Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16.88

c16.88

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.