Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c14.52

c14.52

It is evident from the surviving Gandhara sculpture that the school was extremely prolific and that the sculptors and the donors were really interested in depicting the life-stories of the master and achieving a high quality of artistic expression to the best of their ability. The scenes are crowded with a number of subsidiary figures bold in execution or full of sympathetic understanding as in the scene showing the kneeling horse Kanthaka taking leave of his master. The fasting Buddha reduced to a skeleton is not only anatomically true but also a moving picture of austere ascetism. The seated Buddha figure nimbate, with heavy drapery with thick folds covering both shoulders (Ubhayāṃsika) with hands in dhyāna-mudrā, extrovert eyes, short whiskers, is a distinctive type of Gandhara art. Allied to this are a number of standing Buddha figures wearing thick-folded Saṅghāṭī over the two usual garments. In the case of preaching Buddha the drapery covers only the left shoulder (akāṃsika), the right shoulder being left bare. The faces generally are happy and fully absorbed in the scenes in which the figures are depicted. The Buddha presenting the serpent to Kāśyapa is a fine example (from Sahari Bahlol, Peshawar Museum No. 1373) in very high relief. Amongst Bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteśvara are depicted in Gandhara art but Gautama himself has a two-fold form in his Bodhisattva stage; firstly, when he was a prince in royal palace wearing ornaments and royal costumes, and secondly, after his renunciation until enlightenment wearing the monk's dress. Amongst standing Buddhas are some remarkable sculptures ranging in height from 4' to 8' (now preserved in Lahore and Peshawar Museums which are of a monumental quality. They are from Sahri Bahlol, Takt-i-Bahi and other places. A colossal statue of standing Buddha from Sahri Bahlol (ht. 8 ft 8 inch.) is in excellent state of preservation and of exceptional workmanship, ranking among the best of Buddha images in Gandhara. [Fig. 194]. It was originally covered with gold, and its radiance, great size and benign appearance, must have produced a deep impression on the minds of the worshippers. The depression in the forehead marked the Ūrṇā that was once set with a precious stone. The fingers of the hand show traces of webbing (Jālāṅguli). The curls of the hair are straight and parellel surmounted by a bump of wisdom and the very heavy folds. The larger halo indicates the period when the artists of Gandhara took their inspiration from the Mathura School in the Kushāṇa age producing such colossal images as the Sarnath and Maholi Bodhisattvas.