The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c7.23

c7.23

Elsewhere, as we have said, numerical considerations may sometimes point out the way of interpretation. Let us take the right (or north) jamb of the eastern gate. Its façade is divided into panels, in each of which a god, if we may judge by his attributes, is seen seated, like an Indian king, in the midst of his court. Each of these compositions taken by itself tells us absolutely nothing : but, if we set aside for a while the last terrace, we ascertain that there are six of these compartments... This number alone is a flash of light; and Prof. A. Grünwedel needed nothing further to lead him to conjecture with infinite probability that here we see, arranged one above another on this pillar, the first six stories of the 27-storied paradise of Buddhism, — the only ones, moreover, which belong to the domain of sensual pleasures and consequently to that of our senses. It is with difficulty that we are able to discern also, on the balcony of the highest terrace, half-length figures of the Gods in the heaven of Brahmâ, who belong to already another sphere; one step higher, the superior divinities, like Dante’s souls in paradise who have become pure lights, escape by definition the scope of the plastic arts. The identification justifies itself, then, admirably, and it is confirmed even by the uniformity and banality of the scenes : for we know very well that, if the torments of hell are usually very varied, there is, according to the representations which have been attempted, nothing more monotonous than the happiness of the heavens. However, the hypothesis becomes quite convincing only after a comparison with inscribed pictures of the paradise of the Thirty-three Gods at Barhut (¹).