History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c47.22

v2.c47.22

D. In the fourth period of mediaeval plastic activity of Orissa there is a reversion to the local type in the execution of the human face. This may be called the “Oriya type.” The earliest instance of this is a large figure of Buddha, also in the *Bhumisparśa Mudrā* in the Ghosh collection (4ft. 4ins. by 2ft. 10ins.). The face shows a lessening or weakening of the jaws. This becomes more pronounced in the colossus of the same collection (6ft. 8ins. by 2ft. 8ins.) in which the type of the face approximates to that of the average low class Oriyā of the Garhjats. Exactly the same feature is to be observed in the Buddha from Khiching¹ in which the branches of the *Aśvattha* tree seem to rise out of the *Uṣṇīṣa* on Buddha’s head.