Artitecture and Artifact Ornamentation on Buddhist Period Sites in Sindh
Ancient Sindh, 13, 2014-15: 111-12985-103 BUKHARI, M.F. & ABRO T.A. ARTITECTURE AND ARTIFACT ORNAMENTATION ON BUDDHIST PERIOD SITES IN SINDH SUMMARY – The German word “ornament” linguistically carries several synonyms like decoration, design, adorn, embellishment motif, pattern, shape etc that are applied to describe beauty of given object(s) and hence take identity as of local, folk or cultural tradition generally known as ‘art’. In this paper, the author has taken Buddhist period sites to describe the cultural tradition(s) of ornamentation and the methods and material used for this purpose. A scared monument called as Stupa carry central importance throughout Buddhist period. A stupa consists of essential parts like drum, dome, capital and umbrella, however, it is not necessary that every stupa must have these forms because it depends upon regional variation; for example, in Sindh, the most stupa has only dome and drum and other remaining parts are absent but decorative elements are present. In the stupas of Sindh, the clay in shape of bricks, pots and votive tablets etc has been utilized for both construction and for decoration. For construction either burnt or unbaked bricks have been used and bricks are also designed into different shapes that it creates a beautiful motif. The major documented motifs are in (i) geometrical, (ii) faunal & (iii) floral shape/pattern. In geometrical motifs chequer pattern, wavy, grooved, incised, vertical and horizontal lines were depicted. A variety of Acanthus, Lotus & Rosette pattern were created as floral decorative element. Similarly, the animals like elephant and lion, & geese bird were also became the part of decoration.
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