Indian Drapery Of The M Style example essay topic

For some four hundred years before the second century, the Buddha was represented only in symbols. At the end of the first century, in both Gandhara and Mathura, he suddenly was depicted in anthropomorphic form. G, where one of the two versions of the anthropomorphic B first appeared, may be taken loosely to include much of Afghanistan and the westernmost section of northern India. In 327 bc, G was conquered by the armies of Alexander the Great.

Although the Greek occupation lasted only a short time, it led to continued contact with the Classical West. It is not surprising, then, that the B image that developed at G had Hellenistic and especially Roman sculpture as its mode. Indeed, the features of the B often suggest those of a marble Apollo, and many details, such as drapery patterns and coiffures, recall successive styles in contemporaneous Roman carving. At times, even the robe of the Indian monk was replaced by the Roman toga, and minor divinities were transformed into Western water gods or nymphs. The G bodhisattva type is also a splendid example of the meeting of Roman realism and Indian conceptualization. The jewelry is both Western and Eastern.

His earrings are Hellenistic, and his wide, flat necklace across his upper chest is Roman. While this intrusion of Western style was dominating the northwest, the purely Indian version of the anthropomorphic B was evolving one hundred miles south of Delhi in holy city of Mathura. The Mathura B also has broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and a supple grace. The image derives directly from the yaksha. It is draped in a mantle so thin and clinging that, at first glance, the figure seems to be nude. Only such iconographic details as the ush nisha, the urna, the long lobed ears, and the mudra distinguish the B from the earlier yaksha.

However, a striking difference between M statue and earlier examples is the slight relaxation of the left leg, best seen in a side view of the figure. The rounded head and broad shoulders are typical of the M style. The drapery clings to the body as if wet. In G the meeting of B thought and Roman sculptural Greco-style resulted in a style that gave the features of Apollo to Gautama, but the surfaces seem harder and the drapery more geometrically regimented into parallel ridges. The G Buddha wears Roman style robes. The Gandhara style figures, with their oval faces, long straight noses, high arched eyebrow, cupid!'s-bow lips, and hard drapery, are very different from the round faces, broad noses round eyes, and body revealing!

^0 wet! +/- Indian drapery of the M style. The G figures stand gracefully in the realistic manner of Roman sculpture. The B figures form M are less free and stand rigidly frontal, bending neither to right nor left in their monumental and geometric pose.