like to thank Shishir Hoque from Dhaka, whose help has been indispensable for the writing of this article.

2.           For a study of this iconographic type and a list of images, see Ślączka (2011, 2015 and 2016).

3.           Bhattasali (1929: 115-116 and pl. XLV, type 3A (ii)a/[2]).

4.           Or, at least to my knowledge, in ‘Western’, English publications.

5.           The only exception is my own article, see Ślączka (2015, fig. 19).

6.           The Ranihati Śiva was also published, presumably for the first time ever, by Bhattasali (1929, pl. XLV, noted there as type 3.A.(ii)a /[3]). The image was found in the temple in Ranihati and was subsequently kept in Indra Babu’s house at Outshahi (Bhattasali, Idem, p. 116) and therefore it is sometimes listed as an image from Outshahi. It is now preserved in the Bangladesh National Museum in Dhaka, BNM 67.244 (the accession number can be seen written on the sculpture), for the (correct) photographs of the Ranihati/Outshahi image, see Haque (1992: 482) and Ślączka (2015, fig. 14).

7.           No less than three images: from Natghar, Ranihati and Uttar Raikhal became mixed up in several publications (at least if one takes as a basis Bhattasali 1929), starting presumably with Sivaramamurti. In Sivaramamurti (1974), the photograph showing the Śiva from Ranihati is labelled ‘Natghar’ (Idem, fig. 173), the one of the Śiva from Uttar Raikhal is labelled ‘Ranihati’ (Idem, fig. 174), while the photograph of the genuine Natghar Śiva is not given. There is also confusion in the description of the images/photographs. The mistake is repeated by Gaston (1990, plate 94) and Bhattacharya (1991, fig. 3), who publish the image from Ranihati as ‘Natghar’. Finally, Mukherjee (2002: pl. vi.10 and 11) publishes the Ranihati image as ‘Natghar’ and the one from Uttar Raikhal as ‘Ranihati’.

8.           Haque (1992: 153) and Dasgupta (1995: 291 and 2003: 6).

9.           See Bhattacharya (1991: 314), Dasgupta (1995: 291 and 2003: 6) and Gaston (1990: 173), with Bhattacharya and Gaston describing and illustrating, in fact, the image from Ranihati (this one indeed in Dhaka Museum). Dasgupta does not illustrate nor describe the Natghar image in detail, but he lists it as being at the Bangladesh National Museum in Dhaka. As no other image of dancing Śiva from Natghar is known, I assume that he speaks of the stela under discussion.

10.        This case of an image thought lost, but then ‘found’, resembles the one of the dancing Śiva from Govindapur, West Bengal, India. This image was considered lost by Dasgupta (2003), because it was not anymore present in Govindapur and it was not published elsewhere. Yet, as I could find out, the image stands on display in one of the rooms of the National Museum in Delhi, see Ślączka (2015: 127 and fig. 10). The image is described in the museum as coming from ‘Eastern India’, acc. no. 75.563; the name ‘Govindapur’ is not mentioned.

11.        For example, on the two dancing Śiva images in the Bangladesh National Museum in Dhaka: BNM 40 (from Uttar Raikhal) and BNM 80.644 (whose original location is unknown or in any case not given on the label), and on the image from Maniari, now in Varendra Research Museum (acc. no. 3682). For the photographs, see, for example, Ślączka 2015.

12.        Held in this place by the dancing Śiva from Rayerkathi, see Ślączka (2015, fig. 9).

13.        The stela is kept in an undisclosed location in Bangladesh.

14.        Also present on the image from Ranihati (Outshahi).

15.        The index finger seems to be bent and touching the thumb, but one would have to see the image close-by to determine it.

16.        With the exception of the lowermost (proper) right hand, where not the palm but the back of the hand is shown. See Ślączka (2015, fig. 17).

17.        Brahmā and Viṣṇu are not well-visible on the photograph, but I assume that the position of the deities is the same as on other sculptures of this type.

18.        The bull-liṅga replaces here a seated image of Śiva frequently found in this position, surrounded by the same deities, cf. the images from Ranihati (some figures are difficult to see on the available photographs), Bhauranagar (BNM 80.135), Kachua (BNM 70.387, sometimes described as an image from Palgiri) and, probably, Kalikala (Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi, acc. no. 75).

19.        This very large (131 cm. in height) and impressive sculpture was sold at Christie’s New York on 21^st March 2018. See: https://www.christies.com/indian-himalayan-and-southeast-27629. aspx? saletitle=#lot_6129307 lot 317, accessed on 27.05.2019.

20.        Haque (1992: 157) mentions, but does not illustrate, a stela from a private collection in Dhaka depicting Umā-Maheśvara (number L.1825 in Haque’s list), which ‘very unusually shows miniature representation of a bull, at the apex of the prabhāvali’. Haque does not say explicitly that the bull ends in a liṅga, but it is possible, for in another chapter he mentions it together with the stela from Uttar Raikhal, which does have a bull-liṅga on the top. See Haque (Idem, p. 176): ‘We may refer to two images from Bengal, one of Naṭarāja [he refers here to the image from Uttar Raikhal], and the other Umā-Maheśvara, which depicted Śiva in the form of Vŗṣa [bull] at the apex of the slab’. It should be noted that Sivaramamurti (1974: 292-293) also describes the bull-liṅga on the Uttar Raikhal image simply as a ‘Nandi’.

21.        It should also be noted that in Bengal art, Śiva’s bull is sometimes decorated with a tiny image of a trident – again merging two important symbols of the God. It can be seen, among others, on the stela from Ranihati and even on a bull-liṅga itself, on top of the aforementioned Umā-Maheśvara stela.

22.        The image was discovered very recently, and I was asked at first not to disclose its position. However, after sending this article to print, on 31^st of October 2019, an article about the image appeared in the The Daily Star. The image is housed in the Sarangadhar Jeu Akhada temple in Dhaka’s Chawkbazar. See https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/journey-the-past-dancing-shiva-1805938. I am grateful to Mr Tarun Sarkar and Mr Shishir Hoque for letting me know about the whereabouts of this image.

Bibliography

Bhattacharya, G., 1991, “The munificence of lady Catuïsamâ” in Akṣayanîvî: essays presented to Dr. Debala Mitra in admiration of her scholarly contributions, ed. Gouriswar Bhattacharya, pp. 313-322. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications.

Bhattasali, Nalini Kanta, 1929, Iconography of Buddhist and Brahmanical Sculptures in the Dacca Museum, Dacca: Dacca Museum.

Dasgupta, Kalyan Kumar, 1995, “A unique icon of Śiva-Natarâja of the Bengal school”, in Viåvambharâ: probings in orientology (prof. V.S. Pathak festschrift), vol. 2, ed. Ajay Mitra Shastri, Devendra Handa and C.S. Gupta. New Delhi: Harman Publishing House.

Dasgupta, Kalyan Kumar, 2003, “A unique image of Śiva-Natarâja from South Bengal,” Kalyan Bharati 7: 1-7.

Gaston, Anne-Marie, 1990, Śiva in dance, myth and iconography, Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Haque, Enamul, 1992, Bengal Sculptures: Hindu Iconography up to c. 1250 A.D., Dhaka: Bangladesh National Museum.

Mukherjee, Mahua, 2002, “Nartesvara in Bengal”, in Foundations of Indian art, ed. R. Nagaswamy, pp. 72-82. Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy.

Sivaramamurti, C., 1974, Nataraja in art, thought and literature, New Delhi: National Museum.

Ślączka, Anna A., 2011, ‘The iconography of the deities in the Devyāmata, an early Śaiva pratiṣṭhātantra, and the art of Bengal’, Journal of Bengal Art, vol. 16, ICSBA, Dhaka, pp. 157-167.

Ślączka, Anna A., 2015, ‘Dancing Śiva images from Bengal’, in: Mokammal H. Bhuiyan (ed.), Studies in South Asian Heritage. Essays in memory of M. Harunur Rashid, Dhaka: Bangla Academy, pp. 125-155.

Ślączka, Anna A., 2016, ‘The two iconographic chapters from the Devyāmata and the art of Bengal’, in: Dominic Goodall and Harunaga Isaacson (eds.), Tantric Studies: Fruits of a Franco-German Project on Early Tantra, Pondichéry: Institut Français de Pondichéry / Ecole françaised’ Extrême-Orient / Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg (Collection Indologie n˚ 131; Early Tantra Series n˚ 4), pp. 181-246.