Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s3.11

c13.s3.11

The artists of the Kushāṇa railing pillars both in the Jaina and Buddhist Stūpas were devoting their highest attention on the human figures carved on the front side. This fact with respect to the beauty of the female figures was noticed even in ancient times showing that the art connoisseurs also were conscious of this supreme fact which has made the Kushāṇa art of Mathura such a loving object in the eyes of modern critics. "The Śālabhañjikā women carved on the vedikā pillars were standing in various graceful poses, well-supported (on crouchant figures), beautifully ornamented, wearing garments painted in various colours, and necklaces of various designs, slender-waisted, having round prominent breasts, eyes with red corners and black curly hair, standing under Aśoka trees and holding their distended boughs, stealing the hearts of the gods as it were with their rolling glances and teasing as it were with the play of their eyes." (Rāyapaseniyasutta¹). We have actual specimens of both Buddhist and Jaina railings to which the above description equally applies. On the pillars of the Jaina Stūpa however there are no Jātaka scenes on the reverse. We learn from the Rāyapaseniyasutta that there were sixteen railing pillars (solasa solasa sālabhañjiyāparivāḍī) on each side of the toraṇa gateways which gives a total of sixty four pillars for the entire railing, a number which has actually been confirmed by the pillars of the Bharhut railing.