Indian Sculpture c6.s2.8

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.