A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c12.s2: Section III. Western and Southern India
A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c12.s2
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Section III. Western and Southern India
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While the most characteristic and distinctive sculptures of Gupta age occur in Northern India, the rock-cut shrines and monasteries of the west are adorned with numerous sculptures more or less closely related to those of the north. At Ajaṇṭā, interest having been concentrated chiefly on the paintings (Chap. VIII, Sec. 3), the accounts of the sculptures are meagre and good photographs are scarce.
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One of the most notable groups is that of a Buddha with attendants, at the left-hand side of the front gateway of Cave IX, dating from the sixth or seventh century (Fig. 123). The river goddesses on the top of the jambs of the entrances of Caves XVI and XXII have been already noticed (*ante*, p. 162).
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The numerous sculptures in Cave XXVI include a gigantic recumbent Dying Buddha, 23¼ feet in length, bearing a general resemblance to the fifth-century image at Kasiā in the Gorakhpur District, U. P. The most notable sculpture on the walls is the large and crowded composition representing the Temptation of Buddha, which Dr. Burgess describes as ‘beautiful’, adding that ‘several of the faces are beautifully cut’. It is reproduced in Plate XXXIX from a drawing. The subject is also treated at Plate XXXIX. The Temptation of Buddha, Cave XXVI, Ajaṇṭā.
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Ajantā in fresco and at Bōrō Būdūr, Java, in sculpture. The wigs, characteristic of the period, worn by several of the figures in the Ajantā sculpture should be noted. The elephants are well drawn, as usual. The kneeling figures at the base may represent the donors.
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In Cave I, supposed to be the latest of the completed excavations, a great quantity of rich sculpture exists, dealing chiefly with incidents in the lives of Buddha. A scene depicting the chase of the wild bull is praised as being 'spiritedly carved', but I cannot find photographs or drawings of the sculptures in this cave.
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The sculptures in the Bāgh caves, Gwālior State, until recently known only through drawings prepared for Dr. Burgess, have now been photographed by Major Luard. The best images, representing Buddha, or possibly a Bodhisattva, with two attendants, are the southwestern group in the Gosāin's Cave, No. II. The style connects them with the Gupta rather than the mediaeval period, and especially with the sculptures in Cave IX, Ajantā (Fig. 123). They may have been executed in the seventh century. The pose is easy and the modelling good.¹
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¹ *Arch. S. W. I.*, vol. v, Pl. XVIII, 4, from a drawing; *Ind. Ant.*, Aug. 1910, Pl. III, 2, collotype. They are hardly worth reproduction. The frescoes in the caves will be described in Chap. VIII, Sec. 3.
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FIG. 123. Buddha, &c., Cave IX, Ajantā. (A. S. photo., supplied by Prof. Macdonell.)
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The late Buddhist caves at Aurangābād in the Nizam's dominions, not far from Elūra, are supposed to date from the 'seventh century of our era, and perhaps towards the end of it'.² Whatever their exact date may be, the sculptures are related more closely to those of the Gupta age than to the Tantric works of the mediaeval period, and so are noticed in this chapter.
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² Burgess, in *Hist. Ind. and E. Archit.*, 2nd ed. (1910), vol. i, p. 205.
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The principal cave, No. III, contains many columns most elaborately decorated with figure sculpture as well as complex patterns. On certain of these columns a sixteen-sided portion is
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'carved with sixteen scenes which may be an anticipation of Cruikshank or John Adam, for they seem intended to picture the "Drunkard's Progress". The number of figures varies from two to four in each. Two persons are represented sitting
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together, apparently drinking in the most friendly way, then staggering along, then dancing with their backs to each other, then quarrelling; one is being dragged along helpless between two men, and so on in successive panels.’¹
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¹ Burgess, *A. S. W. I.*, vol. iii, p. 67.
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It is a pity that no reproductions of these lively stone pictures are to be had. The subjects recall the much earlier ‘Bacchanalian’ sculptures of Mathurā (*ante*, p. 134), and suggest speculations concerning certain varieties of Buddhism in practice.
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In the same cave an architrave bears on the front a long frieze of fourteen scenes of the *Jātaka* kind in relief, including an impalement, a battle in a forest, and other incidents, the meaning of which is not known. The drawing in Dr. Burgess’s
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[Figure: FIG. 124. Male and female busts; Cave III, Aurangābād. (*A. S. W. I.*, vol. iii, Pl. XLIX, 2. 4; from a drawing.)]
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volume is on such a small scale that it is impossible to judge fairly the quality of the art, but, so far as can be seen, the action is vigorously depicted.
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Certain groups of kneeling worshippers in the same excavation are extremely curious. The heads seem to be those of foreigners, and have quite an Egyptian appearance. The males wear wigs (Fig. 124).
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A rich collection of Buddhist bronze statuettes, each from 1 foot to 2 feet in height, standing on pedestals, was found during excavations for a canal at Buddhavāni in the Kistna (Krishnā) District, Madras, prior to 1870. Owing to scandalous neglect the statuettes were treated as old metal and allowed to go to ruin. Some years later, when Mr. R. Sewell saw them, he found none perfect, but did all that was possible to save what was left, and published a good account of them, sending the objects to the Secretary of State for India, by whom they were made over in 1905 to the British Museum, where they are now exhibited. Mr. Sewell regards as 'the gem of the collection' the forearm illustrated in Fig. 126, and claims that 'it is hardly too much to say that the modelling of this little right hand is almost perfect, and for grace and delicacy can hardly be surpassed'. The praise is, I think, deserved. We
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FIG. 125. Bronze Buddha, ? 6th cent. ; from Buddhavāni, Kistna Dist. ; B. M. (*J. R. A. S.*, 1895, Pl. I. Fig. 1.)
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FIG. 126. Bronze forearm in three positions ; ? 6th cent. ; from Buddhavāni, Kistna Dist. ; B. M. (*J. R. A. S.*, 1895, Pl. IV.)
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have had occasion often to note the skill shown by Indian artists in modelling the flexible, feminine hands characteristic of the higher Hindu castes. The smooth, tight-fitting robe of the Buddha (Fig. 125) resembles that seen in the Sārnāth stone sculptures of the Gupta period, and I am disposed to assign the objects illustrated to either the fifth or the sixth century.¹
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¹ Sewell, 'Some Buddhist Bronzes, and Relics of Buddha' (*J. R. A. S.*, 1895, pp. 617-37, Pl. I-V).