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

92 THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIODS
sculptors of even earlier periods had possessed,
but for the first time with a suggestion of the
body as an articulated whole, rather than as the
sum of its individual parts. This figure need
only be compared with the representations of
nature-spirits at Bharhut [30] to see the change
that has taken place in the craft of sculpture in
less than one hundred years. A feature of
iconographical note that is of special importance
for the later representation of the Buddha in
human form, is the topknot, perhaps a 'realistic'
portrayal of the Brahmin hairdressing, but
clearly a prototype for the Buddha's ushnisha or
cranial protuberance. At the top of the pillar
above the figure of Indra is a low relief medallion
representing Lakshmi, the goddess of dawn,
receiving a lustral bath from two elephants. 10
The recent excavation and conservation of
the cave temples at Pitalkhora has added another
chapter to our knowledge of Early Classic art in
India. 11 This site, the Petrigala of Pliny, is
located in a remote and picturesque defile of the
Deccan within a radius of fifty miles of Ajanta
and Ellura on the ancient trade route that linked
these sites with Karli, Nasik, and Bhaja in its
progress from the coast. These caves, first
superficially explored in the nineteenth century,
comprise some thirteen chaityas and viharas.
The earliest are Hinayana sanctuaries of the
second century B.C., and a later group was added
in the fifth and sixth centuries a.d. One of the
most impressive of these grottoes is Cave IV,
the great vihara. It was originally decorated
with a massive sculptured facade which has
largely disintegrated with the breaking off of
huge blocks through the Assuring of the stone.
The fragments recovered from this debris
reveal the importance and richness of the relief
treatment, which is far more elaborate than any
rock carving at other early sites. A number of
inscriptions in this monastery may be dated in
the second-first centuries B.C. This chronology
is supported by the style of a fragment of relief
representing a royal couple with attendants
[40]. Probably this was part of a long frieze
representing a Jataka story. As in some of the
later reliefs from Bharhut [35], the relief is
densely crowded with figures in several overlapping
planes. In spite of the friable character
of the trap rock, the carving is remarkably sharp
and precise, with an enumeration of textural
details, such as the fur cover of the royal couch,
that surpasses anything found at Bharhut. This
technical trait extends to the portrayal of the
elaborate jewels that decked the queen and her
attendants. This relief is one of the earliest
examples of the portrayal of elegant, sensuous
relaxation that has so often engaged Indian
sculptors and painters. As though enacting a
rapturous dream, the faces of the royal lovers
are imbued with a drowsy sweetness of
expression complemented by their soft, lolling
poses. Although the rather short proportions
and the additive method of composing human
forms favoured at Bharhut are still in evidence,
the figures, especially the more svelte forms of
the king and queen, are, properly speaking,
more organically articulated, and their lithe,
sensuous bodies anticipate the climax of Early
Classic art at Saiichi, as does the new pictorial
depth of the relief.