The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.121

c11.s1.121

mals of all kinds, cleverly sketched, indeed, from life, with the single exception of the horses, which are mediocre (cf. pl. XXXVI, 2, upper scene). It may be imagined that the clearness of the story is not much enhanced by this crowding, the more so as there is nothing to tell us, for example, whether the animals play a part in it or not : for the worst is that they sometimes do so. Thus the birds represented in the Çibi-jātaka (pl. XXXVI, 2), or on such and such a scene from the Māndhātravadāna (no. 10), form an integral part of the story, whilst those which fly away with Manoharā (pl. XXXIV, 2) are pure decoration. Finally, we must not forget that the artists of Boro-Budur did not in any way forbid themselves the use of the ancient expedients of the Indian school, juxtaposition of two or three distinct episodes and repetition of a person in the same picture. Thus it may happen — and on this point the reading of Leemans' descriptions is particularly edifying — that in the midst of such confused masses we fail to fix upon the sole actors, or objects, whose presence is of real importance for the concatenation of the facts.