INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

 

Copper Anthropomorphs and Early Indian Sculptures

Speaker: Dr. J. Manuel, Archeological Survey of India

 

Although Brahmanical religion is very ancient, the currently known and acknowledged images are not older than 2500 years. This is because of the general understanding propounded by earlier Vedic scholars that Vedic religion is aniconic despite mention of images in  the Rgveda . The present paper quoting from the Rgveda about the images of Indra being made, alludes to the many verses, as to how the imagery of the Copper Anthropomorphic figures primarily found from the Ganga-Yamuna Doab region are the images of Indra and Vishnu. These copper images datable from as early as 4000 years ago. 

                                                                                                 

The powerful imagery of the copper anthropomorphs in vogue for more than a thousand years, has had a great impact on the transition to stone images wherein the outlines of the earlier figures were copied, albeit with some minor changes across the centuries. This influence of the earlier copper images on the stone images is clearly visible till about the mature Gupta age, when its effect started to become attenuated