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07 Feb
2025
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Indian Aesthetics
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Monika Zin
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Image: Deity, from Kizil, Cave 38, lunette of the front wall, Berlin, Museum for Asian Art, no. III 8700 © Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, CC BY-NC-SA
On the northern fringes of the Taklamakan lay Kucha, whose elite cultivated a special fondness for Indian culture; this is mirrored by the wall paintings and countless fragments of Sanskrit manuscripts that have been preserved there. Kucha developed its own independent cultural system, which influenced the areas further to the east, but thanks to the favourable climatic conditions, documents have been preserved there that are of first-class importance for the study of Indian Buddhism and non-Buddhist India.
Session I: Introduction to caves and paintings & what we can learn from them
What is exceptional about Kucha is that the architecture (Buddhist caves), its decoration (paintings, mostly of a narrative character), inscriptions in the local language (Tocharian B) and scriptures (in Tocharian and Sanskrit, found in the caves) have been preserved there. However, since almost everything we know about the Tocharians comes from a sacred environment, our understanding is incomplete and requires attempts to look behind the Buddhist curtain. The deities and demons worshipping the Buddha reveal much about local beliefs; the frequently depicted court jesters (or theatrical vidūṣakas) and surviving writings reveal local interests in non-Buddhist subjects.
Session II : Traces of Brahmin culture
It is rather unlikely that a Brahmin ascetic was ever seen in Kucha, and yet the paintings depict very many stories about them. Just as their iconography was adopted from India, so were the ideas about them. And these were contradictory already in India. On the one hand, Buddhism does not believe that Brahmā created the world, but criticism of the ‘world created by Brahmā’ can often be found. Buddhism knows many Brahmas and also the Brahmakāyika deities; to be born in their heaven was highly desirable – apparently also in Kucha.
Online Public Lecture on ZOOM
P.S: The Zoom link to join the lecture will be shared 24 hours prior to the talk.
Duration -
February 7, 2025
Timing: Lecture: 6:30 - 8:30 pm IST
Fees
Rs. 1,000 (For student discounts registrations kindly email info@jp-india.org)
Register
Monika Zin
Monika Zin studied drama, literature, art history and Indology in Krakow and Munich, where she taught the art of South and Central Asia for 25 years. She currently heads the research group ‘Buddhist Murals of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road’ at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. Zin has contributed to numerous studies on Buddhist narrative art, ranging from Kucha to Borobudur in Java. She is particularly interested in the art of ancient Āndhradeśa; her book on Kanaganahalli was published in 2018 (Arian). She has published two books on Kucha, Parinirvāṇa Story Cycle (2020) and on Gods, Deities, and Demons (2023) (DEV).