The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c12.19

c12.19

To return, however, to the sculptures from the Guides' Mess. The next in chronological sequence are two panels belonging to the same stūpa (figs. 61 and 62). The first depicts the grass-cutter Svastika presenting a bundle of grass to the Bodhisattva on his way to the bodhi tree. The second depicts the adoration of the Bodhisattva's head-dress in the Trayastriṃśa Heaven. These two panels doubtless issued from the same atelier. Their close affinity to the sculptures already described is obvious. Compare, for example, the attendant worshippers in fig. 62 with those in the Bath Scene, fig. 58. The stylistic resemblance speaks for itself. But the carving is steadily becoming coarser, and losing little by little the sensitiveness of the earlier work; most of the actors, too, are of heavier, more thick-set, build. On the other hand, the artists' outlook continues to expand, their ideas to multiply, their work to become more eloquent. The representation of the Buddha in bodily form simplifies and encourages the portrayal of scenes from his daily life, which from now onwards become more numerous and diversified. From the start there seems to have been some confusion about the figures of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva, but this is a detail which mattered little so long as the meaning of the scene was clear. What did matter was that the Buddha was emerging at this time in a form that could instantly be recognized. In the case of fig. 53 we were left in some doubt as to whether the Buddha, then appearing for the first time, was distinguished by his uṣṇīṣa or not.¹ In this, his next, appearance, there is no such doubt. The uṣṇīṣa is larger and more conspicuous than in later sculptures and the halo is emphasized by a well-defined rim. These, with the Greek monastic robes, are characteristic traits shared by all the Buddha figures belonging to this group, and they are more than enough to make those figures instantly recognizable. Along with the Buddha, his inseparable companion, the Vajrapāṇi, also makes his appearance, and it is noteworthy that his characteristic dress at this period is identical in all respects with that worn by the attendant (?) in the Graeco-Parthian drinking-scenes (figs. 40, 41), namely, a short chiton or tunic, caught in round the waist and provided with a scalloped turn-over edge at the top. Another point for passing notice is that some of the devas in fig. 62 wear the same long, unconfined locks as the youthful Brahmā in fig. 58 but with the addition of a small top-knot. To the above examples I have added fig. 63, a panel in the Berlin Museum, because of its outstanding clarity and close resemblance to them. A feature of this fine panel is the care with which the pupils of the eyes are delineated. As to the outsize uṣṇīṣa, see above, fig. 61. The stūpa which yielded the above panels seems also to have yielded several small pilasters which served to divide the panels one from another. At this period such pilasters usually took the form of Corinthian half-columns with rounded shafts. Here the half-column is replaced by a female figure standing on a vase pedestal of Persepolitan pattern under a canopy of foliage. Two examples are illustrated in figs. 64 and 65. The first is a female guard in native dress, armed with shield and spear. The second is a musician, in Greek dress, playing on a lute. The motif of a yakṣī standing on a Persepolitan vase base is a familiar one in the Early Indian School at Bodh-Gayā and elsewhere. The two pilasters are of the same height as the panels and are said to be of the same dark, micaceous schist.