Indian Sculpture Dr. O. P. Parameswaran, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Post Graduate Govt. College for Girls, Sector-11, Chandigarh.

Deograh Vishnu Anantashayana Gupta Period 425 A.D.

Introduction: About AD 320 a powerful new empire, the Gupta, emerged in Bihar. They eventually dominated all of North Central India and gave their name to the "classic" period of Indian art. The Gupta period, while it lasted, was one of cultured opulence resulting in an outpouring of science, visual art, music and literature.

The zenith was reached during the reign of Chandra Gupta II (AD ) and its jewel was the great Sanskrit writer Kalidasa. During the Gupta era Indian sculpture, architecture and painting reached their highest perfection- the flowering after centuries of slow growth under the influence mainly of the earlier Indian style of Mathura and Gandhara School.

It is not a rebirth but the logical out growth of several continuous traditions. The representation of the human body is fully Indian, showing a feeling for plastic volume and mass, as in the early Kushan Buddhas, but the crudeness has given place to an awesome dignity.

Gupta sculptures have acquired great mastery and refinement. The treatment of Buddha figures in particular reveals a new awareness of the supremacy of man's spiritual powers over material value. Whereas the solidity of earlier images gave the impression of purely physical strength, the Gupta figures, with their delicate modeling, finer proportion and emphasis on the facial expression of thoughtfulness and serenity, show that material body is dominated from within by the powers of the soul.

Sculpture: 'Vishnu Anantashayana from Deogarh' During the Gupta period along with Buddhism, Vedic Brahmanism had also been evolving its various icons. Gradually, Hindu art at last emerged into prominence as Dharma began to wane in the country of its birth.

During the Gupta period one can find a major group of Brahmanical sculptures dealing with the various aspect of Vishnu. Paramount among Hindu sculptures of the Gupta period is the reliefs on the exterior walls of the ruined Dashavatara Temple at Deogarh, about seventy miles south of Jhansi in Central India.

This is one of the earliest known Gupta temples in the North Indian Style (Nagara) dating from about 425 A.D. Among the three deep-set relief panels which decorate the walls of the square shrine is a scene depicting Vishnu Anantashayin.

Here in an expanded manner the Buddhist sculpture style of Sarnath is adapted to a Hindu motif. The Lord of Preservation, Vishnu, is shown asleep on the coils of the giant multi­ headed serpant, Ananta, who drifts endlessly on the eternal sea of milk.

As the lord sleeps, he dreams the cosmos in the reality by experiencing the 'nightmare' of maya where all beings take on their temporal form. Normally such an iconographic presentation would show a lotus plant blooming from Vishun's navel; with in its center Brahma, the four headed Hindu God of creation.

Here Brahma is depicted separately above, seated or a -lotus blossom and accompanied in the upper register of the relief by other deities including Indra and Shiva. Lakshmi, as a dutiful Hindu wife, massages her sleeping consort’s legs

The panel's composition is completed at the bottom by a row of six "figures which again include the personification of Vishnu's symbols and two armed demons. As far as the stylistic features of the composition are concerned, it is marvelously carved showing enough depth and individual clarity to each and every figure.

By following the usual Indian pattern the main figure of the composition i.e. the Vishnu has been depicted comparatively in large size. The technique adopted for creating a feeling of space near the deities was that the background of the same figures has been left blank. It also becomes helpful in reducing the crowd feeling in the composition.

Though all the human figures shown in the lower panel engaged in different actions, their faces looking like very calm.