The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.123

c9.123

The insetting of the great panels in the Dasavatara cave introduces us to the subject of Gupta arabesque and creeper patterns. There cannot be any doubt about the superior artistic excellence of all carvings discovered at Bhumra to those at Nachna Kuthara, Deogadh, and the smaller Gupta temples at Mahabodhi and Sanchi. Even the smaller bands of the door-jambs consisting of super-imposed rosettes or spiral-work cannot be compared with any thing discovered at Bhumra. The marginal decoration of the great panels at Deogadh suffer very much in comparison with the Bhumra fragments. Let us take for example the meandering creeper issuing out of conch shells in the inner bands of the jambs at Deogadh and compare it with the wonderful volutes of the spiral-work of Bhumra.² Everywhere Deogadh work lacks the elasticity of Bhumra; compare the fragments of the stylized acanthus at Bhumra,¹ and the uninjured mass of the same work at Deogadh.² I have not found any parallel to the great spiral-work representing the breaking crests of waves,³ but even the smaller bands on the sides of the door jambs are always infinitely superior in poise and elasticity⁴ to any Deogadh work. There cannot be any comparison with the meandering creeper from Bhumra, the stem of which is hidden among a mass of flowering arabesque, with chubby little climbing amorini in the interspaces. Even the Bhita fragments⁵ in the Lucknow Museum are stale compared with it.⁶ The Deogadh temple is bigger than the temples at Bhumra or Nachna Kuthara and therefore it possesses the advantage of height. Therefore the great pillars of the porches, of which there were four in number, are superior to the smaller pillars and pilasters of Bhumra. But to do justice to the exquisite little jambs at Bhumra one must admit the unsurpassability of the unique geometrical decoration of the inner bands of the door-frame and the wonderful elasticity of the conventional buds of the outer band, both of which bands are continued over the lintel. The poise in the *Kirtimukhas* of the pillars and the pilasters and finally the exquisite group of the prostrate figures below the foliated vase at the bottoms of the fluted pillars have not been surpassed yet.¹ The difference between the work of Bhumra and Deogadh in figures can be neatly gauged by a comparison of the dancing *gaṇa* in the small *caitya*-window,² in Bhumra and the same drab heavy figure found at Deogadh.³ There are no parallels to the exquisite fluted and plain columns of Bhumra in which each base is shaped in a unique fashion. The modelling of the foliated bases at the bottom of the fluted columns shows four slender figures of sprites prostrated by the heavy weight of the urn they bear on their backs, the centre of which is, again, tied with ribands and ornamented with loops issuing from the calyx of lotuses. A fringe of semi-lotus patterns ornament the edge of the urn. Apparently from the heads of the prostrate *gaṇas* rise a mass of ornamental foliage which really issue out of the urn. The conventional varieties of this particular *motif* are more noticeable at Bhumra than anywhere else. In the case of the columns with round shafts, the urn has a narrower neck than its middle and the neck only is fringed with a conventional acanthus pattern; but the place of the foliage at the corners is taken by four projections at the corners, which look more like peacocks with tails spread fanwise, but are really a new style in arabesque.⁴