The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c16.s2.58

v2.c16.s2.58

The figurines representing deities or religious personages are made of kaolin, and show fine modelling and delightful lines. As the features of these deities are non-Āryan, with thick short noses, thick lips, and round or oval faces, the potter had apparently people of his own stock in mind when he moulded the figures of the gods. The hair and head-gear are more conventional than realistic. In Plate LIV *a* the hair of the figure representing a Bodhisattva is shown in traditional stiff coils, a fashion which had become an essential feature of the hair of the Buddha in Northern India from about the second century A.D., and which reached the Deccan in that period or perhaps a century later. The other head in the same Plate (LIV*b*), representing another Bodhisattva or a *yaksha*, has a very elaborate head-gear; but the salient feature of this statuette is the look of innocence and serenity so admirably expressed by the face. In Plate LIV *c-d* two different personages are represented whose head-gear is of different types; the expressions of their faces speak of inward serenity. One of them has a smile on his lips. Another figure has his hair dressed straight down to his ears and neck and finally curled up in a roll. This style of dressing the hair is more prominent in the two heads reproduced in the lower half of Plate LVII. The broad, prominent noses as well as the style of dressing the hair are reminiscent in these two figures of the representations of dandified fools and drunkards sometimes found in European art, as in the illuminated margins of medieval manuscripts, the stone carvings of gargoyles in cathedrals and churches, or the later didactic paintings of Hogarth. There is even a possibility that the craftsmen of the Deccan copied such features from contemporary Roman classical models, because at Kondāpur several baked clay ornaments on which the figures of Roman coins are impressed have been found; and there is literary evidence also to prove that a large trade was carried on between the Deccan and Mediterranean countries through the ancient port of Barygaza (modern Bharoch) on the western coast of India.¹