Indian Sculpture c5.s3.t2.33

c5.s3.t2.33

In these the southern element is absorbed by the tradition of the Dekkhan. The slender type of the body, with its easier and quickened gestures, is assimilated by the heavier form of the Dekkhan with its sustained power. Compared with the seventh century work of Ellora, it is the activity of the mythical event, and not its everlasting presence, that is expressed in the carvings of the Kailāsanātha temple. (Cf. the Mahiṣāsura Mardinī scene in Ellora with that in Māmallapuram.)¹³⁹ No longer are myths realised in their pristine greatness. Where they are not rendered as a matter of routine the figures appear immediate in the momentousness of their actions (Fig. 77).