The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.7

c11.s1.7

It is all the more expedient not to ignore this law, inasmuch as the identification of the bas-reliefs of this first gallery is, as we have said, very far from complete. Our attention was immediately and forcibly drawn to the 120 magnificent panels on the right wall, below the scenes from the last life of Buddha. Measuring, like these last, from m. 0,70 to m. 0,80 in height by circa m. 2,40 in length, about three quarters of them have until now — partly through the fault of the artists and much more through the imperfections of the only reproductions which have been published (¹) — resisted all attempts at explanation. At the time of our visit we had at our disposal nothing but the text of the Divyâvadâna and the excellent Guide of Dr. J. Groneman (²). The latter indicates in the series in question only two identifications, both again due to Dr. S. d'Oldenburg: one is that of the legend of Sudhanakumâra; the other, which is connected with the history of Maitrakanyaka, has quite recently been corroborated and developed by Prof. Speyer and Dr. Groneman at the cost of an extensive correction of one of Wilsen’s drawings. The reading of the *Divyâvadâna* gave us at once the key to the illustrations of two other stories, those of Rudrâyaṇa and of Mândhâtar. Then two or three of these rebuses in stone themselves bear their own solutions. On the whole, two thirds of the 120 panels in the row are thus clearly elucidated by direct comparison of the texts and the originals. At a time when the government of the Dutch Indies is preparing to endow the world of letters with photographic reproductions of all the sculptures of Boro-Budur, it is, perhaps, worth while to publish, without further delay, these first results, which cannot but open the way to the complete explanation of the whole (¹).