Maurya and Shunga Art c16.11

c16.11

Fig. 10. Sarnath (Benares, U. P.). Striding bull carved in high relief on the abacus of the Sarnath column of Aśoka. A comparison with the Rampurva bull is at once suggested. This bull is rendered with all the tension and accentuation of muscles, of veins and bones ; the execution is also clear and precise ; but the entire treatment is conventional, modelling coagulated and tension in movement over-emphasised. It belongs to the same aesthetic vision and treatment as those of the Sarnath quadripartite, and has hardly anything to do with the Rampurva bull or the bulls of the pre-historic Indus Valley. Photo : A. S. I.