History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c47.19

Language: English

v2.c47.19.1

C. In the 10th century A. D. there is a second renaissance in Buddhist sculpture. The artists succeeded in re-invigorating their products. The best example is perhaps the great Buddha at Baudh. This image is still *in situ*. Its temple lay just in front of the Rājā's palace at Baudh and has simply been covered up by debris on account of a local superstition. The total height of this image is 6 ft. 9 ins. of which the seated figure measures 4 ft. 3 ins. in height and 3ft. 10 ins. from knee to knee. It is seated in the *Bhumisparśa Mudrā* on a lotus throne, 1ft. 2ins. in height, placed on a pedestal 11 ins, in height and 4 ft. 6 ins. in breadth. Like the great Buddha at Udaygiri in the Cuttack district, the whole of this image is built up in sections with separately carved stones. The only attendant figures are two *Gandharvas* flying with garlands in their hands on the sides of the head. On the whole, the colossus of Baudh compares favourably with similar colossi at Udaygiri and Lalitagiri in the Cuttack district. The image is uninscribed and below the pedestal is the ancient stone pavement of the original shrine.¹ There is a certain grossness in the face which is certainly wanting in the colossi of the Cuttck district. Alike to this colossus is another brought from the Cuttack district by Mr. Ajit Ghosh.

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This is a figure of Buddha in the *Varada Mudrā* which most probably represents the incident of the subjection of the assassins hired by Devadatta to murder Buddha in the narrow streets of Rājagriha as indicated by the kneeling male to the left of the figure (7 ft. 3 ins. by 2 ft. 9 ins.). From the general standard and the expression on the face the large image of Sita Tārā, with two hands the left hand in the *Varada Mudrā* and the right holding a lotus with stalk, attended by *Bhṛkuṭi* with four hands on the right and a kneeling male on the left belongs to the third period (5ft. 10 ins. by 2 ft. 2 ins.). Much later in the scale is a small image of Buddha in the *Bhumisparśa Mudrā* (3 ft. 10 ins, by 2 ft. 7 ins.). Though the main figure is in the *Bhumisparśa Mudrā* it is seated on a large lotus on a stalk below which are two figures seated on each side, and a third figure to the immediate left of the stalk is a kneeling monk. These figures are placed in an attitude and position in which the figures of the vanquished Tirthikas and King Prasenajit of Kośala are to be found in separate images representing the great miracle of Śrāvastī.¹ There are six smaller images on the back slab, three on each side. On the right to be found, from the top : (1) *Manjuśrī*, (2) *Vajrasattva* and (3) Male seated, two hands. On the left hand side we find : (1) *Vajrapāṇi*, (2) *Lokeśvara* with two hands and (3) another *Lokeśvara*.

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Over the halo of the figure are represented the branches of a *Aśvattha* tree indicating that the figure is meant to be a *Vajrāsāna-Buddha-Bhaṭṭāraka*. On the halo itself we find the Buddhist creed, the characters of which enable us to determine the age of the sculpture. It is the alphabet of North-eastern India, of which the palatal *Śa*, in which the upper part of the letter has ceased to be one curve and is separated into two separate strokes : a vertical straight line on the left and a curve which touches the straight line on the right. In the inscriptions of the adjoining province of Bengal this form of *Śa* is used exclusively in the 10th century. The next from of *Śa* is to be met with for the first time in the records of Mahīpāla I of Bengal. So far as is known, the earliest occurrence of this transitional form is in the Bodh-Gaya inscription of the 26th year of Dharmapāla. From the fact that this transitional form is very largely used in the votive inscriptions of Bengal and Bihar in the earlier part of the 10th Century A. D., it would be reasonable to infer that the second renaissance movement in the plastic art of Orissa also belongs to the same period. Images of this class can be called renaissance products in a limited sense, because compared with specimens of period “A” they are still crude in conception, because proportion is not regularly observed and there is a general degeneration of ideal in the execution of faces.