New York museum to exhibit Indian sculpture
Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York is preparing to throw open its doors to an excellent curation of Buddhist stone sculpture by MET curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, John Guy, that will be on from July 21 to November 13. Replete with exquisite fragments bearing narratives from India's remote past, the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, 'Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India 200 BCE-400 BCE,' focuses on the Deccan's pivotal role in shaping the Buddhist landscape of early India and beyond. The historical Buddha Sakyamuni did not live or die in the Deccan.
But southern trade routes (Dakshinapatha), Indian Ocean trade, and pilgrim networks ensured patronage, movement of artisans and merchants, and the spread of monastic lineages and texts, causing numerous stupas and monastic complexes to be built. The display of Indian Buddhist art in museums abroad is, of course, not new. The British Museum in London houses an entire gallery devoted to the Buddhist art of Amaravati.
But early Buddhist art of the Deccan spans half a millennium, from about the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, and has a lot more to offer beyond the landmark sites of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda. Two of the most tantalising discoveries of Buddhist heritage in recent decades — Kanaganahalli in Karnataka and Phanigiri in Telangana — belong to these parts. There is so much at these sites that awaits greater attention and appreciation.
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