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The Tree of Jesse and Indian Parallels or SourcesAuthor(s):
Ananda K. CoomaraswamySource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 2
(Jun., 1929), pp. 216-220Published by: College Art
AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3045444
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THE TREE OF JESSE AND INDIAN PARALLELS OR SOURCES
By ANANDA K. COOMARASWAMY
FIG. 41
The Tree of Jesse appears in Christian iconography possibly
towards the close of the eleventh century; in any case it is found
frequently in the twelfth century and in later Gothic art.2 Certain
prototypes can be recog- nized even as early as the ninth century.
At first the stem appears in Jesse's hand, then it rises from a
point immediately behind the center of his reclining body, finally
it rises from his navel. The ultimate flower of the tree is always
Jesus, but the formula so develops that the Virgin becomes the most
con- spicuous figure (as in Fig. i); moreover, as the branches
multiply the whole becomes a veritable genealogical tree of the
kings of Judea. The essential elements of the developed type are
the representation of a kind of tree of life rooted in the navel of
the recumbent Jesse and having for its ultimate flower a
manifestation of the deity.
Porter' has suggested that the conception is a fundamentally
Oriental one, though the Bazaklik example cited by him is hardly
pertinent. In the present preliminary note I do not propose to
assert an Indian origin of the motif; I
merely wish to point out that the whole group of ideas involved
appears much earlier in India than anywhere else, that it leads
there to the evolution of iconographic types which present
startling parallels to those of the Jesse series, and that a
derivation of the Western from the Indian forms is by no means
impossible.
A type in some ways related to that of the Tree of Jesse occurs
in illustrations of the Speculum Humance Salvationis in connection
with the story of Astyages.4 The Persian king is said to have had a
dream in which he saw a vine growing out of the body of his only
daughter. This vine was interpreted as a prophecy of the birth of
King Cyrus, but in the Speculum the daughter becomes a type of the
Virgin Mary. In the illustrations the vine sometimes rises from her
navel, sometimes from between her breasts; in some case it con-
sists of leafy branches, not like a grapevine. Sir Thomas Arnold5
has inferred a lost early Persian type underlying not only the
Speculum illustrations but also certain Persian illuminations that
represent female figures surrounded by foliage.
A very obvious Indian parallel to the Tree of Jesse is the
well-known Indian composition representing the birth of Brahmd, who
is designated as "lotus-born," "navel-born," etc. and is shown
seated on a lotus flower the stem of which rises from the navel of
the recum- bent Nriryana. Ndrdyana is here the supreme deity,
represented as reclining (sayana- miirti) on the cosmic waters
during the interval between two cycles of manifestation; Brahm&
is the demiurge, the immediate creator of the new universe about to
be brought
i. SAfici: Lotus Rhizome Springing from a Yakqa's Navel, C. 0oo
B. C.
2. E. MAle, L'art religieux du XIIe side en France, pp. 173 ff.;
A. K. Porter, Spain or Toulouse? and Other Questions, in The Art
Bulletin, VII, pp. 15 f.
3. Loc. cit.
4. J. Lutz and P. Perdrizet, Speculum Humanae Salva- tionis,
g19og, I, p. 186; M. R. James, MS. Lat. 9584 (Biblio- th6que
Nationale), Oxford, 1926.
5. Symbolism and Islam, in Burlington Magazine, October,
1928.
217
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7 uw rs * ~JLJLL 4ILA
FIG. i-Arcetri, S. Leonardo: Tree of Jesse Detail of Pulpit. XII
Century
1; 831:!ji
iiiIs Xliiii!iii
, X ,iiiii... .
FIG. 2-Thaton, Burma: Lotus Birth of Brahma, Siva, and Visnu,
from Navel
of Narayan.a (After Temple)'0
..... ..... ... ... ..... .....
.. . ... .
-:4 _7 ON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . irk .
. . . . . . .....................
A In 1w. xv xx: Owl- yg ... . . . ...
R WWI, . .... .. ..... "Nam 0, , N px n 01 "1 e WAY "IrY
mom
Igo I:qg e?,-,, ..Il. ". . .1 P Al P Q
P WWI= RO AMA -vivo
AN V ni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aso "Eva ply, QI IAN
01 AWN yg. SK: 1`00 "Am 1. V ZZ' '4 TAUTT A " ip El son, I
wile ?4i,
r.v. -l" ?IAM 0? , , -, N M r," ----:
?01 vb 40 ll? ;:;W, R ;?A Xrm Al, f h U
MOR
Lis
A
MS.
who
FIG. 3-Amaravaf":
Lotus Rhizome Rising from "Full Vessel" Supported by Yaksa.
C. 2oo A. D. (Photo. Goloubew)
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218 THE ART BULLETIN
into being. The oldest representations of this theme that I am
able to cite are those of the reliefs in Caves II and IV at BdAmi,
dating from the end of the sixth century;6 at Deogarh, at least a
century earlier, practically the same composition is found except
that the stem of the lotus is not connected with Nirdyana's navel.,
Examples dating from the eighth century are known at EliirM8 (Fig.
6) and Sirpur,9 and the subject is not rare in still later
mediaeval art, and it even recurs not infrequently in Rajput
paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The formula
passed also to Farther India, occurring both in Burma and Cambodia.
Some of the Burmese examples from Thaton (Fig. 2) are remarkable in
representing not merely a single deity as born from lotus and navel
but the trinity of deities, Brahma, Vi?nu, and Siva, seated on
separate lotuses, all branches of one stem rooted in Ndrdyania's
navel.'0
Although there does not seem to exist any representation of the
birth of Brahma in sculpture dating before the sixth century A. D.,
the event is explicitly described in the Mahabhurata (iii, 272, 44,
and xii, 207, 13). The former of the passages cited reads as
follows: "As soon as that Eternal Being [Ndrdyana] concentrated
thought upon a New Creation of the Universe a lotus flower
immediately came into existence from His navel and the four-faced
Brahma came forth from that navel-lotus." As the extreme limits for
the Mahdbhdrata are from 4oo B. C. to 4oo00 A. D. the text
certainly takes us back beyond the earliest reliefs.
Ndrdyan.a is the supreme deity of the later Vedic period and
effectively identical with Brahma." Bearing this in mind we can
recognize the tradition already in the Rg Veda (x, 82, 5):" Prior
to the sky, prior to this earth, prior to the living gods, what is
that germ which the waters held first and in which all the gods
existed? The waters held that same germ in which all the gods exist
or find themselves; on the navel of the Unborn stood that in which
all beings stood.""' Further, in the Atharva Veda (x, 7, 38) we
have a description of Brahma as "a great Yakqa13 in the midst of
the creation, lying upon the sea in penance ;14 therein are set
whatever gods there are, like the branches of a tree round about a
trunk."
The conception of a tree of life rooted in Brahma recurs also in
the Ka tha Upanisad (vi, i):" This eternal fig tree! That [root]
indeed is the Pure. That is Brahma." It recurs again in a somewhat
different way in the Bhagavad Gita (xv, 1-3). We have thus been
able to trace from let us say about a millennium B. C. onwards the
essential elements common to the formulae of the Indian Birth of
Brahmi and the Christian Tree of Jesse.
That our tree of life, in which all beings are set, should be
rooted in a navel, whether of Brahma, Ndrdyania, or Jesse, is
significant, because it is precisely in India that importance has
been attached to the navel as a center of vegetative energy. "The
navel of immor- tality," "the navel of
Varun.a," and similar phrases constantly recur in Vedic
literature,
6. R. D. Banerji, Bas-reliefs of Badami, in Mem. A. S. I., XXV,
pls. xi and xxii, a.
7. J. Burgess, Ancient Monuments of India, pl. 250. 8. In the
Dasavatira Cave.
9. Progress Rep., A. S. I., Western Circle, 1903-1904, p.
21.
io. Sir R. Temple, Notes on Antiquities from Ramanna- desa, in
Indian Antiquary, 1894.
ii. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaifavism, 8aivism, etc., 1913, p. 31.
Later, when Brahma has lost his importance as supreme deity, Vi$4u,
taking his place, is identified with
Niriyan.a and inherits the traditions connected with both
the others. 12. Repeated in the Yajur Veda (Taittirlya
Saihhita,
iv, 6, 2). 13. Every Indian deity may upon occasion be
desig-
nated as a Yakga; see my Yakqas, Washington, 1928, where,
however, the Vedic passages, in which the earliest references are
found, are omitted (see A. Hillebrandt, Vedisch Yakqa, in Aus
Indiens Kultur, Festgabe Garbe, 1927).
14. It is by the energy achieved in austerity (tapas) that
Brahma is said to have created the world.
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THE TREE OF JESSE AND INDIAN PARALLELS OR SOURCES 219
and in the Satapatha Brahmana (v, 7, 1, 9), where the sacrificer
hangs a golden sun disk around his neck so that it rests upon his
navel, we find the following: "Why over the navel? [Because]
beneath the navel is the seed, the power of procreation, and the
gold plate represents vital energy and vigor."
Now the two Vedic passages cited above are especially suggestive
inasmuch as they bring together two ideas, the tree rooted in a
navel, and that the navel of a Yakea, which are later very
conspicuous in the iconography of the water cosmology. In this
iconography vegetation, the type of life, is represented by a lotus
rhizome bearing leaves and flowers, sometimes with enframed animals
or even human figures, and rising from the waters (see, for
example, Fig. 3, where the uppermost enclosure contains an aniconic
representa- tion of the Buddha), the watery source being
represented either by a "full vessel" (Grail motif), or by the open
jaws of a makara (crocodile, water symbol), or by a dwarf Yakga,
from whose mouth or navel (Fig. 4) the stem of the lotus rises.
Yakyas, of course, are vegetation spirits, guardians of procreative
energies; the sap in trees is identical with the essence in the
waters, with the water of life (amrta); and these facts, taken in
connection with the texts already cited, reveal very clearly the
nature of the group of cosmic theories which ultimately finds
expression in the formula for the Birth of Brahmd. Another motif
closely connected with this formula is that of the tree or creeper
the fruits of which are divine girls; trees of this kind grow in
the Yakea Kubera's grove called Caitraratha (Ramayana, ii, 91, 43
f.), and later a creeper of this kind (ndri-lata, "woman-vine")
becomes a familiar form in decorative art. The Arabic Waqwaq tree
may represent another phase of the same tradition.
Enough has now been said to show that the conception of a cosmic
or world tree, bearing deities or other beings in or as its
branches, and rising from the navel of some being who represents
the ultimate source of life, is characteristically Indian and of
far greater antiquity than can be attributed to any kind of Jesse
Tree. It is not necessary to assume that the idea of a Tree of
Jesse represents in its entirety a borrowing from Indian or other
Oriental sources; but when the fully developed formula, as in the
Arcetri example (Fig. i), approaches so closely the mediaeval
Indian form as found in the Birth of Brahmd, when the tree actually
resembles a lotus and rises from the navel of a recumbent figure,
one is at least inclined to suppose that Indian types may have
influenced the development.
It may well be that MAle's pronouncement, "Nie en Orient,
l'iconographie chretienne nous est arrivie toutefaite," has a
significance of farther reach than he intended. However this may
be, it is clear already from the researches of Strzygowski and
others that the study of Christian iconography and of the history
of Western design can never be complete until the Indian parallels
have been duly considered. These seem to be of importance at two
periods, first, in the development of Coptic art, and, secondly, in
that of Romanesque and Gothic. By way of example I will allude to
the "sirkne poisson" which appears in Roman- esque, for instance,
at Modena. Both male and female forms are recognizable, the motif
being thus that of a kind of merman or mermaid with bifurcate fish
tails, one of which is held in each hand. Porter15 supposes that
the type has been developed by a misunder- standing of the Ahnis
earth goddess holding a garland of fruits. Unfortunately for this
theory, which is based only on the circumstantial evidence of
visual similarities not amounting to identity, the two-tailed
merman or mermaid occurs already in Etruscan art
15. Op. cit., p. 21.
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220 THE ART BULLETIN of the third century B. C.,16 and in Indian
art both about ioo B. C. at Sdrnath17 (Fig. 5) and about ioo A. D.
at Mathurd18 (Fig. 6). In the Mathurd example the fish tails end in
dragon heads, and this too is a feature that reappears in later
Western art.
It is evident that the assumption of a misunderstanding of
another type is here un- necessary; it is even more likely that the
Ahnis earth goddess has been affected by the "sirene poisson" than
vice versa. Nor is it necessary to suppose that the motif has been
borrowed in India from Etruscan sources; early Indian art preserves
forms that must have been long current there before the earliest
examples in stone are found. In all probability the Indian form
represents merely the Indian phase of a common "Early Asiatic"
type, antedating all extant examples wherever met with. A parallel
case is that of the familiar two-headed eagle, common in Indian art
in the mediaeval period, common also in Western Asiatic (especially
Hittite) art, and certainly of Oriental origin in European art.
Another parallel is afforded by a widely distributed type of design
in the "animal style" in which a single head is made to serve
appropriately as part of the anatomy of two or more animals. Still
another instance is the motif of a figure holding in both hands a
piece of drapery which blows out behind or over the figure: C. H.
Morgan,19 illustrating numerous European and one Chinese example,
does not give one from India, though the type is there extremely
common, and the Chinese example is certainly of Indian derivation.
In all these cases students have been too freely inclined to assume
on insufficient evidence a borrowing in one direction or another.
It is, however, particularly important to bear in mind that the
first occurence of a given motif, that is, first to our knowledge,
does not necessarily correspond to first invention, nor does it
even of necessity indicate the country of first invention. The
probable environment of first invention must be considered always
in the light of cultural conditions as a whole, and, wherever in
any way possible, literary evidence should be adduced in support of
a real significance and not merely an accidental use of a motif.20
In any case, for students of Christian mediaeval art the Indian
forms provide analogies and parallels which cannot be neglected if
all the problems are to be seen in proper perspective.
FIG. 5 21 FIG. 622
Oi
FIG. 7 23
16. L. D. Eldridge, A Third Century Etruscan Tomb, in American
Journal of Archaeology, XXII, 1918, p. 253.
17. D. R. Sahni, Catalogue, Museum of Archaeology at Sirndth,
pl. vi, center.
i8. J. P. Vogel, Catalogue, Archaeological Museum at Matkurd,
pl. xxv, below.
Ig. In Art Studies, 1928.
2o. An admirable example of rigorous method has recently been
furnished by W. Norman Brown in his Indian and Christian Miracles
of Walking on the Water, Chicago, 1928.
21. SirnAth: Fish-tailed Merman, C. ioo B. C. 22. Elfirs: Birth
of BrahmA, VIII Century. 23. MathurA: Dragon-tailed Merman, C. ioo
A. D.
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Article Contentsp. 217p. [216]p. 218p. 219p. 220
Issue Table of ContentsThe Art Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Jun.,
1929), pp. 125-231Front MatterStained Glass Panels from the
Workshop of Dirk Vellert in the Goldman Collection [pp. 125-145]El
Greco-An Oriental Artist [pp. 146-152]Early Spanish Panel Painting
in the Plandiura Collection (I) [pp. 154-186]The New Protagoras: A
Pedantic Dialogue [pp. 187-205]The Date and Provenance of the
Automata Miniatures [pp. 206-215]The Tree of Jesse and Indian
Parallels or Sources [pp. 216-220]ReviewReview: untitled [pp.
221-222]Review: untitled [p. 222]Review: untitled [pp.
222-223]Review: untitled [pp. 223-224]Review: untitled [p.
224]Review: untitled [pp. 224-225]Review: untitled [p. 225]Review:
untitled [p. 225]Review: untitled [pp. 225-231]