Depictions of children in pre-modern Indian art

[Michael Slouber]

Dear Dominik,

In one Grahaśānti type Newari manuscript I have a copy of (filmed as NGMPP reel no. E1689/4), there do seem to be some children depicted.  You can view a figure <here> that is very likely to be a child, while some others are more ambiguous.  The lower folio shows a short and chubby figure wearing the protective anklets that Newars still put on their children to ward off harmful grahas and the like.   Several of the figures in this text appear to be women, perhaps pregnant women who along with their unborn are especially vulnerable.  

Richard Mann's 2003 dissertation (McMaster University) "The Early Cult of Skanda in North India: From Demon to Divine Son" should be of interest if you haven't seen it already.

Sincerely,

Michael Slouber
UC Berkeley, Universität Hamburg




On Jan 24, 2010, at 5:52 PM, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

> 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
>>