However, these anomalous occurrences are rare, and as a preliminary approach to the water lily problem it is possible to isolate a large number. The leaf is, as indicated, one of the most characteristic features of the water lily in Mayan art.
NO. 34] WATER LILY IN MAYA ART — RANDS 85
This could either mean that Palenque seized upon certain internalized artistic qualities of the water lily leaf and expanded them in its own distinctive way or that Palenque was actually a source of inspiration and. Although this suggests a fairly early presence of the motif, the dating of Palenque is far from securely placed, and.
FLOWER TYPES
Straight lines can separate the petals or sepals (fig. 2c), semi-independent bands, rounded to the end, can be shown (fig. 2e). A second stem from the same source ends in a similar shape, but in this case the left tip and inner markings clearly indicate the partial unfolding of the petals or sepals (fig. 56).
Type A flowers occasionally occur in the Maya area outside northern Yucatán; the most noteworthy groups seem to be at Palenque and Bonampak. The unusual similarities in the depiction of a group of flowers from separate regions are interesting.
FLOWER ELEMENTS
Arowof dots or circles, or a single centrally located dot, pass similarly along the central axis of the flower (Figs. Zh, 4d, 5h). Plumes pass out from the flower, thus assuming somewhat of the position of the fish and aquatic plant motif (fig. Id).
WATER LILY IN MAYA ART — RANDS 99
STEM AND ROOT
Type B slab occurs more widely, known from Copan, Palenque, Quirigua, and possibly (^ancueno and Tulum, and on Alta Verapaz pottery. Type C slab occurs prominently at PiedrasNegras, where it originates from katuns 12 to 16, and also occurs in Yaxchilan and Chichen Itza (fig. 2/,d) They are found in Palenque, Chichen Itza, Alta Verapaz and, in a very variant form, Copan.
Uncertainties in the chronological overview, coupled with the lack of sufficient data on representations in media other than monuments, prohibit more than speculation about the development of informal forms. However, when analyzing the water lily shapes, one is constantly forced to return to the decorations in the palace of Palenque.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
Less certainly, the release of the plant from the mouth seems to be mainly associated with the snake bird and its close associates. The long-nosed gods, Gods'B and K, appear in a somewhat similar situation in the Dresden Codex (entry 305). This appears to be one of the more securely identified water lilies in Maya art.
Other appendages suggest that some type of device is depicted, but the basic elements of the water lily pad held in the hand and the flower hanging from the pad appear to be twofold. The flower, type B, is of interest because of its similarities to some of the more confidently identified water lilies at Chichen Itza.
HEAD OR FOREHEAD
The flowers, associated or unrelated with possible water lily leaves, appear to be attached to some kind of hand-held implements in the Tulum frescoes and possibly the Dresden Codex (entries 131, 307). The hands hold bulbous objects that resemble the probable rhizomes of the water lily of the Ge figure. In a series of type depictions, water lily leaves are apparently tied to the foreheads of mythical or human beings with a flower.
Here it is not tied to the flower, but provides an undeniable precedent for the appearance of the water lily leaves on the forehead. The occurrence of water lily leaves without accompanying stems and flowers (Over-all type IV) is much more limited.
EYES
Floral forms, which tend to be of the same form as floral type H, occur with some frequency at the ends of the headbands of mask panels in Yucatan's Puuc period architecture. The presence of a probably unaccompanied blade in House C, Palenque, on the forehead of one of nine stucco masks on the inner wall in the West.
NO 34] WATER LILY IN MAYA ART RANDS 107 although at the former site the being is a Long-nosed God form and at
MOUTH
At the latter location flowers appear with the wing panel on the wing of the Snakebird (Entries and in at least one of these cases the outline of the Wing Panel. 109) The stem may have its origin at the head, beak or ear of a strong eroded Snakebird, but at least it ends in the upside-down heads of the long-nosed godforms. In this connection by means of stems or vines of the long-nosed deities with the heads of probable birds, the pattern of Stela D, Quirigua and StelaB, Copan, is repeated (Entries 104, 50).
This recalls the Sayil depiction of the emergence of stalks from the eyes of a creature holding the same plant in its hands (Entry 121b). As is sometimes the case when the water lily pushes up from the mouth, the stem of the Sailplant is outwards to both sides unreal panel.
MISCELLANEOUS ASSOCIATIONS
The feathers are of the type that sometimes appear in connection with the Serpent and the Wing panel (Maudslay vol. The pendant recurs at the neck of probable vultures in a panel of water lilies at Chichen Itza (Entry 26, fig. Flowers or feathers at the four corners of the jaguar-head shield in the Temple of the Sun, Palenque, forms perfect waterlihes of the Palenque type except for the absence of sepals (Entry 8Id).
Water lily designs feature prominently on the benches of the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza, a single motif, of flower stems growing from the decapitated neck of a ball player, is repeated six times (Entry 35). Although these events are of considerable importance, in light of the inconclusive data it seems best not to push the matter too far.
GLYPHIC ASSOCIATIONS OF PROBABLE WATER LILIES Several of the representations referred to in the preceding section
No.^34?^ WATERLILLIES IN MAYA ART — MARKS 111 Flowers, apparently variants of Type E waterlilies at Copan, are tied to the heads of several beings in the stela's full-figure lyves. A possible flower is placed in the forehead of a head variant of the number zero (Stela D, record 106). A similar design occurs in Glyph 11, proceeding from the mouth of the probable head variant for number 8.
Such an interpretation corresponds artistically to many representations of the water lily and, in fact,. If, as seems likely, many of the flower forms lacking these features are correctly identified as aquatic.
AREAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TRENDS
Could the portrayal of the water flower in these two places be subject, perhaps independently, to an anachronism that based the depiction of the flower on the Imix glyph and thus enabled artists to duplicate the flower as it had been represented at various times before. Or some other media, such as codices, may have continued to portray the water lily in the old Imix manner, concurrent with the various changes occurring in the floral art of sculpture during classical times.
OVER-ALL TYPE
In combination with the other tables, Table 6 provides a better perspective on the overall activity in floral representation.^. The earliest of the common types, as shown in Table 6, is the flower attached to a simple stem (Type lb). The oldest recorded occurrence of the complex stem is a variant of the Typelie representation on Stela 2, Copan Entry 45).
Most of the associations are present at Chichen Itza, but of particular strength at the site is the presence of human figures amidst the plant.
WATER LILT EST MAYA ART — BRANDS 115 with the floral forms, and the flower-eating fish is of important occm*-
Usually a flowerless stalk appears in connection with the back of the head. The date is of considerable interest given the similarity in treatment of the flower to Copan, where similar types appear only in Katun 16, as well as for the possibly early association of the flower with the mouth of the jaguar. If the various examples at Palenqueare can be correctly assigned to a fairly early period, the top of the curve for the floral motifs would actually slightly precede the total number of comparable monuments.
In any case, there is a continuity of tradition that may increase, notwithstanding the fairly rapid addition of new ones over a century or so. Whether or not the concept of the water lily was intended all along, the conceptual and artistic ties form a wide-ranging complex, some threads of which can be traced back in full or more.
RESEMBLANCES TO THE LOTUS IN INDIAN ART
The flower-eating fish of the well-known fish and aquatic plant motif are first definitively dated at Calakmul (entry 15), earlier occurrences, however, seem likely at Palenque, where they are with the petalless and calyxless Type M flower characteristic of earlier times (fig. 6/, perhaps from Katun 14). Basal zoning of a semicircle of short, parallel lines corresponds to Floral Element I, in the Maya area known only at Chichen Itza (cf. figs, la, Qh). As a frequent motif in India, the string of pearls hangs down from the stream:-, which in a way is compared to a similar arrangement of feathers at Chichen Itza (cf.
On the other hand, the leaves of the lotus in Indian art appear to differ widely from water lily leaves in Maya art (fig. la-c). The panel forms at Chichen Itza and Palenque offer the greatest similarities to the Hindu lotus within the Maya area.
NO 34] WATER LILY IN MAYA ART — RANDS 119
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The suggestion of an Asian origin of the water lily motif seems to gain some support because of the striking artistic and. However, it is difficult to reconcile such an origin with the chronological trends in the development of the Maya water-lUy motif. This also appears to be true of the only somewhat less Hindu water lily at Palenque.
At the same time, the water lily seems as quintessentially Mayan as perhaps most other elements of the culture. Whatever the actual historical events may have been, several points of theoretical interest indicate reasons why considerable similarities can be expected between the water lily in the art of the.
NOTES ON THE TABLES
A large degree of elaboration, in accordance with the canons of the art she addresses, might therefore seem a matter of probability. Although the panel designs in Mayan and Indian floral art are mostly similar, they represent elaborations of essentially simple geometric forms. The theocratic domination of the arts may, independently, have encouraged the creation of highly unrealistic situations in which old elements within culture were recombined in accordance with an ever-evolving speculative philosophy.
The highly arbitrary situations that thus arise in art seem to change the details of further religio-philosophical speculation. If such a functional relationship existed within the theocracies of the Old and New Worlds, it is an independent creation of some of the same arbitrary associations.
WATER LILY IN MAYA ART — RANDS 123 In summation (tables 2-6), the incidence of positive occurrences
For a closely unified group of separate media, such as different lintels in a single structure (YaxchUan) or different pages in a single codex, one entry is given if the above criteria are met. In this case, the figures also refer to the total number of monuments and not to the number of images on them.
128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 151
140 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BCLL. 151
SCULPTURES AND MURALS
WATER LILY IN MAYA ART — RANDS 149
CERAMICS
SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS'"
LITERATURE CITED
