No General Descriptions provided.
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Year Range | Sena Dynasty (bd_sena_dyn) was in: |
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Luxury Precious Metal: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Inferred Present |
Inferred from use of precious metal in creation of statuary; likely used for other luxury goods as well. “General Features of the Pala and Sena Sculptures. Generally speaking, the sculptures of the Pala and Sena epochs are carved out of black-stone (kashti-pathar), either fine or coarse-grained [outlined as being black steatite in Zimmer and Campbell 1990: 110]. The metal images are, however, case in brass or in octo-alloy (ashta-dhatu). One or two images of gold and silver have also come down to us, and wood carvings also are not unknown”. [Majumdar 1943, p. 535] “Bengal was primarily a rural country and a beautiful descripion of its countryside is given in the Radmacharita. But even in ancient times there were a number of towns and important commercial centres which were abodes of wealth and luxury {supra, p. 340). The description of Ramavati and Vijayapura, the capital cities of the Palas and Senas, by two contemporary poets, in spite of obvious poetic exaggerations, gives us a vivid picture of the wealthy cities of ancient Bengal. Such towns contained wide roads and symmetrical rows of palatial buildings, towering high and surmounted by golden pitchers on the top. The temples, monasteries, public parks and large tanks, bordered by rockery and tall palm-trees, added to the beauty and amenities of town-life. These towns, as in all ages and countries, were the homes of all shades of peoples ; the plain, simple, virtuous and religious, as well as the vicious and the luxurious. Luxuries were chiefly manifested in fine clothes, jewellery, palatial buildings, costly furniture, and sumptuous feasts. Abundant supply of food, far beyond the needs and even capacity of invited guests, was characteristic of these feasts in ancient, as in modern Bengal.” [Majumdar 1971, p. 464]
Luxury Manufactured Goods: | Present |
Place(s) of Provenance: | inferred present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
“Bengal was primarily a rural country and a beautiful descripion of its countryside is given in the Radmacharita. But even in ancient times there were a number of towns and important commercial centres which were abodes of wealth and luxury {supra, p. 340). The description of Ramavati and Vijayapura, the capital cities of the Palas and Senas, by two contemporary poets, in spite of obvious poetic exaggerations, gives us a vivid picture of the wealthy cities of ancient Bengal. Such towns contained wide roads and symmetrical rows of palatial buildings, towering high and surmounted by golden pitchers on the top. The temples, monasteries, public parks and large tanks, bordered by rockery and tall palm-trees, added to the beauty and amenities of town-life. These towns, as in all ages and countries, were the homes of all shades of peoples ; the plain, simple, virtuous and religious, as well as the vicious and the luxurious. Luxuries were chiefly manifested in fine clothes, jewellery, palatial buildings, costly furniture, and sumptuous feasts. Abundant supply of food, far beyond the needs and even capacity of invited guests, was characteristic of these feasts in ancient, as in modern Bengal.” [Majumdar 1971, p. 464]
Luxury Food: | Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Inferred Present |
“Bengal was primarily a rural country and a beautiful descripion of its countryside is given in the Radmacharita. But even in ancient times there were a number of towns and important commercial centres which were abodes of wealth and luxury {supra, p. 340). The description of Ramavati and Vijayapura, the capital cities of the Palas and Senas, by two contemporary poets, in spite of obvious poetic exaggerations, gives us a vivid picture of the wealthy cities of ancient Bengal. Such towns contained wide roads and symmetrical rows of palatial buildings, towering high and surmounted by golden pitchers on the top. The temples, monasteries, public parks and large tanks, bordered by rockery and tall palm-trees, added to the beauty and amenities of town-life. These towns, as in all ages and countries, were the homes of all shades of peoples ; the plain, simple, virtuous and religious, as well as the vicious and the luxurious. Luxuries were chiefly manifested in fine clothes, jewellery, palatial buildings, costly furniture, and sumptuous feasts. Abundant supply of food, far beyond the needs and even capacity of invited guests, was characteristic of these feasts in ancient, as in modern Bengal.” [Majumdar 1971, p. 464]
Luxury Fabrics: | Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Inferred Present |
“Bengal was primarily a rural country and a beautiful descripion of its countryside is given in the Radmacharita. But even in ancient times there were a number of towns and important commercial centres which were abodes of wealth and luxury {supra, p. 340). The description of Ramavati and Vijayapura, the capital cities of the Palas and Senas, by two contemporary poets, in spite of obvious poetic exaggerations, gives us a vivid picture of the wealthy cities of ancient Bengal. Such towns contained wide roads and symmetrical rows of palatial buildings, towering high and surmounted by golden pitchers on the top. The temples, monasteries, public parks and large tanks, bordered by rockery and tall palm-trees, added to the beauty and amenities of town-life. These towns, as in all ages and countries, were the homes of all shades of peoples ; the plain, simple, virtuous and religious, as well as the vicious and the luxurious. Luxuries were chiefly manifested in fine clothes, jewellery, palatial buildings, costly furniture, and sumptuous feasts. Abundant supply of food, far beyond the needs and even capacity of invited guests, was characteristic of these feasts in ancient, as in modern Bengal.” [Majumdar 1971, p. 464]
Luxury Drink/Alcohol: | Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Inferred Present |
“Bengal was primarily a rural country and a beautiful descripion of its countryside is given in the Radmacharita. But even in ancient times there were a number of towns and important commercial centres which were abodes of wealth and luxury {supra, p. 340). The description of Ramavati and Vijayapura, the capital cities of the Palas and Senas, by two contemporary poets, in spite of obvious poetic exaggerations, gives us a vivid picture of the wealthy cities of ancient Bengal. Such towns contained wide roads and symmetrical rows of palatial buildings, towering high and surmounted by golden pitchers on the top. The temples, monasteries, public parks and large tanks, bordered by rockery and tall palm-trees, added to the beauty and amenities of town-life. These towns, as in all ages and countries, were the homes of all shades of peoples ; the plain, simple, virtuous and religious, as well as the vicious and the luxurious. Luxuries were chiefly manifested in fine clothes, jewellery, palatial buildings, costly furniture, and sumptuous feasts. Abundant supply of food, far beyond the needs and even capacity of invited guests, was characteristic of these feasts in ancient, as in modern Bengal.” [Majumdar 1971, p. 464]
Luxury Statuary: | Present |
Consumption by Ruler: | Inferred Present |
Consumption by Elite: | Inferred Present |
“This relief [a tenth century sculpture of Ganga from Isvaripur (Jessore)] compares very favourably with the sensuous representation of the same goddess, fished out of the Deopara tank and now in the Rajshahi Museum, belonging to the late Sena period (Pl. LXXVI. 179)”. [Majumdar 1943, p. 462] “Sociological Background of Pala and Sena Sculpture…There was a change in the attitude of the court during the reign of the Senas. They seem to have developed a rather pompous and luxurious court-life and with it a highly sophisticated and high-brow aesthetic taste, that delighted in over-sensitiveness of form and gestures, a sensuous worldliness and meticulous details of ornamentation. This is reflected in the high-flown and rich ornamental Sanskrit that developed in the Sena court as well as in the art of the period”. [Majumdar 1943, p. 533] “They [the Senas] helped to revive Sanskrit literature, but at this epoch religious life was saturated with a luxurious worldliness, so that poetry as well as sculpture occasionally seemed to have satisfied the aesthetic taste of the royal patron, as for instance that of Vijayasena. In spite of the religious subject matter, the art of the Sena dynasty belongs to the world and to the court and is replete with sensuousness”. [Kramrisch 0, p. 209] “It is obvious that only those who could afford to pay the artist, and defray the expenses of materials for the making of the image and its installation for purposes of worship, had the privilege of enjoying the luxury of earning religious merit. This presupposes a prosperous lay community that obeyed the requirements of the cult or cults they belonged to”. [NB: should this be noted under the ‘common people’ rather than ‘elite’ category?]. [Majumdar 1943, p. 533] “The chief factors that created this art of Bengal for four centuries are thus 1) the court; 2) and 3) the cults and their votaries who belonged to prosperous communities with evidently a comparatively higher standard of living; and 4) the artists who in groups and guilds formed a section of the people not generally considered sufficiently respectable. Evidently enough, these chief factors have hardly any room for the people at large. This art, then, was the art of the higher classes, of the dominant groups of the contemporary socio-economic order, and we have hardly any evidence during these centuries of the art of the common people”. [Majumdar 1943, pp. 534-535]
Luxury Precious Stone: | Inferred Present |
Inferred from use of precious stone in creation of statuary; likely used for other luxury goods as well. “General Features of the Pala and Sena Sculptures. Generally speaking, the sculptures of the Pala and Sena epochs are carved out of black-stone (kashti-pathar), either fine or coarse-grained [outlined as being black steatite in Zimmer and Campbell 1990: 110]. The metal images are, however, case in brass or in octo-alloy (ashta-dhatu). One or two images of gold and silver have also come down to us, and wood carvings also are not unknown”. [Majumdar 1943, p. 535]