The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c15.39

c15.39

I conclude this chapter with a figure of Hāritī, consort of Pāñcika, which seems to sum up well the character of the Early Maturity Period (fig. 112). The panel, which is now in the Peshāwar Museum, came originally from Takht-i-Bahī, where it no doubt served as a spacer between larger panels in the decoration of a stūpa. Such spacers, adorned with figures of female guards, musicians, etc., like those in figs. 64, 65, were a common feature of Gandhāra art from an early date. In this example (fig. 112) the *devī* is shown standing erect on a vase under a canopy of leaves. Her dress is Indian; her ornaments are necklaces, bracelets and anklets. On her head is a chaplet of leaves, from which a veil falls down her back. On her left hip she carries, in the local fashion, the youngest of her many children. The figure of Hāritī is, as usual, full and matronly; her pose dignified and stately, giving her a madonna-like appearance. Of the age of this carving, its restrained classic style and the maturity of the modelling leave no room for doubt; for it was only in the early part of the Maturity Period that work of this calibre was produced. For the ungainly treatment of the lower folds of Hāritī’s veil, which resemble the shape of acanthus leaves, compare the decoration of a small stūpa in Sirkap (*Taxila*, vol. III, pl. 27 (a)) and on an early statuette of grey mica-schist from the Dharmarājikā (*ibid.* pl. 226, no. 179). See also the contemporary relief, fig. 101 above. For further details of the cult of Hāritī, cf. Foucher, *A.G.-B.G.* vol. II, pp. 130-42 and figs. 374-8.