History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c47.47

v2.c47.47

A. The earliest period of Hindu Art, which is certainly older than the oldest sculpture in the Liṅgarāja temple at Bhuvaneśvara and possibly also than the decorative human figures on the Mukteśvara. Inspite of the influence from South-western Bengal, this is the beginning of the best period of Hindu sculpture in Orissa. The lower part of the door jamb recovered from the Khandiya Deul shows a typically South-Indian over-developed bust in females, the Lalita-bhaṅga posture of both female figures; and above all, in the larger jamb, the three exquisitely beautiful vertical bands :—(a) the meandering creeper beginning with a Satyrical figure at the bottom and with pairs of amorini in the inter-spaces, (b) the broad central band with bizarre arabesque, the beginning of which Indian art shows for the first time in the Gupta period proper and which culminates in the great Hoysaḷa school of Belur and Sravaṇa Beḷgola and (c) the narrowest band on the proper left, consisting of a new type in ornamental foliage.¹ To the same class belongs the still complete door frame of the Kutai-Tundi temple.¹ The remarks about the door jambs from the Khandiya Deul apply with the equal vigour to the two female figures in Pl. X, but No. 115 shows that the influence of the art of South-western Bengal was not entirely predominant in Khiching. This sculpture is certainly the precursor of the splendid decorative figurines of the Liṅgarāja and the Rājā-Rāṇī. The incomplete nature of the giant Śiva² and the Narteśvara³ prevents us from judging the extent of foreign influence but the attendant figurines are of the same class as No. 115 of Pl. X. The upper part of the Nāga possesses the face of the regular Kolian type and therefore cannot be classed as a regular Orissan sculpture.