origins of the kashmiri style 179
A range of commentators, representing a wide spectrum of fields of expertise,
including history, religion and art history, have suggested an equally varied
range of origins (Kashmiri or local) and dates. Often, the sculptures of Dras
and Mulbek are lumped together. One can find dates of the seventh, eighth,
ninth and tenth as well as no earlier than the eleventh. Even privileging in
this situation the opinions of the art historians formally trained in Asian art,
we have a range of eighth-ninth (Susan Huntington), ninth-tenth (Fontein
and Pal), second half of the tenth (Siudmak) and possibly eleventh, awaiting
“a more secure chronology for comparative pieces.”54
My own opinion is that it was done by a Kashmiri artist in the tenth or possi-
bly early eleventh century. First, I obviously disaggregate the Mulbek sculpture
from the other related works, which need to be treated individually. The Dras
sculpture I have dated above to the seventh or early eighth century, the Kartsé
Maitreya to the ninth. Second, regarding the identity of the artists, there are too
many tiny details, almost invisible to the unaided eyes, which can be related
with the visual vocabulary of unquestionably Kashmiri sculpture, to suppose
that a local artist had so thoroughly imbibed and absorbed an imported style as
to create such an integrated image. We know from productions of metalwork in
neighbouring areas in the eleventh century that local artists make inevitable,
unconscious changes to the Kashmiri idiom, even while attempting to emulate
the foreign style.55 Here, the bodily proportions, the transparency of the gar-
ment, the elegance of the garment fold, the style of jewellery, the piled up hair
and the corkscrew plaits, the particular treatment of the nāgapuṣpa flower,
the length of the vanamālā, can all be paired with excavated objects or those
collected from the Kashmiri sites for which they were made. For two examples
of small, inconspicuous items that an epigone would probably not have got-
ten right, I point to the flower-head rosette medallion on the chest and belt
and to the ears (figs. 5.14–5.15). Nearly identical rosettes are found on the sleek
Vaikuṇṭha Viṣṇu of ninth century Avantisvāmin in the Sri Pratap Singh (SPS)
Museum in Srinagar (fig. 5.19). They appear on the crown, necklace, and belt
and additionally as earrings. A related treatment of the nipples is also visible, and
a similar, if less extreme punctuation of smooth surfaces with repeated high
relief studs in most of the jewellery. The back of the same sculpture depict-
ing the fourth head shows ears which are pushed forward and out at the tops
like the Mulbek bodhisattvas’ ears, with heavy double rings pulling down
the scored earlobes. Several other sculptures in the SPS Museum, including
54 Huntington, Art of Ancient India, 376; Fontein, “Rock Sculpture,” 7–8; Siudmak, Hindu-
Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir, 494; Luczanits, “Early Buddhist Heritage,” 68.
55 See Luczanits, Christian, “From Kashmir to Western Tibet: The Many Faces of a Regional
Style,” in Linrothe et al., Collecting Paradise, 109–149.