Indian Sculpture c4.s2.3

c4.s2.3

Whatever form of cult the colossal Yakṣa and Yakṣī figures assisted (Figs. 2, 25)—and they are not images—they carry the fly-whisk that marks them as attendants; they belong to the earth; obvious burliness is one of their essential qualities. The majestic portliness of the two headless figures from Patna (Fig. 2) is directly derived from the tenser bodily vigour of the Harappa statuette (see p. 4). But if naturalism lies at the root of either, it is living in the case of the Indus figurine, while in the statuary of the Mauryan period it takes a conventionalised turn. Meticulous attention is given in parts to anatomy. The way in which the elbows, for instance, are fashioned tells of much knowledge. On the whole, however, what originally had been justified as innervated and three-dimensional extension of the living body now contains a weight of congested flesh, with little sap and no vigour. Parts and limbs of the body are joined in a conglomerating manner; the head, for example, to the bulk of the torso almost without any neck, so as not to interfere with the juxtaposition of weighty volumes.²¹ Needless to mention, such garments or jewellery as are placed on those bodies share that quality to the exclusion of linear movement.