Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c8.s3.39

c8.s3.39

Towards the close of the tenth century and in the eleventh, during the first renaissance period of the Eastern School, the centre of artistic activity was shifted to Northern and Eastern Bengal and the finest specimens were produced by the artists of the metropolitan district of Mediæval Bengal, *i.e.*, the tract around the city of Gauḍa, consisting of the modern districts of Purneah, Maldah, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Bogra and Pabna. Images of Buddha and Lōkēśvaras are no longer predominant. Tāntrika Buddhism is predominant everywhere. Even in the great centres of Buddhism in Magadha, Tāntrika Buddhist images are to be found in larger numbers and the majority of them are females, both ordinary and extraordinary. We find that particular type of Tāntrika Buddhist images, called Yab-Yum in Tibetan, for the first time in Buddhist holy places, especially at Bodh Gaya. In this period of activity of the Eastern School we find a complete assimilation of the different traits of provincial plastic art in the specimens produced in Eastern and Northern Bengal and South Bihar. The image of Vishnu discovered at Baghaura¹ in the Comilla district is essentially the same as certain of the best images in the Rajshahi Museum² and the image of Buddha dedicated in the eleventh year of the reign of Mahīpāla discovered at Bodh Gaya³.