THE PALA ART

The Pala dynasty ruled from 8th century to 12th century AD in the regions comprising Bihar and Bengal. The development of art had been in a full edged manner during the Mauryas and Guptas which was further carried by the Pala rulers. Bengal was the most powerful centre of Mahayana Buddhism in India from the 8th to 12th century AD; and from here the faith spread to different countries along with the spread of Art and Culture of this era can be seen from Nepal and Tibet in the north and Myanmar and Thailand in the east, with different style according to their regional influence of art and culture. Distinctive achievements of Palas are seen in the arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and wall painting.

1. Architecture Most of the architectures were religious. The first two hundred years of Pala period art were dominated by Buddhist art and Hindu art dominates last two hundred years. Various Mahaviharas, Stupas, Chaityas, Temples and forts were constructed. Most of these buildings have vanished leaving no extant architecture from this period and making it very difficult to reconstruct a systematic overview of the architectural development. Nevertheless , the remaining various Mahaviharas, Nalanda, Vikramshila, Somapura, Traikutaka, and Jagaddala Vihara etc. are notable. such remnants are :-

1. Dharmapala built the Vikramasila mahavihara (in Bhagalpur district of Bihar) and Odantpuri Vihar a in Bihar.

2. The remains of Bodh Gaya and Nalanda provide a magnificent vista of monasteries, stupas and temples. Nalanda was the best place for the study of the Buddhist architecture of those days. The Somapura mahavihara at Paharpur, a creation of Dharmapala, proudly announces the excellence of the architectural art achieved in the Pala period. Its architectural plan had influenced the architecture of the neighboring countries like Myanmar and Indonesia. A few Buddhist buildings in these countries, built in the 13th and 14 centuries, seem to have followed the Paharpur example and some other example of magnificent Architecture are.

I. The rock-cave temple at Kahalgaon, the Ardhamandapa of Vishnupad Temple of Gaya

II. The Brick built mediaval Shiva temple of Konch in the Gaya District architecturally important on account of its curvilinear Shikhara and corbelled lancent window.

III. The rock-cave temple at Kahalgaon (Bhagalpur district) dating from ninth century, which shows the gabled vaulted roof characteristic of the South Indian architecture.

IV. A basalt statue of Lalita flanked by Ganesa Kārttikeya.

V. Sculpture of Khasarpana Lokesvara from Nalanda etc.

2. Temples Mostly Temple having The black to grey basalt and chlorite stone pillars and arched niches and the relevance were the Palas are celebrated as patrons of many Buddhist monastic sites, the temples from that region are known to express the local Vanga style. Ramapala founded a city named Ramvati where a number of buildings and temples were constructed. The Palas also supported the Saiva ascetics, typically the ones associated with the Golagi-Math. Narayana Pala himself established a temple of Shiva, and was present at the place of sacrifice by his Brahmin minister. Besides the images of the Buddhist deities, the images of Vishnu, Siva and Sarasvati were also constructed during the Pala dynasty rule.

3. Sculptures Origin of Pala sculpture can be attributed to the late Gupta style. However at a later stage the Pala style derived away from its origin and developed its own style. The deviation was due to the fusion of classical mannerism with the indigenous style of Bengal. The mixed style continued through the 8th century and culminated in a specialized idiom of art in the early 9th century. The new style integrated a number of attributes that were common to the native Bengali sculpture and architecture. Most of the sculptures that have been discovered have been carved out of Rajmahal black basalt stone. Most of the sculptures are seen in Paharpur in Bangladesh. The main characteristic of majority of the sculptures is their flexibility. They are of the same size and executed in greyish or white spotted sandstone. They are similar to the huge number of terracotta plaques that decorate the facades of temple walls. The sculptures of this period drew their inspiration from Buddhism. Apart from Buddha, sculptures of God and Goddess of Hindu Dharma like Vishnu, Balram, Uma, Maheshwar, Surya and Ganesha were also constructed. The finest sculptures of this School include a female bust, two standing Avalokiteshwara images from Nalanda; Buddha seated in ‘Bhumisparsasamudra’ and images of Avalokiteshwara seated in ‘Ardha Paryanka’ etc. Apart from that Bronze sculptures are casted in dies.Bronze casting was an important feature of Pala sculptures. Such sculptures have been found from Nalanda and Kukrihar (near Gaya). The art of metal casting attained a high degree proficiency at the Buddhist cantre of Kukrihar, as well as at the University of Nalanda where it appears to have formed a part of the curriculum. The main features of Pala sculptures is their free flowing movement. Almost all the figures are of similar sizes.

4. Paintings The earliest examples of Bengal painting are the twelve extant miniatures delineated on the palm-leaves of a manuscript of the Buddhist text. The manuscripts were written and painted on palm-leaf pages. Palm-leaf is fragile, and therefore many of them are now in a brittle state. In comparison with later palm-leaf manuscripts those of the Pala period, however, are better preserved. This is because they were made of the best quality of palmleaves obtained from a variety of palms known as Shritada. The leaves of the xritada (palm leaves) are thin and elastic, and therefore less susceptible to breakage. They grow as long as 90 cm in length and 7BD cm in breadth. The color were used Red, blue, black and white colors are used as primary colors whereas green, purple, light pink and grey are used as secondary/auxiliary color on a fine variety of palm leaf, as well as on the lacquered wooden covers of manuscripts. Wall painting has been found in Saradh and Sarai Sthal in Nalanda district. At the bottom of a platform made of granite stone we can find flowers of geometric shapes, images of animals and humans. The images have faded now, yet certain images like elephant, horses, dancers, Bodhisattvas etc. can be noticed. Impact of Ajanta and Bagh painting can be noticed, as the way of making images and painting are very much similar. Decorative paintings could be seen on manuscripts depending on the subject matter. The painted manuscripts are at present lodged in Cambridge University.

So, It can be said that this period shows the wide range of Iconography details and there is stylistic development, that can be traced with stale getting more prominent with time, and later images being deeper into. The Brahman and Buddhist images begins from different points stylistically and are eventually seen merged in later period and it’s sculpture has been introduced along with Brahamical and Buddhist , making traditions of this period.