The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c9.12

c9.12

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.