The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.103

c9.103

All the specimens of which we have just been speaking, both from Benares and from Ajaṇṭâ, can in bulk be dated, in accordance with the alphabet of the inscriptions on some of them, as of the Vᵗʰ or VIᵗʰ century of our era. We shall not hesitate, in spite of time and distance, to connect with them the numerous groups which decorate the principal wall of the highest sculptured gallery of Boro-Budur (IXᵗʰ century). Almost the whole of this wall is covered with variations on the theme of the « Great miracle » of Çrâvastî; and this profusion of replicas is sufficiently justified by the enormous surface which the sculptors of the monuments had received instructions to decorate. We content ourselves here with reproducing the group placed at the left of the eastern staircase, which we know was that of the façade (pl. XXII). On the other side an analogous group forms a pendant thereto, except that it is still more complex and contains no less than seventeen images of the Blessed One. The general arrangement of these compositions is a compromise — doubtless imposed by the dimensions of the rectangular panels, which were much wider than they were high — between the line taken by plates XIX, 2 and XX and that by plate XXI, 1 : but on one side or the other all the topical features are to be found. This symmetrical reduplication of Buddhas, supported by lotuses and surrounded by divinities, suffices to establish not only the undeniable relationship of the schools, but also the fundamental identity of the subjects.