The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c16.14

c16.14

The elaborate composition in fig. 118 depicts the familiar scene of Indra's visit to the Buddha at the Indraśaila cave. Within the cave the Buddha is seated in meditation, while tongues of flame, kindled by the radiance of his being, lick the walls around. Beneath him, a lion and a wild pig (?) peer meekly from their lairs among the rocks, and not far away are a deer and a wild sheep besides monkeys, peacocks and other wild animals, all serving to proclaim not only the wildness of the spot but the peace that descends on all nature in the presence of the Blessed One. Outside the cave, Indra, distinguished by his tall hat, approaches reverently from the Buddha's left, and opposite to him, on the Buddha's right, is the harpist Pañcaśikha. To complete the picture, two tree-spirits, ensconced in the foliage of their trees, and a multitude of heavenly beings are casting flowers and paying homage to the Buddha. In conformity with the dictates of long-established tradition, the forms and features of the devas are all of one type. As we saw in connexion with fig. 7, this tradition was observed by sculptors of the Early Indian School as far back as the first century B.C., but although the tradition had been maintained since then, the type itself of these heavenly beings had undergone significant changes in the meantime. Thus, the devas who compose the heavenly host in the scene of Māra's defeat in fig. 7, are neither very young nor very comely. Clean-shaven and with fat cheeks and well-nourished bodies, they are merely replicas of the earthly princes and nobles figured in other scenes on the same gateways, and they are dressed in the same attire. This Indian type was sometimes reproduced by the sculptors of Gandhāra, but during the Adolescent Period the devas usually wore moustaches and had younger and more forceful expressions (e.g. figs. 59, 60, 62, 67). This moustached type was lasted on, along with the moustached type of the Buddha, into the Early Maturity Period, but I cannot recall any later examples than figs. 96, 97. At that time youthful and comely faces, alike for mortals and immortals, were already becoming the fashion. Thus in fig. 84 the god Indra has a particularly girlish and attractive face, and in fig. 87 not only the *devas* but the aged and dying Buddha himself have the same pleasant, half-smiling features. Another striking example is furnished by fig. 107, where the two *devas* at the top, haloed and richly attired, have just the same effeminate countenances as the pair of diving ‘angels’ (a wholly different class of being) who, like them, are showering flowers on the Buddha. By the time fig. 118 was carved, the number of celestials crowding the scene had much increased, and the multiplicity of similar faces could not but have a monotonous effect. Yet, with all their shortcomings, there is much in these and other sculptures of the same School to compel our admiration. For they have a quiet, gentle melody of their own, and they breathe an air of peace and happiness and goodwill that is the soul of Buddhism. What more could a good Buddhist ask for?