The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c17.14

c17.14

Of yet another style and certainly of earlier date than the last is the image of Siddhārtha meditating in the shade of the Jambu tree at the Ploughing Festival (fig. 141). The festival is represented on the face of the pedestal by a ploughman and his yoke of oxen on the right, with three robed figures at prayer in incense burner to the left. The intimate connexion between this panel and the Bodhisattva is shown by the way the sculptor has allowed the drapery to fall over the top of the panel: as if making it an integral part of itself. The figure of the young prince is singularly soft and graceful, his expression gentle and sorrowing as befitted the occasion. Indeed, in this statue there is a hint of deeper feeling which is unusual at this time. Yet no one familiar with Gandhāra sculpture could make the mistake of relegating it to any other period than the latter part of the Later Maturity Period. This date is attested not only by the very ‘plastic’ quality of the modelling and the fine finish of the details, but also by the character of the pedestal relief and by the treatment of the drapery folds in front of the left leg, which by a false mannerism of the time are shown out of the vertical (cf. fig. 143 below).