印度古老艺术:神祗的容颜 Faces of the Divine 宗教, 艺术, 印度, 佛像

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Faces of the Divine
佛像

India’s Ancient Art 印度古老艺术

Fifth-century painters created stunning murals in dim man-made caves. A gifted photographer brings them to light.



印度宗教艺术 India’s Ancient Art



魅力有很多种面貌，但鲜少有能与1500年前画在印度某石窟壁上的一张面容相提并论者。为了一睹究竟，眼睛必须先适应黑暗，但是你很快就会目不转睛了。那个人物裸着胸，头戴高耸的王冠，一手拿着纤细的莲花。他的躯体弯曲，彷佛正随着无声的音乐摇摆。他的脸孔本身很安详，眼睛半阖，噘起嘴唇露出浅浅的微笑，整个人沉浸在最甜蜜的美梦中。

Enchantment has many faces, but few compare with one painted 1,500 years ago on a cave wall in India. To see it, the eyes must first adjust to darkness. Soon it becomes impossible to turn away. The figure is of a bare-chested man; he wears a tall crown and holds a delicate lotus flower in one hand. His torso is curved as if swaying to music only he hears. His face is tranquility itself, eyes half-closed, lips pursed in a faint smile, his whole being absorbed in the sweetest dream possible.

这张脸孔从公元5世纪以来就散发着沉静的风采；当时在印度中部的阿占塔，有佛教僧侣住在以手工开凿、专为他们建造的一批壮观石窟寺庙中。这个喜乐的人物名为莲华手观音菩萨，是佛教中象征无尽慈悲的神祇。这尊菩萨出现在一个神龛入口附近，像个守卫般站立着，让所有入内者看见一幅祥和的景象。「这幅画是面镜子，」我的向导、也是印度摄影师兼影片工作者本诺伊‧贝尔轻声说，「展现出人类本身神性的部分。」

This face has radiated serenity since the fifth century, when Buddhist monks inhabited a set of remarkable hand-cut cave temples built for them at Ajanta in central India. The name of the beatific figure is Bodhisattva Padmapani, a Buddhist deity who represents infinite compassion. Appearing near the entrance of one of the shrines, Padmapani stands as guardian, offering a vision of peace to all who enter. “The painting is a mirror,” whispered my guide, Indian photographer and filmmaker Benoy Behl. “It shows us the divine part of ourselves.”

贝尔与我从孟买东方的省城奥蓝加巴德开车前来观赏。途中我们经过休耕的棉花田，土壤黑如墨水；绕过牛群时，牠们的牛铃叮当作响，牛角上还涂了鲜艳的蓝色与红色。经过一小时左右，我们停在一个俯瞰着瓦格拉河峡谷的高点上。

To see it, Behl and I drove out of Aurangabad, a provincial city east of Mumbai. We passed fallow cotton fields, the soil black as ink; swerved around cattle, their bells tinkling, their horns painted in bright blues and reds; and, after an hour or so, pulled into an overlook above a gorge of the Waghora River.

20多个人造洞穴贯穿了一大片深色玄武岩的表面，正面有柱子与雕像，看起来意外地宏伟，令人想起约旦佩特拉古城的雕墓与寺庙。阿占塔石窟群的华丽反映出王室所投下的资本；大多数的石窟寺庙是在哈里辛纳国王统治期间开凿的，他在公元5世纪中期统治印度中部的一大片区域。当时有几百个僧侣居住在阿占塔石窟里…   

More than two dozen man-made caves perforate the sweep of a dark basaltic rock face, their facades unexpectedly grand with pillars and statuary, reminiscent of the sculpted tombs and temples in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. The lavishness of the Ajanta complex reflects its royal patronage; most of the cave temples were carved during the reign of a king named Harishena, who ruled a large swath of central India in the mid-fifth century A.D.










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