Ancient Nepal, ca. 500 B.C.-A.D. 700

Ancient Nepal, ca. 500 B.C.-A.D. 700 Neolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people were living in the Himalayan region in the distant past, although their culture and artifacts are only slowly being explored. Written references to this region appeared only by the first millennium B.C. During that period, political or social groupings in Nepal became known in north India. The Mahabharata and other legendary Indian histories mention the Kiratas (see Glossary), who still inhabited eastern Nepal in 1991. Some legendary sources from the Kathmandu Valley also describe the Kiratas as early rulers there, taking over from earlier ​Gopals or Abhiras, both of whom may have been cowherding tribes. These sources agree that an original population, probably of Tibeto-Burman ethnicity, lived in Nepal 2,500 years ago, inhabiting small settlements with a relatively low degree of political centralization. Monumental changes occurred when groups of tribes calling themselves the Arya migrated into northwest India between 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C. By the first millennium B.C., their culture had spread throughout northern India. Their many small kingdoms were constantly at war amid the dynamic religious and cultural environment of early Hinduism. By 500 B.C., a cosmopolitan society was growing around urban sites linked by trade routes that stretched throughout South Asia and beyond. On the edges of the Gangetic Plain, in the Tarai Region, smaller kingdoms or confederations of tribes grew up, responding to dangers from larger kingdoms and opportunities for trade. It is probable that slow and steady migration of Khasa (see Glossary) peoples speaking Indo-Aryan languages were occurring in western Nepal during this period; this movement of peoples would continue, in fact, until modern times and expand to include the eastern Tarai as well. One of the early confederations of the Tarai was the Sakya clan, whose seat apparently was Kapilavastu, near Nepals present-day border with India. Their most renowned son was Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-483 B.C.), a prince who rejected the world to search for the meaning of existence and became known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One. The earliest stories of his life recount his wanderings in the area stretching from the Tarai to Banaras on the Ganges River and into modern Bihar State in India, where he found enlightenment at Gaya still the site of one of the greatest Buddhist shrines. After his death and cremation, his ashes were distributed among some of the major kingdoms and confederations and were enshrined under mounds of earth or stone called stupas. Certainly, his religion was known at a very early date in Nepal through the Buddhas ministry and the activities of his disciples. continues... Glossary KhasaA term applied to the peoples and languages in the western parts of Nepal, closely related to the cultures of northern India. KirataA Tibeto-Burman ethnic group inhabiting eastern Nepal since before the Licchavi Dynasty, just prior to and during the early years of the Christian era. The political struggles and urbanization of north India culminated in the great Mauryan Empire, which at its height under Ashoka (reigned 268-31 B.C.) covered almost all of South Asia and stretched into Afghanistan in the west. There is no proof that Nepal was ever included in the empire, although records of Ashoka are located at Lumbini, the Buddhas birthplace, in the Tarai. But the empire had important cultural and political consequences for Nepal. First, Ashoka himself embraced Buddhism, and during his time the religion must have become established in the Kathmandu Valley and throughout much of Nepal. Ashoka was known as a great builder of stupas, and his archaic style is preserved in four mounds on the outskirts of Patan (now often referred to as Lalitpur), which were locally called Ashok stupas, and possibly in the Svayambhunath (or Swayambhunath) stupa. Second, along with religion came an entire cultural style centered on the king as the upholder of dharma, or the cosmic law of the universe. This political concept of the king as the righteous center of the political system had a powerful impact on all later South Asian governments and continued to play a major role in modern Nepal. The Mauryan Empire declined after the second century B.C., and north India entered a period of political disunity. The extended urban and commercial systems expanded to include much of Inner Asia, however, and close contacts were maintained with European merchants. Nepal was apparently a distant part of this commercial network because even Ptolemy and other Greek writers of the second century knew of the Kiratas as a people who lived near China. North India was united by the Gupta emperors again in the fourth century. Their capital was the old Mauryan center of Pataliputra (present-day Patna in Bihar State), during what Indian writers often describe as a golden age of artistic and cultural creativity. The greatest conqueror of this dynasty was Samudragupta (reigned ca. 353-73), who claimed that the lord of Nepal paid him taxes and tribute and obeyed his commands. It still is impossible to tell who this lord may have been, what area he ruled, and if he was really a subordinate of the Guptas. Some of the earliest examples of Nepalese art show that the culture of north India during Gupta times exercised a decisive influence on Nepali language, religion, and artistic expression. Next: The Early Kingdom of the Licchavis, 400-750The River System In the late fifth century, rulers calling themselves Licchavis began to record details on politics, society, and economy in Nepal. The Licchavis were known from early Buddhist legends as a ruling family during the Buddhas time in India, and the founder of the Gupta Dynasty claimed that he had married a Licchavi princess. Perhaps some members of this Licchavi family married members of a local royal family in the Kathmandu Valley, or perhaps the illustrious history of the name prompted early Nepalese notables to identify themselves with it. In any case, the Licchavis of Nepal were a strictly local dynasty based in the Kathmandu Valley and oversaw the growth of the first truly Nepalese state. The earliest known Licchavi record, an inscription of Manadeva I, dates from 464, and mentions three preceding rulers, suggesting that the dynasty began in the late fourth century. The last Licchavi inscription was in A.D. 733. All of the Licchavi records are deeds reporting donations to religious foundations, predominantly Hindu temples. The language of the inscriptions is Sanskrit, the language of the court in north India, and the script is closely related to official Gupta scripts. There is little doubt that India exerted a powerful cultural influence, especially through the area called Mithila, the northern part of present-day Bihar State. Politically, however, India again was divided for most of the Licchavi period. To the north, Tibet grew into an expansive military power through the seventh century, declining only by 843. Some early historians, such as the French scholar Sylvain LÃ ©vi, thought that Nepal may have become subordinate to Tibet for some time, but more recent Nepalese historians, including Dilli Raman Regmi, deny this interpretation. In any case, from the seventh century onward a recurring pattern of foreign relations emerged for rulers in Nepal: more intensive cultural contacts with the south, potential political threats from both India and Tibet, and continuing trade contacts in both directions. The Licchavi political system closely resembled that of northern India. At the top was the great king (maharaja), who in theory exercised absolute power but in reality interfered little in the social lives of his subjects. Their behavior was regulated in accordance with dharma through their own village and caste councils. The king was aided by royal officers led by a prime minister, who also served as a military commander. As the preserver of righteous moral order, the king had no set limit for his domain, whose borders were determined only by the power of his army and statecraftan ideology that supported almost unceasing warfare throughout South Asia. In Nepals case, the geographic realities of the hills limited the Licchavi kingdom to the Kathmandu Valley and neighboring valleys and to the more symbolic submission of less hierarchical societies to the east and west. Within the Licchavi system, there was ample room for powerful notables (samanta) to keep their own private armies, ru n their own landholdings, and influence the court. There was thus a variety of forces struggling for power. During the seventh century, a family is known as the Abhira Guptas accumulated enough influence to take over the government. The prime minister, Amsuvarman, assumed the throne between approximately 605 and 641, after which the Licchavis regained power. The later history of Nepal offers similar examples, but behind these struggles was growing a long tradition of kingship. The economy of the Kathmandu Valley already was based on agriculture during the Licchavi period. Artworks and place-names mentioned in inscriptions show that settlements had filled the entire valley and moved east toward Banepa, west toward Tisting, and northwest toward present-day Gorkha. Peasants lived in villages (grama) that were administratively grouped into larger units (dranga). They grew rice and other grains as staples on lands owned by the royal family, other major families, Buddhist monastic orders (sangha), or groups of Brahmans (agrahara). Land taxes due in theory to the king were often allocated to religious or charitable foundations, and additional labor dues (vishti) were required from the peasantry in order to keep up irrigation works, roads, and shrines. The village head (usually known as pradhan, meaning a leader in family or society) and leading families handled most local administrative issues, forming the village assembly of leaders (panchalika or grama pancha). This ancient history of localized decision making served as a model for late twentieth-century development efforts. The River System of Nepal One of the most striking features of present-day Kathmandu Valley is its vibrant urbanism, notably at Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhadgaon (also called Bhaktapur), which apparently goes back to ancient times. During the Licchavi period, however, the settlement pattern seems to have been much more diffuse and sparse. In the present-day city of Kathmandu, there existed two early villagesKoligrama (Village of the Kolis, or Yambu in Newari), and Dakshinakoligrama (South Koli Village, or Yangala in Newari)that grew up around the valleys main trade route. Bhadgaon was simply a small village then called Khoprn (Khoprngrama in Sanskrit) along the same trade route. The site of Patan was known as Yala (Village of the Sacrificial Post, or Yupagrama in Sanskrit). In view of the four archaic stupas on its outskirts and its very old tradition of Buddhism, Patan probably can claim to be the oldest true center in the nation. Licchavi palaces or public buildings, however, have not survived. The truly impor tant public sites in those days were religious foundations, including the original stupas at Svayambhunath, Bodhnath, and Chabahil, as well as the shrine of Shiva at Deopatan, and the shrine of Vishnu at Hadigaon. There was a close relationship between the Licchavi settlements and trade. The Kolis of present-day Kathmandu and the Vrijis of present-day Hadigaon were known even in the Buddhas time as commercial and political confederations in north India. By the time of the Licchavi kingdom, trade had long been intimately connected with the spread of Buddhism and religious pilgrimage. One of the main contributions of Nepal during this period was the transmission of Buddhist culture to Tibet and all of central Asia, through merchants, pilgrims, and missionaries. In return, Nepal gained money from customs duties and goods that helped to support the Licchavi state, as well as the artistic heritage that made the valley famous. Data as of September 1991 Next: The River System of Nepal Nepals Climate | Chronology | Historical Setting Nepal can be divided into three major river systems from east to west: the Kosi River, the Narayani River (Indias Gandak River), and the Karnali River. All ultimately become major tributaries of the Ganges River in northern India. After plunging through deep gorges, these rivers deposit their heavy sediments and debris on the plains, thereby nurturing them and renewing their alluvial soil fertility. Once they reach the Tarai Region, they often overflow their banks onto wide floodplains during the summer monsoon season, periodically shifting their courses. Besides providing fertile alluvial soil, the backbone of the agrarian economy, these rivers present great possibilities for hydroelectric and irrigation development. India managed to exploit this resource by building massive dams on the Kosi and Narayani rivers inside the Nepal border, known, respectively, as the Kosi and Gandak projects. None of these river systems, however, support any significant commercial navigation facility. R ather, the deep gorges formed by the rivers represent immense obstacles to establishing the broad transport and communication networks needed to develop an integrated national economy. As a result, the economy in Nepal has remained fragmented. Because Nepals rivers have not been harnessed for transportation, most settlements in the Hill and Mountain regions remain isolated from each other. As of 1991, trails remained the primary transportation routes in the hills. The eastern part of the country is drained by the Kosi River, which has seven tributaries. It is locally known as the Sapt Kosi, which means seven Kosi rivers (Tamur, Likhu Khola, Dudh, Sun, Indrawati, Tama, and Arun). The principal tributary is the Arun, which rises about 150 kilometers inside the Tibetan Plateau. The Narayani River drains the central part of Nepal and also has seven major tributaries (Daraudi, Seti, Madi, Kali, Marsyandi, Budhi, and Trisuli). The Kali, which flows between the Dhaulagiri Himal and the Annapurna Himal (Himal is the Nepali variation of the Sanskrit word Himalaya), is the main river of this drainage system. The river system draining the western part of Nepal is the Karnali. Its three immediate tributaries are the Bheri, Seti, and Karnali rivers, the latter being the major one. The Maha Kali, which also is known as the Kali and which flows along the Nepal-India border on the west side, and the Rapti River also are considered tributaries of the Karnali. Data as of September 1991 Nepals Climate | Chronology | Historical Setting

Life and Art of Eva Hesse, Postmodern Sculpture Pioneer

Life and Art of Eva Hesse, Postmodern Sculpture Pioneer Eva Hesse was a German-American artist known for her work as a postmodern sculptor and draughtswoman. Her work is characterized by a willingness to experiment with material and form, fashioning work from latex, string, fiber glass, and rope. Though she died at the age of thirty-four, Hesse has had a lasting impact on American art as a radical voice that pushed the New York art world into an era beyond Abstract Expressionism and stark Minimalism, the dominant art movements at the time she was working in the 1960s. Fast Facts: Eva Hesse Occupation:  Artist, sculptor, draughtswomanKnown for:  Experimenting with materials such as latex, string, fiber glass, and ropeEducation: Pratt Institute of Design, Cooper Union, Yale University (B.A.)Born:  January 11, 1936 in Hamburg, GermanyDied:  May 29, 1970 in New York, New York Early Life Eva Hesse was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1936 to a secular Jewish family. At the age of two, she and her older sister were put on a train to the Netherlands in order to escape the increasing threat of the Nazi party in Germany following Kristallnacht. For six months, they lived in a Catholic orphanage without their parents. As Hesse was a sickly child, she was in and out of the hospital, with not even her older sister for company. Once reunited, the family escaped to England, where they lived for several months, before they were miraculously able to sail to the United States in 1939, on one of the last boats of refugees welcomed on American shores. Settling in New York did not spell peace for the Hesse family, however. Hesse’s father, a lawyer in Germany, trained and was able to work as an insurance broker, but her mother had trouble adjusting to life in the United States. As a manic depressive, she was frequently hospitalized and eventually left Hesse’s father for another man. Following the divorce, young Hesse never saw her mother again, and she later committed suicide in 1946, when Eva was ten years old. The chaos of her early life characterizes the trauma Hesse would endure throughout her life, with which she would wrestle in therapy for her entire adult life. Eva’s father married a woman also named Eva, the strangeness of which was not lost on the young artist. The two women did not see eye to eye, and Hesse left for art school at the age of sixteen. She dropped out of the Pratt Institute less than a year later, fed up with its mindless traditional teaching style, where she was forced to paint uninspired still life after uninspired still life. Still a teenager, she was forced to move back home, where she got a part time job at Seventeen magazine and began taking classes at the Art Students’ League. Hesse decided to take the entrance exam for the Cooper Union, passed, and attended the school for a year before moving on to get her BFA at Yale, where she studied under renowned painter and color theorist Josef Albers. Friends who knew Hesse at Yale remembered her to be his star student. Though she did not enjoy the program, she stayed until graduation in 1959. Return to Germany In 1961, Hesse married sculptor Tom Doyle. Described as equally â€Å"passionate† people, their marriage was not an easy one. Reluctantly, Hesse moved back to her native Germany with her husband in 1964, as he was awarded a fellowship there. While in Germany, Hesses art practice matured into what would become her best known work. She began using string in her sculpture, a material which resonated with her, as it was the most practical way of translating the lines of drawing into three dimensions. Critical Success Upon returning to the United States in 1965, Hesse began to hit her stride as a critically successful artist. The year 1966 saw two landmark group shows in which she exhibited: â€Å"Stuffed Expressionism† at Graham Gallery, and â€Å"Eccentric Abstraction† curated by Lucy R. Lippard at Fischbach Gallery. Her work was singled out and critically praised in both shows. (1966 also saw the dissolution of her marriage to Doyle through separation.) The next year Hesse was given her first solo show at Fischbach, and was included in the Warehouse Show, â€Å"9 at Leo Castelli† along with fellow Yale alumnus Richard Serra. She was the only woman artist among the nine to be given the honor. Artistic Milieu in New York City Hesse worked in a milieu of similarly-minded artists in New York, many of whom she called her friends. Nearest and dearest to her, however, was sculptor Sol LeWitt, eight years her senior, who she called one of the two people â€Å"who really know and trust me.† The two artists equally exchanged influence and ideas, perhaps the most famous example of which is LeWitt’s letter to Hesse, encouraging her to quit distracting herself with insecurity and just â€Å"DO.† Months after her death, LeWitt dedicated the first of his famous wall drawings using â€Å"not straight† lines to his late friend. Art In her own words, the closest summation Hesse managed to come up with to describe her work was â€Å"chaos structured as non-chaos,† as in sculptures that contained within them randomness and confusion, presented within structured scaffolding. â€Å"I want to extend my art into something that doesn’t exist,† she said, and though conceptualism was gaining popularity in the art world, critic Lucy Lippard says that Hesse was not interested in the movement as â€Å"material meant much too much to her.† The creation of â€Å"non-shapes,† as Hesse termed them, was one way to bridge the gap between her dedication to direct touch, investment in material, and abstract thinking.   Her use of unconventional materials like latex has sometimes meant that her work is difficult to preserve. Hesse said that, just as â€Å"life doesn’t last, art doesn’t last.† Her art attempted to â€Å"dismantle the center† and destabilize the â€Å"life force† of existence, departing from the stability and predictability of minimalist sculpture. Her work was a deviation from the norm and as a result has had an indelible impact on sculpture today, which uses many of the looping and asymmetrical constructions that she pioneered.   Legacy Hesse developed a brain tumor at the age of thirty-three and died in May 1970 at the age of thirty-four. Though Hesse did not live to participate in it, the women’s movement of the 1970s championed her work as a female artist and ensured her lasting legacy as a pioneer in the American art world. In 1972, the Guggenheim in New York staged a posthumous retrospective of her work, and in 1976 feminist critic and essayist Lucy R. Lippard published Eva Hesse, a monograph on the artist’s work and the first full length book to be published on virtually any American artist of the 1960s. It was organized by LeWitt and Hesse’s sister, Helen Charash. Tate Modern staged a retrospective of her work from 2002-2003. Sources Blanton Museum of Art (2014). Lucy Lippard Lecture on Eva Hesse. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?vV50g8spJrp8t2511s. (2014).Kort, C. and Sonneborn, L. (2002).  A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 93-95.Lippard, L. (1976). Eva Hesse. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.Nixon, M. (2002). Eva Hesse. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.