Sculpture In ancient and early medieval periods (up to 1200 AD), Bengal saw both expansion and contraction of her political control over eastern India and, as a consequence, her cultural influence in the region also fluctuated. For an orderly presentation of the story of Bengal sculpture it is imperative to keep in mind such important historical factors. In the best days of the Pala kings, who ruled between c 750 AD and 1200 AD, Bengal achieved her widest political hegemony over northeast India. Though the homeland of the Palas was north Bengal, in the larger part of their long rule Bihar was an integral part of their kingdom. But before them, except shashanka (c 600 AD - 625 AD), no other Bengal king is known to have ruled outside his own land. So it would be out of our scope to take into account the achievement of the Maurya emperor Ashoka (c BC 273-232) as the patron of glyptic art, though his atelier was situated at Chunar, a place not far from Benaras, and his capital was Pataliputra in south Bihar.
It is actually difficult to pinpoint the beginnings of the art of sculpting in Bengal proper. For, though the lower Ganga valley or south Bengal was a prolific centre of terracotta art at least from the 2nd century BC, there is no clear evidence to show that the art of sculpting was similarly practised in the area from about the same time. The terracotta figures are however extremely significant in determining the stylistic character of Bengal representational art as flourished between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd-3rd century AD. They show that from the very beginning Bengal art was an extension of the art of Ganga-Jamuna valley. The well-known Bharhut style, exhibiting low relief and strict frontality of the figures, and an early sophistication in execution, is as effective in the terracottas of upper Ganga sites as in those of lower Ganga valley. But what is conspicuous is that while in north-central India there is no dearth of stone relief, in Bengal they are totally absent. It seems that art of carving on stone had a late start in Bengal, and for easy availability of plastic clay the artist of the region was satisfied with the technique of modelling and moulding. But the art of carving on materials less resistant than stone appears to have been known to him. Several small examples of figures in wood and bone, recently discovered from chandraketugarh in North 24 Parganas and Mangalkot in Bardhaman, both in West Bengal, support the view that carving on wood and bone, and possibly also on ivory, was in practice in this early phase of Bengal art.
Wood and Bone figures Most of the minute carvings, now in the collection of the West Bengal State Archaeological Museum at Calcutta, are broken or abraded. They include six wooden and four bone made figures. The woods represent two slender yaksis, a fish and a handle of a stick or dagger. The bone examples are much more significant from the viewpoint of sculpting, as they show relief as well as figure in round. A medallion of the diameter of 5 cm depicts an amorous couple in a style that is known as Shunga in Indian art history.
While the headgear and the ornaments of heavy beads of the couple remind us of similar figures of Bharhut, their voluptuousness that of Mathura yaksas and yaksis. Another plaque in rectangular shape is relief of a yaksi under a tree and two devotees below, but its craftsmanship is cruder, if compared with that of the medallion. Two yaksis, one in the round and the other in relief, and 6 cm and 10 cm in height, respectively, are very close to similar terracotta figures of the period in their plastic modelling and strict frontality in stance. But a different style is found in a broken as well as highly corroded winged lion, 9 cm in height, also from Chandraketugarh. The subject, the technique of chiselling, and the lotus capital on which the lion is crouched indicate that the piece of art bears affinity of the art of West Asia, and in all likelihood, it was brought to south Bengal from the Gandhara region of north-west India and Afghanistan. But of all the tiny figures most attractive is the sculpture in the round in fossilised bone found at Mangalkot. In a least abraded state of preservation, this work, 14 cm in height, represents on the front two figures, a yaksa and a yaksi below him, both frontally poised. The backside shows the back of a yaksi.
The plastic treatment of the figures is much more sensitive than those of other bone figures, and hair and apparels are chiselled in minute detail. In sitting posture of the yaksi and in the individual treatment of the ornaments of the figures mastery over the carving tools is clearly manifested. It is also a product of the same early Indian style of the Shungas, but appears to be of a late date, 1st or 2nd century AD.
Early stone sculpture Stone sculptures so far discovered from Bengal proper and assignable to the early three centuries of the Christian era are few. These sculptures in general represent a style, which is, in the development of the art in north India, recognised as of the Kusanas. The centre of the art was Mathura, where evolved during the period the images of the deities worshipped by the followers of the three major religions of the time, namely, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The characteristic features of the figures in Mathura style include emphasis on volume and stolidity, domination of frontality of the earlier days and use of mottled red sandstone as material. Two of the early examples of sculptures found in Bengal are in similar red stone and bear the characteristics of Kusana style, and now preserved in the Asutosh Museum. One of them discovered from Chandraketugarh, shows a Buddha-Bodhisattva exhibiting all the characteristic traits of colossal Kusana Buddha-Bodhisattvas discovered from Mathura region. Though only the upper part of the body remains, the sturdiness of form and the treatment of the upper garment, which covers the left shoulder leaving the right bare, with ridges typical of the Mathura prototype, clearly assign it to the Kusana style of about the 2nd century AD. The other one, of about 55 cm in height, represents the torso of a standing male figure holding a staff, and tentatively identified as of Kartikeya.
Discovered from mahasthan in Bangladesh, the image is also in the same Kusana style, but stylistically belongs to a slightly later date, about the middle of the 3rd century AD. The chiselling of the figure is more sophisticated and the apparel which includes a waistband with a loop-like knot on the side and an under garment of a fine cloth clearly anticipate the diaphanous treatment of the same in the Gupta classical period, two centuries later. The same may be stated about the sensitive plastic presentation of the body and fleshy and lively execution of arms and fingers of the left hand holding the staff.
Three other images, bearing the idioms of Kusana style, are now in the collection of Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Two of them, representing Surya, are in coarse-grained sandstone. One was found at Kumarpur and the other at Niyamatpur, both in the district of Rajshahi. An extremely coagulated form, the Kumarpur Surya (fig 1) stands on a raised pedestal between two attendants and is drawn on a chariot by seven horses. Aruna, the charioteer, squats in front of the stunted figure of the Sun god. The crude carving of form and wrong anatomical features of the horses show that it is a product of a novice carver who tried his best to imitate a Surya image of the Kusana style. (1 of 16).
It is actually difficult to pinpoint the beginnings of the art of sculpting in Bengal proper. For, though the lower Ganga valley or south Bengal was a prolific centre of terracotta art at least from the 2nd century BC, there is no clear evidence to show that the art of sculpting was similarly practised in the area from about the same time. The terracotta figures are however extremely significant in determining the stylistic character of Bengal representational art as flourished between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd-3rd century AD. They show that from the very beginning Bengal art was an extension of the art of Ganga-Jamuna valley. The well-known Bharhut style, exhibiting low relief and strict frontality of the figures, and an early sophistication in execution, is as effective in the terracottas of upper Ganga sites as in those of lower Ganga valley. But what is conspicuous is that while in north-central India there is no dearth of stone relief, in Bengal they are totally absent. It seems that art of carving on stone had a late start in Bengal, and for easy availability of plastic clay the artist of the region was satisfied with the technique of modelling and moulding. But the art of carving on materials less resistant than stone appears to have been known to him. Several small examples of figures in wood and bone, recently discovered from chandraketugarh in North 24 Parganas and Mangalkot in Bardhaman, both in West Bengal, support the view that carving on wood and bone, and possibly also on ivory, was in practice in this early phase of Bengal art.
Wood and Bone figures Most of the minute carvings, now in the collection of the West Bengal State Archaeological Museum at Calcutta, are broken or abraded. They include six wooden and four bone made figures. The woods represent two slender yaksis, a fish and a handle of a stick or dagger. The bone examples are much more significant from the viewpoint of sculpting, as they show relief as well as figure in round. A medallion of the diameter of 5 cm depicts an amorous couple in a style that is known as Shunga in Indian art history.
While the headgear and the ornaments of heavy beads of the couple remind us of similar figures of Bharhut, their voluptuousness that of Mathura yaksas and yaksis. Another plaque in rectangular shape is relief of a yaksi under a tree and two devotees below, but its craftsmanship is cruder, if compared with that of the medallion. Two yaksis, one in the round and the other in relief, and 6 cm and 10 cm in height, respectively, are very close to similar terracotta figures of the period in their plastic modelling and strict frontality in stance. But a different style is found in a broken as well as highly corroded winged lion, 9 cm in height, also from Chandraketugarh. The subject, the technique of chiselling, and the lotus capital on which the lion is crouched indicate that the piece of art bears affinity of the art of West Asia, and in all likelihood, it was brought to south Bengal from the Gandhara region of north-west India and Afghanistan. But of all the tiny figures most attractive is the sculpture in the round in fossilised bone found at Mangalkot. In a least abraded state of preservation, this work, 14 cm in height, represents on the front two figures, a yaksa and a yaksi below him, both frontally poised. The backside shows the back of a yaksi.
The plastic treatment of the figures is much more sensitive than those of other bone figures, and hair and apparels are chiselled in minute detail. In sitting posture of the yaksi and in the individual treatment of the ornaments of the figures mastery over the carving tools is clearly manifested. It is also a product of the same early Indian style of the Shungas, but appears to be of a late date, 1st or 2nd century AD.
Early stone sculpture Stone sculptures so far discovered from Bengal proper and assignable to the early three centuries of the Christian era are few. These sculptures in general represent a style, which is, in the development of the art in north India, recognised as of the Kusanas. The centre of the art was Mathura, where evolved during the period the images of the deities worshipped by the followers of the three major religions of the time, namely, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The characteristic features of the figures in Mathura style include emphasis on volume and stolidity, domination of frontality of the earlier days and use of mottled red sandstone as material. Two of the early examples of sculptures found in Bengal are in similar red stone and bear the characteristics of Kusana style, and now preserved in the Asutosh Museum. One of them discovered from Chandraketugarh, shows a Buddha-Bodhisattva exhibiting all the characteristic traits of colossal Kusana Buddha-Bodhisattvas discovered from Mathura region. Though only the upper part of the body remains, the sturdiness of form and the treatment of the upper garment, which covers the left shoulder leaving the right bare, with ridges typical of the Mathura prototype, clearly assign it to the Kusana style of about the 2nd century AD. The other one, of about 55 cm in height, represents the torso of a standing male figure holding a staff, and tentatively identified as of Kartikeya.
Discovered from mahasthan in Bangladesh, the image is also in the same Kusana style, but stylistically belongs to a slightly later date, about the middle of the 3rd century AD. The chiselling of the figure is more sophisticated and the apparel which includes a waistband with a loop-like knot on the side and an under garment of a fine cloth clearly anticipate the diaphanous treatment of the same in the Gupta classical period, two centuries later. The same may be stated about the sensitive plastic presentation of the body and fleshy and lively execution of arms and fingers of the left hand holding the staff.
Three other images, bearing the idioms of Kusana style, are now in the collection of Varendra Research Museum, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Two of them, representing Surya, are in coarse-grained sandstone. One was found at Kumarpur and the other at Niyamatpur, both in the district of Rajshahi. An extremely coagulated form, the Kumarpur Surya (fig 1) stands on a raised pedestal between two attendants and is drawn on a chariot by seven horses. Aruna, the charioteer, squats in front of the stunted figure of the Sun god. The crude carving of form and wrong anatomical features of the horses show that it is a product of a novice carver who tried his best to imitate a Surya image of the Kusana style. (1 of 16).
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