Maurya and Shunga Art c8.4

c8.4

Much less known than either the Patna Yakshas or the two other colossal standing statues of polished sand-stone from Parkham and Didarganj are two torsos of naked Jaina images, both recovered from Lohanipur near Bankipur, Patna, and now in the Patna Museum. The larger torso, a free and round sculpture carved out of Chunar sand-stone, has the high Maurya polish on it, while the smaller one, identical in appearance and style and of the same material, has no polish. They have both been found together on the same level under-ground along with a silver puch-marked coin which Jayaswal says ‘precedes Maurya coinage.’ He ascribes the larger torso to the Maurya period and the unpolished smaller one to the ‘Śungan or later’, on what grounds he does not state.¹⁹ If one is to go by style and appearance both the torsos must belong to the same period which may not be far out of date from the Patna Yakshas on the one hand and the Parkham Yakshas on the other. In their tight and stiff modelling, in their fully rounded arms and thighs and in their general earthy heaviness of form they have a kinship with the Patna statues ; both pairs are characterised by a smooth and lifeless inertia, and by a comparatively flat surface treatment of their backs. The Lohanipur statues, moreover, are more primitive and archaic in outlook and appearance, heavy, and a little bit unbalanced in proportion, which seem to link them with the Baroda and Parkham Yakshas.