Indian Sculpture c4.s2.8

c4.s2.8

The civilised quality of Mauryan plastic art is further attested by contemporary terra-cotta figures from Patna;²⁶ they are slight and graceful contributions, in which the charm of the faces of a child, of dancers and musicians quaintly contrasts with a barbarically exuberant apparel (Fig. 13). What a distance is there from the forbidding and solemn ‘mother-goddess,’²⁷ uncouth and primeval, as conceived by the Indus craftsmen, as well as from the serene far-sightedness of the grey earthenware heads from Mathurā²⁸ (Fig. 12). The latter group is plastically closely related to the terra-cotta figurines from Patna. But the affinity of the modelling betrays only a nearness in age and not in outlook. Their summary handling is based on the more detailed treatment of Mauryan plastic art.