Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 01

Author(s): A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 92

MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE 300 B.C. TO A.D. 300
(PART II five centaurs, holding variously a garland, vases with garlands, a bunch of blue lotuses and a lotus (plate 2A). While winged figures are reminiscent of those in the Assyrian and Persian sculptures, the centaurs are presumably inspired by Greck prototypes. On the rear side (plate 2B) is depicted a lively procession of devotees, two on an elephant, three on horses, two on foot and several within a bullock-cart, on a mission of visiting probably the stūpa itself. Remarkable for their vitality, the animals are drawn from life; the spirited horses, particularly, bespeak the consummate skill of the artist. In the central portion of the underside is carved a lotus-drop.
SML, J. 544 (plate 9B, A) is another torana-architrave which is horizontal and appears to be slightly later than the preceding. The central portion is luxuriantly carved with a creeper of compelling beauty and freshness; the undulating stem encompasses lotuses, buds and leaves of exquisite execution. The creeper is flanked on either side by a square panel (in vertical alignment of the torana-pillars) containing a dwarf in the act of supporting the superstructure. Curiously enough, the snake-like legs of the dwarf end in a forked tail. Such figures, which are also found on many carved slabs including pre-Kaniska ayaga-patas, are perhaps the adaptation of a Hellenistic motif. Beyond the panels are the two projected ends (sinister missing) relieved with a fish-tailed makara having a fish in its mouth. The extreme end is semicircular. The fragment of another architrave (SML, J. 547) of this type shows at the dexter end a Garuda holding in its beak a three-hooded serpent which has coiled itself around the neck of the former (plate 9B, B). Beyond it is the partly-preserved panel depicting a cart with unyoked bullocks.
Specimens of two distinct types of gateway-brackets have been found at Kankāli-țilā. One type represents the salabhanjikās. There are several specimens of torana-śālabhanjikās, which, rising from the torana-pillars, supported the two ends of the bottom architrave of the gateways. Two of them (SML, J. 595 a and b; plate 10A and B) belonging to one and the same gateway, are intact. Both the brackets have at the base a tenon which was inserted into the socket of the pillar. Fashioned in the round, both the female figures are fully finished in the front and partially in the back. Though possessing certain features (e.g. coiffure, ornaments, figures below the feet) of the railing-figures of Bharhut, they mark an advance over the former by virtue of their superior modelling and appear to be somewhat earlier than the torana-salabhaxjikas of Sanchi. Leaning against the trunk of a flowering tree (possibly asoka), both of them grasp the branches of the tree. While the one on the dexter stands on a bent human figure (plate 10A), the one which was on the sinister is on the
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