Indian Antiquary Vol 48

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 32

28
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MABOH, 1919
(8) As Mr. Jayaswal himself admits, this letter looks like a ka of the Gupta period. Such ka with curved arms is also met with in the Kushan records. Mr. Jayaswal thus states his objections to recognising this sign as ka : "The absence of seraph (? serif) and the lower flourish together with the number of strokes would dislodge that proposal." (p. 93.) The absence of serif is due to the fact that the top of the letter merges in the line of the scarf. All these letters are very carelessly engraved in a place where there is no room for giving them finishing touches. So the letters following: bha(?)ga may be read as
Achachhanivila. Achachha may be taken as uchchha - aksha(ya). Nivi or nivi also means 'capital', principal', stock'. So aksha(ya)niuka probably, means "the owner of inexhaustible capital', evidently denoting Veigravana, the King of Yakshas.
The inscriptions on these two Patna statues therefore show that about the second century A.D. they were recognised as the images of two Yakshas, Sa(?)rvațanaṁdi and Vairavana. The humbler rank of Yaksha Sa (?)rvatanamdi is indicated by the remnant of the chauri and the superior rank of Akshayanîvîka by the more elaborate armlet.
Epigraphy is not the only ground on which Mr. Jayaswal assigns these statues to the fifth century B.O. Plastic considerations have also been requisitioned for the purpose. The mein argument under this head is an argumentum ad hominum, the opinion of Mr. Arun Sen, who declared the statues "on art considerations to be pre-Mauriyan" even before the data of inscriptions were disclosed to him. (p. 95.) What these art considerations are we hope to hear some day from Mr. Sen himself. Mr. Jayaswal has, however, noted one of these :
"The general vigour and realism of the statues make one assign a pro-Mauriyan period to the monuments. The decadence which marks the imperial art of Asoka does not even begin in the statues. Mr. Sen had not to think long in declaring them emphatically “Pre-Mauriyan! Without doubt." Yet the statues prove a previous history of the art of the Indian sculptor.” (p. 105.)
Every object indicates a previous history. Even a chipped stone proves a long, long, previous history for the race of the fashioner of that rude implement. The only known specimens of the iraperial art of Asoka " are the capital of the edict-bearing monolithio columns. What are the signs of deoadence according to Mr. Jayaswal that mark these magnificent soulptures as compared to our Patna statues ! Le it a lack of "general vigour and realism ?” As regards realism I doubt very much whether any one who has seen the capitals of the Asokan.coltmns in the vestibule, and the two statues in the neighbouring gallery, of the Indian Museum, can agree with Mr. Jayaswal.“ Vigour" is something more subtle. But it is well-known that others who have also made special study of Indian art admire the vigour of the animals of the Asokan capitals. To this writer the Patna statues seem quite lifeless as compared to the lions, and particularly the reliefs, on the abacus of the Sarnath Capital of the Aboka column. If the decadence of vigour and realism is to be recognised as criterion of age, the Patna statues should be assigned to post-Mauriyan rather than to pre-Mauriyan period.
Therefore, both on epigraphic and plastio considerations, it appears very difficult to subcribe to the following statement in the Annual Report of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 1918 :- "These monuments are now proved to ne amongst the oldest royal statues in Asia and Europe and stand amongst the greatest historical treasures of the World.” It will be a pity to remove these two Yakshas, though hailing from Patna, from the company of their kith and kin on the Bharhut rail.