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

THE SUNGA PERIOD 91
discharge their arrows at the demons of darkness.
This representation of the sun-god in a
quadriga is sometimes interpreted as an influence
of Hellenistic art, although stylistically
there is nothing beyond the iconography to
remind us of the characteristic representations
of Helios in Classical art, in which the solar
chariot is invariably represented in a foreshortened
side view. The concept of a sun-god
traversing space in a horse-drawn chariot is of
Babylonian and Iranian origin, and spread from
these regions to both India and Greece; so that
the representation is simply an interpretation of
the iconography, and not the borrowing of a
pre-existing stylistic motif.
In the Bodh Gaya
relief the chariot is seen in front view, but the
horses are deployed to right and left of the axletree
so as to be shown in profile. This is simply
another instance of the conceptual point of
;-V
view. It is an arrangement that also conforms to
the archaic fondness for symmetrical balance.
Although constructed on this essentially archaic
framework, the relief displays considerable skill
in the carving of the group in the deep, box-like
panel with a definite suggestion of the forms
emerging from space, achieved by the overlapping
of the forms of the horses and the
discomfited demons.
Another Vedic god whom we encounter on
the railing at Bodh Gaya is Indra [39]. He is
represented carrying a handful of grass, in
allusion to the occasion when, disguised as a
gardener, the chief of the gods brought the
straw on which the Bodhisattva took his
seat
beneath the bodhi tree. 9 The figure of Indra is
so deeply carved as to seem almost as if stepping
out from the flat background of the pillar.
Although essentially frontal in its conception,
the figure is cast in an almost violent pose of
dehanchement. It is as though the sculptor were
trying to suggest the figure actually walking
forward to present the bundle of grass. The
body is carved with the same interest in revealing
the fleshly fullness of form that Indian
S
39. Bodh Gaya, railing pillar with Indra