FA 73B
Take Out Midterm
The first image is the sculpted cliff, created between the years c630 to 668, at Mamallapuram. The second image is the northern gateway at the Great Stupa at Sanchi, created between c50 to 25 BC. These two images initiated the use of a new technique and were narrative scenes. The differences between these two images are the involvement of the ruler, and the structure and style of the narrative scene. The northern gateway demonstrates what the people worshipped while the sculpted cliff highlights the evolution of South Asian art to now include the image of the king.
Both images contain narrative scenes, but the style and structure are different. The sculpted cliff features the Hindu story …show more content…
The local residents funded the reconstruction of the Stupa, including the construction of the northern gateway, while the emperor Mamalla funded construction of the sculpted cliff. This difference indicates the evolution of the king’s role in relation to art and religion. When the Great Stupa was reconstructed, the aristocracy was not as involved with religion and art as they were when the monuments at Mamallapuram were made. These monuments were created under Mamala, a connoisseur of the arts such as poetry, theater and music, who ruled at the end of the sixth century, from c630 to …show more content…
Great Hindu epics and stories became analogies for the ruler and the image of the dance of Shiva, as seen on the sculpted cliff, symbolized the king. There is a theory that the image Nataraja is the king and even if it may not be true the close involvement of the ruler in the making of the sculpted cliff shows how South Asian art evolved to include the importance and the longevity of the ruler. The northern gateway contains images that symbolize the values of South Asian Art. The gateway contains six sculptures of a woman holding a tree. The figure of a woman symbolizes fertility, prosperity and wealth and the repetition of this image further emphasizes its symbolism. However, this notion was not Buddhist because the Buddhist text forbade interactions and thoughts of woman. The figure of a woman on this gateway displays the people’s acceptance of and ability to hybridize non-Buddhist, and Buddhist teaching in