Maurya and Shunga Art c16.10

c16.10

Fig. 9. Rampurva. Standing bull crowning the capital of the southern Asoka column. The animal stands with its full weight on earth in quiet and restrained dignity, and the idea has been rendered with remarkable clarity and perfect realism. The modelling is vigorous but not conventional; plastic and linear sense fully mature but not schematised ; a dynamic naturalism gives it potency and strength. In aesthetic vision and treatment it perhaps reflects the legacy of the art of the bulls of the prehistoric Indus Valley. C. 243 B. C. Indian Museum, Calcutta. Photo : A. S. I.