Maurya and Shunga Art c14.4

c14.4

The modesty and sobriety of diction are however no bar to clarity of expression which is one important characteristic of this art. The stories are told with scrupulous exhaustiveness; no single detail is left out. Clearly, the artist's intention is that no one should miss any thing even though not previously conversant with the stories. In Bodhgaya, however, they are abbreviated; stories are more summarily told. Descriptive labels also disappear, so that it seems that the narratives were by now well-known. Evidently there was no more any need of labelling them or portraying every single detail. In order to realise the perfect understandability of the narratives the artists of Barhut took to what is known as the method of continuous narration which is the same in all early art employed for religious propagation. In the reliefs of Barhut and also later one would find scenes in which the main stages of a given story localised in the same spot are portrayed in one and the same relief with the hero of the story repeatedly shown. The incidents may have taken place at various intervals but the artist visualises them in one unit so far as time is concerned. The fact that they took place in the same place justifies their presentation in one composition. Time is thus eliminated altogether, or various points of time may thus be said to coalesce in one visual unit. Sometime, successive stages of a story are divided into several panels; in such scenes the continuity of the narration is interrupted no doubt, but the sequence of the story can clearly be followed from panel to panel and the breaking up of the connectedness of time seems to be intentional.