Maurya and Shunga Art c12.7

c12.7

It is now possible to postulate that between the reliefs of the Ajātaśatru pillar and figures like Virudhaka Yaksha and Sirima Devatā on the one hand and the reliefs of the Prasenajit pillar and the figures of Chandrā and Sudarsanā Yakshinīs on the other there is the oscillation of an artistic vision which now inclines toward slow ceaseless flow of linear rhythm and again towards static and mechanical, vertical and horizontal schemes of composition. It is further reasonable to argue that the latter trend was gradually being overpowered by the former which means that isolated, compact and static rush of forms was progressively being subordinated to the free and rhythmic flow of lines and swaying balance. Now, Strzygowski’s studies in Nomadic Art have revealed that this ceaselessly flowing linear rhythm and swaying balance are Northern in origin and affiliation. It may therefore be assumed that this Indo-Aryan trait, even in Barhut, was increasingly on its way towards a rationalisation of the endless onrush of form after form packed densely one upon another, as we see it on the reliefs of the Ajātaśatru pillar or on those of the gateways of Sanchi Stūpa no. 1. The wild exuberance of form of non-Aryan and non-Mediterranean imagination was thus subordinated and bound down by the logic of rhythm and wisdom of balance; isolated and compact forms were co-ordinated into the discipline of a flowing linear movement and brought to the level of rhythmically composed representations. One need not be reminded that a similar process was at work in early Buddhism as well.