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Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16: Chapter XIII: Indian Terracottas

Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16

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Chapter XIII: Indian Terracottas

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The clay-figurines of India occupy a respectable place in the domain of her artistic activity. The material is rich, of high antiquity, and covering a wide range of subjects, may also lay claim to some aesthetic quality. Right from the Indus Valley to our own times, clay-figurines have remained a constant feature of Indian art. The modeller's art long outlived that of the sculptor. The monumental brick temples of Bengal provide examples of moulded figurines and ornamental brick-work of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when stone sculpture altogether disappeared.

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At several old sites in north India both human and animal clay-figurines have been exposed in profuse numbers. On their basis a periodwise typological inventory may be drawn up.

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Literary references to terracotta art are known in the epics and subsequent literature. According to the *Mahābhārata*, Ekalavya, pupil of Droṇa, made a likeness of his teacher in clay for worship¹. Aśvapati, king of Madra, as a child made small clay figurines of horses as toys². In the *Bhaddasāla Jātaka* reference is found to princes receiving presents of elephants, horses and other toys from their mother's father³. The drama *Mṛcchakaṭika* derives its name from a clay toy-cart with which Rohasena, the infant son of Cārudatta amused himself. A wheeled toy-horse being pulled with a string by a small Yaksha figure is represented in Nāgārjunikoṇḍa sculpture⁴. In the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*, a clay image of Durgā (*mahīmayī-mūrti*) is installed for worship⁵. Kālidāsa refers to a painted clay peacock in the hands of child Bharata⁶.

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¹ *Kṛtvā Droṇaṃ mahīmayam*, Ādiparva (Poona ed.), Ch. 123, 12.

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² *Karoti aśvāmścha mṛṇmayān*, Vanaparva, Ch. 294, 13.

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³ *Jātaka*, 465, text, p. 146; translation, *Hatthirūpaka-assarūpakādīni āhariyamānāni*.

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⁴ Longhurst, *Sculptures at Nagarjunikonda*, pl. IX (c).

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⁵ *Tau tasmin Puline devyāḥ Kṛtvā mūrtiṃ mahīmayīm*, Durgāsaptaśatī, XIII, 7.

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⁶ *Varṇa-chitrita-mṛttikā-mayūra*, Śakuntalā, Act VII.

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The clay-figurines in the Gupta period looked charming being coloured and treated with painted lines to indicate striped and checkered drapery, black hair, eyebrows, etc. For the period c. 400-700 A. D. more numerous, better and bigger specimens of clay-figurines are available, as well a richness of literary references to them. Bāṇabhaṭṭa speaks of the modeller as *lepyakāra* and *pustakṛt*. Buddhaghosha refers to clay platic art as *potthaka-rūpa*, to ivory as *dānta-rūpa* and to metal as *loha-rūpa*. Rājaśekhara (A. D. ninth century) describes the modeller taking his seat with a painter (*chitra-lepya-kṛtaḥ*), a laipdarist, a goldsmith and other artists in the western wing of the king's *Sabhā*¹. Harisheṇa's reference (tenth century A. D.) to an expert modeller executing at the request of a king a colossal stucco image² reminds of the large-sized stucco images similar to those surviving in the ruins of the Nālandā monastery. The terracotta and brick monuments of the Gupta and post-Gupta periods like the brick temples at Bhitargāon (Kanpur district) and Sīrpur (Raipur district) and the Stūpas at Pahārpur and Mahāsthān (Bogra district) bespeak the architectural heights this art had once attained. The beautiful terracotta plaques from the frieze of the terraced Śiva temple at Ahichchhatrā (Bareli district) and the Buddhist Stūpa at Mīrpurkhās, Sind, likewise illustrate rich documentation of religious subjects through the medium of terracotta art. The tradition of producing moulded plaques of big size continued later for about a thousand years up to the eighteenth century as seen in the brick temples of Kashmir and Bengal.

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¹ Kāvyamīmāṃsā, ch. X, Gaekwad Oriental Series, p. 55.

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² Brihatkathākoṣa,

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The earliest figurines, all hand-modelled, belong to the Indus Valley (c. 2500 B. C.) represented mainly by (1) female figurines and (2) animals and birds. The former represent the Mother Goddess, whose worship was once popular amongst many peoples of antiquity from the Mediterranean to the Gangetic valley. The Vedic epithets '*Mahī Mātā*' and '*Mahānagni*' seem to refer to her. These archaic figurines show a steatopygous type with prominent breasts, and deep navel and loaded with profuse symbolic ornamentation, such as the elaborate head-dress, several necklaces over breasts, and a prominent girdle round the loins. This tradition continued and is traceable in the clay figurines exposed in north India at several historical sites of the Maurya and Śuṅga periods. The Indus Valley female figurines are rudimentary as specimens of art, but marked by bold expression. The animal figurines, on the other hand, both of faience and clay are much more finished and realistic. In the figurines of a bull and a tiger the vigour and charm of animal life are seen at their best,

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The clay-figurines of the historical period although separated from those of the Indus Valley by an interval of about twenty centuries, nevertheless show links of styles and subject-matter. On the technical side the earliest figurines from Pāṭaliputra, Ahichchhatrā and Mathurā are all hand-modelled like those of the Indus Valley. The use of moulds appears for the first time in the late Maurya or early Śuṅga period about the third-second century B. C. Definitely datable Maurya material is yet scanty, its main reason being the absence of accurately recorded excavations. However, clay-figurines from the Patna sites like Patna City, Bulandibagh, Kumrāhār, Buxar etc., may be ascribed to the Maurya age. Stylistically there are several distinct types which must have preceded in time the known types of the Śuṅga period. The most remarkable are those unearthed in the excavations at Pāṭaliputra, consisting mainly of a type of female figure with elaborate head-dress and panniered skirt somewhat oversized and spread out on the two sides of the legs like wings. A remarkable specimen comes from the Patna Museum (ht. 11.5"). On the technical side the figure is entirely modelled by hand except for the head pressed out of a mould, later on a good number of applique decorations were attached; for example, a couple of falling locks on the protuberance of the head-dress, surmounted by a full-blown lotus, another disc or lotus in the centre of the two projections, a cylindrical ornament in the right ear and a disc in left, a bangle on the fore-arm, a necklace round the neck and a festooned girdle with pendant bells on the waist. The right arm is flexed at the elbow and the hand, now lost, pointed upwards in an appropriate gesture. The entire pose is obviously that of a female dancer. [Fig. 227]. About the identity of these figures nothing can be definitely made out, but they undoubtedly show a distinctive ethnic type different from the more usual female faces on the plaques of the Śuṅga period.

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Another figure, remarkable in several ways, was found in the Golakhpur excavations at Patna (ht. 6"), being a female torso. In its pose, plastic modelling of the body and rich ornamentation, it approximates the Didarganj Yakshī type. Its bust and torso appear to have been first modelled by hand and then moulded ornaments were affixed. She is wearing a thick garland round the neck with a tassel on the back, and a long double necklace of round and elongated beads with a clasp near the left breast having a pearl terminal, arranged from left shoulder to right hip and on back in the manner of the much later vaikakshyaka garlands. A broad tight belt is fastened round the narrow waist having a central clasp with three long tassels on the left thigh and the lower end of the scarf tucked under it. On the hips is again a broad loose girdle of four strings with beads of varying designs in each. The figure, assignable to circa 200 B. C., is a beautiful specimen of the early Indian terracotta art. [Fig. 228].

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Basārh (ancient Vaiśālī) was another flourishing centre of Śuṅga clay figurines. A plaque (ht. 5½") shows a figure standing in the midst of lotuses with two long stems held in the hands on the waist. It is remarkable for a pair of wings on the shoulders. The breasts are inconspicuous as those in male figures. The ornaments consist of discular rings in ears, a flat torque, armlets, profuse bangles and wristlets with pearl pendants, a broad girdle and anklets. In terms of iconography it cannot be definitely identified. The abundance of lotuses points towards a kindred Śrī Lakshmī type. The wing-like appendages may have been a borrowed feature connecting it with the winged Cupid type. Two small holes pierced under the armpits point to the figure being hung on a wall. [Fig. 229].

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Another specimen allied both in type and ornamentation was found at Kosam and is in the Allahabad Municipal Museum (5" × 3¾"). It is undoubtedly a male figure although wearing the same type of conspicuous ornaments. Its hands hang by the side between two lotuses springing from below. A wing preserved at the back of the right shoulder connects it with a winged Cupid type. [Fig. 230]. In Indian mythology Kāmadeva is believed to be the son of Lakshmī and this may explain the intimate association of this figure with lotuses, its formal affinity with the Śrī-Lakshmī type. cf. the specimen at Tilaurakot

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The best of the Śuṅga clay-figurines, however, are secular plaques representing men and women in scenes of merry-making and love. Nowhere else was this art inspired with such aesthetic feeling and informed with such a variety of subjects as at Kauśāmbī the ancient capital of King Udayana. Here stone sculpture is very limited, but clay-figurines in Śuṅga art are numerous and of high perfection. A typical instance is the plaque (4¼" × 3½") in the Lucknow Museum, showing a couple, the female in the embrace of her partner and both seated on a rich couch (paryaṅkikā) with carved legs and a railing on three sides. Small rosettes (phullāvalī) are strewn in the background.

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Another Kauśāmbī plaque in the Allahabad Museum (2" × 2¼") shows a Bacchanalian scene, with a woman and a man seated opposite each other on wicker chairs (vetrāsana). The female figure holds in uplifted right hand a wine jar with a lid (surā-ghaṭa), and embraces with left arm her partner; the male figure holds a small cup in right hand and a flute in left. Both are wearing typical headdresses as seen on male and female heads in the Bharhut sculpture. [Fig. 231].

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The small clay cart from Kosam showing a picnic party (goṣṭhī-yāna, 6" × 5") is a unique specimen of its kind. The party consists of six figures, four male and two females, divided into two groups of three each reclining against the sides of the cart. On proper right the first male figure is holding a harp in left hand and a plectrum in right, and next is an amorous couple, the male kissing the lower lip of the female (adhara-cumbana). On the other side is first a reclining male figure and his female friend with her back towards him, and next a male figure looking like a jester, in his dress and expression. In front of the figures is a big dish with eatables including radishes, round cakes and guñjhiyās, and a round jar or container for drinks (surā-ghaṭa) with a lid on it. The cart is richly upholstered with ribbed cushions on the sides. We actually have a reference to *goshṭhī-yāna*, “picnic wagon”, and to red radish being served at the drinking party (*apānaka-madhya-pravishta-raktamūlaka*) in the drama *Mṛichchhakaṭika*.¹

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¹ Acts VI and VIII.

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A terracotta (ht. 3½") from Kosam shows a dancing female figure holding the stalk of a lotus (*līlākamala*) in right hand and left hand raised across the slightly bent head.

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Another figure from the same place (ht. 5¼") shows a smiling female dancer standing in graceful posture, resting the weight of her body on right foot and having the left knee slightly bent and the two hands clasped in front. She is wearing a voluted turban on head, a double pearl-string on the fore-head, a round ear-ring in right ear and a cylindrical drum in left ear, a flat torque round neck and a pearl necklace on the breasts, heavy wristlets and a broad girdle of flattened and fluted beads.

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What may be taken as the typical Śuṅga style in clay-figurines consists of stamped thin plaques in low relief with a frontal pose. Such figurines come from widely separated sites, like Mathura, Ahichchhatrā, Kauśāmbī, Pāṭaliputra and so far east as Bangarh in Bengal.

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A notable example in the group of Kosam terracottas is the female figure, now in the Indian Institute, Oxford.² Its headgear is distinguished by two prominent side-rolls of a turban flanking a central boss stamped with floral design and a band of sacred symbols, probably to mark the divine character of the figure. [Fig. 232]. Similar female figures forming part of Mithuna plaques of early period (200-100 B. C.) with three sacred symbols, viz. an arrowhead, a banner and a goad stuck on one side of the head, have been found at Ahichchhatrā also.³ [Fig. 233].

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² E. H. Johnston, ‘A Terracotta Figure at Oxford’, *Journal of the India Society of Oriental Art*, (1942), pp. 94-102.

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³ V. S. Agrawala, ‘Terracotta Figurines of Ahichchhatrā’, *Ancient India*, No. 4 (January 1948), p. 110, Nos. 11 and 12.

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In a beautiful fragmentary piece from Kosam (2½" X 3½") we see a smiling female head with elaborate head-dress showing five flowery streaks stuck on the right side and an equal number of sacred symbols on the left. The goad (*aṅkuśa*) and battle-axe (*paraśu*) are distinct, the others may be a mirror (*darpaṇa*), a jewel-bowl (*ratna-pātra*) and a celestial mansion (*deva-vimāna-gṛiha*). Some of these sacred symbols are repeated in the head-dress of another Śuṅga specimen of similar style of hair and head-dress from Bangarh in Bengal (ht. 2¾") assignable to about the first century B. C. The figurines with the sacred symbols seem to have been intended to represent a goddess, probably the Mother Goddess of antiquity.

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Fig. 228

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200 B.C

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Fig. 229

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Fig. 232

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Fig. 249

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Fig. 251

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Fig. 250

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The Mithuna or “Man and Woman” standing side by side, is the leading type in the Śuṅga figurines of Ahichchhatrā. [Fig. 234]. The plaques are moulded and must have followed the moulded-cum-modelled figurines of the Mother Goddess type, marking a transition from the religious to secular types. The female figure wears sacred symbols in her head-dress, and necklace, but her male companion is dandily dressed and carries a harp (Ahichchhatrā)¹. The Mithuna or ‘Man and Woman’ type was followed somewhat later by a sub-type designated as the Dampatī or “Husband and Wife” type in the plaques from Ahichchhatrā². The Mithuna and the Dampatī types may be thus distinguished :

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¹ Ibid., p. 110, Fig. 12.

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² Ibid., p, 113, Fig. 22.

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(i) In the Mithuna plaques the female figure stands on proper right, but in the Dampatī ones on proper left.

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(ii) The Mithuna plaques although rectangular have irregular edges; the Dampatī plaques on the other hand have straight edges pressed out of regular moulds, decorative borders and flowers and small rosettes in the background.

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(iii) The Mithuna figures are more heavily loaded with ornamentation than the Dampatī figures.

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(iv) The Dampatī figures show drapery, ornaments, female coiffure, heavy male turban, round facial type and flat relief that are similar to the historical specimens of Śuṅga sculpture.

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(v) The Mithuna plaques are marked by a religious feeling; nowhere do they depict amorous subjects, but the Dampatī figures are those of men and women in love.

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The relative stratification at Ahichchhatrā shows the Mithuna (c. 200-100 B. C.) to have proceded the Dampatī Type (c. 100 B. C.-A. D. 100), the latter continuing into the Kuṣāṇa and Gupta periods also. A typical Gupta plaque from Rājghāṭ is now in the Bhārat Kalā Bhavan (ht. 3½"), depicting embracing Dampatī figures.

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A significant fact of terracotta art-history is the existence of figurines in each period showing foreign influence. For example, there is a limited group of figurines datable to the late Śuṅga and early Kuṣāṇa periods showing Parthian influence, and found at such remote sites as Basārh, Rājghāṭ, Kosam, Mathurā and Ahichchhatrā. The presence of wings on shoulders has been noticed in a limited number of similar figures at Basārh, Kosam and Mathurā. A second group shows female figures with a special kind of swaddling drapery with heavy folds covering the whole body and concealing even the two arms, a feature seen in some figurines at Seleucia.¹ A typical specimen comes from Patna (ht. 5½")². The complete figure is pressed out of a mould and its ornamental decoration is practically nil. The head with a pointed top-knot of hair is covered by a veil (odhni) that conceals the bust, the breasts and the front part completely. The ears have prominent discular rings and the wrists a pair of flowery bangles, the ornaments otherwise being sparse. Only a limited number of specimens are known from remote sites like Mathurā, Ahichchhatrā and Patna.

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¹ Van Ingen, *Figurines from Seleucia* (1939), ‘Draped Women’ Type, pp. 78 ff., pls. VIII-XII.

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² S. Kramrisch, *Journal of India Society of Oriental Art*, Vol. VII, (1939), pl. IX, fig. 5.

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Like Kosam, Mathurā is another big centre of terracotta finds in the Gangetic Valley. Grey figurines, both male and female, of the pre-Kushāṇa period abound and amongst them is a female type fabricated according to an early "Mother Goddess" tradition.³ Broadly speaking the Mathurā figurines of this group are distinguished by the following features :

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³ V. S. Agrawala, ‘Mathura Terracottas’, *Journal of the U. P. Historical Society*, Vol. IX, Part II (July 1936), pp. 17 ff.

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(i) Head pressed out of a mould, the rest of the body made by hand.

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(ii) Use of applique decoration.

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(iii) Marking of ornaments by means of punched circles.

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(iv) Standing pose with sundered dwarfish legs, or sometimes seated clumsily in "European" style with pendant legs.

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(v) Eyes of lenticular shape with the pupils indicated, imparting a pronounced lovely character to the face.

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The available data do not justify precise identification, but obviously some form of the Great Mother Goddess seems to be indicated. At Ahichchhatrā a couple of similar specimens fragmentary in character were obtained from levels indicating the period c. 200 B. C., the earliest ones coming from the lowest Startum No. VII, datable to 300-200 B. C. The Ahichchhatrā specimens appear to be imports from Mathurā, but unfortunately Mathurā itself does not provide records of systematic excavation that would throw light on the relative age of this important group, although upwards of a thousand specimens have been found at the place. [Figs. 235-6]. We may tentatively place the type as Mauryan, extending also into the Śuṅga period, when a transition from it to the secular figurines took place. Their clay is finely kneaded and fired to stone-like hardness. The colour with few exceptions is grey and it seems that after making the figurines were covered with a thin slip containing flux to produce shining glaze during heating. The black colour is due to the figurines being smoke-fired in closed oven. These features seldom appear after about the first century B. C. Two specimens, one (ht. 5") in the Mathurā Museum and the other (6½") in the Indian Museum illustrate this type. The latter wears a lotus stalk in the ear-lobes with a big flower (mṛṇāla-kuṇḍala), a torque, a short necklace, a pendant necklace passing on the breasts and shoulders, a tight waist-band with hanging fish-symbol, and a double girdle, the upper one decorated with applique *chakra* symbol.

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We have also a corresponding male type produced in similar clay and technique, but its faces show foreign ethnic features. A short beard is indicated by indentation marks on a peaked chin, and there is a bicornate turban on the head. The cheek-bones are prominent. In a few cases we see a beard-mask, a conical head-gear, and drapery covering the lower body in the *tahmad* style. These male heads are as numerous as the female figurines; the male type, however, is confined to Mathurā as of strictly local character, since no specimens have been traced outside that region up to now. [Fig. 237]. It seems that it appeared later than the female type, about first century B.C. The influx of the Kshahārāta Śakas in the population of Mathurā seems to have induced the local potters to copy those faces in clay for the delectation of their clientele. That became a traditional feature of the Indian potter's art in subsequent periods also. A trial dig at Mathurā can alone settle the question regarding the relative chronology of these two early types of male and female figurines of the Jamna valley.

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A third characteristically early type from Mathurā, linked by its material and manufacturing technique with the above, is represented by a rich group of elephant figurines (5½" × 9"). [Figs. 238-9]. The type reflects the popular fondness for this animal during the Maurya-Śuṅga epoch, as seen also in the sculpture of Bharhut and Sanchi. The clay elephants are profusely decorated with markings on the body of parallel lines or punched circlets. Their poses are varied, in some running, with a rider on back, and in others trumpeting with an uplifted trunk and wild eyes. Kauṭilya describes *kshurapra-mālā* as an ornament for decorating elephants. As the name *kshurapra* (Hindi *khurpā*) implies, it consisted of celt-like plaques and is actually seen on several of these specimens. A corresponding type also occurs at Ahichchhatrā showing numerous figures of bull, made of grey clay, hand-modelled and with profuse decoration. [Fig. 420]. At Kosam in the Śuṅga period, a distinct group consists of chariots with swiftfooted bulls whose body is beautified with pleasing floral decoration. It appears that each famous centre specialised in local plastic types of its own, and also produced some common types, constituting the general typological repertoire for that period.

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¹ V. S. Agrawala, ‘Mathura Terracotta’, *Journal of the U. P. Historical Society*, Vol. IX, Pt. II (July 1936), pp. 27-28, pl. VI.VII, figs. 16-24.

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Thus, there are some well-marked stages in the evolution of the early Indian clay-figurines. Firstly, there is a religious female type with symbols and elements of decoration rooted in the tradition of the Mother Goddess. This was followed by a type drawn entirely from life, portraying figures of charming men and women in poses of dance and movement. The change was due to artistic causes as well as religious changes. Motifs, originally religious, of seated and standing types, were adopted for ordinary figures. The variety in the case of female figurines consists either in her pose or in the object—a fan, a mirror or a flower—held in her hand. Such specimens abound at Mathurā and Kosam. Their facial forms as well as ornaments and drapery are related to well-known types of Śuṅga sculpture. An oft-recurring specimen shows a young woman feeding a parrot or playing with that bird as her favourite pastime¹, of which the Mathurā school of sculpture preserves several beautiful specimens.

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¹ ‘Mathura Terracottas’, *loc. cit.*, p. 30.

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In Kuṣāṇa art emphasis on sculpture was mounting to the decrease of terracotta art. This is reflected in the comparative paucity of terracotta specimens in this period both at Mathurā and Ahichchhatrā, whereas at Kosam the art of clay-figurines almost died out. Only in a very limited number of specimens the earlier traditions of fine workmanship continued, and the majority of Kuṣāṇa figurines exhibit a crude style. Attention may be drawn to a charming figure of Kāmadeva standing on the prostrate body of the fisherman Śūrpaka. He holds a sheaf of arrows in right hand and a long bow in left. The story of the princess Kumudavatī falling in love with the unwilling fisherman Śūrpaka and winning his heart through the intervention of the god of love seems to have been a popular one in the Kuṣāṇa period as Aśvaghosha refers to it both in the *Buddhacharita* (XXX. 11) and the *Saundrananda* (VIII. 44)². [Fig. 241].

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² I am indebted to the late Dr. Johnston for pointing out to me these references to the Śūrpaka story after this figure of Kāmadeva was published in the *Bibliography of Indian Archaeology*, 1934 (Published 1936), p. 15, pl. IVd.

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The loss due to aesthetic decadence was somewhat made up by the emergence of figures of iconographic interest which begin to be made first in the Kuṣāṇa period; e.g. Nāgī, Kubera, Hārītī, Vasudhārā, etc. found at Mathurā. [Figs. 242-5]. At Ahichchhatrā the most characteristic Kuṣāṇa type is that of a nude dwarf (*vāmanaka*) comprising about a hundred specimens and showing a bandy-legged figure with hands on breast or arms akimbo, and standing with knees apart but feet joined. [Fig. 246]. Linked to it were other sub-types and grotesque figures,³ all of wide distribution from Rājghāt to Mathurā. Shallow votive tanks with crude male figurines and musicians playing on drums or cymbals fall within this group of Kushāṇa terracottas. On the literary side these grotesque figures correspond to the vikaṭa, vāmana, kubjaka, kumbhāṇḍa, and deformed gaṇa types who were regarded as tutelary attendents of Śiva, Gaṇapati, Kārttikeya and Kubera. The figures were given a new interpretation, viz. as auspicious forms of various nidhis or treasures, named kharva, nikharva, mukunda, etc., all of them being associated with Kubera whose iconography also points to deformed features. According to the Purāṇas¹ they were of many forms (svarūpa, arūpa, virūpa) and names, having a great variety of human (nānāmukha) and animal faces (ṭhāmrigamukha), with gaping mouth (vyāditāsya), flat faces (chipiṭānana) and terrible forms (karāla). A strange blending of religious forms made their list very long; sometimes treating them as benevolent gaṇas and at other times as malevolent asuras, both of them regarded as subsidiary forms of Śiva depicted in his temple. The reason of the emergence of these gaṇa figures in the Kushāṇa period seems to be due to the Śaiva movement under Pāśupata teachers who laid equal emphasis on the worship of gaṇas also.

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³ Agrawala, ‘Ahichchhatra Terracottas’, *loc. cit.*, pp. 118-29, Nos. 53-78.

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¹ Matsya Purāṇa 154. 524-545; Vamana 57. 60-104; Harivaṁśa 2. 124. 19-25, 2. 109. 63-84, 3. 32. 5-14, 3. 45. 1-4; Vāyu 101. 260-64; Brahma 213. 93-99; Rām. Kishkindhā 4. 15-21; Anuśāsana 14. 140-165.

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In distant Deccan for the first time do we find clay-figurines cultivated as fine art, as seen in the Sātavāhana specimens (first-second century A. D.) unearthed at Kondāpur, a village of Kalabgur Teḥsil in Medak district (Hyderabad, Dn). The figurines are made of kaolin, a soft grained clay of white colour. They are usually made hollow pressed out of two or more moulds, subsequently joined and fired. Some of them were painted. The human figures show a large variety, mostly comprising beautiful heads with curly hair or wearing elaborate turban with foliated knots on one side as seen in the Amarāvatī and Nāgārjunikonda sculptures. The female heads are still more charming and varied, revealing a high degree of skill in the making of moulds, a keen sense of realism and artistic effect. Besides human figures, there was also found a considerable group of animal figurines, including lion, bull, horse, ram, dog, parrot, etc.² [Figs. 247-8].

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² K. M. Ahmad, ‘Antiquities and archaeological Remains of Kondapur’, pp. 11-12, Proceedings of the Hyderabad Archaeological and Historical Society (Special meeting held on the 10th August, 1941).

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With the advent of the Gupta period fresh artistic activity bloomed forth at many centres in North India. Mathurā, Ahichchhatrā, Pawāyā, Śrāvastī, Bhītā, Rājghāt, etc. participated in the revival of terracotta art. The modeller's art received a new status in the Gupta period that it had not known before. Clay-figurines were employed as a popular medium to broadcast the message of art and beautiy to the masses. Such figures were now used equally for religious and secular purposes, and served as poorman's sculpture, contributing much to democratise aesthetic culture. Besides smaller figurines, big plaques depicting mythical and religious scenes were fixed as an integral part of brick architecture both in temples and secular buildings. At times, images and plaques were made of considerable size, e.g. the life-size figures of Gaṅgā and Yamunā, fixed as entrance jambs to the Śiva temple at Ahichchhatrā¹. Terracotta plaques served like stone slabs to decorate huge dimensions. We find a large group of Gupta brick temples conceived from top to bottom in terms of terracotta friezes and mouldings. A remarkable example is preserved at Bhitargaon in Kanpur district (circa fifth-sixth century A.D.). Of the same period a large brick Stūpa consisting of a series of beautiful mouldings and plaque-friezes, was found at Mirpur Khas in Sind, marking the western-most extension of Gupta sculpture. The Lakshmaṇa temple at Sirpur is a magnificent example of brick architecture with plenty of fine moulded decoration of about the seventh century A. D.

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¹ V. S. Agrawala, 'Terracotta Figurines of Ahichchhatrā'; Ancient India, No. 4 (January 1948), p. 133, No. 119, pl. XLIII B.

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Typologically the Gupta terracottas fall into three classes :

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(i) Religious figures depicting Brahmanical gods and goddesses, as Viṣṇu, Sūrya, Śiva, Kārttikeya, Pārvatī, Mahiṣāsuramardinī, etc. An artistic pair showing heads of Śiva and Pārvatī comes from Ahichchhatrā.

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(ii) Figures of fashionable men and women found at the numerous Gupta sites, of which the female heads are charming. Completely pressed out of moulds they represent the best traditions in style associated with Gupta art. They illustrate a pleasing variety of hair styles. In some cases painted lines and colours are preserved on them. Over two thousand specimens may be counted which together visualise to us the charming ideals of feminine beauty embodied in the works of such poets as Kālidāsa and Bāṇa. In them we come face to face with a veritable gallery of human beauty. In coiffure styles there is great similarity amongst figurines of all sites, which is due to their being the products of a common aesthetic culture. The alakāvalī style shows hair arranged in frizzled locks on the two sides of a central parting (keśa-vīthī). This fashion is often alluded to in Kālidāsa as the mark of a beautiful face. For example, in the Raghuvamśa (VIII, 53) he speaks of the alaka hair of Indumatī twisted in short spirals (valibhṛtaḥ). Similarly Yakṣiṇī parted from her husband has her alakas falling loosely on the shoulders owing to her denying herself the usual make-up. Even the male heads show the alaka hair in gorgeous wig-like arrangement. As observed by Sir John Marshall on the basis of Bhita figurines the men who so adorned themselves "must have been foppish to a degree, with their long curls falling loose on one side only, or elaborated like a full Gregorian wig, or coiffure with jewels in the Antoinette style, or disposed more severely in the royal manner of Persia.¹”

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¹ Sir John Marshall, ‘Excavations at Bhita’, *A. S. R.*, 1911-12, p. 72.

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A second style of coiffure shows the hair in the form of peacock’s feathers turning at the ends (*līlā-mayūra-barhabhaṅgī keśa-pāśa*) and arranged on the two sides of the central parting². Another style of coiffure in which the hair was arranged in the form of a honey-comb into two cellular masses had its origin in the fashions cultivated by the Parthians. It is said that this beautiful style was patronised even amongst the society women in Rome and thus had obtained international vogue in the ancient fashion world³.

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² V. S. Agrawala, ‘Rajghat Terracottas’, *Journal of the U. P. Historical Society*, Vol. XIV (July 1941, P. 3, fig. 1).

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³ ‘Rājghāt Terracottas’, *loc. cit.*, p. 3, fig. 8; ‘Ahichchhatrā Terracottas’, *Ancient India*, No. 4, p. 143, pl. L, figs. 155-56.

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(iii) The third class of Gupta terracottas, as stated above, consists of decorative panels serving the ends of architecture, The ornamental reliefs show varied subjects, both mythological and decorative. A representative specimen of this class is a large plaque from Ahichchhatrā showing a pair of centaurs (*Kinnara-mithuna*), an ancient motif going back to the pre-Kushāṇa art of Mathurā⁴.

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⁴ V. S. Agrawala, ‘Terracotta Figurines of Ahichchhatra’, *Ancient India*, No.4, pp.170, pl.LXV.

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Another interesting specimen shows the Pramathas or dwarfish attendants of Śiva making a holocaust of Daksha’s sacrifice⁵.

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⁵ *Ibid*, pl. LXI.

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As in sculpture, so in terracotta, Gupta art had evolved a national style of wide distribution. For instance, the plaque from the Stūpa of Mirpur Khas in Sind shows a standing male figure identical in its modelling and decoration, hair-dressing and drapery, with the figurines of Madhyadeśa or north India. It holds a small lotus flower in right hand and wears a short loincloth with painted stripes.

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The clay-figurines of Rājghāt near Banaras exhibited in the Bharat Kala Bhavan are specially attractive. A small plaque showing a girl on the swing under an *aśoka* tree with her scarf fluttering on the sides is a very charming specimen of Gupta art. The subject and the pose recall the swinging lady Irandatī in one of the paintings at Ajanta⁶.

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⁶ G. Yazdani, *A anta*, Part II, text, p. 44, pl. XLI a,

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A female head and bust from Rājghāt in typical Gupta style in the Bharat Kala Bhavan shows the original yellow paint still preserved on its surface. After the figurines were fired in the kiln, they were coated with a thin slip of Multānī-miṭṭī, which served as the base for the painter painting it with red or yellow colour and marking the ornaments and costume in coloured lines. Several groups of miniature figures of young drummers representing the mārdaṅgika type of Bāṇa also come from Rājghāt.

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Religious figures at Rajghat are very few; the best piece amongst them is a singularly majestic head of Śiva (5" high) showing prominently the crescent, vertical eyes, and matted locks. A lower portion of a four-armed Viṣṇu terracotta with short loin-cloth (jaṅghikā), vanamālā, and the two side emblems, chakra and goda, is also note worthy.

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Amongst the numerous male specimens from Ahichchhatrā, Rājghāt and Bhīṭā, we may identify some as typical of the grihapatis or householders, whose skill, resourcefulness and munificence upheld the social and economic structure of Gupta society. A couple of fine specimens are in the Allahabad Municipal Museum.

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That the tradition of brick temples and ornamental plaques was once quite flourishing in Bihar is shown by the discovery of a brick-built edifice of stupendous dimensions during the excavations at Nandangarh near Lauria in Champaran district. In its earliest form the structure must have been erected not later than the second century B. C., but the monument continued to flourish with later additions during the Kuṣāṇa, Gupta and post-Gupta periods. A large number of terracotta heads and busts with staring goat-like eyes, obviously bearing Sassanian and extraneous influences, were discovered here.¹ These figurines partake of a vigorous technique of hand-modelling, closely allied to the type of terracottas from Ghosi in the Azamgarh district of the U. P.² Unfortunately no records about their levels are published. Stylistically the figures are datable to about the sixth-seventh century. That this type was once so widely spread in north India points to an influx of foreign peoples, possibly in the trail of the Hūṇas. They constitute valuable evidence of how the Indian modeller were reacting to strange facial types mingling with the indigenous population. Nothing to match with this plastic material is furnished by the sculptural records.

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¹ A. S. I., A. R., 1936-37, Pl. XXII, figs. 1-12; Pl. XXIII, figs. 13-16.

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² V. S. Agrawala, 'Terracottas from Ghosi', Journal of the U. P. Historical Society, Vol. X, Part II (July 1937), pp. 59-64, figs.

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At Paharpur (Rajshahi district), stucco decoration on the wells was being used along with terracotta plaques.³ This seems to have been the convention of the building art in the early medieval period as illustrated also at Nalanda. By far the vast majority of finds in the Paharpur excavations were the terracotta plaques that came from the debris of the verandahs of the first and second terraces. No less than 579 complete and fragmentary plaques were discovered during the clearance of the mound. Besides a considerable number were found in *situ*. If arranged in a single row they would cover a distance of over two-thirds of a mile, taking 14" as the average length of a plaque. The terracotta art of Paharpur shows that Bengal was also sharing in that common mass movement for the spread of aesthetic culture through the modeller's art. The Stūpa of Mirpur Khas in Sind, the Suratgarh Fort in Bikaner, the Bhitargaon temple and the Śrāvastī Stūpa of which most of the examples are now deposited in the Lucknow Museum, the Nalanda Stūpa and the Lakshamaṇa temple of Sirpur in C. P., constitute the best monumental remains of this art. As observed by Sri K. N. Dikshit, the use of terracotta plaques as a material for the embellishment of the interior of temples had established itself in Bengal by the late Gupta period. This art had taken root in the soil and was in the hands of more humble artisans than was the art of sculpture. The loss in respect of skill and finish was more than compensated by the delineation of homely subjects of everyday rural and outdoor life, of men and animals, and of stories current in folk-lore. It was truly a folk art vibrating with life and expression. Popular folk tales are represented with the utmost brevity. In single plaques at Paharpur, for expmple, we find the well-known story of the meddlesome monkey coming to grief in pulling out a wedge from a split beam of wood; the story of the haughty lion being conducted by a hare to a well and perishing there; the "Elephant and Mice" story in which the grateful mice releases from captivity a huge elephant by nibbling at the cords of the neck and the legs. The treatment is cryptic, but must have been intelligible even to ordinary people, since the fables behind them were of wide publicity and known even to children. The representation of the typical fauna and flora of Bengal, including the tiger and the leopard, the wild boar and the deer, the elephant and the horse, the jackals and the dogs, the cows and the buffaloes, the ducks and the geese, the peacocks and the parrots, as well as of plants like the palm and the plantain, the *Champaka* and the *Kadamba* are favourite themes of illustration. Specially interesting as depicting the earth-bound sense of the people is the representation of the aboriginal people like the Śabaras in their quaint apparel of leaf aprons and picturesque hunting suite consisting of quivers and bows. Religious subjects also occur prominently amongst the Paharpur finds, e.g. the plaques representing the Buddha in different attitudes, Bodhisattva Padmapāṇi, Mañjūśrī holding a book, and also Brahmanical deities like Śiva, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Gaṇeśa are repeated several times. Composite beings, with bird's wings and legs and human bodies, lion faces and crossed human legs, cobra hoods and human trunks—all these go to make up a picture of a fabulous world which must have appealed strongly to the imagination of Bengal in the sixth-seventh century A. D. By far the most numerous class among plaques represented human beings engaged in various activities of everyday life. Warriors holding sword and shield, musicians playing cymbals, gongs, trumpets or battle-drums, acrobats performing difficult feats of balancing, ascetics seated in meditation or reduced to skeleton, are some of the more noteworthy subjects which make the terracotta art of Paharpur one of the most fascinating and picturesque ever found in this country,

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³ A. S. I., A. R., 1927-28, p. 101.

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At Mahāsthāna (Bogra district) some beautiful terracotta plaques, toy figurines, animals and ornamental bricks associated with the late Gupta art were found. A remarkable find was fragmentary pot-sherd¹ bearing in low relief a scene in which a man riding in a chariot drawn by four horses is depicted as discharging an arrow at a herd of deer and a centaur, which recalls to mind the well-known Śakuntalā plaque from Bhita.²

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¹ *A. S. I., A. R.*, 1928-29, p. 96, pl. XLII (b).

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² *A. S. I., A. R.*, 1911-12, pl. XXIV.

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This earth-bound-art retained its vitality and continued to inspire the modellers of later days. This is best illustrated in the massive brick temple at Mathurāpur in Faridpur district in lower Bengal, where the *deul* rising to a height of 70 ft. with a diameter of 12½ ft. at the base shows a high *śikhara* consisting of successive tiers of projecting mouldings alternating with recessed friezes, the latter decorated in a most sumptuous and attractive manner with continuous horizontal plaques showing rural scenes, *kīrtimukhas*, leographs and a number of mythological scenes from the *Mahābhārata* and the *Rāmāyaṇa*, as well as floral and geometrical patterns. The carvings reflect great credit on the artists and the reliefs assignable to about the sixteenth century are most lively and vigorous.³ The tradition is further illustrated by the very fascinating, richly adorned and symmetrical brick temple at Handial in Pabna district in South Bengal.⁴ This temple of the *banglā* or curved-cornice type in spite of its comparatively recent date (end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century) is a gem of architecture, bearing testimony to the genius of the local modellers for their complete mastery in the handling of brick and clay material. The carved panels depict scenes of fighting and mythological stories, royal processions, real and fabulous animals, floral tracery and fret patterns, all combined to form one of the most exquisite temple façades existing in India.

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³ A.S.I., A. R., 1930-34, p. 130, pl. LXIV (b).

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⁴ Curved cornice temple at Handial, *A. S. I. A. R.*, p. 130, pl. LXIV (a).

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The brick temple at Deuliya in Burdwan district stands with a curvilinear śikhara divided into ridges and surmounted by an āmalaka and profusely decorated with scroll-work and chaitya-window pattern.¹

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¹ A. S. I. A. R. 1934-35, p.43, pl. XIX(a).

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The technique of building vertical columns, horizontal mouldings and friezes was rendered extremely simple with the help of a variety of ornamental bricks bearing different designs such as chevron, chess-board, cross-petal or four-petalled flower, dentil, inverted pyramids, windows, corbelled arches and flowers like the sun-flower, lotus add lily². Plaques with human figures were made to alternate with moulded bricks in different patterns producing an extremely pleasing effect, which could not be excelled even in stone reliefs or statuettes.

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² A. S. I., A. R. 1936-37, p. 53.

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The religious revival of the sixteenth century under the genius of Chaitanya and his disciples gave great inspiration to the plastic art of the people in addition to that of the wooden figures and paintings on paper and cloth. A plaque from Nalaḍaṅgā in Bengal shows Kṛṣṇa standing in the graceful tribhaṅga pose with crossed legs, playing his flute and attended by a smaller haloed figure with a purse-like object. This group compares favourably with some of the best of the older specimens of Paharpur.

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The raising of the toll-tax (Dānalīlā) is shown in a plaque from Vikrampur, depicting the male and female figures in tense action appropriate to the occasion. Another plaque shows a woman standing under a maṇḍapa decorated on the top with a parrot and a goose, and fondling a stag.

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An effective scene of about the sixteenth century represents Sītā in the aśoka grove with a female drummer fallen asleep, and Hanumān bending down from the top of the tree to deliver a ring in Sītā's hands. The plaque moulded according to the best traditions of late Bengal art (sixteenth century) is marked by classical realism and brevity of statement.

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In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Portuguese soldiers began to penetrate in the interior of Bengal. The local potters portrayed them in clay. The newcomers were ease-loving in their habits and sometimes wanton, given to a life of drunkenness and shikār. Two plaques from Jessore depict scenes of revelry and hunting. One of them shows a Portuguese soldier on horseback followed by a foot-soldier carrying shield and sword with a hound running by the side of the horse. The rider is wearing a hat, a tunic, full-boots, and trousers and carries a sword and a shield. With his left hand he holds the reins of the horse and in his right hand a whip. The second plaque shows a Portuguese General seated on an easy-chair and drinking from an inverted wine jug directed towards his mouth. In front of him are two soldiers, one of them holding a drinking cup.

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Thus the art of Indian clay-figurines is of respectable antiquity and illustrated by a mass of material of much historical and cultural value. The varied life of the people through the ages was documented in this medium. The art developed close to the soil and served as a popular means of diversion and decoration. By its easy availability and low price, by the pliability of its material, and the ease with which a number of specimens could be produced from a single mould, this art held the affection of the people far more than twenty centuries, and may be expected to play a role of even greater importance in the future renaissance of Indian art.

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