The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c9: Chapter 3. The Beginnings of Gandhāra Art: The Śaka Period

The Buddhist Art of Gandhāra: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c9

Language: English

Chapter 3. The Beginnings of Gandhāra Art: The Śaka Period

We have seen, in the first chapter, that Gandhāran art came into being in the last century before the Christian era, when the Śakas were ruling in the North-West and when the prevalent Hellenistic art which they had inherited from their Greek predecessors had already reached a decadent state. The character of this art and the way in which it declined under the Śakas and was subsequently given a new lease of life after the Parthian conquest is clearly apparent, albeit on a small scale, in a series of ornamental toilet-trays of Gandhāran workmanship which were unearthed in the Sirkap city at Taxila. They number thirty-three in all. Thirteen of them were of grey schist, twelve of micaceous or chloritized micaceous schist, four of steatite, two of claystone and two of slate. All these stones are found in their natural state in Gandhāra, but none of them in the neighbourhood of Taxila. Usually the trays are divided into two or more compartments and adorned with scenes or figures carved in relief. The subjects portrayed are few in number and all of a secular character. They comprise: a pair of lovers in an erotic scene; figure reclining on couch with attendant females; drinking and dancing scenes; male and female holding drinking-cups; lions, leogryphs, winged stags, hippocamps and the like with and without riders; and geometric and floral designs. Most of these subjects are clearly Hellenistic, and there can be no question that this type of toilet-tray was introduced with Hellenistic culture from the West, where numerous specimens have been found, especially in Egypt. Local influence, however, may possibly be seen in the lotus leaves or rosettes used as an accessory ornament and in the makara-like treatment of some of the sea-monsters.

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Five of these toilet-trays from Sirkap are here illustrated (figs. 13-17). The oldest specimen was found in the fourth stratum (Early Śaka), but may well have been an heirloom from an earlier period. It is made of fine grey schist. Its style is distinctively Hellenistic and quite different from that of other trays of Śaka and Parthian times. On the rim is a beaded border encircled by a running spiral; in the centre, an erotic scene of a type familiar in Greek art, namely, a standing male figure wearing a hooded mantle of a pattern worn by Greek countrymen and, kneeling at his side, a woman wrapped in a himation or shawl, which her companion is pulling from her. The modelling of the figures, which are in high relief, is characteristic of Hellenistic sculpture and much superior to that of the other toilet-trays. On the back of the tray is a full-blown lotus in low relief.

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The tray following (fig. 14) came from the fifth (Greek) stratum, but was doubtless a stray from above and referable to the latter part of the last century B.C. It is made of grey schist. The scene is a familiar Greek one, but the figures are very stiff and wooden by comparison with the preceding specimen. In the upper register is a man reclining on a couch with a wine-cup in his hand. At the head of the couch is a woman seated on a stool also holding a wine-cup; and behind the couch another woman standing up with a garland in her hand. The figures are clad in the Greek chiton and himation. In the lower register are seven palmette rays. Around the rim runs a beaded border in relief. Two features of the figures on this tray which merit special notice are the wig-like treatment of their hair and their wide-open, staring eyes. These features are found in several other trays dating from the late Śaka-Parthian period and they are peculiarly characteristic, as we shall see presently, of the earliest sculpture of Gandhāra.

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The next tray (fig. 15) exhibits a fish-tailed hippocamp, with rider seated astride, and palmette rays in the exergue. Here, again, the rider is distinguished by the wig-like treatment of the hair and wide-open, prominent eyes. Found in Stratum 2, and referable to the Late Śaka period.

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Fig. 16 is the most elaborate of all the toilet-trays. Unlike the foregoing examples, it is made of greenish-grey steatite (soapstone). Round its rim is a border of double arcading; in the centre, a drinking scene. At the top a man and woman are seated on a bench, the former clasping his companion with his left arm and holding a sceptre with his right, while she offers him a cup of wine. To the left of them is a draped woman, seated and playing on a lyre, and behind her a youth playing on the Pan-pipes. To the right, a standing male figure holding a staff in his left hand. In the middle register, to right, a large winevat, rising from acanthus leaves, in which two men, one on the back of the other, are treading grapes, while a lad in the centre draws off the juice in a tall flagon. To the left, another man is carrying a wineskin on his back and emptying its contents into a *krater*, while his companion on the left of the vase is raising a bowl to his lips. Below, in the bottom register, two figures are lying drunk. Framing the top of the scene from side to side is an undulating vine. The style is typical of Hellenistic art of the first century A.D., and the scene is reminiscent of the ‘Wedding of Ariadne and Dionysus’—a familiar subject to Graeco-Roman art. A feature of this tray that should be specially noticed is the figure of the woman seated beside her companion on the bench, with bared back and prominently developed buttocks. This particular type of female figure occurs in other reliefs of the Parthian period, but is not, so far as I know, found in later Gandhāra work (cf. figs. 17, 18 and 51).

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Fig. 17 is also of steatite and of approximately the same date as the foregoing. In the upper register is a sea-monster ridden by a half-draped female holding a baby in her left arm. In exergue, acanthus leaf in low relief. On the back, Kharoṣṭhī inscription *Mamjuminasa*. The treatment of the female rider, half-clad and with bared back and prominent buttocks, closely resembles that of the preceding example, though the workmanship is coarser.

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As a supplement to the above samples of trays from Sirkap, I append another interesting example (fig. 18) from Narai village in the Peshāwar District, which in 1928 was in the possession of Mr L. W. Jardine, Assistant Commissioner of Mardān. The yellow stone of which it is made is said to come from a quarry beyond Dakka on the Jalālābād Road. The scene of the three winged Erotes, the irate Aphrodite giving a drubbing to one of them, and the half-length statue supported on a low pillar, are typical of the comic Alexandrian style. Observe that in this example also the half-draped female with bared back and prominent buttocks is of the same stock type as those in figs. 16 and 17 above and fig. 51 below.

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The renaissance of Hellenistic art under the Parthians played such a momentous part in the evolution of the Gandhāra School that we shall have to return to the subject again in the next chapter and discuss it in greater detail. Meanwhile there remains to be noticed a number of other pieces of Gandhāran sculpture in the late Śaka style as well as two statues of local manufacture dating from the opening years of the Christian era. All the Gandhāran pieces are made of the micaceous or chloritic micaceous stone found West of the Indus; the two local statues of the Tarakī sandstone quarried in the neighbourhood of Taxila.

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The small female statuette in the round (fig. 19) comes from the third stratum in Sirkap and is referable to the latter part of the last century B.C. The pose is rigidly frontal, with feet and legs together and hands on hips. The figure is nude except for ornaments, which consist of anklets, girdle, crossed breast-chain, armlets and bangles. The hair which is treated like a wig in front, is taken back from the forehead and falls in a long double plait down the back, with a few curls on each shoulder. On the top of the head is a low polos. Beneath the small base is a tenon, evidently intended to fit into a socket-hole. In ancient times the statuette was broken into two at the knees, and, in order to repair it, two holes were drilled between the legs, one above and one below the fracture. That the statuette may have served as a miniature Caryatid is suggested by the tenon under the base and the polos on the top of the head; and this would explain its unusually stiff, frontal pose, From the peculiar, wig-like treatment of the hair and the wide-open, staring eyes it is evident that this statuette is of the same age as the late Śaka toilet-trays (e.g. fig. 14), in which these features occur.

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The other female statuette (fig. 20) is made of the same variety of stone and is approximately of the same age, but is modelled with relative freedom and not a little grace. The figure is nude save for a shawl or sāri, which falls over the left arm and below the hips in front. The left hand holds the hem of the sāri; in the right hand, which is raised to the breasts, is a lotus. Her ornaments consist of a hip-girdle; a breast-chain, crossed both front and back; bracelets; armlets; a narrow taenia across the forehead; and a medallion at the back of the head. The hair is taken back from the forehead and falls in a long double plait down the back, with a few curls on the shoulders. As usual at this early period, the eyes are large and staring, their pupils marked with a drill point. But there is much greater freedom in the treatment of the hair than in figs. 14 or 19, for example. The modelling of the head and torso and arms shows considerable feeling for form. The folds of the drapery are delineated by incised lines—a feature that is very characteristic of this period of Gandhāra sculpture. The type appears to be derived from a Greek Aphrodite type, but is much Indianized. Probably it represents the goddess holding a lotus in her hand, who is portrayed on certain autonomous coins of Taxila and may be intended for Māyā, the mother of the Buddha (*B.M. Cat. Ancient Indian Coins*, pl. xxxii, 5, 6). Figures in the round are very rare in the Gandhāra School and almost exclusively of early date. This statuette was found in Block D', Stratum II, in company with 102 copper dies and ornamental objects. Like so many other treasures found in Sirkap, the deposit was buried at the time of the Kushān invasion soon after A.D. 60, but it should be observed that the statuette had suffered much wear and tear before it was buried, and its date must be substantially earlier.

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Whether the above figure is to be identified with Māyā or not, there is no question about the Buddhist character of a group of small stūpa-brackets emanating from the Sirkap site as well as from some of the Buddhist *saṅghārāmas* at Taxila. Though insignificant objects in themselves, these brackets are instructive. In the second and first centuries B.C. the Buddhists of Hindustān and Central India made a practice of providing their stūpas with brackets on which swags and garlands could be hung. These brackets, which went by the name of *nāgadanta*, were set at regular intervals round the dome of the edifice, a few feet above the base. If the reader will turn back to fig. 5, he will see them clearly delineated. In the Buddhist architecture of Gandhāra brackets were employed for the same purpose, but in Gandhāra they assume a much more elaborate form, being enriched generally with the figures of winged *devas* who, as in fig. 5, are supposed to be bringing offerings to the stūpa. A stūpa with brackets of this kind still in position was unearthed at Chakpat in Swāt and is illustrated in Foucher, *A.G.-B.G.* vol. I, figs. 10-12, pp. 56-9. The specimens from Sirkap are all of chloritic micaceous schist and date from about the beginning of the Christian era or a little later, when the Graeco-Śaka art was in a degenerate state. The modelling is clumsy, the chiselling coarse and careless, and the figures display the same prominent eyes and the same rough delineation of the drapery folds that are to be seen in other contemporary carvings. From the Indian dress and ornaments which the *devas* are wearing it is clear that they are copied from Indian prototypes. Let it be noted, too, that in the early examples there is nothing Hellenistic in the design of the bracket, but in the later ones a touch of Western influence can be seen in the acanthus base from which the figures spring as well as in the volute-like form of the bracket itself.

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A typical specimen of the earlier brackets is fig. 21, which takes the form of a winged *deva*, with hands in front of breast, holding an uncertain offering. The *deva* is wearing bangles, long and short necklaces, and a shawl, which is drawn across the back and through the arms, leaving the front of the body bare. On the head is a broad, tasselled bandeau. The legs are missing from below the knees. Observe the roughness of the modelling, the careless portrayal of the folds of the shawl, and the wide-open, prominent eyes.

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In the following example (fig. 22) the *deva* is shown emerging at the hips from an acanthus leaf base, and wearing a sleeved tunic, shawl and native turban, with cylindrical ear-ornaments of local pattern. His two hands are raised in adoration in front of his breast. On the back and on the tenon at the base of the bracket is a Kharoṣṭhī inscription: *savatrateṇa niyatito vihare matapitu puyae devadato* (‘Presented by Sarvatrāta in the Vihāra, in honour of his mother and father, Devadatta’). On palaeographical grounds the lettering is referable to the first half of the first century A.D. This volute shape and the acanthus motif at the base are Hellenistic features which mark a somewhat later date than the preceding example, and taken as a whole the design is good, but the execution is disfigured by the same clumsy modelling and careless, unsteady chiselling that characterize other sculptures of this period. The bracket was found in Stratum II, Block J, of Sirkap.

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The three following examples from Buddhist sites at Taxila are of somewhat later date than the foregoing and carved from different varieties of stone. They show an increasing elaboration of detail and a progressive improvement in the modelling and execution, for which the Hellenistic revival under the Parthians may have been responsible.

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In fig. 23, the winged *deva* is emerging, like the last, from an acanthus leaf base. He wears a *dhoti*, scarf and turban, with a large central ornament, heavy ear-rings, jewelled collar and long flexible necklace. His left hand grasps the scarf hanging over the left shoulder; his right rests on the hip. The bracket at the back is fashioned to resemble a serpent with scaly surface and double head. Although the design and technique are more advanced than in the preceding specimens, the eyes are still unduly wideopen and large, and the folds of the scarf are indicated by roughly incised lines.

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The following example (fig. 24), which is now in the British Museum, came in all probability from the Dharmarājikā, where also the head of an almost identical bracket was found. Both are made of a talcose schist of a peculiarly silky texture. The *deva* is wearing a *dhoti*, scarf and turban, heavy ear-rings, short necklace, armlets and bangles. As a whole, the bracket is well designed and the modelling of the face is unusually good, but the treatment of the shawl and *dhoti* is still very perfunctory. For a similar bracket from the Dharmarājikā see *Taxila*, pl. 226, no. 167.

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Another stūpa-bracket of the same class, but of more advanced style, is made of quartz-schist and is adorned with a female deity (*devi*), instead of a *deva* (fig. 25). The *devi* wears a close-fitting, long-sleeved garment, large circular ear-ornaments, flat collarette, long flexible necklace and bangles. In front of her breasts she carries an offering of fruit or flowers in both hands. The hair on the forehead is confined by a *taenia*, behind which it falls backward in long tresses and plaits over the shoulders. In the centre, above the *taenia*, is a circular medallion. The volute bracket is enriched with acanthus foliage on its sides and front. The eyes are still unduly large, but the modelling of the torso is more mature than in the preceding examples. The use of quartz-schist also points to a somewhat later date—probably the third quarter of the first century A.D. Not long after that date this type of stūpa-bracket appears to have gone out of fashion, as no later examples are known.

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There remains one more of these early Gandhāra sculptures from Taxila, which is in a class by itself (fig. 26). It is made of micaceous schist and was found on the Sirkap site. Its special value lies in the fact that it is the oldest of all the pictorial reliefs of the Buddhist School of Gandhāra, and that the composition and handling of the figures show the closest dependence on the Early Indian School. The Jātaka story which it illustrates has not yet been identified. In the foreground a young anchorite is being borne along, suspended head downwards, on a pole which is carried on the shoulders of two of his companions. Looking on from the background are five other anchorites, the one on the extreme right headless. All have long hair and are distinguished by their staring eyes. Two are young and clean-shaven, one is bearded, another wears a moustache. The one on the left holds a flask in his left hand. Two of the older men have spotted deer-skins over their left shoulder. All appear to have the right hand upraised in front of the body, the centre one holding it against his right shoulder, palm inwards. The pole-carrier on the right wears a short skirt, the left one is defaced. The suspended figure grasps the pole with his two hands, with his knees around the pole and his feet extended upwards. There are traces of another figure behind the pole-carrier on the right.

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That this relief is a product of the Gandhāra School is proved by the variety of local Gandhāra schist of which it is made; and that it dates from the late Śaka period is suggested by the character of the carving and the peculiarly distinctive treatment of the hard, staring eyes of the anchorites. In the case of the stūpa-brackets of this early period, we have seen that the Gandhāra sculptors made use of Indian models for their winged devas, and then proceeded to elaborate them with the Greek volute bracket and acanthus foliage, thus giving the design a definite hybrid character. In this Jātaka relief there is no trace of any Hellenistic features. It appears to be the handiwork of a sculptor who was trained in the Early Indian School but had adopted, in Gandhāra, the local method of treating the eyes. Even at this early stage the relief foreshadows the all-important part which religion was destined to play in the transformation and development of Gandhāra art.

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In concluding this chapter on the art of the late Śaka period, it remains to notice two other pieces which, though unconnected with the Gandhāra School, have a definite bearing on the history of the Buddha image—a subject on which we shall have much to say later. Both sculptures (figs. 27 and 28) are made of a fine-grained sandstone from Tarakī in the neighbourhood of Taxila, which is the same stone as that used in the building of the Greek temple at Jaṇḍiāl and in the Śaka-Parthian palace in Sirkap, and since the very few sculptures made of this stone are in a distinctive style of their own, it is natural to conclude that they were the work of a small local School at Taxila. One of the statues (fig. 27) was found in Sirkap. It is a male figure wearing a tunic tied by a cord at the waist and reaching to the knees, a long shawl or chlamys, and high boots. The hair is dressed in the wig-like fashion that is characteristic of some of the statuettes and toilet-trays of late Śaka date described above. The heavy, uncouth modelling of the limbs must be largely due to the nature of the sandstone, which does not lend itself to fine work. Although free-standing, the statue is treated in the flattened manner of an alto-rilievo. The right forearm, which was attached by means of a tenon and socket, is missing and the face is completely mutilated. In the treatment of the shawl, which falls loosely round the shoulders and arms and stands out on either side of the hips, the statue bears a close resemblance to the so-called Hermes on a coin of Azes II (B.M. Cat. pl. xix, 1). The high boots which the figure is wearing suggest that it may represent Sūrya, the sun-god, whose temple is said by Philostratus (Life of Apollonius, ii, 24) to have stood in the city of Sirkap.

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The other statue (fig. 28), which is in the same broad, massive style, was unearthed at the Dharmarājikā and is, therefore, unquestionably Buddhist. The figure, which is 16 in. high, is wearing a dhoti, shawl and bracelets. The left hand rests on the hip; the right is raised in front of the breast with the fingers in what is known as the chin-mudrā or jñāna-mudrā, denoting meditation, knowledge and purity. The head and feet are missing. Although the statue is ostensibly in the round, the back is not modelled and the front is flattened as in a relief. In spite of its relative coarseness, the broad, massive style lends an impressive dignity to this image, which was wanting in the preceding one. Both, however, belong to the late Śaka period, and we shall probably not be far wrong if we assign them to the first quarter of the first century A.D. That the image represents the great Teacher himself can hardly be questioned, and the bracelets on his wrists might be taken to show that it represents him as the Bodhisattva, not as the Accomplished Buddha. But the image, be it remembered, dates from a time when the canonical types of the Buddha and Bodhisattva had not yet been fixed, and it may well be that the figure is intended to portray the Buddha after his Enlightenment. In any case, it is the earliest image of Gautama now known to us.