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Jaina Art and Architecture at Mathurā
most enchanting creations of the Indian art as a whole. 233 Some of these rail posts belong to the third century BC234 or to the period a little later than that,235 and the others to the Kusāna period.236 The female figures on the rails, anterior to the commencement of the Christian era, are representatives of the pre-Kuşāņa art of Mathurā, and those carved in the first and the second century AD are products of the Kuşāņa art of this city.
In ancient India art was the handmaid of religion. But it was also art for the sake of art. The female figures carved on the railing pillars of the Jaina stupa or stüpas of Mathurā furnish unmistakable evidence of the truth embodied in the latter statement. The sculptors of Mathurā loved to carve female figures, and they tried to make them as attractive, beautiful and feminine as was possible for them. These female figures carved in numerous bewitching postures and engaged in their favourite pastimes are pointers of the fact that in spite of its code of rigid discipline, which is manifest in the tīrthaṁkara figures, the Jaina community of Mathurā gave a free hand to the sculptors of this city as far as chiselling of female figures was concerned.237 These figures possess great artistic merit. They represent the sculptor's conception of female beauty. These well-proportioned figures also bear testimony to his professional skill.
The real charm of the Mathurā rail posts lies in the female figures carved on them. These figures have been conceived and executed in numerous poses and forms. The sculptors of Mathurā chose free vertical spaces on the face of the railing pillar for the display of their majestic art. These uprights depict women in numerous attractive and bewitching poses; but there is no hint of sensuous narration in these figures.238 It is a representation of joyous females
233. 234. 235. 236. 237. 238.
P.K. Agrawala, op. cit., p. 2. Ibid., p. 5. Ibid., p. 3. JAA, I, p. 59. Ibid. P.K. Agrawala, op. cit., pp. 5-6; V.S. Agrawala, Studies ... op. cit., p. 155.
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