A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c11.s2.9

c11.s2.9

The block discovered in 1836 by Colonel Stacy, somewhere at Mathurā, and now marked M. 1 in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, was at first supposed to represent Silenus, and so became known as the ‘Stacy Silenus’. But everybody now acknowledges that the subject is Indian, although the sculptor was influenced by the Silenus model. The stone is 3 feet 8 inches high, 3 feet broad, and 1 foot 4 inches thick, with a circular basin on the top 16 inches in diameter and 8 in depth, seemingly intended to serve as the socket for a column. Both this block and its replica, to be described presently, were carved on back as well as front, and were evidently designed to be viewed from both directions. Apparently they were the bases of columns, which may have stood at an entrance, or entrances, the proper position for Yakshas. But the difference of dimensions suggests that the two blocks may have belonged to distinct buildings.