The Lomas Rishi Cave in the Barabar hills belongs to a group of small rock-cut cells some of which were dedicated in the reigns of Ashoka and Dasaratha, his grandson. Like the other caves its interior walls have received the fine polish which is so typical of Mauryan work. The original work seems to have been discontinued owing to a flaw in the rock. The façade must have been a later addition, for it is akin to the work at Bharhut. It, however, offers a good example of the close imitation of wooden construction.
The Buddha’s first sermon, 2nd century B. C. E., Satavahana dynasty. Steatite, height: 39.5 cm. Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh.
Sculpture
The art of the times dealt with in this chapter is characterized by frank naturalism. It is thoroughly human, a mirror of the social and religious life of ancient India, apparently a much pleasanter and merrier life than that of the India of later ages, when the Brahmans had reasserted their superiority and imposed their ideas upon art and upon every branch of Hindu civilization. The early sculptures, while full of the creatures of gay fancy, are free from the gloom and horror of the conceptions of the medieval artists. The Buddhism with which nearly all of them are concerned was, as already observed, the popular creed of men and women living a natural life in the world, seeking happiness, and able to enjoy themselves.
There has, also, been a tendency to apply certain literary standards, which are in essence medieval, to the work of the Early Period, and in fact, to all Indian art, wholesale. The various members, mouldings, and motives which dealt with in the Silpa Sastras cannot be found outside the buildings of the medieval period. With regard to the passages dealing with the sculpture the same thing applies. The Sastras are in fact technical memoranda based on a literary tradition, which may be taken to have crystalised out from the great literary activity of the Gupta period. Their import is very great with regard to the iconography of medieval and modern India. They can only be applied with great circumspection to the earlier art, the inspiration of which is oral and living.
The footprints of the Buddha (Buddhapada) from the Great Stupa at Amaravati, 1st century B. C. E., Satavahana period, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh. Limestone panel, 67.5 × 46.25 × 15 cm. British Museum, London.
Mahayan Chaitya-Griha Cave Temple, 5th-6th century C. E., late Gupta period. Rock-cut hall. Ajanta caves (Cave XXVI), near Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
The study of the existing monuments of Ashoka, scanty as they are, leaves one with a clear impression of a definite and distinct school of sculpture, with great stylistic and architectonic qualities and certain characteristics which distinguish it from the sculpture of the Early Period and from all other periods of Indian art. Firstly, finely stylized as these works are they are essentially naturalistic. Secondly, columns, capitals, and caves all have a highly finished, polished surface which is unique and unmistakable. Certain sculptures, however, exist which possess this distinguishing finish and yet as sculptures are to be classed with the work of Bharhut and Sanchi. These may be treated as a link between the two schools. Anyhow the Mauryan period, which is historically exact, provides a lower limit for the dating of the work of the Early Period. Among these sculptures, which are mostly of colossal size, is a mutilated standing statue of a male, perhaps representing the Yaksha demigod Kuvera, god of wealth, found at Parkham in the Mathura District, and now in the Mathura Museum. The material is polished grey sandstone similar to that used for the Ashoka pillars. The height, including pedestal, is two and a half metres, and the breadth across the shoulders is 79 centimetres. The excessively massive body, which possesses considerable grandeur, is clothed in a waistcloth (dhoti) held around the loins by means of a flat girdle tied in a knot in front. A second flat girdle is bound round the chest. The ornaments are a necklace and a torque from which four tassels hang down on the back. Some praise may be given to the treatment of the drapery.
This is probably the earliest example of ‘early’ sculpture as distinct from the Mauryan. In treatment and detail it is clearly a forerunner of the sculpture of Bharhut and has nothing in common with the art of the Mauryan capitals. Several other colossal sculptures, which do not possess the distinctive Mauryan polish, emphasize this development.
An uninscribed statue of a female, two metres in height, found near Besnagar adjoining Bhilsa in the Gwalior State, Central India, a locality associated by tradition with Ashoka, is to be classed among these on account of the style and costume.
The figure wears the heavy headdress as found at Bharhut and Sanchi and also the linked belt of beaded strands and the double breast chain. The finely pleated waistcloth is held at the hips by a belt with a looped clasp and its folds are treated in fashion that is reminiscent of the Sanchi bracket-figures rather than the Bharhut devatas. The modelling is naturalistic, but the sculpture has suffered severely from violence and exposure.
There is a second colossal female at Besnagar, two metres high, locally known as the Telin or ‘oil woman’, which has been described by Cunningham. He also mentions the existence in his time of a polished sandstone elephant and rider.
In 1873, Cunningham discovered at Bharhut, about midway between Allahabad and Jabalpur, the remains of a Buddhist stupa, surrounded by a stone railing adorned with sculptures of surprising richness and interest. The stupa had then been almost wholly carried off by greedy villagers in search of bricks, who treated the sculptures with equal ruthlessness, and were prevented from destroying them only by the great weight of the stones. During the following three years, Cunningham and his assistant uncovered the ruins and saved a large number of the sculptured stones by sending them to Calcutta, where they now form one of the chief treasures of the Indian Museum. Everything left on the site was taken away by the country people and converted to base uses.
Ajanta caves, 5th-6th century C. E., late Gupta period. Rock-cut. Ajanta caves (Caves XXIII–XXVII), near Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
The railing, constructed after the usual pattern, in a highly developed form, was extremely massive, the pillars being 2.15 metres in height, and each of the coping stones about the same in length. The sculptures of the coping were devoted mainly to the representation of incidents in the Jatakas, or tales of the previous births of the Buddha. The carvings on the rails, pillars, and gateways were exceedingly varied in subject and treatment of Buddhist legends. The structure must have been very much like Sanchi. The composite pillar of the gateway, made up of four clustered columns crowned by a modified Persepolitan capital, is worthy of special notice. An inscription records that the Eastern gateway with the adjoining masonry was erected during the rule of the Sunga dynasty (c. 185–73 B. C. E.), but it is not possible to determine the date of the monument with greater precision. The execution of work so costly and elaborate must have extended over many years. Certain masons’ marks in the Kharoshthi character of the northwestern frontier suggest that perhaps foreign artists were called in to teach and assist local talent. The railing exhibits a great mass of sculptures of a high order of excellence. The subjects and style are described by Cunningham as follows:
The subjects represented in the Bharhut sculptures are both numerous and varied, and many of them are of the highest interest and importance for the study of Indian style. Thus we have more than a score of illustrations of the legendary Jatakas, some half-dozen illustrations of historical scenes connected with the life of Buddha, which are quite invaluable for the history of Buddhism. Their value is chiefly due to the inscribed labels that are attached to many of them, and which make their identification absolutely certain. Amongst the historical scenes the most interesting are the processions of the Rajas