Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 170

142
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ Augusy, 1931
Plates XXXVI, XXXVII, and XXXVIII of Breek's Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris. These are roughly modelled figures of men, women and animals, dogs, horse, Sambar, etc. The decoration of the pots, which are of complicated ringed formg, is accomplished by free use of stick-work, impressed as well as etched. The figures are modelled with the hands, only the details of the features, clothing and jewellery being sticked-in : necklaces, waistbelts and cloths are thus rendered by means of chevron- or cross-hatching, and the backs and horns of buffaloes are decorated in the same way. The spotted coats of dogs and the eyes of most of the figures, though not all, are rendered by means of impressed circles, a reed or tube of some kind having been used. One of the male figures wears the classio Indian double garland, the channapira.
B. A group of terracotta figurines was excavated near the surface at the Bhir Mound, Taxila, among them a toy borse, 4 inches long.. The eyes of this boast are incised with the same reed-like instrument, and are also probably applied to the head, but the illustration is not detailed enough to make this plain, and no technical description is given. The date Ascribed to these finds is "late Mauryan."
C. A few fragmentary terracottas were excavated in the monastery-mound at Shahji-ki-Dheri, a Græco-Buddhist-site with Gupta surface-finds. Among these, four are noteworthy. Fig. a. 8, Plate XV, which is apparently the “grotesque terracotta figurine No. 16 " of the list of finds, is a crudely moulded figure, which may well have been the handle of a pot-cover. The arms, which jut out from the shoulders, with no attempt at modelling, are broken off. The figure wears & conical cap. The nose is literally pinched out of the clay. The eyes consist of applied circles, cut with a reed-like instrument, the pupils being marked by small impressed dots. Round the neck is applied a close-fitting collar, ornamented with a single row of impressed dots. Fig. b. 6 of the same plate (No. 45 of the list of finds ?), the figure of a horse, has eyes produced on the same way, and also Fig. b. 1 (No. 19 ?). In the centre of the top row of objects illustrated on Plate XVI a, there is a terracotta elephant which does not seem to be included in the list of finds. Its eyes and a band, or crupper, which passes horizontally round the body, are rendered in the same way.
III. At Bas&rh numerous terracottas were excavated, which are attributed in the Archæological Survey Report to the "Kushan, Sunga and even the Maurya age," though it is confessed that the evidence for the attribution of certain strata at this site to the Mauryan period is not plentiful. A few of the many seals found are described as Mauryan on palæographical grounds, but apart from the difficulty of comparing the script of clay seals with inscriptions in stone, the term "Mauryan " has always been very loosely applied in Indian epigraphy. One fragment of polished stone of Mauryan type was, however, unearthed. In squares V. 19 and V. 21 a number of figurines were found, which Sir John Marshall described as Sunga or possibly Mauryan, with Persian affinities. The alleged Persian affinities are based on certain winged figures, which, however, are purely Indian in type and detail. These attenuated figures, some of them on lotus-bases, are most closely related to the sculpture at Sanchi.8 The treatment of jewellery, drapery, and, in fact, the whole pose is typical of the later work of the Early Period. They are very different from the robust work at Bharhut, and have nothing in common with the colossal Yaksha sculptures which are generally, and
3 Brit. Mus. Brooks and Elliot Collections. My attention was drawn to these figurines by Mr. Balakrishnan Nayar, who has catalogued them. See Footo, Cal. Madras Museum, Nos. 539 and 542.
+ Arch. Sur. Rep., 1912-13, p. 42, Pl. XXXIX e, 5. 5 Arch. Sur. Rep., 1910-11, p. 30, Pls. XV and XVI.
• There is a small group of terracotta figurines in the Louvre from du Mesnil du Buisson's excavations at Mishriflé, Homs, Syria, labelled circa third century A.D., which correspond very closely with theso Indian figurines.
7 Arch. Sur. Rep., 1913-14. & See my Ancient India, p. 33 (odpa 3).