Indian Sculpture c8.71

c8.71

³¹ Another panel of a railing post of stūpa II, Sāñcī. Second century B.C. Of less vigour and consistency. The life-tree-like combination of lotuses, deer and lions, is based on a tortoise (cf. Fig. 30), besides it contains a Yakṣa couple standing on boulsters, and Lakṣmī, bathed by elephants and in a lotus composition. All the figures, irrespective of action and status, are equal parts of a design that ascends in freely flowing curves to either side of a vertical axis, and rests for a while in the verticals, which are clad with a human appearance.