The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c15.11

c15.11

There remains the ornamental base reproduced in fig. 91. This fragment, which is now in the Calcutta Museum, is known to have come from the Lower Monastery at Nathu, but, even if we had not known this, we should have had a safe clue to its provenance in the large bulging eyes of the *devas* and Erotes. The motif of the ‘garland and Erotes’ was of Hellenistic origin and was widely diffused throughout Western Asia, including Gandhāra, where it became a prime favourite in the second and third centuries A.D. The basis of the design is a row of Erotes (*yakshas*) supporting an undulating garland on their shoulders, but there is much variety in the accessories and details. In its simplest and earliest form, the garland is of the imbricated-leaf pattern, but later on this pattern is elaborated by binding the garland at intervals with ribbons and enriching it with various foliate and other designs (cf. fig. 148 and *Taxila*, vol. II, p. 709, nos. 72, 73, and vol. III, pl. 216). Again, the Erotes are generally nude with necklaces and Indian anklets only to relieve their nudity, but in rare cases they wear a loin cloth, in others they have no anklets. At the bottom of the loops between the Erotes there usually hang bunches of fruit, or fruit and leaves, but occasionally these are omitted; and the spaces immediately above them are, in most examples, occupied by winged *devas* or *devīs*, but in other examples by birds with outstretched wings or bunches of leaves. Such features are helpful in determining the age of individual pieces. In fig. 91, the Erotes or *yakshas* are standing to the front, wearing Indian anklets and holding cymbals and drum in their hands. The garland is of the simple imbricated-leaf pattern, with bunches of fruit at the bottom of its folds, while in the spaces above are winged figures playing on stringed instruments. Taken together, these features denote a fairly early date for this composition, and it is certainly earlier than fig. 148, but I do not think that it can be placed much before the close of the early phase of the Maturity Period. More will be said on this subject when we come to deal with fig. 148.