Essay name: Scythian Elements in early Indian Art
Author:
Swati Ray
Affiliation: University of Calcutta / Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture
This essay studies Scythian Elements in early Indian Art鈥攁 topic that has not garnered extensive scholarly attention. Although much research has focused on various aspects of Saka/Scythian culture, such as politics and numismatics, their contribution to Indian art remains underexplored. This essay delves into archaeological evidence, historical texts, and art forms from Eurasian steppes to decipher the Scythian impact.
Chapter 4 - Scythian / Saka Art
113 (of 115)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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157
snakes; or the human female becomes fused with snakes or birds. Whether
they take the form of Gorgon-Medusas, Mistresses of Animals, sphinxes,
battling Amazons, the human aspects of the female images shift our
attention to the realms of death, the underworld, and monstrous
generations. The materials drawn from the burials of the eastern section
contemporary to the Pontic burials of the Scythians in the western section,
appear to confirm, that human imagery had virtually no place within the
subject-matter of early nomadic art.
Just as a comparison between materials from the 艢aka, Pazyryk, and
Tagar traditions with analogous materials from the Scythians leads to the
inescapable conclusion that the style and subjects of the latter derive from
the culture that spawned the former, so the rock carvings of northern
Central Asia
Asia
promise
promise
to offer increasingly useful materials for
understanding the origins and possibly the meaning of Scythian visual
imagery. The panels from the Altai region with anthropomorphic imagery
and the traces of an ancient pre-Turkic epic tradition鹿 in Inner Asia,
suggest that it is not necessary to construct complex mythic traditions from
a variety of Indo-Iranian traditions. We must take into account the fact that
the Scythians came into the northern Pontic region as foreigners with their
own strong traditions of belief, ornament and ritual. As they moved
鹿Art.Scy., p.77.
