Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s6.5

c13.s6.5

1. Large blocks of stone carved on the two sides with groups of figures in scenes of drinking and intoxication; 2. The principal figure is Kubera seated on rocky Kailāsa wearing dhoti or in the words of Princep ‘highly orthodox and Brāhmanical’ drapery. This pot-bellied figure answers to the Indian ideal of Kubera without the least influence of Bacchus or Silenus; 3. but the artists were conscious of the Hellenistic influences coming from the north-west as shown by the dress of the female attendants, for example, one on the Pali Khera group is ‘clad in a long-sleeved jacket and a skirt falling down on the feet which are shod with plump shoes’. 4. The shape of the handled drinking goblet held in right hand of Kubera also shows distinct Hellenistic influence. 5. There is a figure in the Pali Khera group holding a bunch of vine-grapes. 6. In all examples we find a cup on the top, the one in the Stacy’s group being 16″ in diameter and 8″ deep.