Indian Sculpture c5.s3.t1.14

c5.s3.t1.14

Endowed with a language of gestures and a canon of poses,90 proportions, etc., the figures now again (see Bhārhut) are sparsely and clearly placed on the flat ground (Figs. 56–58, 64, 65). There is poise in their attitude and balanced tension in their distance. The ground, in its seeming bareness, acts as a significantly dynamic interval to the consistency of the modelled parts. All energies are concentrated in the superhuman figure, superhuman because, on the basis of actual appearance, its aspect is so modified as to suggest qualities and possibilities beyond the range of mortals. Bodily discipline suggests supernatural strength, freed from the encumbrances of earthly well-being (Fig. 54). The figure of woman, on the other hand, with ample hips and full breasts, retains, whatever may be her name, the promise of motherhood (Fig. 60, etc.). Multiplicity of limbs (p. 7), combined with a transformed body, amounts to an incorporation of further, i.e. transcendental, possibilities (Figs. 64, 66, 67). The shape is prepared that will yield what is attainable beyond the purpose of actual limbs. By a generalisation on the basis of the physiological and by substitution of the principle of fluidity for that of innervation, the skin becomes a plastic tegument, under which throbs the pulse of life. Whereas the solid parts of the body make the foundation of Western anatomy, the vital currents and that which allows their circulation demand a peculiarly Indian artistic anatomy. It is not scientific in the sense of observation and description of its structure, but it is suggestive of the vital currents that percolate the entire living frame, which in relation to them is secondary and conditioned (Fig. 62).