Studies in Indian Art c12.s8.6

c12.s8.6

Babu P. C. Mookerji’s remark about the stone calls for attention. I take that stone is not that of the Aśokan pillars—which is pinkish Chunār sandstone, but the same as that of the famous statue of Kanishka, a yellowish rather buff-coloured stone which is used in the case of a limited number of Mathura sculpture beginning from the statue of Parkham Yaksha to the Kanishka portrait and other images of the reign of Kanishka. It seems to me that the famous Buddhist places of pilgrimage were surveyed, identified and marked more definitely in the reign of Kanishka and statues of Mathura origin were sent to sacred spots at Sārnāth, Kasia, and Śrāvastī and Lumbinī where the present Nativity group has been found. The sculpture however, requires to be published from better photographs and to be examined more closely. Other fragmentary sculptures hoarded up at the site should also be examined for ascertaining their stylistic affinites with Mathura art.