Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c24.20

c24.20

In addition to the strictly architectural treatment of its exterior, there is a considerable amount of sculpture on the wall surfaces of the vimana, consisting chiefly of full-length figures installed within recesses, each about half life-size and in very bold relief, so that in a manner they recall the images of saints occupying niches in Gothic cathedrals. On the centre of the southern wall of the Koranganatha there is a particularly well rendered scene representing the goddess Kali as Dakshina, with Saraswati on her left and Lakshmi on her right, while below is Asura, the enemy of the gods, and around are various *gana-devatas*, or lesser deities. Compared with the plastic art of the previous period, in the Chola sculpture there is the beginning of that voluptuous treatment of the human figure in which the image is in such high relief that it resembles statuary in the round rather than relief work. Such however is the usual course in the development of the sculptors' art, a progress from the conventional to the representational, as may be observed in the change from the first to the second period of Greek sculpture