The Future of Indian Art History

Author(s): John F. Mosteller

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1989), pp. 597-
602
Published by: American Oriental Society
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 THE FUTURE OF INDIAN ART HISTORY
JOHN F. MOSTELLER

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

The goal of Indian art historians has long been to understand the visual coherence of their
monuments, to clarify their historical relationships and to comprehend their meaning. The
essential priority of historical reconstruction to cultural interpretation has been difficult to
maintain, and the time has come to set aside the idea that cultural interpretations can be made
independent of specific historical contexts. The priority hitherto given to meaning must be
subordinated to the fundamental priority of history. Ways to analyze styles of surviving
monuments must be developed on the basis of the significant formal criteria inherent in the
monuments themselves. These criteria can only be apprehended by examining the Indian artist's
technical approach and his understanding of forms through their unique measure. Imaging
technology provides us with the means to access the self-explanations encoded in the morphologies
of the surviving monuments.

INDIAN ART HISTORY IS ON the threshold of a new
beginning and its goals, methods, and research pri-
orities will all be affected. In what follows I consider
the changes which are soon to take place in each of
these areas. My purpose in doing so is to outline an
agenda for researchwhich has the capacity to revitalize
the field of Indian art history by significantly broaden-
ing and deepening the quality of its achievement. I
offer this essay now in honor of Ernest Bender, whose
own insights have inspired it,' and as a constructive
response to what I believe are the special opportunities
and challenges for scholarship in this field in the late
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.2
The goals of the field of Indian art history have
long been to understand the visual coherence of the
monuments-to clarify their historical relationships-
and to comprehend their meaning.3 Logically, the
latter should be based upon the former. However, in
the case of Indian art, the essential priority of histori-
cal reconstruction to cultural interpretation has been
difficult to maintain. This is so for two very different
reasons. First is the virtual absence of written history
in ancient India which has made it hard to establish
any kind of detailed historical contexts for the monu-
ments.4 Second is the unfortunate fact that it became
acceptable, from early on, to assert that Indian art is a

I
Indian art has long been a primary interest of Ernest
ilender. As a result, it seems most appropriate to honor him
here by sharing with others an outline of its future study
which has been articulated in numerous discussions with him
over the last several years. In these discussions, his en-
thusiasm for the future of Indic studies in general, and the
clarity of his insight into the role new technologies are
destined to play in our investigations, have been a constant
source of inspiration as I have labored to bring about such a
change in the field of Indian art.
2 1 have put these ideas into writing out of a basic belief in
the inherent value of reflecting upon the progress of one's
field for guiding the definition of its future. In offering this
essay it is my intention to provoke both discussion and
action: both are needed if the work I outline here is to be
effectively carried out.
3 By visual coherence is meant the chronological and
regional distribution of the monuments and, hence, their
historical relationships to one another. Style is a key factor
for the art historian in establishing this visual coherence.
Hence, styles must be defined by identifying their significant
criteria so that their transformation and possible interaction
can be traced in terms of time and region. By meaning is
intended the various levels of meaning implicit in the art
object and connected to its function. These include the
artist's understanding of it, the meaning it had for the people
who commissioned it, and the meaning(s) it may have
acquired from others both at the time of its production and
also later.
4 History in India
is largely a history of dynasties based
upon inscriptions, which are, ultimately, highly limited sources
of information. For a useful discussion of the problem of

597

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598 Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.4 (1989)
monolithic phenomenon and, hence, that its true
meaning transcends the contexts of history.' Given
this viewpoint, many scholars over the years have
been content to elucidate the meaning of Indian art
on the basis of only rough chronologies of the monu-
ments and a very imperfect understanding of their
stylistic interrelationships.
While this perpetual fascination with meaning can
be viewed as an intellectual response to the highly
symbolic nature of Indian art, the time has come to
set aside the idea that cultural interpretations can be
made independent of specific historical contexts. There-
fore, our goals must be reordered and the focus of our
field shifted: the priority of meaning must be sub-
ordinated to the fundamental priority of history and
this must be done in spite of the difficulty of recon-
structing the historical context in India. Furthermore,
in our attempts to establish the historical foundation
necessary for truly meaningful interpretations, our
primary source of information must be the monuments
themselves and not the ahistorical traditions recorded
by the texts. We must now confront the basic problem
which has for so long frustrated our progress: we
must develop ways to effectively analyze the styles of
the surviving monuments on the basis of the informa-
tion only they can provide us.
The history of Indian artistic styles and, hence, the
history of the monuments themselves, will be written
only when we can precisely identify the significant
formal criteria of the different styles and thereby trace
history in India see: A. L. Basham, "Ancient Indian Ideas Of
Time and History," in Prdcyavidyd-TaranginTGolden Jubilee
Volume of The Department of Ancient Indian History and
Culture, ed. D. C. Sircar (Calcutta: University of Calcutta,
1969), 49-63.
5 To deal properly with this conception would require a
separate study of the history of the study of Indian art. Here,
I would only like to observe that this conception, based upon
the traditional conception of the interrelationship of the arts
and the evidence of cultural continuity in the subcontinent,
has often been articulated on the basis of a largely uncritical
use of the ahistorical textual tradition. While it is true that
there was some relationship between the visual arts and
dancing, instrumental, and vocal music, we must also ac-
knowledge that each art in India has its own distinct history
which cannot be easily linked to all the other arts if for no
other reason than for a lack of concrete evidence. Similarly,
while the reality of cultural continuities cannot be denied, we
have to acknowledge that there has been considerable change
over time and the formation of strong patterns of regional
variation.
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their spread, interaction, and development, both chron-
ologically and geographically. These criteria cannot
be completely perceived by the human eye; they
cannot be adequately communicated by the use of
poetic or impressionistic language, and they cannot be
accurately understood through the application of
Indian philosophical concepts. Instead, these criteria
can only be apprehended and understood by examin-
ing what we have for too long neglected: the Indian
artist's technical approach to the articulation of his
forms.
The Indian artist understood his forms-all his
buildings, images, and motifs-in terms of their unique
measure.' His style inhered in the distinctive mor-
phology of his tradition and this morphology was
understood, transmitted, and re-created by virtue of
measure. The measure of these forms was memorized,
at the fundamentallevel-in two and three dimensions-
as linear patterns and articulated volumes.7 Fre-
quently, this mnemonic process was guided by the use
of visual devices-consisting of lines and points-to
which the linear patterns and volumes were bound
both in the artist's mind and in execution.8 These
6
What follows is a concise summary of the approach of the
Indian artist as I have been able to reconstruct it on the basis
of a synthetic study of surviving craftsmen, ancient texts,
and a quantitative analysis of a large body of ancient Indian
sculpture. For a concise explanation of this approach see:
John F. Mosteller, "A New Approach for the Study of
Indian Art," JAOS 107 (1987): 55-69; and for a much fuller
discussion see: John F. Mosteller, The Measure of Form: A
New Approach for the Study of Indian Sculpture (New
Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1988).
7 As I have shown elsewhere, sculptors use drawing to
control the realization of carved volumes. The correct con-
tours of volumes, in a given tradition of sculpture, were
memorized through the repeated carving of these forms
where drawing was used to indicate the shaping to be done
by the chisel. This interactive procedure of drawing-carving-
drawing-carving assured that the two-dimensional design of
an image or motif would be consistently translated into a
specific three-dimensional form. See: John F. Mosteller,
"Texts and Craftsmen At Work," Proceedings of The South
Asia Seminar, Vol. 4, n.s., ed. Michael Meister (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania, Department of South Asia Re-
gional Studies, 1988).
8 These devices were compositional and constructional in
function: they controlled both the disposition of the two-
dimensional design of an image, motif, etc., as also the
proportions that it would be assigned. The control these
devices permitted is the reason why forms and their mode of
 MOSTELLER: The Future of Indian Art History
same devices could also be articulated proportionally,
thus permitting the same form, motif, or image to
reflect the application of varied systems of proportion.9
This process of mnemonically transmitting mor-
phology or style necessarily entailed two collateral
developments which further defined the Indian artist's
approach. First was the development of convention-
alized vocabularies of forms, motifs, images, etc., by
groups of artists at all periods. Second was the
development of a method for transmitting (memoriz-
ing) these morphological vocabularies involving a
process of repeated exercises of drawing and carving.
This process of repetition, integral to learning the
articulation of forms, also defined the artist's creative
process: in creating an image or designing a temple
the artist or architect was re-creating (repeating) what
he had learned from his teacher. As a result, an
artistic style was not the creation or property of just
an individual, but rather a corporate reality: it was the
representation (style) cannot easily be separated in Indian
art. For some discussion of these devices in various traditions
please see: Clifford Reis Jones, "Dhulicitra: Historical Per-
spectives on Art and Ritual," in Kaldarsana: American
Studies in the Art of India, ed. Joanna Williams (New Delhi:
Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., 1981), 69-75; David P. and
Janice A. Jackson, Tibetan Thangka Painting: Methods &
Materials (Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 1984).
9 For how proportions can be manipulated in
figural
sculpture please see the references in footnote six above and:
John F. Mosteller, "The Practice Of Early Indian Icono-
metry," Proceedings of The Conference on the 9dstric Tradi-
tion in the Indian Arts (Heidelberg: University of Heidelberg,
South Asia Institute, in press). This same type of] manipula-
tion also occurs in architecture where the different com-
ponents of the building, i.e., the mouldings, pillars, pilasters,
capitals, brackets, and various parts of the superstructure,
could be assigned different proportions to obtain both the
formal attenuation necessary in the tower over the shrine as
also different effects in the overall composition of the temple
itself.
10 However, the perception of his talent and, hence his
livelihood, did not only depend upon his ability to repeat the
forms he had learned form his teacher. Both also depended
upon his inventiveness in recombining the same forms in new
ways according to the established principles of composition
operative within his tradition. Therefore, the Indian artist's
approach allowed for innovation by permitting variation in
the combination of forms and their relative proportions. In
addition to these, subtle modifications in the forms them-
selves were introduced by artists, either by accident or by
intention, which further distinguished one artist from another.
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599
shared interpretation of conventionalized sets of
visual forms by groups of artists living and working
together. These groups of artists, whether related as
families or not, preserved discrete visual traditions
(morphologies) that were transmitted over time from
teacher to student and moved with the artists as they
travelled from place to place."
This Indian approach to the articulation of form
explains why we have, so far, been unable to achieve a
clear understanding of the history of styles in the
subcontinent. We have tried to do for years what
cannot be done: to define and understand the corpor-
ate styles of Indian art in terms of divisions of time
(dynasties) and space (regions). Furthermore, even the
more recent terms of idiom and mode'2 while more
conceptually accurate will only gain real meaning
when we shift from what has been an essentially
descriptive approach to one that is fully analytical.
What this analytical approach or method must do is
permit us to perceive, with precision, the subtlety and
complexity of formal variation inherent in the repeti-
tive creative process of the Indian artist. The reality of
this variability-generated through repetition-and
everywhere apparent in the monuments of the subcon-
tinent, no longer needs to stand in our way, for it can
now be quantitatively recorded, perceived, and ana-
lyzed through the adaptation of imaging technology
to the study of visual art. As a result, we must now
recognize that Indian art is particularly suited to the
The role of artist families in Indian art has been raised
and explored, in particular, by B. N. Goswamy in relation to
Pahari painting. In this pioneering work, Goswamy has
established an important model of the relation between the
life of a style and the life of a family of painters. He shows
how an artistic style, conceived within the context of a
family of artists, grows and changes with the family itself as
its members move from one Pahari princedom to another.
The way in which the same style comes to be found in
different places is instructive of what we often find in ancient
Indian art as well. For Goswamy's model see: B. N. Gos-
wamy, "Pahari Painting: The Family as The Basis of Style,"
Marg, 21.4 (1968): 17-62.
12Several examples of recent scholarship using these terms
are: Michael W. Meister, "Style and Idiom in the Art of
Uparamala," in Felicitation Volume for U. P. Shah, special
number of the Bulletin of the Baroda Museum and Picture
Gallery (forthcoming); Phillip Wagoner, Mode and Mean-
ing in the Architecture of Early Medieval Telangana (c.
1000-1300) (Ph.D. diss., Madison: University of Wisconsin,
1986).
600 Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.4 (1989)
application of a quantitative method of analysis speci-
fically because the artists themselves understood and
transmitted their imagery and buildings as measured
forms.
The first and most fundamental implication of this
suitability is that we must revise both our basic
conception of Indian images and temples and the role
they are to play in our analysis of them. Presently,
laboring under the limitations of a descriptive ap-
proach, we primarily conceive of these objects as
works of art to be appreciated and explained by
referring to external sources like, for example, texts,
inscriptions, archaeological reports, etc. However, we
must now recognize that the best data for explaining
the historical relationships of these objects is the
information they themselves embody: given the Indian
artist's approach to the articulation of form, the
configuration of the surfaces of an Indian image
or temple encode what can be called their self-
explanation. This self-explanation is our primary data
and it can only be properly obtained and analyzed
through quantitative means.
The adaptation of imaging technology13 to the
analysis of visual art provides us with the necessary
means to access the self-explanations encoded by the
surfaces or morphologies of the surviving monuments.
These computerized systems, by digitally capturing
the continuous dimensions of the object, will now
make it possible for us to apprehend the measured
line and volume of the Indian artist's forms. Through
a comparative analysis of the monuments, electronic-
ally executed, this new tool will lead to the definition
of a new standard of morphological analysis. This
standard will go far beyond the best standard so far
achieved by the field in the study of Indian temple
architecture.14Furthermore, it will be applied to the
1' Imaging systems are currently used in a variety of
technical applications including medical diagnosis, engineer-
ing, architectural design and commercial design. For a good
introductory survey of the main methods of image processing
please see: G. A. Baxes, Digital Image Processing: A Practi-
cal Primer (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1984).
1 This standard is being defined in the volumes of the new
Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture being pub-
lished by the American Institute of Indian Studies. The
volumes so far published are: South India: Lower Drdvid-
adjsa, 200 B.C.-A.D. 1324, vol. I, pt. 1, ed. Michael Meister
(New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1983);
South India: Upper Dravi~dadea, Early Phase, A.D. 550-
1075, vol. 1, pt. 2, ed. Michael Meister and M. A. Dhaky
(New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1986).
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arts of sculpture and painting as well. This new
morphological analysis will permit us to define with
precision, for the first time, the formal language of
both temple architecture and figurative art through a
comparison of all the forms found within any given
tradition. On the basis of such analysis, the history of
the corporate styles of Indian art will finally be
written and the achievement of the Indian artist
properly understood.
The reordering of our goals-the subordination of
meaning to the reconstruction of historical context-
and the shift from a descriptive to an analytical and
quantitative method or approach, have considerable
implications for the future course of research in the
field. The agenda of research priorities that these
changes point to is divided between two basic areas:
(1) the documentation and analysis of all sources
relevant to reconstructing the approach of the ancient
Indian artist, and (2) the integration of a quantitative
approach in the study of Indian art.
A key source for the reconstruction of ancient
practice remains the surviving art and craft traditions
of the Indian subcontinent. These still living traditions
preserve the parameters of traditional artistic practice
which can be invaluable in guiding our formulation of
hypotheses about ancient practice which will now be
tested by an increasingly sophisticated analysis of the
monuments.'5 Furthermore, the so-called folk art
traditions preserved in the tribal or village contexts,
offer a living record of the folk sources that con-
tributed so much to the 'high' artistic traditions of
ancient India. Thus, our first and urgent priority must
be to intensify efforts already underway to document
all these surviving traditions.'6 This documentation
15 In certain cases, like traditional sculpture and architec-
ture, the living traditions provide us with our only remaining
link to the oral traditions of ancient times. This information
is vital to future analysis of the Wilpa-and vdstusastra which,
because of their frequently garbled language, must be cre-
atively decoded by referring to other evidence relating to
practice that is available only in the living traditions. This
approach to the texts has a long history, established at the
beginning of this century by pioneers like Ananda Cooma-
raswamy and W. H. Hadaway. See: Ananda Coomaraswamy,
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art (Broad Campden: Essex House
Press, 1908; revised and reprinted, New York: Pantheon
Books, 1956); W. S. Hadaway, "Some Hindu 'Silpa' Shastras
in their Relation to South Indian Sculpture," Ostasiatische
Zeitschrift, 3 (1914-15): 34-50.
16 It seems to be only a matter of time before the pressure
of an increasingly technological culture overwhelms the
 MOSTELLER: The Future of Indian Art History
must be systematic, in depth, and multi-disciplinary.
As a result, coordinated teams of researchers must be
sent into the field to document the materials, tech-
niques, and social background of each tradition. This
documentation should utilize all means available in-
cluding video taping. All technical procedures and the
production of objects must be so documented, and
this should be accompanied by extensive interviewing
of the practitioners focusing on the methods of their
training and their own understanding of their work.
The function of the objects produced should also be
examined in all relevant contexts. Finally, the social
background of the practitioners themselves should be
studied with special attention paid to their social and
economic relationships to the broader communities
they serve.
A second important source for reconstructing an-
cient practice is to be found in what the ancient artists
have left unfinished. Unfinished work, whether limited
to isolated images or entire temples, can provide us
with considerable information about how the artists,
at a given place and time, actually worked. Therefore,
a program must be undertaken to document, in detail,
the abundant record of unfinished art in the sub-
continent.17 While documentation should be compre-
hensive, analysis of the evidence must be conducted
within the context of specific traditions of sculpture
and architecture. The analysis of these remains must
be coordinated, where possible, with information de-
rived from both the living traditions and texts. 18 It
communities preserving these traditions. It is likely that by
the end of the century these traditions will be either hope-
lessly corrupted by commercialization, or extinct. Efforts
to document Indian folk traditions are presently being
sponsored by the Indira Gandhi National Centre For Arts in
New Delhi.
17 Some work has already been initiated on this topic. See:
Hermann Goetz, "Building and Sculpture Techniques in
India, Part I: The Pre-Classical Phase," Archaeology, 15.4
(1962): 252-61; Hermann Goetz, "Building and Sculpture
Techniques In India, Part II: Classical and Later Times,"
Archaeology, 16:1 (1963): 47-53; Joanna Williams, "Un-
finished Images," India International Centre Quarterly, 12.1
(1986): 90-105.
1 The ancient texts on art-the gilpa- and vdstugdstras-as
also all other texts that contain information on gilpa and
vistu, represent very important sources for the future study
of Indian art. It must be emphasized here that all these texts
need to be collected and studied. However, there is clearly
much work to be done to prepare these texts before they can
be fully utilized by art historians.
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601
will only be through such an integrated analysis that
we will be able to maximize the value of each of these
lines of evidence.
Ultimately, of course, the greatest source of infor-
mation about ancient practice is to be found in the
vast number of finished monuments that have sur-
vived. However, extracting this information requires
the integration of a quantitative approach to the study
of Indian art. The integration of this approach is
clearly dependent upon the adaptation of imaging
analysis. It also requires, as an initial stage, a funda-
mental shift in the way we conceptualize our research.
The new conception of monuments as discrete and
quantifiable data bases necessarily means that we
must now pursue their study from a quantitative
perspective. What this implies is that the monuments
can no longer be superficially catalogued and dis-
cussed-on the basis of subjective observation alone-
as mere examples of different stylistic traditions.
Instead, the goal of analyzing the data they embody,
requires that we deal with the objects of these different
traditions as data samples to be analyzed, where the
definition of hypotheses will automatically entail the
identification of the specific data one wants to extract
from them. Unlike the subjective and often imprecise
nature of visual observations, the data collected for a
quantitative study will be objective and precisely
identified; its sheer quantity will require the use of
computers to manage and analyze it. Therefore, while
most current studies address hypotheses through a
descriptive narrative illustrated with photographs, a
quantitative study will address hypotheses through the
analysis of a unique data base: the descriptive narra-
tive will be replaced by a presentation of the findings
of data analysis, and the interpretations of those
findings supported by the data. As a result, in addition
to illustrations, quantitative studies will include a
published data base.'9
The full integration of a quantitative approach will
require the creation of digitized data bases of Indian
monuments and this will be a major focus of research
for many years to come. This task, of course, involves
the adaptation of imaging technology to the analysis
'9 The publication of data bases will be
necessary only
when individual scholars support their studies upon a data
base they have created themselves. As this approach develops
and institutional data banks are created, it will be possible
for scholars to do studies where they present only the
analysis of the data and not the data itself. The latter will
be available to scholars through the various data banks
themselves.
602 Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.4 (1989)
of Indian art and this must begin with the develop-
ment of systems for digitizing groups of individual
sculptures and miniature paintings.20On the basis of
this work, it will then be possible to create portable
systems for digitizing more complex monuments like
the narrative reliefs from Deogarh, Mahabalipuram,
Badami, Ellora, etc., and the surviving cycles of cave
and temple paintings at Ajanta and elsewhere. Ulti-
mately, these systems will be adapted for digitizing
entire temples. Therefore, what must of necessity
begin as individual projects, will quickly become a
focus of institutional concern in museums around the
world and, as a result, data bases will be replaced by
data banks. We must, therefore, also anticipate the
international need for the establishment of digitized
data bases of monuments in situ in India, and the
creation of a network to access electronically informa-
tion from one data bank to another.
The development of these data bases will, of course,
ultimately serve the cause of analysis.2' Even at the
initial level of individual projects, it will be possible to
pose and answer a number of questions that we have
never been able to ask of our material.22This process
20 I am currently engaged in this work with a focus on
Indian sculpture in both stone and metal.
21 The data bases will fulfill several important non-analytical
functions. They will serve as an essential form of object
documentation which will, ultimately, replace photographs.
Because they will document the object in such a precise way,
they will also become important records for tracing stolen
objects and for restoring objects if damaged.
22 In order to appreciate the number of different questions
that we will be able to ask and answer, we must each imagine
having, in digitized form, the particular body of material we
are working with now. Initial questions would logically focus
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of inquiry will lead to the further definition of the new
standard of morphological analysis discussed above,
and this standard will be extended and refined as the
number and size of our data bases grow. As data
banks of digitized monuments are established, sup-
porting numbers of different projects over many years,
our increasing knowledge will lead to a magnification
of both the precision (quality) and speed of our
analytical capabilities. As a result, what, at present,
would take one scholar an entire career to achieve,
will be attained in a fraction of that time. Given the
vast remains of Indian art, this acceleration in the
collection and analysis of data will not exhaust the
field. On the contrary, the field will expand in response
to an unprecedented increase in data.
The future of Indian art history rests upon the
active pursuit of this basic research agenda and our
individual and collective efforts must be directed to
the many projects it encompasses. All of us now
working in the field must, as a result, accept the
challenge implicit in the technological transformation
of our world by computers: we must adapt our
training and insights to a new range of possibilities in
order to use these wonderful tools in the service of
scholarship. The future of our field is no longer
something distant or open to speculation: the future
of our field is now and it is time for us to respond
appropriately to the new opportunities for discovery
that are appearing before us.
upon the way in which the morphologies of our objects are
similar and different. In the case of sculpture, this type of
analysis will, for example, permit a real consideration of
contour or volume articulation as a significant component of
style differentiation.