Indian Sculpture c4.s2.6

c4.s2.6

No magic is known to these artists, who render the comfortable earthliness of things. For this reason, the colossal animal sculpture on the capitals of free standing columns, into the shafts of many of which were inscribed the edicts of Aśoka, is heavy with their physical bulk only. The ‘sacredness’ of the animals of the Indus civilisation altogether escapes the urbane Mauryan artist. For the rest, their degree of relationship with the animals on the Indus seals is the same as that of the colossal Mauryan Yakṣas with the Harappa statuette, i.e. an inverse proportion between size and motive power (Figs. 1, 2 and 6, 10).