Indian Sculpture c8.183

c8.183

The peculiarly south Indian treatment of the body may best be understood by holding Fig. 71 against Fig. 66, which is relatively nearest to it of the Dekkhanī examples in plastic formulation. The slightness of the torso—the slim abdominal portion with a sharp incision above the hips, horizontal with the male, and triangular with the female figures—is at once conspicuous in Māmallapuram. Activity is also suggested by the chest being thrown forward and the shoulders drawn back. A peculiar mannerism, of an ill foreshortened forearm, with the palm raised and turned outward, occurs thrice in this section of the Gaṅgā relief, and is also to be found in Pallava sculpture of the eighth century. (Kailāsanātha temple at Kāñcīpuram.)