[Photo.34/(003)] Amaravati (no. 21) 

Excavated sculpture fragment of lower half of figures of two maidens and a man. The reference number allocated to the piece refer to Robert Sewell’s ‘Report on the Amaravati Tope, and Excavations on its site in 1877’ (London, 1880) in which the piece is described.

‘I had set some workmen to excavate near the south point of the circle, thinking that as there was a cluster of stones there I might possibly hit on some others below ground, and I was not altogether disappointed, as four more were discovered. Their places (21 to 24 inclusive) will be seen noted on plate II. No. 21 was found lying 15 feet north-west of No. 4, and nearly on the same level. It was lying flat. (2 ft. 10 in. by 2 ft. 7 in.). It is a piece very similar to F., XCV., 1, 3, 4, but in far better preservation. Three figures remain, a Rajah and two women, but their heads are gone. The women have the immense twisted ankle ornaments that are seen disfiguring the lower limbs of the women in most of the Amaravati sculptures. It is hardly possible to imagine anything more barbarous and ungraceful. Underneath is the same diaper-pattern or rail-ornament band that appears on the other slabs similar to this. The back of the slab is plain and flat. (It was photographed).’

Robert Sewell
‘Report on the Amaravati Tope, and excavations on its site in 1877’ (London, 1880, p. 40)

Faded print. Original negative not held. Part of a collection of twenty albumen prints mounted on card, with captions written in ink beneath the prints and all signed ‘R. Sewell’.