Indian Sculpture c6.s2: Sculpture on Walls of Temples
Indian Sculpture c6.s2
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Sculpture on Walls of Temples
c6.s2.1
Different in purpose, and to a considerable degree in effect, from the cult-image, are the multitudes of the figures into which the walls of temples seem to dissolve. As during the early classical phase, so now once more quantity is a quality of Indian sculpture. But in the meanwhile nature, the vegetative aspect of life, had become condensed and transubstantiated within the human frame (p. 55). The many figures and groups, which now appear in seemingly unending succession horizontally, and in a less pronounced manner vertically, on the walls of temples, are added the one to the other without an immediate connection amongst themselves. They are connected by the system of which they are exponents and visualisations. Images of the Pārśvadevatās, i.e. of attendant divinities (Fig. 100) of the image in the shrine, are placed in niches, each, as a rule, in the middle of one of the three outer walls of the temple. Artistically these and other reliefs, representing divinities, are not very differently treated from cult-images, except for the slab of the stele being squared so as to fit into the niche, or other slight concessions to the architectonic surroundings (Figs. 111, 113), and by their not so strict adherence to śāstric prescriptions. The main figure, for instance, need not be shown in front view (Fig. 89). Figures of the aṣṭa Dikpālas (the eight guardians of the four chief and the four subsidiary directions) occupy their appropriate places on projections or in recesses of the wall. There is no hierarchy amongst these divinities and others. They are spread out collaterally, and the vertical direction results from adding such horizontal bands with similar or identical types of figures repeated one on top of the other.
c6.s2.2
Among the motifs which incessantly recur in their allotted places, the woman and tree motif (śālabhañjikā) and allied motifs, with their contiguity of human and plant figure (Figs. 87, 104, 111) and that of the rampant leogryph (śārdula), a combined animalic, or human-and-animal device (Fig. 92) are the favourites. This frequent repetition, now organised, had been anticipated in early classical sculpture (p. 33). It is by no means and in every case a creative expression of mediæval sculpture. None the less it is characteristic, inasmuch as it suggests the ever-present type, of which the single instance is one more and still one more example (see also attitude towards portraiture, p. 134). Repetition in all directions reiterates but one meaning, just as in a performance of a yātrā,¹⁴³ a popular play, the same episode is acted successively in various directions of the compass. The standardised situation of the aṣṭa Dikpālas and of other figures is moreover repeated vertically. The whole direction, as it were, is occupied throughout by its protecting divinity.
c6.s2.3
¹⁴³ yātrā
c6.s2.4
Of accentless and equal value, too, are figure-sculptures, floral and abstract devices, as they occur on the monuments.
c6.s2.5
Though the former are outstanding in height of the relief, and therefore in conspicuousness, the latter do not stand back in wealth of motifs. Abstract devices, in fact, are essential assets of mediæval sculpture, while the floral element, so lavish in being its own landscape in the earlier classical reliefs, has become stereotyped where it has not altogether disappeared (Fig. 90). Neither of them takes part in the compositions of the figured panels. These or the single figures are surrounded by or set against them.
c6.s2.6
The group had been simplified or dissolved in the process of transubstantiation. Now it further falls asunder. In exceptional cases, and in a modified degree only, are narrative panels reminiscent of early classical wealth (Fig. 86). Beside these, there are scenes of converse between teacher and pupils, illustrations of legends, Maithuna couples, friezes of animals or warriors, and the like (Figs. 88, 91, 101, etc.). None of them are regulated and restricted by prescriptions, as the images are. It is in them that the middle ages reveal a subtle and highbred sophistication.
c6.s2.7
The ground of the relief now acts as such in the likeness of a curtain which drops behind the scene. The figures do not appear as if on a tray (p. 21), nor do they burst through, or emerge from, the ground (p. 81), but, while some cling to it, others are shuffled in front of it (Fig. 86). Houses and other objects are usually shown in front view. A position in three-quarter profile, set at an angle against the ground, is given preference in the case of human figures where front or profile views are not chosen. The dynamic urge of the stone is at rest. It has found form in the innumerable figures and compositions, with or without frame, in which the living forces that are in the stone and in the craftsman display themselves without effort (Figs. 86–90, etc.), but to a different extent in the various provinces.
c6.s2.8
In Orissā sculpture is more intimately connected with the ground and with the volume of the stone (i.e. that of the temple, p. 113). But even there the urge to become form is fully appeased. For the figures do not appear as if thrust forth from the un-formed mass of the stone, but the latter steps out in architectonic projections or recedes with niches (Figs. 103, 104), either of which are further differentiated by abstract and vegetative devices and by figure sculpture. In Orissā the mass of the stone, the architectonic volume itself, has been completely translated into plastic form. Figure sculpture is its highest exponent.
c6.s2.9
The treatment of the religious subject-matter is the same within each province and also irrespective of creed. Buddhist and Jaina images, though far less in number than the many types and varieties of Brāhmanic images and reliefs, are regulated in one and the same manner, by śāstric prescriptions. They are to be distinguished by the attributes they carry, and by bodily peculiarities and other characteristics, that serve for their cognisance and are laid down in the sacred texts. Only in the case of the Jaina figures of Tīrthaṅkaras and saints formalism and rigidity prevail, not only beyond the Brāhmanical or Buddhist, but also beyond older Jaina figures.¹⁴⁴ But even there it is not the creed itself, but its spread, specially in western India, is responsible for the abstract mediæval Jaina image; whereas in the classical period (Mathurā) no such pronounced distinction existed between contemporary Jaina and non-Jaina images.¹⁴⁵