Tribhanga

The pose goes back at least 2,000 years in Indian art, and has been highly characteristic for much of this period, "found repeated over and over again in countless examples of Indian sculpture and painting". Indian religions carried it to East and South-East Asia. Like the equivalent contrapposto and "S Curve" poses in Western art, it suggests movement in figures and gives "rhythmic fluidity and ... youthful energy".

The word derives from Sanskrit, where bhanga (or bhangha) is the word for an attitude or position, with tri meaning "triple", making "triple-bend position". Other poses described in old texts on dance were samabhanga for the "figure in equipoise", whether standing, sitting or reclining, and abhanga for a slight bend in one leg giving a smaller curve to the figure. Other more complex positions in dance are atibhanga; the famous Shiva Nataraja figures are examples of this.

History

The history of the stance is often said to reach back to the famous Dancing Girl from Mohenjo-Daro, of about c. 2300–1750 BCE, although this does not exactly show the usual later form. It may well derive from dance before art, but the remaining record in early art is more clear. The earliest versions are nearly all in female figures, but it gradually spread to males. Versions of the stance can be seen in (Buddhist) yakshi at Bharhut, c. 100 BCE, and the classical form of the stance at Sanchi, around 10 CE, and the Bhutesvara Yakshis (2nd century CE).

The pose is used on many coins of the Gupta Empire (c. 319 to 543 CE), by both the kings on the obverse and the deities on the reverse, and in Gupta sculpture. During this period it became very common in both Buddhist and Hindu art (as well as Jain art). The most famous ancient Indian painting, the large figure of Padmapani in Cave 1 at the Ajanta Caves (c. 478) has the pose, which remains common in bodhisattva figures.

The style of the stance changes somewhat over the centuries, and between different regions inside and outside India, as it was carried abroad, mainly to the east and south-east, in the art of both major religions. To simplify considerably, the earlier depictions in Gupta art and Post-Gupta art show major figures in mildly-bent stances, with more pronounced poses in minor figures and especially female ones such as apsaras and yakshini.

By perhaps the 9th century the stronger version of the stance spreads to most types of figures, and becomes even more marked. This tendency begins to reduce from about the 13th century. The Buddha only ever has a slight tribhanga stance and the Jain tirthankaras are almost never depicted in the pose. Vishnu and Brahma also only usually have slight versions of the stance; the famous temples of Khajuraho, which provide a profusion of tribhanga poses, include examples for both of them. Krishna playing his flute is very consistently depicted in a version of the pose with one lower leg crossed over (or behind) the other and on tip-toe, and he and Shiva are more often given stronger versions of the stance.

In the Buddhist and Hindu art of East Asia and South-East Asia, the stance tends to be a mark of recent Indian influence in early periods, and figures, especially major ones, then gradually straighten as time passes. In all areas this tendency may not apply to figures actually shown as dancing.