Indian Sculpture c5.s3.t2.21

c5.s3.t2.21

In the Dekkhan the tradition of the sculptors of Bādāmī, etc., was carried on and brought to its fulfilment in the caves at Ellora, Auraṅgābād (cave iii), Elephanta, etc. The relation in the plastic treatment between the sixth century (Bādāmī) and the seventh (Ellora caves: Dhumar Leṇā, Rāmeśvar, Rāvaṇa kā Khai and Das Avatāra)¹³⁵ is parallel in one aspect, and to some extent only, to that between Bhārhut and Sāñcī. (See p. 32.) A more differentiated modelling in Sāñcī as well as in Ellora gives the impress of naturalism to either. But whereas the differentiated modelling in Sāñcī and Bodhgayā had been in the trend of an unfoldment from the animation of the movement to that of the surface of the body, that of Ellora tends towards condensation of force and its localisation in parts of the body (Fig. 75). In Bādāmī that force has been diffused throughout the body as the unit that contained it, and from there it extended even beyond the body (Fig. 67; p. 71). In Ellora, on the other hand, the figures are but concretions of a widespread energy that accumulates, and in its turn tends toward its own dissemination (Fig. 75). Contraction or swelling of the modelled parts, therefore, are physiognomically expressive of forces that transcend the limits of the physique. (See Amarāvatī, p. 52, and the solution given there by linear rhythm.)