The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

THE
214
'
GOLDEN AGE AND END OF BUDDHIST ART
and 149, the Middle Phase; and 144, 147, and
148, the Late Phase in the development.
There are some indications based on recent
excavations in the Amaravati region that the
so-called Later Andhra style may have survived
there even after the rise of Gupta power in the
fourth century; indeed, until the rise of the
Pallavas. The persistence of this late phase of
Andhra sculpture, represented largely by Buddhist
images of a debased type, would seem to
be supported by the continued copying of
Andhra models in the sculpture of Ceylon from
the eighth to the thirteenth centuries.
It is unfortunate that the reliefs of Amaravati
are not better known. Certainly from the point
of view of complex and yet always coherent
composition, of massing of chiaroscuro, and
aliveness of surface treatment they have seldom
been surpassed in the history of relief sculpture.
It is well to reiterate in conclusion that, for the
later history of Indian art, not only for sculpture
in the Gupta Period, but even more for the
dynamic carving under the Hindu dynasties
that succeeded the Andhras in the South, the
importance of the work at Amaravati is
immeasurable.