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Archaic Indian Terracottas
| Title: | Archaic Indian Terracottas | | Author: | Coomaraswamy, Ananda | | Publication: | Marg | | Enumeration: | Vol. 6 Issue no. 2, p. 22-35 | | Abstract: | The characteristic features -- as evident in 50 specimens, mostly from Mathura and in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts --; are studied under three chronological groups: Indus Valley and Peshawar related types (Group I); Later Pre-Mauryan (Group II); and Sunga period (Group III). The Indus Valley terracottas (3rd-2nd millennium BCE) have peculiar physical features and ornaments, and exhibit Mesopotamian, Sumerian, and Indian influences. The marked Indian character of the Peshawar and related specimens, including the Indian ornament Channavira, credit an Indian provenance. Assigned to the 2nd millennium BC, they are technically and stylistically related with European neolithic, ancient Mesopotamian, other Indus Valley, and later but still pre-Mauryan Indian types. Group II specimens, all from Mathura and in the Boston museum, are tentatively dated to 1000-300 BCE. T. Bloch's identification of a female type of the group -- which occurs in other pre-Mauryan sites such as Laurya Nandangarh --; with Goddess Prithvi is rejected. There are two facial types in the group: round and oval. The former is not far-removed from Mauryan and early Sunga reliefs. A series of terracottas excavated at Pataliputra is connected with the group. In the Sunga period (c. 175-73 BCE), there is a change in the general features: completely moulded plaques replace modelled figuring. The characteristic type is a fully clothed female deity (tentatively identified as Sri, precursor of Lakshmi), while a nude fertility goddess may either be Aditi or Vasini ("ruling goddess"). Terracotta art pre-dates stone figures by at least two or three millennia. The figure was initially modelled, then only the face was moulded, and finally came the completely moulded relief plaquetreatment was progressively flattened. Source of Abstract: Provided by Publisher | | Tools: |
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