Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16.19

c16.19

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.