Depictions of children in pre-modern Indian art

Sun Jan 24 21:35:07 UTC 2010

I have read some of the materials you mention, Asko, and thank you for the
references.  I look forward to digging in.

One thing: Michio Yano has shown (refs. below) that "graha" in the classical
ayurvedic texts almost never refers to planets.  The medical discourse is
about (potentially) malevolent, mostly female, sometimes bird-like, beings.
They have no planetary aspect.

Yano finds only three passages, interestingly all from the Susrutasamhita,
in which "graha" refers to a heavenly body (Su 1.6.19, 1.32.4,
6.39.266cd-267ab, Trikamji's NS 1938 edition).  Yano also analyses the
history of the semantic shift of "graha", saying as you do in "Hind-leg"
that the story begins with an eclipse demon.  But you refer (p.50) to the
"oldest Tamil and Sanskrit texts" as already referring to something
heavenly.  At lest for the ayurveda literature, which you discuss on p.54, I
would say that the grahas are not in any association with the heavens.  Your
characterisation of them as malignant demons is, I think, quite right.  In
your book Deciphering, you discuss the medical texts without actually saying
outright that you think they are talking about planets.  But on p.237b you
say that "there can be little doubt about the identity of Skanda-graha with
the red planet Mars".  To me, there can.  I see nothing in the text itself
that suggests this.  Wider arguments from other contexts may point to
Skanda=Mars, and that may illuminate subterranean connections in the
ayurvedic texts for the comparativist, but the ayurvedic text itself at this
point gives no hint of any planetary connection.

The tradition of manuscript illustration in the medical grahaśānti texts
that I have studied, mainly Nepalese MSS of the 15-19 century, also gives no
planetary connection.  Pingree's extraordinary paper (
http://www.jstor.org/pss/751535) on the planetary images found in Wellcome
MS Indic alpha 721, painted in about 1700, traces the literary history of
grahaśānti rituals in India to the Vaikhanasa literature of the fourth or
fifth century AD (p.4).  (Incidentally, Pingree also reminds us that
Sphujidhvaja assigns Skanda to be the deva of the planet Mars.)  But the
images in Wellcome MS Indic alpha 721 are not connected with the text of
that MS (Lagnacandrikā), nor are they connected in any way with ayurvedic
medicine.

Best,
Dominik Wujastyk

1. "Calendar, Astrology, and Astronomy", in Gavin Flood (ed.), The Blackwell
Companion to Hinduism, 2003.

2. "Planet Worship in Ancient India" in Hogendijk, J. P.; Plofker, K. &
Yano, M. (eds.) Ketuprakāśa: Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in
Honour of David Pingree, Brill, 2004, 331-48.

2010/1/24 Asko Parpola <asko.parpola at helsinki.fi>

> Dear Dominik,
>
> On the historical background of demons attacking children and their
> connection with the planets (Sanskrit graha), and cults purporting getting
> children, see my book "Deciphering the Indus script" (Cambridge 1994,
> reprinted in paperback in 2009), especially pp. 225-239, and my paper
> "'Hind-leg' + 'Fish': Towards further understanding of the Indus script" in
> Scripta Vol. 1 (2009), pp. 37-76 (downloadable from www.harappa.com)
>
> With best regards, Asko Parpola
>
>
>
> Quoting "Dominik Wujastyk" <wujastyk at GMAIL.COM>:
>
>  With many thanks indeed to Claudine Bautze-Picron for the references
>> below,
>> which I didn't know, and to all the other colleagues who have offered
>> useful
>> pointers and suggestions.
>>
>> I realize I should have mentioned the genesis of my query.  The Sanskrit
>> texts on Grahaśānti, or the pacification of demons, are commonly cast as
>> discourses about how these demons attach children and make them ill.  For
>> example, the Ravanakumāratantra, that was studied by Filliozat in the 40s.
>> However, when one looks at illustrated Grahaśānti MSS (Wellcome MS Indic
>> alpha 1936, 15th century Nepal, for example,  see
>> here<
>> http://medphoto.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/obf_images/9a/15/30a95ed38aedfd8ee660dac8b5f5.jpg
>> >),
>>
>> the demons are depicted attacking what appear to be adults.  I always
>> assumed the victims were adult, but my students raised the question with
>> me
>> that perhaps the victims were intended to be children, but just looked
>> like
>> adults to us.
>>
>> Dominik Wujastyk
>>
>> 2010/1/24 Claudine Bautze-Picron <cbpicron at gmx.de>
>>
>>  Dear Colleague,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The following references could be of interest to you:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 1) Vincent Lefèvre, "L'enfant-modèle dans la sculpture d'Inde du Sud, des
>>> Pallava à Vijayanagar", in: Les âges de la vie dans le monde indien,
>>> Actes
>>> des journées d’étude de Lyon (22-23 juin 2000) édités par Christine
>>> Chojnacki, Paris: Diffusion De Boccard, 2001, pp. 217-231. (Lyon: Centre
>>> d’Études et de Recherches sur l’Occident Romain de l’Université Lyon 3,
>>> Collection du Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur l’Occident Romain,
>>> Nouvelle série n° 24). (+ some more papers on childhood).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2) Édith Parlier, "L’image de l’enfant dans l’iconographie bouddhique de
>>> l’Inde", in : Enfances, éd. Flora Blanchon, Asie n°4, 1996, p.9-40. And
>>> see
>>> http://www.creops.paris4.sorbonne.fr/publications_fiche.php?id=5 for the
>>> contents of this volume.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Claudine Bautze-Picron
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Dominik
>>> Wujastyk
>>> Sent: Samstag, 23. Januar 2010 18:50
>>> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
>>> Subject: Depictions of children in pre-modern Indian art
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Can you point me to a scholarly discussion of this topic?  What are the
>>>
>>> earliest depictions of children in S. Asian art?  What deductions can be
>>>
>>> made about the idea of the child from any such images?  What I'm thinking
>>>
>>> about is the S. A. evidence that might inform a discussion of the
>>> "invention
>>>
>>> of childhood".
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Dominik
>>>
>>>
>>
>>