The Sculptural Art of Ancient Bengal (Vanga and Samatata)

Bengal evolved her own plastic diction by the end of the eighth century. Since then the production of sculptures went on increasing, both in the stone and metal. The amazing sculptural output of the period, 800-1200, is generally placed under the rubric of ‘Pala-Sena’ School’. Apart from stone and metal, clay and wood were also used by our artists in the distant past and in addition to numerous terracottas a few wood carvings, all from Dhaka and its environs, in the old Vanga kingdom have come to light and they are among the earliest of their kind. The main centres of production of Bengal sculptures were Mainamati, Jhewari and Vikrampur in the ancient Vanga-Samatata region and Mahas than and Paharpur in ancient Pundravar dhana. Although the focus of the author is on the sculptural art of Vanga-Samatata, roughly the Bangladesh of to-day, she has compared her thematic repertory with the materials from west and north Bengal and the neighbouring regions of south Bihar in particular and Ori