The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.138

c9.138

The remains at Mandasor are still imperfectly known though some of the sites around the city were recently excavated by the Archæological Department of the Gwalior State. The remains were discovered by Captain (now Lieutenant-Colonel) C. E. Luard, M.A.,³ in 1907 and finally exposed by Mr. M. B. Garde.¹ The pillar at Khilchipura, described by Luard, is certainly of the Mathurā-Kuṣāṇa type, with its super-imposed panels containing figure work surmounted by the ancient Mauryan flat lotus.² So also the figure of Śiva from Sondni³ and the Dvārapālas are slightly different from the best type of the Benares school. The Dvārapālas remind one very strongly of the great colossus (Viṣṇu) inside the ruined temple at Eran in the Sagar district of the Central Provinces. The affinity between the local products in Central India is further evident in the treatment of monoliths. The great pillars of Yaśodharman⁴ resemble the Eran pillars of G. E. 165 and 191. The continuation of the use of the bell-shaped abacus and the pure honey-suckle in the capital on the pillars of Yaśodharman as well as the Gupta capital on the top of Bhilsa hill, the palm capital in the Lucknow Museum all tend to prove the slavish imitation of Maurya and Śuṅga motifs in the Gupta art of Central India.⁵ The date of the Bagh caves is far from certain and in spite of what Marshall and his colleagues have said in the recent monograph⁶ it must be admitted that no convincing proof has been discovered which would permit us to come to any reasonable conclusion regarding dates of the painting and sculptures in this series of excavations. The Buddha figures of the Bagh caves¹ strongly resemble the South-Indian type of the second or mediaeval group of caves at Ajanta.