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Early Terracottas From Vaiśāli
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in a top-knot towards the right and a pearl-string of double beads runs along the forehead. It is far removed from the usual female types occurring on the plaques and one wonders how to reconcile its stylistic features with the date assigned by the stratigraphic evidences.
Terracotta tradition continued unabated between the 2nd and the 6th centuries A. D. The moulded and hand-modelled techniques fiourished simultaneously. A host of new themes came into being and the arena was much broadened by incorporating Buddhist and Brahmanical divinities, especially towards the last part of this phase.
By 2nd century A. D., some new motifs were introduced the njost important among which was Naigameşa, the goatfaced god of the childbirth. There were in addition, Mother and Child, standing male figurines with exposed genital, Lubdhaka, and Dampatis. Racial influx resulted in introducing not only foreign head-dresses but non-Indian ethnic typrs. From around the 4th century A. D., a new aesthetic ideal pervaded the terracottas Treatment of form underwent changes. Earlier motifs contiaued and even Sunga-period Sri-Laksmi was reintroduced. Buddha, Bodhisattva, Mātrika and Ganapti, Linga form of Siva, and Durgā-Simhavähini-all came to replace the gods and goddesses of the unorthodox world.
But already the terracotta tradition has started loosing its autonomy and coming close to the idioms of stone-sculpture. This becomes obvious from the 2nd century A. D. and culminates in the 6th century A. D. Historically, the terracotta as an art medium ceased to flourish at Vaiśāli from the Post-Gupta period.
Acknowledgement
Sri Rabi Pal, Curator, Kala-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati has kindly prepared the line drawings used in the article. My student Smt. Sevanti Narayap has assited me in arranging the materials.
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