These figures stand out frontally from the stone base out of which they are carved, giving an impression of sculpture in the round but being, in fact, "flat-backed" stelae (stone slabs). Among the rare examples of true sculpture in the round are animals, such as lions or bulls, standing on Asokan pillar capitals, also from this period. The gates
(toranas) of the Great Stupa (50 BCE) at Sanchi, near present-day Bhopal in central India, carry what appear to be free-standing sculptures connecting architectural elements, but these, in fact, are slabs of stone rendered on both sides with back-to-back fronts, giving the impression of two reliefs brought together. Later (post–fourth-century) sculpture of India, occurring in temple settings, also features individual stelae, placed in niches or enshrined in a sanctum. A rare example of a popular image sculpted in the round from the early temple period is that of the theriomorphic representation of Varaha
, the boar incarnation of Vishnu. Free standing and often colossal in scale, Varaha was evidently meant to be viewed from all sides during circumambulation. After the sixth century, Nandi, the bull-mount of Shiva, situated on an axis with the sanctum to enable a direct view of the shrine-image, is invariably carved in the round.
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