Maurya and Shunga Art c8.3

c8.3

The two Patna Yakshas, almost identical in form and appearance, conception and treatment, and dress and ornament, come first in the list of alleged Mauryan sculptures. It deserves consideration that both the statues have each on the scarf of their shoulder a line of Brāhmī inscription that has paleographically been dated round about the beginning of the Christian era, and that helps to identify the statues as those of Yakshas. No reason is adduced why the statues should not be considered as belonging to the same period as that of the inscriptions. The so-called Mauryan polish on which the main argument for a Mauryan date rests is conspicuous only on the upper half of the bodies, which may be taken to point to the fact that the practice of Maurya court art was already on the wane. While there is nothing peculiarly Mauryan about this couple, there are elements that seem to connect them with some sculptures on the eastern gate of the Great Stūpa at Sanchi on the one hand and the ‘primitive’ Kushāṇa school of Mathura on the other. The heaviness, the almost archaic stolidity and weighty volume, the conflict between fully rounded and modelled volume as seen in the arms, breast and abdomen on the one hand and flat surface at the back on the other seem to suggest that they have a close affinity with the huge, heavy and ‘primitive’ Bodhisatvas of the Mathura school. The treatment of the garment when it does not cling to the body, as volumes separate from the body is a particular characteristic of the Kushāṇa school of Mathura; when, however, it clings to the body it is treated as a wet cloth and is almost invisible but for the parallel ridges that indicate the folds. A similar treatment of the garment characterises the Didarganj Yakshī also, to be considered later. On the other hand so far as general shape and appearance of the upper part of the body and the quality and character of the modelling are concerned, a kinship with the art of the bigger reliefs on the eastern gate of the Great Stūpa at Sanchi seems to be admissible.