A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.37

c21.37

The sculptures of Amarāvati, like those from several other stūpas in the neighbourhood, depict incidents in the life of the Buddha and scenes of worship, and contain many fine ornamental motifs. The figures of women and animals are in the Sānchi tradition and display a vigorous and supple realism, characteristic of all Indian sculpture, particularly of animals, from the days of Aśoka to the age of the Pallava sculptures at Māmallapuram. In the scenes depicting life in the women's quarters, there is an innocent delight in the nude and a refined sensuality with marked freshness. The Bodhisattvas and the Buddha are represented actually and not by mere symbols, and good reason has been shown to admit the presence of Roman influences in the art of Amarāvati, which foreshadows that of Aihole and Māmallapuram. This side of Amarāvati art leaves naturalism behind and develops an idealism of the highest order, ‘a new canon of beauty and tranquillity’, ‘the aesthetic ideal of India’. ‘The school of Amarāvati,’ says Grousset, ‘can show many a scene which is a veritable picture in stone, perfect in its composition, by some very great, though unknown, artist.’ In the medallion (Madras Museum) depicting the taming of the elephant (Pl. II), for instance, the confusion caused by the mad beast contrasts remarkably with the calm after it is tamed by the power of Buddha's kindliness. In the various stories illustrated ‘there are representations of walled cities, palace-buildings, toraṇas and stūpas; and more than one of the slabs portrays the stūpa of Amarāvati itself as it must have appeared in the height of its glory’.