The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c16.22

c16.22

In fig. 125 the figure of Indra is missing, owing to a break in the stone, but the other three attendant figures correspond to those in fig. 124. Two items of this relief that deserve notice are the Nāga elephants supporting the lotus on which the Buddha is seated and the highly elaborated design of the miraculous mango canopy above the Buddha’s head. Emerging from the cluster of leaves in this canopy are little tree-fairies, one about to crown the Buddha with a flowery wreath, two with garlands in their hands, and two in attitudes of adoration. In another example of the same kind of canopy (fig. 126) the wreath is borne by two fairies, while above them is another carrying a garland. The fairies in this relief, but not in fig. 125, are provided with uṣṇīṣas and haloes. That the glorification of the Buddha in these reliefs was inspired by the familiar apotheosis crowning-scenes of Hellenistic art admits of no doubt, but it should also be observed that the miraculous canopy and its tree-spirits are thoroughly Indian while the manner of depicting them is in the best tradition of Gandhāra art at this period. Another good example of the decorative tendency in some of the sculptures of this period is afforded by a comparison of figs. 127-9. All three of these belong to the Later Maturity Period and all depict the same event, namely, the death (*Mahāparinirvāṇa*) of the Buddha. The first of the three, which comes from the Swāt Valley and is now in the Calcutta Museum, might at first sight be thought to be a work of the Adolescent Period. Compare it, for example, with fig. 68, and note the wild sorrow in the faces of the Malla chiefs behind the bier, the grief-stricken figure of Mahākāśyapa at the feet of the Buddha, and the fantastic carvings on the legs of the bier. In spite of the air of artificiality which pervades the whole, these features are more nearly akin to work of the previous century than to that exemplified in figs. 128 and 129. But when we look at the statue-like figure of the dying Buddha himself and at the *deva* behind him with his hand raised in salute, we see at once that the relief could not possibly be earlier than the Later Maturity Period. The fact is that this is an example (of which there are not a few in Gandhāra art) of archaistic work, i.e. of work which was copied from older models. But in this case the sculptor has copied his prototype in part only, and has then lapsed into the smooth, pretty, and conventional style of his own day.