PRIMAL MOTIFS

FELLSNE Tree & Serpent, a seminal exhibition of early Buddhist art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, showcases how Buddhism incorporated the prevalent animistic nature cults of the day into its storytelling

- Shruti Ravindran

At the heart of the Tree & Serpent exhibition showcasing early Buddhist art in India from 200 BCE to 400 CE at the Metropolitan Museum in New York are sections of a monument so stunning they’re worth the price of entry all by themselves. Soaring above the visitor are whitened limestone fragments of a monumental gateway—a torana— bookended by expressive composite animal creatures: lions, elephants and griffins, each topped by a rider and fused to toothy open-mouthed makaras, mythic sea creatures with lolling tongues. Between their jaws unfurl exquisitely carved panels depicting episodes from the Buddha’s biography.

TREE & SERPENT
Early Buddhist Art in India
By John GuyMAPIN ₹3,950; 344 pages

These ancient treasures were only recently disinterred during a 2003 excavation in Phanigiri, a “snake-hooded hill” monastery complex that flourished in modern-day Telangana between the 3rd and 4th centuries. Coming to the exhibition “direct from the godown under the management of Telangana State Archaeology Museum”, they represent just a few of the over 125 relics on view until November 13 in New York, and represent, according to the Met’s curator of South and Southeast Asian Art John Guy, “the largest exhibition of antiquities to come out of India in a generation”.