Indian Sculpture c9.53

c9.53

42. Plastic treatment restrained by considerations of the surface leads to various solutions. A bracket may have a separate relief on each side (a stone bracket of a Yakṣa and a Yakṣī on the obverse and reverse respectively (at Bhilsa, Gwālior), see also the double figure on a capital, Fig. 45 and others) or else the head is repeated on each side (rider figures on the toraṇas of Sāñcī). These three solutions, i.e. (1) to display and confine ‘sculpture in the round’ within the two surfaces of the toraṇa (Yakṣī brackets in Sāñcī); (2) to treat each surface separately and to show a different figure on it, but so that, if the interstices are cut out between the portions in relief on either side, they coincide (Bhilsa); (3) a bilateral treatment, similar to (1) but with a repetition of heads on either side, so as to maintain the independence of each side, all these and also the frameless pillar figure (Bhārhut) are attempts at a compromise between fully three-dimensional sculpture according to the ancient Indian tradition (Figs. 1–4) and between a form in the main two-dimensional.