Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s3.t7.4

c12.s3.t7.4

It is also indicated that a considerable give and take and mutual influencing was in progress amongst the manifold symbols and their twofold purpose, viz. decorative (*śobhārtha*) and apotropaic (*rakṣārtha*) had fully mingled with each other. Other scenes include those of Stūpa worship, Bodhi Tree worship, Lion Pillar, Chakra pillar, Chakra worship, fish-tailed Makara with lotus creepers issuing from their mouth, five-hooded Nāgarāja, kīchaka or atlante dwarfs holding lotus bunch, Gaja-Lakṣmī, addorsed lions, bulls, horses, elephants (saṅghāṭa), kalpalatā and several other scenes of Uttarakuru with couples enjoying water-sports and garden-sports. There is a definite development in the number of newly conceived motifs or in the form in which the old ones are depicted, e.g. Indra’s Vaijayanta palace together with the Nandana forests on the slopes of Mount Meru. On the two sides of the lower-most architrave elaborate scenes of Uttarakuru are depicted including Kalpalatā meanders producing ornaments and issuing from the mouths of Yakṣas which points to the association of the original motif with the region of Vaiśravaṇa, a conception which later on was perfected in that of the capital Alakā, the Happy Abode of the Yakṣas. All the above symbols severally and in combination were accepted as motifs of religion and decoration and this was the happy approach accorded to them both in life and art.