Indian Sculpture c5.s1.t7.23

c5.s1.t7.23

All the while the human figures have remained squat in proportion, with short necks and heavy heads, non-Āryan as well as non-Drāviḍian in type, even more noticeable than in Bhārhut, where the relatively flat treatment and strongly linear compositional rhythm have made use of them more as signs or names than in their actual pertinence. In Sāñcī, however, a sturdy type is chosen without the mundane ease and self-assurance of the Bodhgayā figures, but unthinkable without its Śuṅga and Mauryan ancestors (Fig. 32). Yet however wide apart the main Bhārhut tradition of the flowing linear rhythm may be from that of Sāñcī, the later craftsman could not but unwittingly imbibe and carry on its achievements. The result is that a mollified volume is bounded by an outline ever more fluid in its gliding sinuousness. While lyricism and generalisations formulated during the second century B.C. were during the first century B.C. drowned in the onrush of more vigorous expressions, these ultimately, if outwardly only, were smoothed and disciplined by the former achievements.