Studies in Indian Art c12.s12.4

c12.s12.4

The plump face and the goggle eyes are still more remarkable. From a close study images of the two attendants of Sūrya, viz., Daṇḍa and Piṅgala, whose statues made of unspeckled-red sand-stone are common enough in Mathura art of the Gupta period, I am inclined to take the head No. 2844 as one which represented one of the two acolytes of Sūrya, more probably Piṅgala, who stands on the right side of Sūrya and holds a pen in right hand and an inkpot or parchment in left. In this connection the best specimen to compare with is an independent image of Piṅgala, No. 513 in the Mathura Museum wearing bushy hair and *kulah* cap with crescent and globule (*candra divākara*) sign on it. The rigid treatment of the whiskers and the stylized pruning of the beard continued right into the early medieval period and is traceable in a more deteriorated form in several late images of Piṅgala and Daṇḍa from Mathura made of white stone.