Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

LIFESTYLES

Jewellery in Sculpture The study of the early jewellery, none other than the sculptures, form fundamental visual sources. The sculptures in the temples of ancient India depict richly adorned male and female figures. One must remember however, that particularly all of these represent gods, and their costumes and adornments were undoubtedly on

Belur Sculpture

symbolising the power. The variations in the ear-ornaments of Shaiva, Vaishnava and Devi images represent an unusual fashion along with the necklaces, armlets, waist ornaments and foot ornaments in the Chalukyan art of Post-Gupta era. The love for decoration and the embelishment of images never came in the way of fluid effect and compositional techniques for which the

Devi Sculpture

those of the royalty and nobility of the day. What we know of an- cient Indian jewellery is derived from two sources; excavated material from early sites with gold jewellery relatively rare and the visual record provided by countless carved or more rarely painted representations of richly adorned gods and goddesses from the third to fourth centuries B.C. onwards. Representations of jewel- lery tend to be more massive and very little of this sort was probably made in the first place. The techniques of carving stone or moulding terracotta, moreover do not favour the reproduction of lighter, more delicate creations which has been found in excava- tions in the north-west, the jewellery shown in the Ajanta mural is more akin to them, at least in spirit. Finally there is an ever in- creasing tendency commencing in the later part of the Gupta period for the jewellery worn by the stone or bronze figures to become conventionalised and no longer represent real jewellery. The Didarjunj Yakshi, of Mauryan times, has minimum but most exquisitely carved jewellery in the form of forehead ornament, necklace, bracelets, girdles and anklets of the early sculptures which have survived, the Yakshi from Tamluk near Calcutta belonging to 200 B.C., on a moulded terracotta plaque portray sumptuous jewellery. The Barhut, Sanchi and Amaravati sculptures exhibit the jewellery of fine taste and choice. The Gandhara sculptures produced in large quantities in Hellenistic influences make a very good beginning of adornment of male figures. Bodhisatvas in fact make a profound impact on jeweller art, becoming increasingly inevitable in portraying Hindu gods and goddesses or later times. The gods and goddesses are identified many times by the jewellery they have worn. Jewellery provides greater clue in identifying the style or art such as the Gupta period with minimum well-drawn and designed jewels with massive crowns of different sizes and shapes. The Pallava images appear more imposing because of the conical type of huge crowns

Chalukyan sculptures known for. The sculptures of this period show very delicate floral designs and beautiful patterns adoring the female figures. The Culmination of all early styles of North, Central and South Indian idioms of imaginary is found in the Kailasanatha of Ellora in 8th century A.D. The sensational sculptures of Rashtrakutas in Ellora and Elephanta portray an extra-ordinary case in

decorating the massive images with minimum jewellery. The embelishment of these sculptures through the art of jewellery apparently added to the grace of enlining images. The massive Mahesha of Elephanta, cut in deeper relief is a fine example of the jewellers art of early medieval times. The combination of the three different aspects into an unified form is accomplished in part, by massive base of the shoulders, by the pattern of jewellery as the head-dress and above all by a psychological unity which allows the wrathful to be not too wrathful, and unites it with more serene and