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

CEYLON
454
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AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
to the final absorption in the Void or Absolute,
which is symbolized in that strange mirage in
stone that greets the worshipper when he emerges
into the centre of the mandala in the empty
spaces of the upper terraces. Thus each floor of
Barabudur could be said to represent a separate
world or plane of life.
The differences in style that exist between
the reliefs on the levels of Barabudur are not due
to the 'aesthetic urge' of various craftsmen nor
the desire for 'decorative' variation : these styles,
as will be noted in further detail, are determined
by the nature of the texts the reliefs illustrate.
The carvings of the covered basement representing
scenes from hell and the world of men
are, as was appropriate for these episodes from
the 'real' world, carved with evident realism
and a wealth of circumstantial detail reminiscent
of that vigorous directness of true popular
art that we find in early India. None of these
abstract canons of physical beauty reserved for
images of Buddha and the gods is here evident
in these figures of men and demons.
The same style is evident in the Jataka reliefs
of the first gallery [386]. In the scenes dealing
with the life ofBuddha, however, the informality
of arrangement and crowding of picturesque
details give way to a more ordered, one might
say, more classic composition [387]: we are
conscious that the figures are enacting a heroic
and universal truth and not participating in the
changeable and unreal actions of the world of
387. Barabudur, first gallery.
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Upper register : The Bath of the Bodhisattva.
Lower register : Hiru lands in Hiruka