Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16.16

c16.16

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].