Hell on Earth. A Reassessment of Torture Scenes from Newari Struts

Résumé En

Torture scenes are not a widespread topic in the Newar art of the Kathmandu valley. Whilepainted depictions of tortures can be found in the hell division of the Wheel of Life (Skt. saṃsāracakra)or in paintings of the Bardo, these images are related to Tibetan Buddhism. Nevertheless,two monuments of the valley contain carved wooden struts with representations of tortures.Interestingly, one of these monuments is a multi-tiered Hindu temple and the other one a Buddhistmonastery (New. bāhā).The Tadhicheñ Bāhā of Bhaktapur is a Buddhist monastic compound established in the 15th-16th century. Six of the courtyard’s twenty-eight struts were installed in 1654 (NS 775). They aredecorated with large carvings of the four Tathāgatas, of Vairocana and Vajrasattva. In the lowerregister, are representations of individuals submitted to all kinds of tortures. The scenes are explainedby inscriptions engraved in Newari below them. The second monument is the Hariśaṅ-kara temple. Located on the Patan Durbar Square, this Hindu temple was consecrated in 1706.Twenty-eight struts support its lower overhanging roof. As in Tadhicheñ Bāhā, the main registeris occupied by large images of deities, in this case Hanumān, Viṣṇu and Ganeśa, and torturescenes explained by inscriptions in the lower register.Both sets of struts illustrate the specific punishments imposed on people who committedsins (New. pāpa). The struts were first mentioned by Aldabert Gail (1984), who published a translationof the inscriptions. This was followed by more recent mentions authored by Niels Gutschow(2011 and 2019). Despite these works’ valuable contributions, little has been said aboutthese images’ contexts of production and the iconography of torture in the Newar context ofthe Kathmandu valley.This paper will thus focus on two aspects of the struts: what they represent (the carvings)and what they say (the inscriptions). It will present edited readings of the inscriptions and comparetheir contents with punishments described in texts such as the Manusmṛti and the Arthaśāstra.Furthermore, the iconographies will be contextualised with their architectural locationand in the broader context of Himalayan arts in order to investigate their precedents andtheir continuity.