[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.] Oh. You.
So greetings, everybody, to the final.
Uh. Session this term of the seminar.
And I'm particularly delighted to be able to welcome John Guy.
Because he has really, uh,
compiled this really the most comprehensive study so far compiled of territorial deities in India from art historical sources.
It's a magnificent piece of work. I'm sure [INAUDIBLE] be mentioning it as we go along.
Uh, John Guy is curator of South and Southeast Asian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
He's been an elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London since 2003, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2016.
He joined the met in 2008, having formerly served as Senior Curator of South Asian Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
He has created numerous international exhibitions and authored many associated publications.
His major books include Indian Temple Sculpture, 2007.
Republish, 2014. Lost Kingdoms Hindu Buddhist sculptures of Southeast Asia from 2014.
And this one. Tree and Serpent early Buddhist Art in India, 2023.
And, uh, John, thank you very much for taking the time to be here with us.
Very, very grateful. And over to you. Thank you, girl.
And, um, let me begin by by saying thank you to you and the team for inviting me to speak in the treasure series.
Um, suffice to say, I'm ever willing to remind textual folks, um, of the to the visual record that's in plain sight.
Uh, in in the in the archaeological landscape.
So I'm very happy to do this talk that foregrounds the imagery that the subcontinent's early religious landscape
has provided for us a vast corpus of primary historical evidence that largely awaits analysis and interpretation.
And perhaps most importantly, uh, integration into broader studies.
Does. I think money grows on trees. Um, Yorkshires not goats.
And it is, um. I begin with the premise that the subcontinental to ancient India was marked by the embracing presence of God supplies the
pervasiveness of local deities as later codified in such texts as the Maha Maiuri and the governing deities of the internet.
INR Sutra point to their localised nature and named identities.
The formalism according to place that where each presided as a tutor retained the latter by the iconographic features.
As we move into the first millennium, the constellation of pan-Indian deities coalesces around a divine pantheon,
reducing the usual space occupied by this nature deities and seemingly marginalising those that survive.
Um, in this talk, I'll examine the place of inductions in Argos,
and it is in this shifting devotional landscape and their afterlife in the polytheistic system.
I would begin with this extraordinary image from the stupa, one of Tirana, um, where we see the assembled.
Um. A quarter of the extras, presumably at the Himalayan.
Uh, about of, uh, of cabaret to a locker.
A locker under, um, uh, in a celebratory mood.
Um, and I'm reminded of the book about, uh, data exchange between Christa and Andrew.
And, uh, when he says Votaries of the gods. Go to the gods.
Votaries of the fathers, to the fathers Votaries of the gospel on this well, until the confidence.
And this talk is very much about the God plans.
We have many images that have come down to us from all of the types of ways in which of these nature forces were represented,
um, essentially malevolent,
um, unless tamed, uh, through, um, uh, placated through offerings or in the case of Buddhism, uh, one over by the power of the Buddhist teachings.
Um, that many of the representations that survive in early terracotta showed them as malevolent,
uh, um, forces, uh, to be vacated and, uh, through, uh, offerings and, uh, and, uh,
and then by other means that central uh, receives, uh, uh, an image of sexual violence, of abduction of a woman,
uh, by Yorkshire and carried to the his mountainous abode indicated on the on the right of the screen.
Um, and, uh, a subject which, um, uh, very much reflects, um, uh, the perceived nature of the, of the actions in this early moment.
When discussing Yorkshire's. We really have to begin with trees.
And, uh, it's a better place than that idea around second century BCE and the, uh, uh, this crude, um, uh, archway framing a rock cut, uh,
sanctuary cell in which we see the veneration of a tree, a couple making offerings,
including garlands, uh, and attended by, uh, Garner like figures, uh, left and right.
And bring, uh, vessels to, uh, water.
Uh, the roots of the tree. Uh oh. Part of the illustration of the tree framed in the whole tree.
Watch with the, uh, um, the carrying lotus, uh, the the Buddha's messengers and all of that.
Uh, overall, just by the presence of the Nagas. Um, so that is a very sort of powerful image that sums up the state of knowledge, if you like,
in the second century BCE and the prevalence, of course, um, of, uh, trees, uh, understood to embody treasure in various forms.
We have one of the most wondrous objects in ancient India, uh,
isn't due to fully sculpted in the round representation of the wish fulfilment tree as a cup of Photoshop.
Uh, the unique survivor from around 200 BCE. First recorded, uh,
reported by Alexander Cunningham in 1977 during his survey of the ancient vessel Nagar at the conference of the water on these Rivers in British,
uh, in modern times, and photographed here by, uh, Bangalore, uh by 1855, the Maharaja of Gwalior and donated it to the Indian Museum in Kolkata,
which functioned as the national museum of the day and where remains.
And I would recommend anyone who's not stood before it in the greater reception hall of the interviews in Kolkata,
um, to, uh, to do so at some point in this, in this, uh, this lifetime.
It's an extraordinary, extraordinary object.
Meandering of branches of this magnificent banyan tree, uh, which form a leafy canopy and then shelter beneath it between the original roots.
Um, these sacks of money and jars and pots of money, of coinage, uh, represented here, uh, all of it, and enclosed in this wicker, uh, um, railing,
um, and then with a square, uh, vertical type, uh, post and lintel construction that's presumably wood, uh, around the base of the tree as well.
So this is the classic, uh, tree under worship.
Um, uh, trees, of course, we see today, uh, throughout all of rural India, even in the back streets of urban India.
For views of the, uh,
this extraordinary under I should stress unique object as the only three dimensional representation that has come down to us in monumental form.
And you can see very clearly in these very special photographs were taken for the transfer of an exhibition of the representation of the foliage,
the aerial roots, um, and then the sex of uh,
um, insects, which we assume can contain coins, and then the other containers, uh,
which are cascading, overflowing with abundant, uh, or, as we're told, inexhaustible, uh, wealth.
Um, and I draw your attention, uh, to two particular, uh, aspects, which we'll return to later on the left of the screen.
Um, the, um. Body of coinage which is issuing from an inverted conch shell.
Um. Uh, uh, and the third one over, uh, sorry, the, uh, fourth one over, which has the, um, uh, representation of the lotus cascading coins.
Um, Padma, um, there's a representation. I'll come to these a little later.
Uh, and so what we are seeing here in this wish fulfilment tree offering is fulfilment of everyday desires for material wealth from the worshippers.
Two of the vessels take the form which is seen here, uh, for the very first time, of the conch in the lotus.
As I mentioned a moment ago, the guardianship of the Earth's treasures in ancient India was linked to Kabira and his return of the nine,
uh, treasures of huge, uh, sunken Indian Pokemon were from a premier.
The best Nigar wish fulfilling tree thus carries within its decor the oldest depictions of the concept of beauties,
treasures of the earth and the promise of immeasurable wealth.
For devotees to get a sense of the types of coins being represented, I think we can assume,
uh, the, uh, we're probably looking at the partial panel type coins,
which reveal the precise form of which we don't really have a true understanding of the form,
but this is probably as close as we'll ever get to an informed.
Guess what they looked like in square on mark coins?
Um, you know, originated in the later more period, um, and soon superseded by other types of coins.
Uh, this is probably the type we're looking at here. You see it on the screen at the first nickel tree on the upper.
The lower screen shows depiction of the church of the purchase,
the Church of Honour Park fund for the Monastery of Representative Oto, early phase, Amravati,
and a detail of that wondrous image of the truck prevalent in um from uh Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh and now housed in Kolkata museum,
in which we see the cascading of the square coins raining down from the clouds, touched by the, uh, the power of the truck revolution.
This cool coins keep appearing in other places. We have an image of guns, guns, horror and images variety.
And so, uh, cornucopia.
Um, and let us see it, uh, to the sonification of of of the trials of, of wealth, uh, represented here again, casting coins, um, before her.
Trees and treasures along had an association in ancient India.
Folklore has linked the presence of trees with the fine spots of treasures concealed beneath the earth.
However, not all trees hold the promise of treasure. That discovery was in the gift of the youngsters to whom these underground riches belonged.
But ultimately, however, the treasures guarded by the Nagas,
tree shrines of those seem to reflect the divination by which precious trees were identified.
It is evident both textual and visual sources, that the auspicious tree shrines was was appropriated into Buddhist practice and imagery very early,
routinely depicted in enclosure railings about on some tree, as we see here.
Um. I heard on the left. In fact, the one on the right is from a original, uh, vertical enclosure railing, uh, medallion from bungalow.
Uh, the very first, uh, railing, which was installed and buried on the site and go up to period the.
And the veneration of these, um. Um, uh, was already prescribed.
Uh, uh, as we've seen above by the broader church of Varna, as told on the calendar, which he advises and under um.
Uh, in a very beautiful passage which everyone quoted lines.
That's the best way to, uh, evoke the Buddha's presence and remind worshippers most of us away on pilgrimage.
Uh, was to plant the great poetry used by the Buddha, which could be seen as fit as a shrine, a substitute shrine for his presence.
I haven't even been listening to a symphony with a word. The word of truth as ordained by the words of the border to be a relic of you,
that is, a contact relic appropriate to a veneration of the wish fulfilling tree.
The abode of the actions has thus been fully appropriated into the broader system of of worship.
There are various forms in which we see the trees being altered across the Indian subcontinent with a watering of trees, uh.
Understood to be the abodes of Yorkshires, uh, and, um, being maintained by devotees.
Uh, uh, the garlands, um, of such trees we've seen already the placing of umbrellas and so on.
All of these are listed, um, in multiple, uh, um, water sources, particularly, um, relating to the veneration of, uh, trees.
Um, and of course, the use of the, uh, the palm tree.
Gulick. Uh, the five finger mark, um, which, uh, we see, uh,
selectively repeated several times about and 1 or 2 other places other than fades from, um, from the landscape.
But it's clearly there as part of the worship of, uh, stupas, an acknowledgement of the sanctity of the, uh, relics within, uh, that they had,
uh, and print on the body of the, of the dome of the stupor or the drum of those two of um, uh, was was important part of um, um.
Uh, surrounding those two persons relics with auspicious, um, uh, marks and, uh.
Presence. As to the worship of the stupa, the body of the article says great works of worship paid to this tree.
No water was poured about it. Handprints of sand or paste applied upon colocar.
A garlands festooned around a lamp kept burning scented oil.
All around was placed a strand of cloth. These offerings promised Bountiful rewards for devotees.
We see this continually, um.
Uh, in the representation of the trees being part of the Buddhist cosmologies, um, and prevalent in the heavenly locations like lies the Capella.
A lot to the wish for filling lotus. Uh, which also decorated the, you know, surface of the vertical and the production of Potter pathway.
Uh, mantle devotees was really embraced by this, the abundant riches offered by devotion.
Um, and represented by jewellery, particularly. And textiles.
Uh, which were repeatedly carved uh, in these these scenes of man during the lotus vine.
It was a. Half a half a millennium later that Canada's um.
Um in the making due to, uh, praise the wish fulfilment tree as the immeasurable source of all things beautiful.
Citing cloth for patterns one flowers variety of jewels red, like every item of feminine decoration,
is produced by the, uh lotus fulfilling, um wish fulfilling lotus find.
Turning to Yorkshire's themselves. Um territorial gains of place are recognised by several distinctive features, many of which we familiar to.
To many of you, um.
Um, the corpulent form, uh, uh, representing the abundant unlimited, um, nourishment um, uh, represented, uh, with uh, very distinctive features,
particularly this pointed, uh, device, um,
which means people have speculated on its origins might even be traced back to the Greek poem, um, the pan images.
Um, and so much has been written on this, uh, but but there's also these representations of extraordinary drollery, uh,
together with the pointed ears is non-human elements of which distinguish these figures, um, from being a mere mortals.
Um, we see them here again at, uh, Houghton also lived in the south, in Andhra territory in Galilee,
uh, to representations with the, uh, the broad faced, wide eyed, uh, coarse social features.
And these extraordinary is, uh, set them apart, uh, although them folded and garlanded and represented with children, uh, treated with great respect.
Of the corpulent figures, of course, becoming a very important feature of this, the greatest challenge of the religious landscape of early India.
The confronted the Buddha and his teaching was the pervasive allegiance to the wider populace.
To these nature cults, they manifested the forces of nature personified in the living landscape of trees, rivers, snakes, and so on.
Supreme amongst some of the actions of the female counterparts, the actions the spirits of which most frequently inhabited the trees,
but at least the second century BCE over life sized stone images we're talking
2 to 3m in height were recorded as cold images to localised Yorkshire's.
Um, you have a, um, an image from the metro region of everyone for earliest but very early representation of the Yorkshire and on the right,
um, the depiction of the earliest name depiction of Tarboro,
which appears, of course, at Fort Hood or roughly 150 BQ,
something which is seen with his hands folded on the chest, standing on a sort of Garner type figure.
Um, and you'll notice the absence of a money purse, uh, distinguishing feature in later later on General Grocery.
That it's with um for the two for the Yorkshire's corporates routinely um in later iconography shown with this moneybag.
However,
the two earliest inscribed monumental junctures that we know on the screen now that from park on the the south of Mount Tara and the Ohio one,
Gwalior on the right. Uh, both uh, name these purse bearing, uh, Yorkshire's Osmani.
Bhadra. Um the excellent one with drools. Not.
So we have to also, um, acknowledge that a monument to a poet plays a, uh,
very important role in this early period and almost certainly in competition with capoeira.
Uh, in this at this time, both images from the inscriptions, uh, we know, were funded by local guilds.
Uh, almost certainly. And guilds. Um, you have a vested interest in, uh, and, and and, uh, having such a major allegiance.
It's the largest single Yorkshire I've ever recorded, and indeed the largest monumental freestanding sculpture in India.
Uh, excluding 21st century monuments, of course.
Um, um, uh, it was this, this image of of of the Yorkshire from the show, um, uh, recovered.
Um, so um, recorded, I should say, by Cunningham in the 1870s.
Uh, seven. Um, this an extraordinary, um, image, um, found together with the Yorkshire on the screen, uh, in the same neighbourhood as the.
Which really intrigued me. Uh, prints a presentation with, um, uh, it's very clear.
Uh, uh, he's represented, um. Holding the, uh.
Uh, purse in his lower hand. Uh, the sack of money, as it were.
Such as we saw on the tree as well. Uh.
It's interesting that both Moneyball and Cabrera are mentioned side by side in my Peralta as chiefs of the auctions.
So clearly the status was, uh, much for a notch on a par.
Thus, at that early moment when it appears when Carrboro appears at, uh, about was, um, termed um, Cairo.
Um, um is identified already as the guardian of the Northern Quarter overall and retains to the stunning.
With the rise of the urbanised globalisation, the name,
junctures and reaction is going to be identified as a two tree deities of particular locales and communities.
It could only be surpassed several centuries later by the compilation of the Maha matura of,
simply put, as text that catalogues the presiding Yorkshires of early towns and cities.
Here we have the representations of the money sex and the money.
Money purse. Uh, saying that, uh, the best.
Like, uh uh, Yorkshire. Uh uh, I would declare interested in the representation of the Yorkshire who are found in close proximity to the Yorkshire.
Um, you look at the details. She's holding plants in both hands.
Uh, suggest the upper hand is, um, most probably sugar cane.
And the lower one. Uh, horseradish. Um, and if this is correct, then we're looking at very clear agricultural associations.
Uh, for this particular, um, Yorkshire.
Both of these sculptures are now just outside of the museum in London.
British. Such monumental cult images undoubtedly emulate earlier versions in board.
Though no traces of such prototypes have survived the commissioning of such costly icons,
or have been undertaken by the mood of the other merchant and craft cults.
As wealthy communities venerated these propitious reactions and reactions,
petitioning for protection and trade a familiar thing, of course, from what was tragically dumped and success in business.
Arguably, much of this imagery spills over into that of the Nasher and in later times,
and enhances the authority of that cult as the harbinger of good fortune can assure.
That's obvious links to prosperity and to wealth. Its corpulent form out of command.
And the other Yorkshires, uh, with women. He she has a noble lordship of the garners.
And I show you other this extraordinary image of kanisha from, uh, central Vietnam, from the, uh,
religious centre of me song and trumpet territory, uh, uh, from, uh, from the around the seventh century common era.
Um, and I show you the line drawing, particularly because, uh, here we see a representation of Kenosha holding,
um, the horseradish, uh, as the, I would suggest the Yorkshire from the synagogue a moment ago similarly held,
uh, the this horseradish and was very much tied to agriculture and the early origins of connection, which seemed to be that of an agricultural deity.
Uh, largely forgotten in subcontinental wind that I understand, um, uh, and perhaps go to a vegetarian can help us at the discussion time.
I understand that not nature is still, uh, worshipped, um, in the Kathmandu Valley, uh,
with offerings of horseradish, uh, which show a memory of this agricultural association.
Put a parameter of the importance of the actions in early Buddhism,
as underscored by the story of Queen Maya, um, presenting the newborn, but also community.
Um, uh, the voter said, for to the two tree deity of the soccer club, um, uh, soccer for dinner.
Um, and we see it here represented on a panel of mantra, um, in which the, um,
the auction emerges from the trunk of the tree to acknowledge, um, the, uh, imminent of.
Power of the boat was represented by the swaddling cloth on the pair of feet that a Queen Maia holds forth, uh, it presents before the family deity.
Now this subject appears multiple times, and Endre early on a sculpture of including, um, Amravati and other places.
Um, it's a very, very rare subject in the north, but, uh, great popularity in the south.
A Yorkshire escape, appearing in the context of um, of some monasteries that are close association.
And we can look from some of the on the north, uh, to open the gate of don't come down a holiday and um,
the deacon, uh, most recently opened a gallery in Telangana with a clear,
uh, evidence, archaeological evidence of the presence of Yorkshire's shrines within the compounds of monasteries with small chapels.
Constructed on the screen is a recently excavated brick sanctuary, perhaps only a metre square, a small, little freestanding independent.
So, um, in which, uh, this, uh, substantial, uh, uh, stucco over clay, uh,
figure of a Yorkshire was, was, was archaeologically recovered 2019 I think,
um, and um, um, clear evidence that the Yorkshire cults played a very important part, uh, within the monastic life, uh, of early, early, uh, Buddhism.
Um, and, um, we see clear evidence of this in some big as well documented many years ago.
Um, and, um, a clear picture of the claim, which they themselves of this particular, uh, shrine and, uh, public gallery now about,
um, uh, was located in the vicinity of the monastic quarters where the monks slept, their private quarters.
Um, this was clearly not for the outlying, uh, populace who were visiting.
This was in the more restricted spaces of the monastery, uh, where essentially, then the monks would have access.
We then come to a whole series of really quite spectacular drama slab and platform slabs depicting large male figures,
Maha Purusha like, uh, holding up a lotus and, uh, honouring and offering um, and, um, this.
Sir, I say on occasion has been published. Um. Um.
As bodhisattvas. Um. Uh. Padma pani. Whatever.
Um, I would contest that. And I do in the transfer of one publication.
Um, I the presence of the garners, um, Yorkshire.
Those that you see attending that is unambiguous that these figures are in fact Yorkshire's um and, um, offering, uh, lotus to, uh, the Buddha.
Those were placed, of course, in the context of a stupa sculptural program.
And so that already makes this identification, uh, highly probable.
Um, and, um, did these figures then provide prototypes for the classic, uh, early bodhisattvas, types of lotus carrying, uh, bodhisattvas?
The answer almost certainly is yes.
Um, but, uh, the identification here, I, I would, uh, argue is, is that with, uh, Yorkshire's in worshipping it, honouring the Buddha.
And then we have then of course, the images of of Entrepeneur um or identified in numerous sources as being,
uh, Yorkshire originally um, uh, absorbed into the Buddhist pantheon.
Um, and I show a remarkable image on the left of the screen in Lucknow Museum.
It's my turn to represent ocean, um, of almost, almost lifesize torso, um, of a, uh, if take a, um, I think we can reasonably identify as Trapani.
Um, although, of course, was the back of one's mind, you know, is it Intere?
Uh, but, uh, I think the Buddhist context seems strong. Yeah.
A Kashmiri one on the centre from around the, uh, late fifth century.
Um, and then, of course, he appears in triads in the earliest triads with the Buddha,
uh, of a local church and vajra pony, uh, is the typical configuration.
Later Entrepeneur seems to be displaced by Maitreya.
Uh, but it only shows us this, uh, this terracotta, uh, try out is probably around 1050,
uh, from supper on monastery around the time, in fact, that I was teaching there.
Um, very important object collected by two troop in the 1940s.
Which I was very fortunate to acquire for the museum. Now, I would like a slight digression, a small digression, if I may.
And that is to to put some importance to early juncture imagery.
And that is to look at the role of water. Um, and um.
Uh, water imagery, aquatic plants, and the emergence of the role of your actions as life progenitors.
And I do this by just showing a few images of Yorkshires in association with, uh, aquatic plant life, um, uh, in lotus vines and so on,
um, and, uh, bracketed by, uh, dolphins, um, like ocean dolphins or banshees, water freshwater dolphins, you can say, uh, nonetheless.
And that's an imagery which again, um, uh, has very important Hellenistic connections.
Uh, we see the Yorkshire here in Montara, um, uh, literally metamorphosing out of plant life.
Um, uh, and then bracketed by, uh, these, uh, dolphin like creatures after four and a half mackerel.
Um, um, it's dolphin tale of two and the non-current roles.
Uh, it's repeated or not until Donald trucker and partner, uh, on the screen.
Um, and, uh, uh, a popular section from Punch Gallery.
Um, um, which, uh, which we see, uh, the Garner type figures emerging from plant life and the dolphin tale, uh, figures represented left and right.
Uh, this is very powerful water imagery in which youngsters are integrated.
Um, and, um, we have don't have to go back to boat and see this extraordinary, uh, half round or from one of the, from the boat,
um, uh, vertical, um, in which we see the Kano figure or the Yorkshire figure, uh, seated in a watery place at a lotus pool.
Um, and, uh, vines, lotus vine emerging, I would argue, from his mouth.
Uh, and I will demonstrate this in a moment. Uh, we see it again here.
First phase. Amravati. This is the first coping Stone series to be, um, produced at around 100 BCE.
Um, and we see the upper right, the elephants guarding the relics.
Um, and but the main subject, of course, is this, uh, wonderful.
Uh. Yorkshire, um, um, uh, attended by this handsome young, um, um,
semi-divine figures who are assisting him, uh, as if, uh, the birthing the lotus vine from his mouth.
And I use the word birthing, uh, purposefully.
Because if you look at this image on the bottom of the next screen, um, we see Yorkshire.
You doing precisely that, seated in, uh, legs, knees up, um, drawing the lotus out of the jaws of the makara.
Um, and this then becomes the all enveloping, uh, lotus.
Uh, uh, Garland, uh, that runs the entire, uh, circles of the interior wall of the, uh, enclosure railing.
Uh. And it gets repeated and repeated. Another image on the screen above.
Coming through the drawers of the locker.
Not turning now to August, because this was really a way of introducing the watery themes, water imagery, uh, brings us to the realm of the Nagas.
Of course, trees and ponds, the abodes of Yorkshires and nuggets, uh, very, very important in early India.
Um, and the great image on the screen. Many of you all know I've inscribed data to you 40 and, uh, uh, koreshkov of rain.
Um, um, the following, uh, Harry, folks dating this dated precisely to 167 common era, um, firmly in the mid second century.
Um, with an associated pond, um, major over life size image two metre high image of a Naga Raja.
Um uh, in worship. Uh uh, associated with the water type.
So was the element of water belong to the Nagas, so that of the earth belonged to the actions of the source of treasures.
Think we can look at the way in which each domain functions?
Gems and rock crystal coming from the earth and clearly belonging to the oceans.
Gold in India is essentially alluvial gold.
Um, we think of the Indus being called the golden Indus in the Vedas already.
Um, this was the alluvial gold I would suggest. So what's been alluded to?
Uh, gold associated with rivers, valleys and coral, of course, coming from the oceans.
The domain of the mockers and other, um, monstrous creatures.
And from the outset, the Nagas appear as the fierce protectors and guardians of both the earth and the oceans riches.
Um, some sources speak of the Nagas presiding over four treasures.
Um. Go to gold and associated with the particular regions.
The gold of and gather round treasures of silver guarded by the Naga under.
Uh. Uh, the treasure of money of gems and the, uh, treasure of um.
But do a job of gems. 203 gemstones associated with foreigners.
Um, interesting. These treasures can all be characterised as terrestrial from the earth.
The domains of the actions, assuming the bond between cultures, analogous to a lowering of authority, seems to be at play here,
with the actress presiding over the land asserting ownership, if you like, of the land and its treasures and the narcos as its protectors.
Narcos occupied their own world. Of course, the Naga local, uh, watery realm between the three peaks of support Mountain,
Meru and quantum cosmology and we think of for the Nagas are primarily, um, uh, in our world or they're associated with the Buddha.
But evidence abounds of their autonomous cults. Uh, Yondu focusing in the focus imagery.
Um, there was erected in India. So the countryside.
The most spectacular evidence of this. Was revealed by the excavations in the late 1960s at Sonke district of Mount Tura,
unearthed by a joint German side excavation in which um a major York um um Nagar uh shrine and absolute shrine was uh,
excavated um, which included uh, traces of um uh Torana uh, over the crossbar from that torana uh, in which we see the, uh, courtly, um.
Oh. Scene of the, um, Roger on Gagne.
Uh oh. The City of Enjoyment logo. That's a fun logo.
That's, um, that's an extraordinary, uh, survivor.
Um, and of of points to the the language.
Naga cults, uh, were not just subsidiary, uh, uh, activities taking place in the countryside, but represented, uh,
major cults alongside, uh, uh, Protestant German, uh, activities, um, as archaeology around matter, um, as already suggested.
We then get other instances here, uh, to, um, elements from to realness.
Uh, and above. From Barberton. Below from Montara.
Uh, and the one below. If you look carefully, you'll notice the figure stepping out of stepping in.
Uh, the draws of the makara is an Aga, and it's a wooded canopy, um, above, uh, above his head.
Um, and one thinks of the, uh, issue of the Nagas, of course,
wanting to possess and guard all the treasures of the earth, including the pearls of the ocean.
Um, and the makers of, of course, have control over those territories.
Uh, and I think a reading of this sculpture, uh, would have to take into account, uh,
the importance of the ocean as a source of, uh, of its own rituals of pearls and and coral.
No, because of course crossed devotional barriers as well.
We see them brought into play here at Nigerian Moja Pradesh around 400 401.
According to the inscriptions, this extraordinary monumental rock art representation of a rock emerging from the ocean,
rescuing the goddess Earth, um, um, in his drawers, um, and uh, and venerated, uh, directly beneath his, uh, Lower fort.
Uh, the rising figure of, uh, Naga Raja. Uh, and beyond that, uh, is the representation of the leading figure of the patron of this,
uh, religious, the sculptor religious site, um, Chandragupta the second.
Um, so as an extraordinary manifestation of the are often Argos um and across the for radical and Buddhist um the landscape.
But not the Mongols Nagas for pre-eminence in the popular imagination, as is to do with Buddhism.
Um, and that the role that an assumed um serving of the Buddha.
Um. Their unwavering devotion, combined with their unmatched strength, made them an ideal defenders of the border.
They appear in numerous articles and other donors, a frequency associated with particular places named rivers, tanks, and so on as their abodes.
On the screen you have the posing of the the first. The first part of the building from photo uh at uh performed of the company by the the
chiefs of the knowledge of the Klingons in all garages and under and open under um,
as described on the lot of the storm. Um, but I play the in front of us at some info on cold waters, and it's a 2 to 1 image emerged in August.
Rise not from ponds. Um, to represent perhaps here represented by tanks, by brick.
Um, uh, Wells. Um, the infant not so innocent, uh, figure of the newborn water standing the only representation,
in fact, uh, I'm aware of of the water, uh, represented naked.
Um, um, and, um, and celebrated by the gods, uh, represented by the celestial instruments, uh, in the upper register of the scope of this panel.
Uh, no human presence, but the instruments themselves, uh,
represented evoking the divine music that was provided when the portals, uh, first bath was performed.
Um, number of representations. I'll show you just one from Pawnee and, um, Maharashtra.
Arguably one of the earliest, uh, representations of some of the, uh, more calendar, uh, legend.
Uh, and we see it here on the corner post of the, uh, the Vertica overall site, which is and have not been extensively excavated judgements,
but later data structures, including a temple, Hindu temple, which prevent full excavation.
But, uh, some items were recovered, uh, in the 1970s.
This is one of them in which we see, um, the Nagano calendar, uh, raising up and protecting the presence of the Buddha, indicated by the empty throne.
Now that, um, flat little stool with toned legs, uh, the dog of emerging from the lotus pond.
The knees. We know the name of the lotus pond. Uh, that's from our just south of Poggio.
Um, and, um, the inscription Brahmi gives of the, uh, protrude version of the calendar and names of the donors as a as and as an as a protest name.
Um, so Nagas themselves, um, essentially gave themselves to two roles in the emerging, um, narratives of Buddhism.
First, as the protectors of the potter.
Um, the calendar story is so good, Demises epitomises that the second role of of of the Nagas, uh, came after his passing, um,
where they sought to transform themselves into the unchallenged, self-appointed guardians of the his remains of the relics.
And we see this in various forms.
Or this relates to the previous point in which this extraordinary image of a trout is going under the cover of the book.
Um, and it shows there's the great Naga with his wondrous and strange rule.
Uh, sorry. Throat draw.
Uh, you see represented, uh uh uh, above and then his throat and below the throne here with the Buddha powder attached as well.
Another version for this. Oh, from a panel from the same site.
Uh, Dr. Decatur. Uh, upper right. It's a little hard to read.
It's now an act of worship in a nearby village.
Um, and remains there undisturbed. Uh, as it shows, not, uh, the empty throne, but in fact shows the stupa and so called.
So several read. This is the, uh, Rama Grama stupa, uh, where the Nagas protected the eight portion of the relics.
So, uh, you know that, uh, that their role as those, as protectors is very important.
Um, all of this goes, takes us back and forth to that moment, uh, of the division of the relics.
Um, and at that seminal moment when the Drona, um,
divided the relics into eight portions in order to prevent a, uh, a war between contesting parties shown here.
Uh, it was recently discovered representation from kind of going to Hollywood on the upper screen and from the older,
better known image from Nagarjuna, Konda Lo, in which,
uh, Drona was shown presenting, uh, the devoted relics, um, and the rather agitated,
uh, Mongols, uh, flanking him, um, cloak making the arguably making the claim.
Uh, for one portion. There are multiple stories about how the eighth portion of the relics were ended up in the possession of the nuggets.
You read for CNO swansong. Um, the Tron is, uh, to Pokemon.
Tron is Pokemon accounts. You get variant versions of whatever means whichever story you subscribe to.
Um, and August came at the procession of the eight portion, um,
which had been placed in the realm of Grandmaster Weathers and washed into the river and ended up in Mango Loco.
Whatever, uh, representation of that story here at Nagarjuna at $10 Harley, uh, controls the Nagas, clearly, uh, enveloping the dome of the stupa.
Uh, this affectionately knotted form of the twin bodies, uh, protecting the relics within.
And the scene on the left, I would suggest, represents that moment, that recorded historic moment when Emperor Ashoka,
um, uh, visited, uh, the the the eight locations to gather the relics for redistribution across the the Moyane Empire.
Uh, and was denied by the Nagas.
The oath portion. Um, and, um, and so just this is probably what the purposes were presented.
Uh, you know. The association of um the Nagas um, with tho with the relics um, and is enormously um and important um, and uh,
one of the things which gives us the special authority, uh, must relate to their exceptional,
uh, uh, their ability to live for a great age, their longevity.
Um, and we're told to never have, um, so, uh, that Ashoka honoured, uh, one Naga, uh, who at the at the,
at scene lived through the lifetime of four of the past Buddhas representing, uh, one and two, uh, you know, um, um, that images were was, was made.
Um, uh, so let's say mahalo, you know, doc Schnauz, um, and first of all, was held, um, uh,
this is all over encountered in the film server and echoed in the, um, uh, the other donor.
Um, but the, the one of the the key function of the of the Nagas, uh,
from the early time and why they were of such compelling interest to Buddhists, of course, was their ability to control the rains.
Um, and this, of course, exercised, uh, uh, life giving life, uh, over the life of mortals.
Uh, the path of the the coming of the monsoons or not, was, uh, critical to sustaining life in the subcontinent.
So Nargis, as the master of rains, was a pre-eminent concern, um, and acknowledged by Buddhists from the outset.
Um, and sometimes, sometime in the first millennium, rituals emerged in Buddhist practice to evoke the Nagas pleasure, to bring forth the rains.
Ronald Davidson has examined the Mueller mantra.
Darren is through a text verse preserved in Chinese translation in the early sixth century and later in Go-gurt, Gandhara and Tibetan versions.
It's an instrumental instructional text for rain making for use by ritual practitioners, by the jurors.
But Davidson calls saucers and reflects the wider use of mantras and ironies in Buddhist ritual practice in the mid first millennium.
As Davidson noted, the form of the ritual slightly embody rural practices of Naga wash,
including simple altars and the casting of grains and seeds accompanied by the recitation of magical spells.
At a junta. Uh, we see, um, several very majestic representations of narcos and mugginess.
Uh, through one on the screen. Um, we have an inscription from cave 16 which associates a donor inscription from Peralta Tovar.
Uh, which refers to the junta River Gorge as original, having been the abode of the Naga king.
Its peak. Quote, uh, reached by masses of rain clouds.
Um, and the inscription then goes on to say that this ruler founded a large cistern for water storage and a dwelling for the Naga king.
Uh, the Caroli suggests a Naga shrine on the pathway to cave 16 is likely.
That's a dwelling. Um. And it is referred to in the inscription.
Uh, more appropriate, perhaps marked with the place of the place of the abode of the Naga.
Also, in fact, the water tank itself. Um. It's noggins.
That's where they tend to like to. Um, I lived, um.
Water features at almost all the early bottles rock at sites.
We see it here at Patel Quarter Caves around the second century BC.
He uh, in which uh, in the folk ground of the great rock China, which is now largely, uh, collapsed.
Um, we see, um, it's a little hard to see if look at the image of a right.
To the left of that image is a rearing Naga, uh, protecting the entranceway to the lower terrace.
Um, and channels for the ducting of water, um, uh, which has been, um, channelled off from runoff from the great rock of crops, uh, outcrop um,
and channelled down where they would fill the reservoirs of man made principles to provide water on these elevated monastic sites.
Um, uh, during the dry season. Um, and of the image which was removed from this 100 years ago now and uh, Mumbai Museum of country Lakshmi,
uh, one of the earliest representations we have, uh, of, uh, the goddess represented here.
Of course, we know Governor Lakshmi to transcend sectarian boundaries issues.
Um. In Buddhist sites as well as grammatical sites.
Um, and here we have her, uh, being honoured with the, uh, upper shake.
Uh, the pouring of the of the blessed waters by the, uh, the elephants.
Um, uh, this this was originally placed in the lintel space visible between the two, uh, the often hostile, uh, guardians who flank the entrance.
Uh, representative. Now, finally, a grumpiness that brings us to notice.
I'm sorry it's taken a little time. Um uh uh uh uh uh uh, essentially a subgroup of the reactions.
Uh uh, there was the embodiments of were also identified and numerous Texas Guevara's
treasures of whom is to premier assistance were needy and some shrunken needy.
Uh, each member regarded as personified aspects of forever.
And as such, they would have been worshipped as his partial incarnations in the American tradition.
Compare West crown to the north overlordship of the US treasuries by paramount treasures in early Indic sources,
so multifarious and inexhaustible, whilst as primary conceived as material wealth, gold,
gemstones, oils and the like, it is also understood to encompass other treasures in degrees of wealth produced by human activity and extended,
uh to encompass human qualities and higher knowledge.
This orientation course was especially strong and protested thus, as well as being inexhaustible, source of jewels are also linked to Buddhist wisdom.
Uh, the treasure of Dharma, uh, of the Buddhist uh, as he put his magic, is found in the development of um,
and the amount of art to promote a fourfold system of is and of great size and contained in pots.
And according to these sources, the net is regarded by the four great non garages.
And I'll show you from Noguchi in a condo on the left, one of these great, uh,
pots which almost certainly were intended the quite numerous of the site uh,
which I would suggest were probably understood to be the receptacles for the 90, um, at that, uh, within the monastic complexes.
Um, and just for fun, an image from the extraordinary, uh, the John Devoir sutra, um, in which the, uh, known to many of you from, uh,
the youthful Southerners quest for awakening, uh, which reminds us, of course, that that wisdom was also one of the great treasures.
Uh. The countdown to Farewell So True is widely accepted as having originated from the Southern Tekong.
Around the second or third century,
in which wealth is celebrated in Buddhist logic as the fruit of merit making um of merit earning in a previous lifetime.
The association of Buddhism and wealth thus isn't a recurring theme,
with the greatest treasure attained, uh, attainable being, uh, spiritual awakening.
Yorkshire synagogues are routinely worship together. A superstar was a worldly brilliance, and domains distinguished by land and water, respectively,
now control the reins, so sway over career and wealth as kings of the subterranean.
They also command the wealth of beneath the land. Thus the power of new was in the gift of the nuggets,
just as the origins are likely to been in the earliest nugget cults, as expressed in the treasures, health,
the land and oceans, it was the narcos who guarded this wealth,
but the jurisdiction extended and took the control of charms and other forms of magical knowledge in early.
Other sources of Entrepeneur is identified as in Yorkshire and in the Mohamed I.
Sorry again. Sorry, I think I've covered that point.
Um. And he singled out new entrepreneurs, singled out in brutal sources as one of the great Donald protectors,
um, who assumed supreme guardianship, the business tax that Dharma needed, uh, along with other treasurers.
So he's very much linked to the new tea world.
Um. So this brings us then to back also to the, um, uh, the uh, trunk annuity and uh,
pod manager, uh, which we saw at the very beginning and the wish fulfilment tree.
And here we see in the fourth century AD now Katrina condo and the first, uh,
fully personified forms, um, and unremarkable, uh, sculptural images and, um, brought back to, uh,
to us again and writing in the negative to be called messenger, where he describes a mansion entrance,
uh, painted with depictions of Shunk and Padma, uh, with their bodies portrayed as, quote unquote.
Thank the doorway. Uh, so we we know that they were represented in pictorial form.
And here in the nugget,
you come to representations probably around 400 and common era and we see them represented in this is unique and representations.
Uh, the distinctive feature, of course, is the cascading of coins from their crowns, from their lotus crown and the, uh, conch crown, respectively.
And not kind of cause they're essentially gonna like, uh uh, uh, figures.
So let's get to her. Painted representations of cavalry and date of the night is virtually unknown.
I'm sure one unique survivor from Sri Lanka, from underground opera, from the church of Arnhem Wall Street.
Uh uh uh uh uh chamber within one of the, uh, yoga platforms in which we see the forearmed.
Green representation of capoeira, uh, unique survivor from Sri Lanka, um,
which gives us a glimpse of what some of these images, uh, must have looked like.
But no sculptors. And Nagarjuna can't produce these extraordinary images of the of the, um, personifications.
Um, here you have them alongside their rich, uh, symbolic representations as the conch, uh, and, uh, and the lotus.
Um, and I'm reminded around the same time as the unicorn,
the sculptors who produce these personifications, uh, that panegyric in a similar time frame.
Uh, we have, uh, the representation of both nudity, uh, still in the, uh, symbolic form.
Um, uh, you look closely at this scene.
Uh, um, which may be a representation of, of, uh, of the truck revolt in the, um, monitor, um, among one daughter, um, or simply of a truck revolting.
Um, of the the chairman of the drills of the truck revolt and are represented um,
and in the background on those, uh, I'll show you in the detail, uh, uh, what is clearly a conch and a lotus.
From which four down coins.
Uh, so these are exactly replicating, uh, the representations of the best Naga wish fulfilment tree of the second century B.C.
Um, so both traditions continued this symbolic representation.
Uh, following the texts of the, uh, referring to the, uh, uh, the.
The conch and the lotus, and then the anthropomorphic representation from the Katrina content.
Um, representations continue into the competition period.
Um, here, I show you the entrance to okay 19, at which time in fifth century, in which we see this room,
um, representation almost certainly of Kibera, um, standing and holding in his lower hand.
Uh, what we can clearly reach is a purse or money purse. And if you look at the in presentation on the upper right, uh, from, um, uh,
late Kushan to early Gupta, uh, Mortara again is holding the purse in the in the lower left hand.
Token. Left hand. Um, and the detail below in which the needy is cascading coins, uh,
perhaps from a sack over his shoulder are totally clear, and they are gentle in their drawn to clothing.
When Tiburon ventures north into the Himalayan world, and Tibetan practices and beliefs,
uh is very much aligned with the indigenous nature cults associated with wealth, and his pre-eminent Tibetan form is, of course, of that of Ravana.
Um, and I'll share this wonderful image from around 1400, uh, great Tibetan Tonka, uh, collected by two tree in the 1930s.
Uh, uh, where we show ravenous, the esoteric protector of the South, directional guardian and wealth protector, embodying all of these roles.
Um, and I particularly focus now, um, in conclusion, on the representations of wealth, the mongoose that he holds on his knee.
Uh, upper left. You see the, uh, disgorging, uh, treasures from its chores, um, vomiting forth the wealth of the earth that has gathered, um, um,
and below this extraordinary, uh, representation of a native, uh, in which, um, a turtle which has a sack upon his shoulder.
Um, and the sack, um, appears to emanate from the small sculpture, turns at the pinnacle of his cranium,
and then to cascade down, uh, into, uh, treasures into a waiting vessel, the planet Garter.
Um, this may be a fanciful reading, but, uh, it's also, I think, if you look carefully,
uh, it's very critical to explain precisely what is happening this.
And we reminded that nearly all the representations of Neeti in Sri Lanka involve the carrying of the jewels in a sack over the shoulder,
which then cascades down at the feet before them.
Uh, precisely the representation represented here in this detail.
Um, um, and this particular form.
So, um, you have the, uh, carrying the sack of treasures.
The types of treasure represented. Pearls, coral.
Um, this special type of, uh, Chinese gold coinage we know is in circulation, uh, in, in the yuan.
And only Ming periods also show on, um, within the tree to this treasure.
Uh, in this in this depiction, um, and, um.
I want to just conclude by bringing onto the screen, uh, Buddhist relics from Piraha.
Uh, the offerings that were made by Buddhist devotees to use the relic chamber.
Uh, some 1600 of these small, precious objects, uh, which were placed in the, uh, rather quiz within the cask,
uh, very burial casket up here from excavations and, um, 1898, um, by William Pepi.
Uh, extraordinary. Um, and, um, simply to make the point that these, these offerings of rock, crystal, ivory,
uh, pearls, coral, copper, gold, aromatic woods, uh, all exotic objects and in most cases,
objects which have come from other places but have travelled, um,
and therefore reflect the commercial reach of the merchant communities and their role of suppliers of such precious things from faraway places,
from the earth and the ocean. Thank you.