A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.55
A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.55
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c9.s2.55
All critics are agreed that the southern gateway is the earliest of the four. One of its pillars is shown in Plate XVII, Fig. B. The capitals of its gate-posts are formed by four lions seated back to back, ‘indifferently carved,’ and evidently intended as imitations of those on Asoka's inscribed pillar already noticed (*ante*, p. 60). The marked decline in skill demonstrated by the contrast between the lions on the gate-post and those on the inscribed pillar is surprising considering the shortness of the interval of time, about a century, between the two compositions. The decadence is most easily verified by comparing the treatment of the lions' paws on the gate-post capital (Maisey, PLATE XVII. Sāñchī sculptures. (Photos. supplied by Prof. Macdonell.)