Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s5.40

c13.s5.40

First in importance come the Yaksha images of the colossal standing type like that of Parkham. The Parkham Yaksha is rightly spoken of as the grand ancestor of all early Indian statuary. The standing Bodhisattva type was directly indebted to it. Both are freestanding and carved in the round, both of a colossal size, both have a muscular built, both impressive by their sheer volume, in both the divine chatacter of the image is sought to be conveyed by means of its size and dominant physical force. Both have their right hand held in *abhayamudrā*. In both the drapery is of simple character, consisting of a *dhotī*, a girdle and an upper covering (*uttarīya*) passing on the left shoulder (*Ekāmsika*). As Coomaraswamy has shown in his famous essay on ‘the origin of the Buddha image’ the colossal standing Bodhisattvas in the Mathura school were undoubtedly derived from the Parkham Yaksha type. Stylistically there is a closest resemblance between the Parkham Yaksha and the Sarnath Bodhisattva which are parts of the same art cycle.