Maurya and Shunga Art c12.4

c12.4

I am inclined to think that from the very silhouette-like low and flat reliefs of the ground balustrade of Stūpa no. 2 of Sanchi to the attempt in the reliefs and the large-size human figures of Barhut, there is a frank attempt at progressive realisation of what had originally been a two dimensional form in ‘caraṇa-chitras’ or scroll-paintings in terms of relief on such permanent material as stone. Early Indian art as exhibited on the balustrade of Sanchi Stūpa no. 2 and on the rails and posts of Barhut may in the light of this assumption be said to be a quest for the third dimension, and these reliefs but exemplify the devices the artists adopted for the purpose. Any one with a comprehension of Indian ‘paṭa-chitra’ tradition of primitive folk-painting in flat surfaces would be able to realise how difficult the quest had been. This explains, in my view, much of the shyness, the modesty and the hesitancy that one notices in these reliefs; it also shows the conflict that is unmistakable in them between flat surface on the one hand and the three dimensional extension on the other, as well as the resultant compromise. The early Indian artists of Barhut ignored the Maurya solution of the problem; indeed they had nothing to do with the Maurya tradition and wanted to solve the problem in their own way and according to their own tradition. The device they adopted for the purpose fully confirms my assumption. For instance, when they show in entirety figures or objects that ought optically to have been presented hidden or partly covered or when they present an object in small or large proportions not as they optically appear to us but in accordance with the meaning of the relation into which they enter with other figure of the story, or when they tilt the relief to show objects in entirety, or extend the volume of an object or its part not into depth but on the surface, they follow essentially the methods of primitive folk tradition of India that has come down to our present day in the shape and from of ‘paṭa-chitras’.