The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c10.14

c10.14

Besides these stucco figures in the Hellenistic style and somewhat feeble imitations by local craftsmen, there are a few heads of the Bodhisattva belonging to the same group from the Apsidal Temple. One of them (fig. 39) must have belonged to a statue of superhuman size. Cunningham records that, when clearing the nave of the Apsidal Temple in 1863 (C.S.R. v, p. 74), he found numerous pieces of burnt-clay statues of colossal size, which had stood against the walls of the nave. Large statues in such a position, where they were protected from the weather, would normally be made of clay, and would, of course, be converted into terra-cotta, if the building happened to be burnt down. On the other hand, statues intended for a more exposed position would be made of the more durable stucco. It is reasonable, therefore, to infer that the statue we are discussing probably stood in the shallow entrance porch to the temple, where it would not be entirely protected from the rain. That it was the work of one of the local craftsmen engaged on these sculptures and that it represents the Bodhisattva in princely attire can hardly be questioned. Thus it has the distinction of being the earliest known head of the princely type of Bodhisattva which was afterwards to become the standard type of Gandhāra.