Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c16.96

c16.96

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.