Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c8.31

c8.31

These circumstances explain the peculiar technical characteristics of the Bharhut, Sanchi, and Amarâvati sculptures. So vast was the labour bestowed on the decoration of the great Buddhist monuments that each one became a permanent art-centre and created a school of its own. The technical traditions were handed on from one generation of craftsmen to another, and so we find that even centuries afterwards, when they were dealing with the hard limestone of Amarâvati, they still reproduced in stone the artistic processes of the days before Asoka. Only in Western India, and a few other localities, where Asoka's zeal for the Buddhist faith led to the excavation of temples and monasteries out of the solid rock, the craftsmen were forced to modify their methods, and another school was created, with a perfectly glyptic style of technique, which RELIEF FROM BHARHUT (The Sudarsanâ Yakshini)