Salabhanjika

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Hoysala
era sculpture, Belur, Karnataka, India

A salabhanjika or shalabhanjika is a term found in

yakshi next to, often holding, a tree, or a reference to Maya near the sala tree giving birth to Siddhartha (Buddha).[1] In Hindu and Jain art, the meaning is less specific, and it is any statue or statuette, usually female, that breaks the monotony of a plain wall or space and thus enlivens it.[2]

In Buddhist literature, salabhanjika also refers to an ancient Indian festival, one celebrated when sala tree blossoms in the context of Buddha's life.[3]

In literature, apart from the statue meaning, Salabhanjika can mean a doll, or fairy, or a seductress (harlot) depending on the context.

Indian sculpture
found inside and outside religious and secular spaces of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain architecture.

In Buddhist sites, reliefs on

tree deities in Indian popular religion, related to fertility.[5]

Sanchi Stupa
site

Etymology

Built about 1100 CE, the Iswara Hindu temple in Jalasangvi Karnataka features many salabhanjikas, none with any tree. Among these is a woman writing a Sanskrit inscription in Kannada script on a slab.

The word śālabhañjikā is a compound Sanskrit word consisting of śālā and bhañjikā. The word bhañjikā means 'breaking, interrupting". The word śālā means any "house, space, enclosure, wall, court" – such as in dharmaśālā (rest house) or gośālā (resting space for cows).[6] The same word also refers to the sala tree, a valuable timber tree used to construct homes and other buildings.[6] According to Vogel, a Sanskrit scholar, the different meanings of the word salabhanjika in the Indian traditions, may be linked to the respective significance of sala tree, the Buddhist tradition associating it with the birth of Buddha, while Hindu and Jain traditions using the same tree as timber for making statues and other objects of art.[3]

Vogel states that the word salabhanjika is found neither in the Vedic literature nor in Pali literature and nor in the major Indian epics, but appears in Indian classical literature of early 1st-millennium CE such as

Natyashastra in verses 2.83–84.[3] This may reflect that the literature followed the tradition and popularity of carving wooden statues.[3] The term is also synonymous with terms madanika, putrilika, stambhaputri, stambhaputrika, and putrika.[7] Prasanna Acharya – a Sanskrit scholar and the author of An Encyclopedia of Hindu Architecture, states that śālā and bhañjikā appear in verse 2.79 of the Natyashastra in the sense of "a wooden image".[8]

The word salabhanjika appears with uddalakapushpa-bhanjika and asokapushpaprachayika as ancient games in early Hindu Sanskrit texts, says Sivaramamurti – an art historian and Sanskrit epigraphist.[9] These games were played by girls who collected flowers from the Sala, Asoka and other trees, then arranged them in colorful patterns or decorated their hair with them. This cultural event inspired sculpture, states Sivaramamurti.[9] He concurs with Vogel and states that over the centuries, the word salabhanjika came to mean "any statue and nothing more", irrespective of the presence or absence of tree, whether female or male, in architecture or literature.[9]

Vogel, Acharya, and other scholars concur that in the arts and literature of the Hindus and Jains, the term salabhanjika has simply meant any statue on any pillar, wall, or in any hall.[7][10][8]

Locations

In the Buddhist traditions, among the renowned shalabhanjika sculptures with sal tree are found in Bharhut and at the gateways (Torana) of

Shunga dynasty dating to the 2nd or 1st century BC. This may reflect the remains of the ancient city of Pataliputra.[citation needed
]

In the Hindu traditions, among the renowned salabhanjika sculptures without sal tree are those at the 12th-century

Hoysala temples of Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura, in south-central Karnataka
. Some of the salabhanjika in Hindu and Jain temples may include decorations of flower or vine motifs behind or to the side of the statue or relief.

Salabhanjikas have been found in many historic temples of India, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. These include the

Chalukya period temple in Jalasangvi in northeast Karnataka, many in tribhanga
(S-shaped) pose. These early sculptures were the source of inspiration for the later Hoysala bracket-figures.

Salabhanjikas
  • Buddhist, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh
    Buddhist, Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh
  • Buddhist, 11th-century north India, now at Museo d'Arte Orientale (Turin, Italy)
    Buddhist, 11th-century north India, now at Museo d'Arte Orientale (Turin, Italy)
  • Hindu, Belur, Karnataka
    Hindu, Belur, Karnataka
  • Hindu, Halebidu, Karnataka
    Hindu, Halebidu, Karnataka
  • Hindu, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu
    Hindu, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu
  • Hindu, Sirpur, Chhattisgarh
    Hindu, Sirpur, Chhattisgarh
  • Hindu, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
    Hindu, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
  • Hindu, 12th-century Odisha, now at Altes Museum, Berlin
    Hindu, 12th-century Odisha, now at Altes Museum, Berlin
  • Hindu, Panauti Indreshwar Temple, Nepal
    Hindu, Panauti Indreshwar Temple, Nepal
  • Hindu (with tree motif), Phanom Rung, Thailand
    Hindu (with tree motif), Phanom Rung, Thailand

Related iconography

The sal tree (Shorea robusta) is often confused with the

Gautama Buddha under an asoka tree in a garden in Lumbini, while grasping its branch.[12]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Salabhanjika.
  1. ^ "Temple Strut with a Tree Goddess (Shalabhanjika)". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  2. ^
    OCLC 6828640
    .
  3. ^ a b c d J Ph Vogel (1929). "The woman and tree or Salabhanjika in Indian Arts and Literature". Acta Orientalia. 7: 202–209.
  4. ^ H.D. Velankar (1936). "Apabhramsa Meters". The Journal of the University of Bombay. V (9): 57–58.
  5. ^ Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. (1946)
  6. ^ a b Monier Monier Williams (1994 updated), Sanskrit English Dictionary, शाल śāla śālá, page 260
  7. ^ a b J Ph Vogel (1929). "The woman and tree or Salabhanjika in Indian Arts and Literature". Acta Orientalia. 7: 206–219.
  8. ^
    OCLC 697763683
    .
  9. ^
    OCLC 143045
    , pp. 1-2
  10. JSTOR 592847
    .
  11. ISBN 978-3-424-00898-2
  12. ISBN 978-3-424-00897-5
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