The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c8.25

c8.25

All the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who from the IVth to the Xth centuries of our era visited the holy places of India agree, in fact, in testifying, that Kanishka had built by the side of his winter capital Purushapura « the highest pagoda of the country ». Now in the course of my journey on the Indo-Afghan frontier, on the 21st of January 1897, among the numerous tumuli — simple refuse of brick kilns or vestiges of ancient monuments — which are scattered over the flat outskirts of Peshawar, I thought I recognized in one (pl. XIV, 1), by reason of its site, its form, its composition, its surroundings, finally of a number of concordant indications — not to count that secret voice of things, which soon whispers to the heart of the archæologist —, the remains of the great religious foundation of Kanishka. That dusty mound, which, if in circumference it measured three hundred metres, was not more than 4 or 5 metres above the present ground surface, did not look very promising. However, when the Anglo-Indian government did at last reorganize its archæological service, Messrs. Marshall and Spooner were pleased to consider that the proposed identification was at least worth the trouble of verification by digging. The results of the first campaign, during the cold season 1907-1908, were most disappointing. Fortunately the English archæologists were not discouraged; in March 1909 they at last determined the dimensions of the base of the sanctuary — the vastest, indeed, that has ever been discovered in India — and soon they were fortunate enough to unearth in the centre the famous relics of Buddha, which Chinese evidence assures us were deposited there by Kanishka himself, and which to-day Burmah is so proud of possessing. They were enclosed in a golden reliquary, about 18 centimetres high, of which you have before your eyes (pl. XV, 1) a view. All that I wish to take note of here is first, that this box does in fact bear in dotted letters the name, and in repoussé the image, of our Kanishka, the one perfectly legible and the other a good resemblance. Now, in point of execution the reliquary already betrays signs of artistic decadence; and this stylization is especially notable in the Buddha whom you see seated between two standing divinities on the top of the lid. This votive document is sufficient, then, to carry back at least a hundred years, and consequently, to the 1st century before our era, at the latest, the creation of the plastic type of the Blessed One.