Indian Sculpture c6.s7: Central India (Inclusive of the Modern Central Provinces)

Indian Sculpture c6.s7

Language: English

c6.s7.t1 (A) Candela Sculpture — 5 parts
c6.s7.t2 (B) Haihaya Sculpture — 2 parts

Central India (Inclusive of the Modern Central Provinces)

c6.s7.1

Central India geographically occupies an intermediate position. So, too, does its sculpture. Tendencies of east (p. 111) and west co-exist or are mingled. Sculptures, ample with a classical volume, however stereotyped, unfold their smooth charm, for instance, at Garhwā¹⁵² not less than in Khajurāho. Altogether, central India is marked artistically at that time by two broad divisions—which may be called the Candela and the Haihaya schools respectively, after the ruling dynasties. Dynastic names are introduced here and elsewhere for the plastic idioms, and on the whole coincide in these cases with the respective periods and provinces ruled over by these dynasties. But, otherwise, the rulers now, as at all times, played—if any—then only the part of patrons, and did not, excepting Kaniṣka, who was a foreigner (p. 42), interfere in any way with the trend of art.

c6.s7.2

The former division, with Khajurāho and Mahobā¹⁵³ as centres, extends to the west as far as Bharatpur and to the east as far as Allāhabād, whereas the monuments of the latter belong to the country south of Allāhabād and about Jabalpur. In either of them there is side by side a mixture, or juxtaposition, as the case may be, of eastern and western trends. Yet the results achieved vary considerably in Candela and Haihaya sculptures.

(A) Candela Sculpture

c6.s7.t1.1

In the sculptures carved under the Candela dynasty the western trend has found most forceful utterance, side by side with a continuation of the classical, and at times combined with it. Candela sculpture stores classical tradition but faintly touched by mediævalisms, as well as some of the most decisive features of the latter.

c6.s7.t1.2

None of the nervous elegance of the westernmost branch (Figs. 84–86), none of the earthbound futility of the Rājput type (Figs. 87, 88), have found their way into central India. An intensity near to violence clasps the modelling, with sharply curved outlines. This is flattened out, or else it congeals under its tightness. Limbs jerk across the compositions like poles, so stiff yet with a purposeful ardour (Fig. 89). The facial physiognomy is in keeping with that of the compositional elements. Valiant in its pointed angularity, it registers defiance and a supercilious knowledge; while a faint softness, sometimes even a smile, spreads upwards from raised corners of the mouth. This still belongs partly to the innocence of the body (Figs. 92, 93).

c6.s7.t1.3

The stagnant modelling, congealed in its naturalism, i.e. in its aim to render the softness of the flesh as if brought about by the living breath, perseveres against the flattening tendency. This often results in numbness (Fig. 91), the more marked the more violently an all-round movement seems to turn the figure (Fig. 90). The turning of the figure around its axis, and the bending of all the joints, has the object of showing the female body simultaneously in its all-sided charms. Artistically it reels round into stagnation; its obvious erotic provocation is overstressed, and becomes annihilated by the way in which it is pronounced.

c6.s7.t1.4

The psychological aspect of mediæval, and of Candela sculpture specially, is not confined to human appearance only. The figure of the animal is resuscitated to a place of prominence, which it had held long ago in the art of the Indus valley. Supernatural potentialities of psychological knowledge are embodied in bulls and śārdulas (Figs. 92, 94).

c6.s7.t1.5

The animal had been graciously present throughout the classical phase. During this enchanted millenium the vegetative had overgrown its animal vitality. It was, whether animal or super-animal, but one stage of life, and this as a whole had been experienced in the rhythmic security of the entire composition. The aloofness and portentousness of the animal, as figured by Indus art, now once more are manifest, though they form the basis only of a further differentiated and dynamic animality. Ancient as well as mediæval Indian art acknowledge the supremacy of the animal, whereas throughout the classical phase the vegetative comprised every type of life.

(B) Haihaya Sculpture

c6.s7.t2.1

The Haihaya school¹⁵⁴ gives to all its products a familiar stamp. At the very outset, i.e. in the tenth century (Fig. 95), in its heavily crowded composition it shows itself to be an up-to-date issue of one more immortal trend of Indian sculpture that had reached a climax in the early classical age in Sāñcī. What had been exuberant has now become cumbersome. Yet it applies what is left with zest, in the crowding of details of form roundly—yet by no means richly—modelled in very high relief, and appears in the tenth century in advance of what was the twelfth century phase elsewhere, with its crowded detail, and nothing but detail. While in the Candela school the fundamental forces of Indian plasticity are still active, and overcome new obstacles by approved methods, the Haihaya craftsmen allow novel problems to sink into old forms. Creativeness and absorbing receptiveness are the twofold aspects of mediæval sculpture in central India.

c6.s7.t2.2

To enter in detail into the structure and psychology of each artistic province is a task beyond the limits of a general outline. Yet salient features of each have to be pointed out, so that the living and connected expression of the mediæval artistic physiognomy may be understood.