Indian Sculpture c5.s3.t2.16

c5.s3.t2.16

From the inmost life of the rock the figures are dismissed into form. From its shapeless weight they surge into concreteness. A disciplined bodily appearance, a disciplined facial expression, a tendency to subject themselves to an architectonic order: such is the response given by the reliefs at Māmallapuram to the urge of the rock, to be redeemed by its conversion into definite form and order. In it the almost complete absence not only of all vegetation, but also of all ‘decorative’ devices, such as scrolls, etc., is noteworthy.133 Human and animal figures make up the entire relief.