Sculpture—South Asia
The beginnings of South Asian sculpture may be found in the early Indus-Sarasvati civilization of the second millennium BCE. The mature phase of this civilization (2500–1700 BCE) carries evidence of a high level of technical knowledge and skill but, curiously, a lack of large structures, such as temples or palaces, or monumental sculpture. From its ruins, small figurines in stone or cast bronze or copper have been recovered, as have terra-cotta animals and female figures, the last presumed to be cultic objects. A large number of steatite (soapstone) seals with impressions of bovine unicorns, buffaloes, bulls, tigers, rhinoceroses, and composite animal figures and some enigmatic human forms, surmised to have commercial or ritual uses, have been recovered.
Little material evidence has been found from the period intervening between the Indus Valley civilization and the Maurya empire of the third century BCE. The reasons for this absence are unclear, but the use of perishable materials of construction and strictures on representation are possible explanations. Vedic ritualculture is presumed to have been established around 1500 BCE, followed by the contemplative esotericism of the Upanishads (Vedic speculative texts) around 800 BCE and the birth of Buddhism and Jainism in the sixth century BCE.
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