History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c15.s4.20

c15.s4.20

¹ Dr. Vincent Smith took Cave No. XIII, to be a B.C. Century Cave (History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, p. 275) on account of its polish. But the art of ‘Maurya’ polish was not forgotten. It was discredited in the Śuṅga and Sātavāhana period and was revived in the Vākāṭaka-Gupta period. In the sculptures of the Chandragupta Cave at Udaygiri and also on several sculptures at Khajurāho I have personally seen the polish. The method was not lost up to the eleventh century when some of the broken parts of sculptures at Khajurāho bear it as an act of repair. Some artistic reason was at the bottom of the discontinuance of the polish. At Khajurāho, the outer sculptures are never polished. It seems to me that the polish interfered with light and shade and tended to obliterate their natural lines. The chisel protested against the veneer. The history of the so-called Maurya polish before the Mauryas is carried back by polished prehistoric vajras, made in imitation of bones, found in Chota Nagpur, which are in the Patna Museum [the polish on these is artificial and not the result of constant handling].