The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c13.s1.7

c13.s1.7

Fig. 71 depicts Gautama with two Brāhman ascetics. The subject recalls fig. 66, but in this panel, in spite of obvious shortcomings, the scene is altogether more developed and expressive. Here the aged Brāhman, a spare, emaciated figure, is sitting at the side of a hut, which faces front instead of the usual sideways, and inside of which his companion is seated in deep thought, in an attitude which reminds us of Rodin’s ‘Le penseur’. Though the execution is rough and sketchy, I regard this figure as exceptionally telling. The other figures, on the right of the panel, are less successful. Gautama himself is facing front, without any apparent concern in the Brāhman by his side; and his attendant Vajrapāṇi, who here takes the form of a Brahmacārin, is hardly less detached. Apart from the general character of this relief there are a few minor details worth noting. One is the unusually youthful appearance of the Buddha, which would be wholly appropriate to him at the time when this particular episode took place. And, indeed, it is possible that the artist had this fact in mind. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that the Buddha is just as youthful on his death-bed in fig. 72, and it looks therefore as if this may have been a stock type of the Buddha in the particular atelier from which this relief emanated.