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

252 THE GOLDEN AGE AND END OF BUDDHIST ART
Mahayana sculpture, as exemplified by the
carvings of the Great Stupa at Barabudur,
marks a final crystallization of the Gupta ideal.
The impact of Indian art on Central Asia has
already been examined; it was through the
intermediary Buddhist kingdoms of Turkestan,
as well as through the importation of actual
models by Chinese pilgrims, that the Gupta
style was introduced to China and Japan of the
sixth and seventh centuries.
garment represented in a succession of sharp
ridges [167]. The fragmentary attendant figures
of Bodhisattvas or Taras appear to anticipate
the style of Nepalese sculpture of the seventh
century and later [202]. This object and related
pieces have sometimes been attributed to Kashmir,
but in the absence of any definitive
evidence it is perhaps better to regard them as
of Indian origin. 20 ^ -c
The making of jewellery, like other forms of
metalwork, goes back to remote antiquity.
Poetically, many types of personal ornaments
Among the few surviving examples of early
Buddhist ivories is a Trinity in high relief
representing a Buddha with attendant Bodhisattvas
[188]. Whatever its date, perhaps as late
as the seventh century, the central figure is like
a miniature reduction of a typical Mathura
image of the Gupta Period with the folds of the
derive their names from flowers, of which these
necklaces and pendants are the precious counterparts,
not imitations, in gold and gems and
enamel. The names for necklaces (garlands of
enchantment) and earrings (ear-flowers) are
mentioned in Panini's grammar of the fourth
century B.C. Other ancient texts, like the
188. Ivory Buddhist Trinity.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
189. Ajanta, Cave XVII, apsaras