Prof. Dr. Klaus Bruhn
It is unlikely that it would be the “small niche figures“ which attracted the banana plant motif. An alternative explanation of the facts presented in § 5 would be that the four relevant temples (and others belonging to the same period and area) reflect a more general predilection for banana plants as corner motifs (or corner fillers). In this connection, we can mention, as a supplement to the previous section, further architectural objects which show the banana plant in small niches. The Allahabad Museum houses three miniature shrines (Chandra Al 501, 503, and 504). On each of the three illustrations in Chandra Al we notice a deity who is flanked by two banana plants, and the sides without illustration may supply additional evidence. Refer for details also to Chandra Al p. 171. The popularity of the motif is also demonstrated by a few architectural fragments published in Trivedi Pa (13, 16, and perhaps 14).
Perhaps it is convenient to say that we find two architectural frames of reference for the banana plant: “small niches on the outer walls“ (just discussed) on the one hand and “door-frames“ (to be discussed presently) on the other. Although the material available to us is limited, we suppose that banana plants are fairly common in the panels decorating the upper door-jambs. We noticed at least one such case on the Telī-kā-Mandir (clear specimen of the realistic type), and another example is supplied by a fragment of a magnificent doorway from Unchdih (Chandra Al 479).
Early medieval monuments such as the Telī-kā-Mandir deserve better documentation because their sculptures are as useful for ionographic and style-historical studies as are sculptures from the earlier periods. The greater part of the material is still in situ so that public and private collections (and the respective catalogues) do not even convey a rough idea of its art-historical significance.
Many door-frames include representations of Bhairava (see Viennot Fl pp. 61-62 on dvārapālas). Bhairava is either fully integrated (dvārapāla as Bhairava), or the doorway is flanked by two male figures, one or both being Bhairava. In connection with flanking niche figures one could perhaps speak of an “extended doorway.“ Viennot Fl 32a shows an integrated Bhairava with a banana plant to his proper right (outer doorway of the Telī-kā-Mandir). Pal Le 18 demonstrates a fragment of a left lower door-jamb where the banana plant (calyx) appears to the upper left (proper left) of Bhairava. Again we see Viennot Fl 29a the inconspicuous upper portion of a banana plant (calyx) above the head of the tortoise. Here, the motif actually appears to the proper left of a male figure which is not Bhairava and which decorates the reveal of the right door-jamb (JID 12: Mālādevi Temple).
At Terahi we notice two external Bhairavas flanking the nearby temple with śikhara (Neg. nos. 2484 and 2493; see also TIC 169). Finally, we mention a Bhairava in the Berlin Museum (Plaeschke Hi 65). The Berlin Bhairava is placed on a console (TIC p. 99: niches secondaires … sur une moulure indépendante) but the original architectural context is not easily reconstructed. The god is flanked by two realistic renderings of the banana plant. These two banana plants are rather short, and if our conjecture should be correct that realistic renderings are more elongated, and abstract ones shorter, we could call cases like the present one “intermediate.“
Before concluding the treatment of the doorway we have to mention three isolated instances of the employment of our motif. A single door-jamb (jamb on our left) noticed by us near the Gupta Temple of Deogarh shows a banana plant to the proper right of the river-goddess, perhaps Yamunā (see Neg. no. 661). On a door-jamb of Temple 45 at Sanci (Viennot Fl 33a: jamb on our left) a banana plant is shown to the proper right of the female parasol-bearer of the goddess Gaṅgā. A partially preserved lintel in the Jhansi Museum shows a standing Viṣṇu flanked by two banana plants (Trivedi Jh 47). This piece is later than A.D. 950.
A comprehensive survey of the early medieval material would perhaps lead to the conclusion that the banana plant is mainly associated with Śaiva figures, more particularly with the Devī. We nevertheless arranged the material so far according to the architectural context (niches and doorways). The remaining specimens (Devi type) appear on larger compositions (steles). A Devī from Eastern India, flanked by two banana plants, found its way to Mathurā (Chandra Al 451). For representations of the same Devī from Central India etc. refer to Chandra Al 489 and Trivedi Pa 15. A Devī stele from Menal (Trivedi Pa 18) already foreshadows medieval trends.
Ascetic figures - related to the Śaiva cycle, provided with banana plants, and reminiscent of the Paharpur type (Dikshit Pa 30) - are found at Osian: Handa Os 101 (Moon) and Handa Os 102 (also Moon). A banana plant appears to the proper right of Pārvatī on the famous Kalyāṇasundara panel from Kannauj (Sivaramamurti Sc 34). An Umā-Maheśvara fragment in the Indore Museum (Umā seated to Śiva's proper left) shows a banana plant to the proper left of the goddess (Deptt. of Arch., Central Circle no. 122). Somewhat unexpected is the association of the banana plant with two figures which can be identified as Kārttikeya and Sarasvatī respectively (Handa Os 99 and 146). Although no instances of Jinas with banana plants have come to light so far we cannot exclude the possibility that the three minute vegetable motifs on a small image with two Jinas (see § 5) actually represent banana plants (Neven St p. 112). - An untypical rendering of the banana plant is found on the fragment of a stele (portion on our left, deity unknown) in the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India. The motif appears behind a female cāmara-bearer (Chandra Pr 105).
The material studied in the present section includes three instances of the calyx formula: Chandra Al 503; JID 12; Pal Le 18. The last specimen is especially close to the utpala. If an analysis of the relation were required we would suggest the sequence convergence-assimilation-dissimilation. In other words: as soon as the two motifs would become too similar the artist would introduce, consciously or subconsciously, features which characterized the banana plant as such. Thus we notice in the case of Pal Le 18 the fine parallel nerves to the left and to the right of the main rib of the leaf. The situation is different in the medieval period in so far as there the sheer size distinguishes one motif from the other.