History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c47.17

v2.c47.17

B. The first renaissance was followed by a period of decline of which specimens are very few. The best example is perhaps a figure of Lokeśvara with two hands (No. 6948 in the Indian Museum Collection). There are two specimens of the second class in Mr. Ajit Ghosh’s collection. The first is the head of the Bodhisatva Syamantaka(?), who is always seated in a rocky cave attended by the five *Dhyāni Buddhas*.¹ In the fragments of the back-slab we find the seated figure of Maitreya in addition. A long but fragmentary *Dhāraṇī* on the back shows that the image cannot be later than the 9th century A. D., yet it is a decadent figure. The only other image of this class known to us is a tall image of Lokeśvara with four hands in the Ghosh collection (6 ft. 3 ins. by 2 ft. 8 ins.). The figure of the spiritual ancestor can not be distinguished, and the Bodhisatva holds an indistinct object in the upper right hand and a rosary in the lower, while the upper right holds a lotus and the lower rests on the head of a figure of Jambhala standing on rocks to the right. A small figure of Sita Tārā stands on the left. This particular image is unsymmetrical, as length is much more than the breadth, like 10th century images of the Bengal School of Sculpture.