The Emergence and Spread of the Buddhist Tārā Cult in India between 7th Century CE and 11th Century CE with Special Reference to the Sirpur Tārā Bronzes

Sirpur (Lat. 21° 25’N, Long. 82° 11’E) is a small village on the right bank of Mahanadi in the Mahasamund District of Chhattisgarh. It is an important archaeological site and archaeological excavations at Sirpur revealed that it was an important centre of Mahayana Buddhism in Central India. Numerous bronze images of the Buddha and Buddhist deities such as Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, Tara etc. were found from Sirpur. In this paper, an attempt has been given to discuss the sculptural and iconographic bronze images of Tara from Sirpur. A comparative study of these Tara images with the Tara bronze images found in other Buddhist sites of India has been carried out. The article will highlight the iconographic features of the Buddhist goddess Tara and her importance in the contemporary religious settings during the 5th–6th centuries CE.


INTRODUCTION
In the Vajrayana Buddhist pantheon, several Buddhist deities were being worshipped. According to the Vajrayana faith, the god was answerable to his śakti. It was believed that the male gods could be approached through their respective śaktis. The establishment of a female deity and its iconography is found in Sadhanamalā and Niṣ pannayogavalī, the important Buddhist texts associated with the Buddhist iconography (Misra 1992: 96-97). Vajrayana marked not only the beginning of tantric rituals but also set a new trend in art and iconography around the 6 th century CE (Getty 1928: 120). Tantrism and śaktism can be seen in the worship of ten different knowledge called Daśamahavidya. Among these deities or śaktis, Tarā was the second important mahavidyā or deity (Gupte 1972: 117). She was recognised as the śakti of Avalokiteśvara. She was also the śakti of the Dhyani Buddha, Amoghasiddhi. She was worshipped through her two distinct forms, viz. Śveta (white) Tarā and Nīla (Blue) Tarā in the 6 th -7 th century CE. According to Bhattacharya (1958), Tarā can be divided into five groups, viz. Green Tara, White Tara, Yellow Tara, Blue Tarā and Red Tara.
The earliest images of Tarā belonging to the 6 th -7 th Cent. CE were introduced in the Buddhist caves of Western India. Her worship was popular at Kanheri, Ellora and Aurangabad (Sengupta 1955-57;Dhavalikar 1963-64). Over time the worship of Tarā became popular and thence many images of hers which can be dated to c. 7 th /8 th centuries CE onwards have been discovered in many parts of the Indian subcontinent. It appears that her worship continued till c. 12 th -13 th centuries CE as testified by her sculptures, panel's paintings and associated religious objects. Sirpur (21° 25'N,82° 11'E) is a small village on the right bank of Mahanadi river in the Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh. It is an important archaeological site and is well-known for its brick-built Lakshmana temple of the 8 th century CE. It was the capital of Śarabhapuriyas and Paṇ ḍ uvaṃ śis of Dakshina Kosala during the fifth and eighth centuries CE. The ancient name of Sirpur was 'Śrīpura' (Mirashi 1947: 47), (Srivastava 1984: 2), (Deva 1988: 219). The archaeological excavations at Sirpur revealed that it was an important centre of Mahayana and early Vajrayana Buddhism.

DISCOVERY OF THE SIRPUR BRONZES AND SUBSEQUENT RESEARCH
In the year of 1939, Bhikhamdas Goswami, the priest of the Gandheswara temple in the Sirpur temple complex, accidentally found a hoard of around 60 bronze sculptures during some construction work. (Srivastava 1984: 50). These sculptures included several images of the Buddha and two images of Tara. However, most of the images were smuggled and several images fell into the hands of different persons. Fortunately, some of them were collected by a Jaina monk, Muni Kantisagara (Kantisagara 1959). He published a few articles on these images including the Tarā pantheon image. 1 The bronze sculptures from the find were further dispersed; but the efforts of the Nagpur State Museum and the Govt. of Madhya Pradesh in 1952 and 1956 resulted in the acquisition of twelve images (Chandra 1985: 126) which included four Buddha images in the bhumisparśamudra, four images of Avalokiteśvara, two images of Mañjuśrī, one image of Vajrapaṇ i and one image of Tarā (Dikshit 1955-57). Eleven of them were sent to the Mahant Ghasidas Memorial Museum, Raipur. One was recovered by the curator of the Central Museum, Nagpur. hoard of seventy-nine bronze images of Buddhist deities and votive stupas was recovered from a Buddhist Vihara site (SRP-31) (Sharma 2010: 28).
This article presents the results of studying the bronze images of the goddess Tara, from Sirpur and locating them in the context of other contemporary centres of Vajrayana faith in India that have yielded bronze images of Tara. The basis of the present study is art history and salient features of images have been subjected for comparison to analyse the similarity or dissimilarity observed in these images. The images of Tarā from Sirpur include one image from a cache of images discovered and subsequently kept in the Ghasidas museum, Raipur; and five bronzes found in Sirpur excavations by Dr. A.K. Sharma (Sharma 2007 The sculptures excavated by A.K. Sharma (2010) found in Sirpur belong to the 7 th to 8 th century CE as claimed by the excavator. The present image of Tarā is under a good state of preservation. The halo of the image is comprised of four types of mouldings. The innermost moulding is plain and is semi-circular in section. The next moulding is also plain and is flat in section. The third moulding is a thick band having two distinct ridges on both the sides with a row of beaded pattern in the centre. The outermost moulding essentially depicts a circle of emanating flames. However, this depiction is manifested in the form of conch shells arranged in an oval pattern. A larger bead can be seen at the centre between the third and the outermost moulding. A cylindrical shaft that emerges from the back of the image can be seen attached to the halo.
As regards the iconography of Tara, she is shown seated in lalitasana over the viśvapadmapīṭ ha. 2 She is covered with folded drapery, shown hanging near right leg. Her right leg is shown resting on a separate projection which is connected to the lower pedestal and her left leg is shown folded on the upper pedestal. Her right palm is displayed in varadamudrā while the left palm is slightly raised and is shown holding the stalk of an Utpala. The stalk of the lotus is shown wrapped around the palm and further going down to the pedestal from behind the left leg. Another flower 2 This is a double-petaled lotus pedestal. It has two platforms, one made of lower row of petals (also called as lower pedestal) and an upper pedestal made of the upper row of petals.

S. NO.
HALO ATTRIBUTES POSTURE JEWELLERY CLOTHES PEDESTAL

Fig.12a
Oval halo with flat and beaded mouldings, ornate bead, long leaves, four-petaled flower and conch shell-type flames.

Fig.12b
Oval halo with semi-circular, close flower and beaded mouldings, ornate bead, long leaves, four-petaled flower and tongues of flames.

Fig.12c
Oval halo with flat and broken beaded mouldings, ornate bead and long leaves, four-petaled flower and tongues of flames.
Padmapīṭ ha with Beaded edge.

Fig.12d
Oval halo with flat and broken beaded mouldings, ornate bead and tongues of flames.
Padmapīṭ ha with Beaded edge.

Fig.13b
Oval halo with flat and broken beaded mouldings, ornate bead, long leaves, four-petaled flower and conch shell-type flames.
Utpala and lotus bud.
Varadamudrā with circular mark and lalitasana.
Viśvapadmapīṭ ha with Beaded edge and the rectangular flat base. depicted on the right side of the deity's face. It appears that it is essentially shown to hide a lateral bar that can be seen from behind. This bar is probably an outcome of the manufacturing technique. Another bar that can be seen directly emerging from behind the deity's face and going vertically, is decorated with a four-petaled flower and two lateral long leaves.
Her body is shown in dvibhanġa mudra. The face is slightly round in shape with half-closed eyes, prominent nose and thin lips. She is bejewelled with padavalayas, valayas, keyura, ekavalī, karṇ akuṇ ḍ alas, Śankhavalaya, tilaka on the forehead, triangular beaded mukuṭ a is visible on the head, her hair is arranged in a cuḍ ā with a couple of coiled curly long strands falling on the shoulders.
The deity is placed over the double petals lotus (viśvapadmapīṭ ha). The lower set of petals gracefully dropping down and upper petals pointing upwards. The beaded edged pericarp visible on the pedestal (Sharma 2010: 92).

TĀRĀ (FIG. 12B) (TABLE 1) (REG. NO. 765)
This sculpture is corroded. The halo of the image is oval. It consists of six mouldings. The innermost moulding is plain and circular in section. The next moulding is made up of a closely carved floral design, followed by another band of a plain moulding. This, in turn, is followed by two plain, one thin and the next thick, mouldings. The sixth moulding is comprised of two parts; the inner beaded band and the outer depicting tongues of flames at regular interval. An ornate bead is visible on the top of halo in the centre. Two lateral and one vertical bar support the image from behind. The vertical bar is covered with a four-petaled flower and two long leaves flanking it.
Tarā is shown seated in the padmasana and the upper and lower portions of her body are covered with different clothes viz. uttarīya and adhovastra respectively. Her both hands are resting on the knees. Right palm is displayed in varadamudrā with circular mark, while the left palm holds a long stalk of an Utpala which is attached to the halo at the shoulder level (Sharma 2010: 90).
She is bejewelled with many ornaments such as valaya, keyura, mekhala, a beaded necklace with pendant, Śankhavalaya, a long heavy stud in the right ear and a circular earplug in the left ear. The urṇ ā mark can be seen on her forehead. Her hair is styled in a cuḍ ā and is fastened with a decorated hairband. Locks of long curly hair are visible on both the shoulders. Her eyes are shown to be ardhonmīlita. She has thin lips. The nose of the image is broken.
She is shown seated on a single-petaled lotus pedestal or a padmapīṭ ha having a beaded line on the upper edge. The lower edge of the pedestal is attached to the plain moulding.

TĀRĀ (FIG. 12C) (TABLE 1) (REG. NO. 781)
The sculpture is weathered and hence all the details are not properly visible. The halo of the image is oval with three plain mouldings the outermost moulding being shown with tongues of flames at regular intervals, a few of them broken. Two lateral and one vertical bar are attached to the image. Both lateral and vertical bars are covered with a four-petaled flower flanked by long leaves. One ornate bead is attached to the top of halo in the centre.
The goddess is shown seated in padmasana and is dressed in uttarīya for upper body portion and adhovastra for the lower. Her right palm is shown resting on the knee in varadamudra. A circular mark is visible on it. The left hand is raised and is shown holding the stalk of an Utpala. According to Sharma (2010: 91), the posture of the hand exhibits jnãnamudrā or vyakhyanamudra.
The image is shown decorated with valayas, keyura, mekhala, ekavalī, Śankhavalaya and a tilaka mark on the right foot. Her hair is styled in a cuḍ a. Her long curly hair locks are shown resting on both her shoulders. Her eyes are shown to be ardhonmīlita. She has a prominent nose and thin lips.
She is seated on a padmapīṭ ha that has a beaded line on the edge.

TĀRĀ (FIG. 12D) (TABLE 1) (REG. NO. 821) (SHARMA 2010: 92)
This sculpture is also corroded like the previous one. As in the case of other images, the halo of the image is also oval. However, it has only three plain mouldings with the outermost depicting 5 Singh Ancient Asia DOI: 10.5334/aa.218 tongues of flames interspersed with beads at regular intervals. Some of these 'tongues' are broken. Two lateral and one vertical bar are attached to the image. A central ornate bead can be seen at the top of the halo.
She is seated in padmasana and is dressed in uttarīya and adhovastra. Her both hands are resting on the knees. The right hand is in Varadamudrā with tilaka mark while the left hand is shown holding a long stalk of an Utpala which is attached to the halo.
The deity is ornamented with valayas, keyura, mekhala, ekavalī, Śankhavalaya and karṇ akuṇ ḍ alas. Her hair is styled in a cuda. Her long curly hair locks are shown resting on her shoulders. Her eyes are shown to be ardhonmīlita. She has a prominent nose and thin lips.
The deity is placed over a padmapīṭ ha that has a beaded line on the edge. A female devotee sitting on her knees with hands in namaskaramudrā is attached to the right side of the pedestal over one of the petals.

TĀRĀ (FIG. 13A) (TABLE 1) (REG. NO. 828)
This particular image is broken and only its bust is available for the study. However, according to Sharma (2010: 92), her features give an idea that it is an image of Tara. She is decorated with many ornaments such as keyura, ekavali, Śankhavalaya round and heavy karṇ akuṇ ḍ alas. Her hair is styled in a cuḍ a, tied with a diadem on the forehead. She draped in an uttarīya which has covered her breasts. A small portion of the lateral bar is visible on the right side which means it has an elaborated halo (Sharma 2010: 92).

TĀRĀ (FIG. 13B) (TABLE 1)
This particular image belongs to the 1939 hoard which was rescued by M.G. Dikshit in 1956(Dikshit 1955. According to him, the deity dates back to the 10 th -11 th century CE.
The halo of the image is comprised of three types of mouldings. The innermost moulding is plain and is flat in section. The next moulding is a thick band having two distinct ridges on both the sides with a row of beaded pattern in the centre. The outermost moulding essentially depicts a circle of emanating flames. However, this depiction is manifested in the form of conch shells arranged in an oval pattern. A larger bead can be seen at the centre on the outermost moulding.
The deity is shown seated in lalitasana over the viśvapadmapīṭ ha. Her right leg is shown resting on a separate projection attached to the lower rectangular pedestal while the left leg is placed over the pedestal. Her right palm is displaying the varadamudrā while the left palm is resting behind the left leg and holding a stalk of an Utpala. The lateral bars are covered individually with a small flower and a lotus. The vertical bar over the head bears a small four-petaled flower with two leaves on both sides. Her body features are prominent. She is posed in dvibhanġa.
She has a roundish face and apart from a prominent nose nothing is visible. She is decorated with beaded padavalayas, mekhalā with a central pendant, valayas, beaded keyura having a central ornament, ekavali, Śankhavalaya and hara, elongated karṇ akuṇ ḍ alas and a tilaka on the forehead. A mukuṭ a is visible on her head, her hair is arranged in a cuḍ a and couple of coiled curly long hair locks are shown resting on her shoulders.
She is seated in vamalalitasana over the viśvapadmapīṭ ha. Beaded edged pericarp visible on the upper petal lotus. Double petaled lotus attached above the rectangular flat base with plain mouldings followed by four legs in the corner.
According to A.K. Sharma, the bronze images which were found in Sirpur during his excavation period belong to the 7 th -8 th century CE (Sharma 2010: 31). The images that belong to the 1939 hoard rescued by M.G. Dikshit in 1956(Dikshit 1955: 7) date back to the 7 th -11 th century CE. Images one to five in this article were recovered by Sharma who dates them to ca. 7 th -8 th century CE. Fig. 6 in the article belongs to the cache recovered by Dikshit, which he dates to ca. 10 th -11 th Century CE.
A close study of these images reveals that these images can be analysed and compared with each other based on five criteria viz. halo, pedestal, lotus, hand postures and sitting postures. The picture that emerges through such a comparative analysis is as follows. 1. Halo: The basic feature of halo appears to be of the multi-moulded type. However, it can be further classified into -Type 1 (Fig. 1): Plain semi-circular mouldings, cylindrical shaft and tongues of flames at regular intervals.
Type 2 (Fig. 2): Closely carved floral design, semi-circular mouldings, tongues of flames at regular intervals and cylindrical shaft.
Type 3 (Fig. 3): Single beaded band, flat and broad moulding, close tongues of flames and cylindrical shaft.
According to this classification, the halos of Figs. 12(a) and 13 (b) of Sirpur belong to Fig. 3 type; that of Fig. 12 (b) belongs to Fig. 2 type and those of Fig. 12 (c) and (d) are of Fig. 1 type. Same type of Halo can be seen in images found from Achutrajpur, Nalanda and Jhewari ( Table 2).
Pedestal: The pedestal is classified into three types based on its essential characteristic features-Type 1 (Fig. 4): Padmapīṭ ha or single petaled lotus.
Type 3 (Fig. 6): Padmapīṭ ha or Viśvapadmapīṭ ha with a flat rectangular base, plain moulding and four legs.
According to this classification, the pedestal of Fig. 12 (a) of Sirpur belongs to Fig. 5 type; those of Fig. 12 (b, c & d) belong to Fig. 4 type and that of Fig. 13 (b) is of Fig. 6 type. Same type of pedestal can be seen in images found from Achutrajpur, Nalanda, Kashmir, Kurkihar, Nagapattiam, Antichak, Fatehpur, Ratnagiri and Jhewari (Table 3).
According to the above classification, the Utpalas of Fig. 12 belong to Type 1 and the Fig. 13 (b) belongs to Type 2. Same type of Utpala can be seen in images found from Achutrajpur, Nalanda, Kashmir, Kurkihar, Nagapattiam, Antichak, Fatehpur, Ratnagiri and Jhewari (Table 4).
Image 1 (Pal 1975  According to this classification, the hand postures of Fig. 12 (a & c) are of Fig. 7 type; those of Fig.   12 (b & d) belong to Fig. 7 type and that of Fig. 13 (b) is of Fig. 7 type. Same type of hand postures can be seen in images found from Achutrajpur, Nalanda, Kashmir, Kurkihar, Nagapattiam, Antichak, Fatehpur, Ratnagiri and Jhewari (Table 5).
According to this classification, the sitting postures of Figs. 12 (a) and 13 (b) of Sirpur belong to Fig. 10; that of Fig. 12 (b, c & d) belong to Fig. 9 type. Same type of sitting posture can be seen in images found from Achutrajpur, Nalanda, Kashmir, Kurkihar, Nagapattiam, Antichak, Fatehpur, Ratnagiri and Jhewari ( Table 6).
Overall Aesthetic Appearance: Figs. 12 (a) and 13 (b) show similarity as regards the narrow waist and broad hips. Fig. 12 (b, c & d) though have narrow waists, their hips are not as broad as that of the Figs. 12 (a) and 13 (b). Secondly, Figs. 12 (a) and 13 (a & b) have broad shoulders, because of which they also have heavy busts. When compared these features with Fig. 12 (b, c & d) these figures appear to be having narrower shoulders and not so heavy breasts. Besides, as regards the ornaments, Figs. 12 (a) and 13 (a & b) are shown with more elaborate ornaments such as keyura, padavalaya, valaya, mekhala, ekavali etc.; whereas Fig. 12 (b, c & d) are shown wearing valaya, mekhalā and ekavali.
Based on the above discussion we can classify these images as regards their chronology. Fig.   12 (b, c & d) share the common less developed artistic features and hence can be dated to c. 7 th -8 th century CE. The Figs. 12 (a) and 13 (a & b) show more elaborate features as discussed above and can satisfactorily be placed to c. 10-11 centuries CE. As mentioned above, all these images have been dated by Sharma (2010) (Figs. 12 (a) and 13 (a)) to 7 th /8 th centuries CE. Dikshit (1955-57) has dated Fig. 13 (b) to c. 10 th /11 th centuries. Considering the similarities among Figs. 13 (a & b) the present author is the opinion that all the three figures are contemporary and belong to c. 10 th /11 th centuries. Images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (Mitra 1978: 102-108, Plate 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99, 100 Fig. 12 a, b, c,  The criteria used for the analysis and classification of the Sirpur Tarā bronzes were also used to analyse the Tarā bronzes recovered from other sites in India. These sites include Achutrajpur and Ratnagiri (Odisha), Nalanda, Kurkihar, Antichak and Fatehpur (Bihar), Kashmir valley (exact provenance not known) and Tamil Nadu (Nagapattinam). Besides, bronzes recovered from Jhewari (Bangladesh) were also considered for the present analysis. The main purpose of this comparative study was to check the veracity of the methodology adopted for the classification of the Sirpur Tarā bronzes. It was observed that all these bronzes from other sites show some amount of commonality when it comes to their basic features and attributes, but also vary in their executions and expressions. These bronzes were subjected to the comparative analysis employing the same criteria. The results are as follows. 3
The overall picture that emerges from this study suggests that within 110 years of its inception as a deity of importance, the popularity of Tarā spread in most of the regions of the subcontinent. Though various centres of the Vajrayana Buddhism emerged in different regions they were somehow connected.
The concept of saviour goddess was introduced into the religious behaviour in the popular religious tradition by around 5 th /6 th centuries CE. In Buddhism, in particular, the notion of a goddess saving from danger and protecting the followers seems to have emerged by around the same time as testified by the early images of Tarā in Western India. Templeman (1981) discusses stories of Tarā where she is depicted as the saviour of her devotees from many dangers or fears, at times eight or even sixteen. This must have facilitated the spread of the popularity of Tarā as a saviour deity. She very quickly transcended from being a mere śakti of