Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 6. (Budapest, 1963)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Tóth, Edit: Water-Pots with Gujarati Inscriptions in the Museum
matter and function which certainly did not concern artistic value i. e., one belonged to art wdiile the other only to craft. Historical points of view demand the joint investigation of these two branches of art; the same is also prompted by another consideration. Owing to the mentioned connection we might be able to reconstruct the style of the painting or sculpture of certain periods, for lack of preserved relics of art, from the decoration used on products of industrial art. An interesting group of products of Indian metallurgy is represented by the inscribed Gujarati water-vessels (lota), made of brass or copper and decorated with mythological scenes. Unfortunately, our remarks made above on the shortcomings of research in industrial art are valid for this group too, a fact detrimental to their treatment and dating. A fundamental work on this matter was published by M. R. Majmudar; in clarifying several historical and aesthetical questions he treated two such vessels in the collection of the Baroda Museum. In the present study we intend to further research on the typological and chronological problems of such lotä-s by the publication of additional material. It was a popular custom among the Gujarati people for the pilgrims to carry various metal wares, mainly lotä-s along with them as gifts for their relatives and friends living near the centres of pilgrimage. This custom promoted the mentioned branch of Gujarati metallurgy, making it famous all over India. During the 15th and 16th centuries the Mussulman invasions prompted the metal-founders to leave their homeland and migrate towards the great centres of pilgrimage, Benares, Prayäga and Näsilc in the South. Many such metal-worker families still live in these areas and preserve the bulk of their Gujarati customs. They use a special form of writing, the so-called Mahäjani script", developped from the Gujarati script which was related to devanägari. The inscriptions of the vessels are also in this script. 3 The mentioned type of vessel has a support similar to a ring or truncated cone, it is strongly bulging, with a compressed neck and a splayed brim. There is a ring ornamented like wicker-work on the neck. It is made of a hammered plate generally of brass or copper soldered together of two, often three parts. The neck and sometimes also the pedestal were soldered to the body separately. How r ever, the vessel may have a cast neck or pedestal. The decorat ion covering the w 7 hole vessel is produced with a tracé technique, i. e., the design is composed of dots punctured with a pointed instrument or of a row of short lines. On objects decorated in this manner the surface becomes more emphasized by its contours than by incision, suggesting an effect of embossed work. The background of the figurai portraits is ornamented with punching. Decoration is applied in horizontal stripes. These bands of figurai decoration are divided by ribbons of floral or geometrical ornaments. The figures are placed in small square or oblong fields. The theme is taken from legends centering in the persons of Visnu and Siva. On the Iotas of Vaisnava themes we may discover the representations of Visnu s ten incarnations, illustrations to the Krisna Bala-caritam, also Saivya motifs. (Siva carrying the Ganges (Gangädhara) , the animal carrying Siva, Nándi, a Ungarn etc.) The earliest specimen preserved in the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts corresponds — both in form and the style of its decoration — to the
