The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c33.31.1

v1.c33.31.1

On the execution of these sculptures, with their multitudinous figures and elaborate details, many years of labour must have been exhausted and many hands employed. It is not to be expected, therefore, that their style should be uniform; yet there is none of the clumsy, immature workmanship here which we noticed in the inferior carvings of the balustrade round the smaller *stūpa* and at Buddh Gayā. These reliefs are the work of trained and experienced sculptors, and though they exhibit considerable variety in their composition and technical treatment, their style throughout is maintained at a relatively high level. The finest are on the Southern Gateway, the poorest on the Northern; but in the matter of technique, the greatest contrast, perhaps, is afforded by the reliefs of the Southern and Western Gateways. Compare, for example, the scene on the inner face of the middle architrave of the South Gateway, depicting the Chhaddanta Jātaka, and the same scene on the front face of the lowest architrave of the Western Gateway (Pl. XXIII, 61, 62). In the former, the figures are kept strictly in one plane, in order that all may be equally distinct to the observer, and the relief low, that there may be no heavy shadows to obscure the design, with the result that the effect is that of a tapestry rather than of a carving in stone. The elephants, again, are treated in broad flat surfaces with a view to emphasising their contours; the trees sketched in rather than modelled;