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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
NOTES
307
In the Ganesh-Gumpbā, for example, which is a small excavation containing only two cells, the reliefs of the frieze are closely analogous in style and subject, but, at the same time slightly inferior to those in the upper verandah of the Räni-Gumphā.
Then, in the Jaya-Vijaya, we see the style rapidly losing its animation, and in the Alakápuri cave, which is still later, the excavation has become still more coarse and the figures as devoid of expression as anything which has survived from the Early School. The truth appears to be that the art of Orissa, unlike the art of Central or Western India, possessed little independent vitality, and flourished only so long as it was stimulated by other schools, but became retrograde the moment that inspiration was withdrawn.”
13. STELLA KRAMRISCH ON RELIEFS IN THE CAVES
The reliefs that decorate the facades of all the Orissan caves have three main functions : (1) As friezes above a railing pattern, they stretch from tympanon to tympanon above the many small entrances into the caves. Mostly they are narrative. The frieze of the Ananta-Gumphā forms an exception. (2) As symmetrical compositions, on the other hand, they fill the intrados of the tympanon. This, however, is the case in the AnantaGumphā only. Otherwise the intrados are left plain. (3) As continuous rhythmical bands, containing animal, floral and human figures purely decorative, they rise as a lively decoration of the arch of the tympanon.
Besides these types of relief the Rāni-Gumphā has two walls of its laterally projecting mandapa-like cells, especially on the one to the left of a large relief composition, depicting a forest scene, which reminds one of the Indra relief from Bbāja. It is one of the earliest renderings of an extensive " landscape" scene in Indian art.
Single human figures accompany the curve of bracket capitals and of 1 he bracket supports of the railings. Single and coupled animal figures form the capitals of the entrance pilasters. Isolated male and female figures, standing as a rule and riding once (Rāni-Gumphā, upper storey), rendered on a large scale, and in a variety of types, guard the entrances.
The style of the Mañcapuri-cave reliefs puts them right at the beginnirg of artistic activities in the rock-cut caves of Orissa. The relatively well-preserved portion of a frieze shows, above a railing pedestal from left to right, a group of four walking figures in three-quarter profile, the hands folded in añjali-mudrā. All of them wear loin-cloths and scarves and
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