The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c11.10

c11.10

In the foregoing reliefs the lotuses in the hands of the men and women were sufficient to proclaim the Buddhist character of the monument, but in the case of other reliefs there is sometimes nothing at all to indicate a connexion with Buddhism. Thus, in Fig. 46 the six figures appear merely as fine, upstanding fighting men armed with swords and dressed in what is still a national costume on the North-West Frontier. Three of them are bearded and three beardless. Two of the beardless ones have their right hands raised with two fingers extended to signify Good Luck. All wear loose, baggy trousers tied at the ankles, with loosely fitting long-sleeved tunics. The figure at the right end has the sleeves pulled up, leaving the forearms bare; the one at the left end has his right sleeve hanging down, thus hiding the hand from view. In the cold hills of the Frontier such sleeves are serviceable for keeping the hands warm, and are still a common feature of Pathān dress. On their heads the men wear a close-fitting cap with side lapels and ribands hanging in front of the ears. The long, sheathed broadsword is suspended on a cord which passes over the left shoulder and across the back and front of the body above the waist line. The sword seems to resemble the long double-edged weapons found in Sirkap and the *spatha* of Roman auxiliaries in the East (*Taxila*, vol. II, pp. 544-5 and nos. 56-8). Framing the slab on either side is a Corinthian pilaster with rounded shaft in countersunk panel. The continuous base moulding of double torus section is similar to that of fig. 45, which possibly belonged to the same monument—a matter that could probably be decided by comparing their dimensions and the stones of which they are made, neither of which I have been able to ascertain. Let me add that the slab illustrated in fig. 46 used to be in the possession of the Church Missionary Society at Peshāwar; it is now in the Peshāwar Museum.