Indian Sculpture c9.145

c9.145

Not the material, but form itself is the primary factor. This may be illustrated by two instances. In Pahārpur the composition of a stone relief is carried on in terra-cotta where the size of the stone-panel is too small for the niche into which it is fitted (A.S.I.A.R., 1926–27, Pl. XXXII a, the trunk of the tree to the right). One and the same composition makes use of two materials; stone and terra-cotta are joined, but not in order to achieve a special effect; without any regard to their differences the two materials are combined, so that with the help of this—scarcely perceptible—patchwork the completeness of the composition may not suffer. In another instance the mouldings of the frame of such a composition are executed in stone on the left and in terra-cotta on the right side. The indifference towards the material is obvious in this instance, but the reliefs of the Kailāsanātha temple of Kāñcīpuram (eighth century) afford another illustration. There stone and plaster were combined from the very outset—the stone as foundation of the modelling and the plaster for the elaboration of details—and not only in recent restorations, in all the reliefs.