Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c4.9

c4.9

With Mahīpāla I, came the liberation of the Eastern provinces from the yoke of the Gurjaras of Kanauj, their re-union under one sovereign and the establishment of the second empire of the Pālas. It brought about an artistic renaissance in which Northern Bengal took the leading part. The new style was a descendant of the old style of the 10th century, but lacked the supreme vigour of the 8th. It had peculiar characteristics of its own. In the reproduction of ideal beauty of form and benign expression adhering rigidly to the canons of the Śilpa-śāstras, Northern Bengal specimens of the 11th century show that sufficient latitude was given to its artists for individual capability or genius. The collection in the Rajshahi Museum now comes to the forefront and future students will have to devote more attention to it in studying the sculpture of the second Pāla empire than to the older collection in the Indian Museum. But here also we find that the special characteristics of Eastern Bengal were not completely overpowered by Northern Bengal.