The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.104

v1.c9.104

³⁹ Professor Lübke thus comments on this subject: "The organic structure of the body, the articulation of the bones, and the network of muscles and sinews, disappear beneath the veil of soft voluptuousness. Everything indicating vigorous strength and energy, and determination of will, is utterly repressed; the figures are only qualified for a passive life of enjoyment, and for a vague dreaminess. They appear to us as devoid of free-will as the flower quivering on its stalk or the leaf trembling in the breeze. Characteristically enough Śakuntalā's arms are compared in poetry to supple stems. An insipid smile, indifferent and stereotyped, rests on the features of these figures". *History of Sculpture* I, p. 17). These remarks are made with especial reference to certain bas-reliefs of Ellora, but they are intended to be general, and to a certain extent are true, as admitted above. The cause assigned is, however, entirely wrong. The absence of muscles and sinews is not the result of the incapacity of Indian art, nor of dreamy nature of the Hindu religion, but of successful art faithfully representing the human form as modified by the Indian climate and oleaginous and vegetable diet. The sneer at the supple