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cxxxviji
It may be added that the scale of asara, for all practical purposes, conforms to the general rule enunciated above, though there are minor deviations here and there in almost all these MSS. duc pcrhaps to mutilations, inaccuracics, ctc.
<TR-afds-fåta and others are aptly assigned a high place in this scale, as they represent specimens of perfect manhood with full ethical and spiritual development. It is also easy to conceive that 1&us, taas and others falling under that category, being endowed with miraculous powers and supernatural strength can justly be represented as occupying a position even higher than Rama &c. But it is likely to be a mystery why forms of u are represented as prodigies in this scale.
Dr. Sukhtanker in his Epic Studies pp. 67-69, ( Vide Journal of the B. O. R. Institute Vol. XVIII, Part 1) has unravelled this mystery:
"To make any impression by the side of the Titanic figures of the old epic ( a ) like ice and go. Fu and 45a,, the arrats had to be magnified a great deal ... ... The figures of the Bhārgavas have also been magnified to colossal proportions, painted with a thick brush and vivid colours".
The infiltration of a legends and their magnification is noticeable, as the learned Doctor has shown in the final red-action of the rata from a but this tendency did not perineate througlı the Puränas immediately after; and it was several centuries later that it manifested itself in वास्तुग्रंथs. मय प्रत wihich came very closely after the El fra, as I have reasons to believe, the Haunt (the sixth century
. D.), reglametalo (8th century A. D.) and painte by 9 (11th century A. D.) were not tainted with the above infection.
It was only in the 12th or 13th century that the figures of Bhrgu have received the colossal proportions so far as ar agras are concerned. 270f57961 a work of the 13th century at the latest and
a which followed it ( 15th century) have figures of is under 15 aras (magnified to colossal proportions as the learned Doctor has observed.)
" In Appendix B, Gopinath Rao gives a detailed description of the festara measure to be used in the making of images and shows that the formal, apparently mechanical rules of construction followed by Indian artists work out in practice as the adequate expression of æsthetic principles. The saine subject has been treated on broader lines by Mr. W. S. Hadaway who is himself a worker in metal, with practical knowledge of the application of rules. Mr. Hadaway observes 6. The Hindu imagc maker or sculptor does not work from life, as is the usual practice among Europeans, but he has in place of the living model, a most elaborate and beautiful system of proportions, which he uses constantly, coinbining these with those of observation and study of natural detail. It is, in fact, a series of anatomical rules and formulae
