Maurya and Shunga Art c6.9.2

c6.9.2

in the Basarh-Bakhira specimen, the transition from the capital to the square abacus is marked by a cable-moulding of West-Asiatic twisted rope design which is repeated in later examples also, except in the lion-topped Rampurva and Sarnath examples. In other Mauryan examples the formal appearance of the capital is the same, but there is a progressive attempt towards a clearer and sharper definition of the middle ridge and of the border mouldings, and increasing stylisation; both are fully in evidence in the Sarnath specimen. The real aesthetic significance of the beautifully arched and elegantly ribbed floral bell of the Mauryan capital lies in its gentle curve, its chaste and rhythmic proportion and in its very effective contrast with the chaste and elegant, plain and smooth, tall and tapering shaft that it crowns. The capital like the abacus and the shaft also shows different stages of a process of artistic evolution, though the chronological sequence cannot be definitely established; but the steady growth of the feeling for form and more and more linear rhythm is unmistakable. The abacus is indeed the pedestal for the crowning animal;