The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.130

c9.130

aside this prudent reserve. So long as the sculptures do not furnish us with an image bearing a written inscription, the verbal statements of the Scriptures will always take precedence over their mute velleities of expression. Likewise, the more we advance in familiarity with the old artists of the north-west of India, the nearer are we to believing that the names of Avalokiteçvara and Mañjuçrî were as strange to their thought as to that of the compilers of the Divyâvadâna and the Mahâvastu.