Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s3.23

c13.s3.23

The next round consisted of watery sports (Jalakrīḍā, Ambhovihāra). The literary descriptions include such items as mutual splashing of water (Udakaṭāḍana), dishevelled hair by the striking of watery spurts (keśakulamukhī), wet drapery (jalārdravasana,) same as (magnāṁśuka), bathing in knee-deep water (jānudeśabhugnā), drawing the hair with back to the sun (pṛṣṭhakṛtādityā keśanistoyakāriṇī), sitting on the stone bench near the pond (śilātalagatā), embracing each other, sprinkling coloured water with syringes, swimming in the lotus pond, diving and searching each other amongst lotuses etc. The Mathura sculptors have shown great ingenuity in depicting the aquatic sports; for example, bathing scene under a waterfall carved on two pillars preserved in the Lucknow museum. Of these J 278 shows a female figure in three-quarters profile standing to right under a projecting precipice and receiving on her back a stream of water coming down in swift torrents and collecting below in a pond.