A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c10.s2: Section II. Description of the Sculptures

A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c10.s2

Language: English

Section II. Description of the Sculptures

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Just as the sculptures and paintings of the Catacombs and the writings of the early Christian Fathers prove that no trustworthy tradition concerning the person of Jesus survived in the Church, and that artists for several centuries felt themselves at liberty to give free scope to their fancy in delineating His image, even so, during the first two or three centuries of the Christian era, Buddhist sculptors had not arrived at any settled convention as to the correct way of representing the effigy of Gautama the Buddha, whose real appearance in the flesh had been utterly forgotten. A long course of experiment was needed before Buddhist orthodoxy, guided by the later sculptors of the Gandhāra school, settled down to the monotonous and insipid conventionality of the figures of Buddha now manufactured by the thousand, and adopted, with rare exceptions, in all Buddhist lands. Ultimately the conception of the Indian *yogī* ascetic as worked out in Gandhāra became dominant, and passed through Khotan to the Far East.

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FIG. 59. Buddha attended by Vajrapāṇi, from Yusufzai, Dames Collection, Berlin. (Photo. 27844, V. and A. Museum.)

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A Buddha with long hair and moustaches, although not unknown even now in Japan, would seem strange and improper to most modern Buddhists. In Gandhāra such a presentation of the Master long continued to be legitimate, and the legend of the cutting of his locks when he dismissed the charioteer, although not absolutely unfamiliar, was usually ignored in sculpture.

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The relief panel from the Dames Collection, now in Berlin (Fig. 59), offers one of the most notable examples of the Buddha standing, with long hair and moustaches. His attitude is exceptional, and in his left hand he holds a palm-leaf book and gathers up his robe. The work, although evidently early, is not of the best artistic quality.

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The remarkable attendant figure in this sculpture, which recurs frequently the Master is depicted with flames issuing from his head and the water of life from his feet. A remarkable parallel occurs in the Catacombs of Rome, where we find similar representations of the water of life streaming from the feet of Christ.¹ Fig. B shows

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¹ Roller, *Les Catacombes de Rome* (1881), vol. ii, p. 291, Pl. LXXXVII, figs. 2, 3, 4.

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[Figure: FIG. 60. Visit of Indra to Buddha in Indraśaila Cave. (Photo. 1058, I. M. *List*.)]

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Buddha seated under a tree in a manner not usual. The features and drapery are of an early type. Fig. C is a good specimen of Buddha seated on the 'diamond throne', closely resembling the Berlin figure seated on a 'lion throne' (*ante*, Plate XXVI). The remaining figure D is interesting as a later and more Hinduized Buddha type, on a ‘lotus throne’, and with the soles of the feet turned up in *yogī* fashion. The right shoulder is bared. The suppliants at the foot of the throne may be the donors of the sculpture.

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It is impossible to omit notice of the remarkable sculpture, 2 feet 8½ inches high, representing the Emaciated Buddha, or, more accurately, Bodhisattva, in the Lahore

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[Figure: FIG. 61. Gautama as emaciated ascetic (Sikrī). (Photo. by Griggs.)]

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Museum, excavated from the ruins of a monastery at Sikrī in 1889, which is the most notable known example of the treatment of a repulsive subject. It depicts the Master as he sat at Bodh-Gayā making the vain attempt to attain by the severest austerity that supreme knowledge which did not come to him, according to the story, until he abandoned the practice of self-torture (Fig. 61).¹ The subject is sometimes treated by Chinese and Japanese artists in another fashion, as may be seen in the South Kensington Museum and the Musée Guimet. The Brahmanical parallel is Plate XXVIII. Kuvera in form of Zeus.

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¹ *Lahore Museum Guide*, Pl. V; Senart, ‘Notes d’Épigraphie Indienne,’ iii, Pl. II (*Journal As.*, 1890).

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distribution of his relics, as depicted in a long series of reliefs; but must pass on to another class of images, formerly described as 'kings' or 'royal personages', but now recognized as Bodhisattvas, or saints destined to become Buddhas. All considerable collections include specimens, and many have been published. The general character of the class is well illustrated by the fine statue in the Dames collection at Berlin (Fig. 63), which is one of the masterpieces of Gandhāran art, and appears to me to

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[Figure: FIG. 64. Kuvera and Hārītī; from Sahrī-Bahlol. (A. S. photo., No. 85 of 1906–7.)]

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be a worthy presentation of the ideal lay saint. All the details are exquisitely wrought, and the drapery is admirable.

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Another image in the Lahore Museum (No. 0239), in a different style and with finely sculptured drapery of another kind, is a beautiful work, of equal or possibly superior merit (Fig. 62). The small relief on the pedestal follows the tradition of the Early School in the interior by abstaining from all attempt to image the dead Master, his presence being symbolized by the empty seat. I should think that this charming sculpture must be of early date.

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A larger statuette found near Peshāwar, and generally regarded as the most striking piece in the large collection of sculptures in the Central Museum, Lahore, represents a royal personage seated in European fashion on a throne, with his left foot on a footstool and his left hand grasping a spear, his attitude being obviously reminiscent of that of the Zeus of Phidias (Plate XXVIII). This notable figure, at one time believed to be the portrait of an Indo-Scythian monarch, is now recognized as Kuvera or Vaisravana, god of riches and king of the Yakshas, who played a very

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FIG. 65. Hārītī; from Sikri. (Photo. by Griggs.)

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important part in Indian Buddhism, and will be met with again in mediaeval times. The image is free from the tinge of effeminacy which mars some of the best finished works of the school, and must always command admiration for its virility and dignity.¹

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¹ Found at Tahkal on the old road from Peshāwar to the Khyber Pass. A cast is in the Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. *J. A. S. B.*, Part I, vol. lviii (1889), p. 122, Pl. VIII; *Lahore Museum Guide*, Pl. III; Vogel, 'Note sur une Statue du Gandhāra conservée au Musée de Lahore' (*B. E. F. E. O.*, Avril-Juin, 1903).

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The recent excavations at Sahrī-Bahlol have yielded another figure of the throned Kuvera with the goddess Hārītī as his consort seated beside him (Fig. 64), which is one of the most delicately modelled works of the Gandhāra school, and is presumably of early date. Hārītī, in one of her aspects, was the protector of children from the dangers of epidemics. A standing figure from Sikri (Fig. 65) presents her in the same aspect of her character, but posed in quite another fashion. The clever and unusual treatment of the drapery may be noted.

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One of the most interesting statuettes is the well-known image of Pallas Athene in the Lahore Museum (Fig. 66). The goddess is represented standing, facing front, wearing Greek costume, chiton and himation, and holding a spear across her body. Both

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FIG. 66. Pallas Athene; Lahore Museum. (Photo. by Griggs.)

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FIG. 67. Woman and tree, from Yūsufzai (L. Dames, Berlin). (Photo. 27849, V. and A. Museum.)

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FIG. 68. Woman holding mirror, from Yūsufzai (L. Dames, Berlin). (Photo. 27843, V. and A. Museum.)

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hands have been lost. Probably the right hand grasping the spear was raised to her head, as was the right hand in the Pallas type of the coins of Azes I (? first century B.C.), while the left hand held the aegis. The late Dr. Bloch seems to have been right in interpreting the image as that of a foreign female guard set over the women's apartments of a palace, and forming part of a court scene. It is possible that the figure may be as old as the time of Azes, and so contemporary with the Ionic temple at Taxila, but it may be of later date. Although the type is clearly that of Pallas Athene, it has been completely Indianized.¹

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¹ A cast is in the Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. For the coin of Azes referred to see Gardner, *B. M. Catal., Coins of Greek and Scythic Kings*, Pl. XVIII, 4. The statuette has been published in *J. A. S. B.*, Part I, vol. lviii (1889), p. 121, Pl. VII; and *Lahore Museum Guide*, Pl. VI. For Bloch's remark see No. 1195 in *Indian Museum List of Negatives*.

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A panel from Mr. Dames's collection, now in Berlin (Fig. 67), is an uncommon variant of the 'Woman and Tree' motive, which will be discussed in Chapter XI. The panel seems to be part of a larger composition, and is apparently of tolerably early date, although the figure is very Indian.

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Another of Mr. Dames's sculptures, representing a woman arranging her hair with the help of a hand-mirror, and standing under a tree (Fig. 68), makes a very pretty picture. The drapery is treated with such freedom and skill that the work may be

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FIG. 69. Man playing lyre (*vīṇā*), from Yūsufzai (L. Dames, Berlin). (Photo. 27848, V. and A. Museum.) FIG. 70. Garuḍa and the Nāginī, from Sanghão. (Photo. by Griggs.) FIG. 70 *a*. (Photo. by Griggs.)

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assigned to an early date. It may be regarded as a companion picture to the last. Both panels have a reel and bead border.

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Fig. 69, also from Mr. Dames's collection, is not equal in merit to the two preceding, the drapery being treated in a more formal and commonplace manner. A man stands under a tree playing the *vīṇā*, or Indian lyre. These three figures apparently formed parts of larger compositions, but I cannot offer any explanation of their meaning. The trees, necessarily treated conventionally in order to bring them within the limits of the panels, have a fine decorative effect.

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One Hellenistic group, known from at least five or six specimens, is of special interest as being demonstrably adapted from a masterpiece of Leochares, a famous Attic artist of the fourth century before Christ (372–330 B. C.). His bronze work, praised by Pliny (d. A. D. 79), but long since lost, inspired many later copyists, who translated the theme into marble, with variations. One of the marble copies, or imitations, is in the British Museum, another at Thessalonica, a third at Venice, and the fourth and finest is in the Museo Pio Clementino at the Vatican. The subject is the carrying off of the beautiful boy Ganymede by an eagle, represented sometimes as the messenger of Zeus, and sometimes as the god himself transformed. In the

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[Figure: FIG. 71. Vatican Rape of Ganymede. (From a cast in the University Galleries, Oxford).]

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Vatican copy the eagle is shown as supported by the trunk of a tree in the background, with wings expanded and neck stretched upwards, grasping with tender firmness the nude youth, whose feet have just ceased to touch the receding earth. His robe, disclosing the nude figure, is so disposed as to protect his back from injury caused by the bird's talons. A dog, seated below, howls piteously for his vanishing master, as described by Vergil.¹ Nobody can look at Fig. 70, reproducing the best of the Buddhist adapta-

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'Puer . . . quem praepes ab Ida
Sublimem pedibus rapuit Iovis armiger uncis;
Longaevi palmas nequiquam ad sidera tendunt
Custodes, saevitque canum latratus in auras.'
(*Aen.* v. 252–7.)

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tions, obtained from the monastery at Sanghāo in the Yūsufzai country, and compare it with Fig. 71, representing the Vatican copy of the Attic artist’s composition, without perceiving that the composition is essentially the same as that of Leochares, made familiar to the Hellenistic world in marble replicas. A variant is shown in Fig. 70 *a*. All the Buddhist adaptations omit the dog, and so agree with the groups preserved at Venice, Thessalonica, and in the British Museum, while in the pose of the eagle

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[Figure: FIG. 72. Boys armed as soldiers. (Photo. by Griggs.)]

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[Figure: FIG. 73. Old man, ? Hindu ascetic. (Photo. by Griggs.)]

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and the introduction of the trunk of the tree they resemble the Vatican example. The subject, although retaining the essentials of the Greek myth, has been thoroughly Indianized, both in general treatment and by the substitution of a heavily draped female for the nude boy. The notion once held that the woman should be regarded as Māyā, the mother of Buddha, is erroneous. The better opinion is that the group was intended to represent to Indian minds the carrying off of a female Nāga, or snake sprite, by a monstrous Garuda, the implacable enemy of the snake tribe. As in all the Gandhāra sculptures, the subject is absolutely Indian, no matter how foreign the presentation of it may be in outward form.¹

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¹ Full references to the marble groups will be found in *J. A. S. B.*, Part I, vol. lviii (1889), p. 134. The Vatican group is reproduced in Visconti, *Museo Pio-Clementino*, vol. iii, p. 149, in the histories of sculpture by Winckelmann, Lübke, and Perry, and *Encycl. Brit.*, 11th ed. 'Greek Art', Pl. I, Fig. 53.

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Fig. 72 is a remarkable panel in the Lahore Museum (*Catal.*, Pl. VII, 3), probably of very early date, showing two boys of Greek appearance armed with the old Indian broadsword, as described by Megasthenes and represented in the Bharhut and Sānchī sculptures. The work is artistic and attractive, and, as Professor Gardner reminds me, recalls the Pergamene style. The old bearded man of Fig. 73 is, I think, unique. Grünwedel calls him a Brahman.

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I now proceed to illustrate a few representative relief scenic pictures of high quality, beginning with Mr. Dames's specimen of the Nativity, unpublished, and

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[Figure: FIG. 74. The Great Renunciation; Chandaka leading out the horse Kanthaka. (Photo. by Griggs.)]

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[Figure: FIG. 75. Gautama riding away; Lahore Museum. (Arch. S. photo., supplied by Prof. Macdonell.)]

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the finest example known to me of that favourite subject (Plate XXIX). According to the legend, Gautama Buddha was born in a pure fashion by springing from his mother's side as she stood under a tree in the Lumbinī Garden, the modern Rummindēī, to the east of Kapilavastu. The composition is arranged in a perfectly symmetrical manner. On the left of the picture the god Indra, or Sakra, with his characteristic high head-dress, receives the child, behind him stands Brahmā, and two other unnamed gods complete the divine party. The woman who supports the mother is her sister, and three attendants balance the gods on the other side. The [Figure: Plate XXIX. The Nativity of Buddha, from Yūsufzai (L. Dames, Berlin). (Photo. 27845, V. and A. Museum.)]

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figures are thoroughly naturalistic men and women, cleverly modelled, and ingeniously arranged so as not to interfere one with the other. The draperies are treated with freedom and variety. On the whole, I am disposed to regard this group as the finest of the more complex stone pictures produced by the school of Gandhāra.

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The story of the ‘Great Renunciation’ of domestic joys and the splendours of princely life by the young Gautama or Siddhārtha when he went forth from his father’s palace to take up the career of an ascetic, as told in both the books and the sculptures, comprises many incidents, which were treated in art with much freedom and variety of detail. Some aspects of the artistic presentation will be discussed in Chapter XI. Here I select for reproduction a rare representation of the groom Chandaka leading out the horse Kanthaka ready saddled for his master’s use (Fig. 74). The modelling of the horse is better than that of the animal in Indian sculpture generally, which often fails with the horse, while almost always successful with the elephant. This minor incident is intended to serve as a symbol of the whole story. Another rendering, a relief in the Lahore Museum (No. 122), is shown in Fig. 75. The earth-spirits holding up the feet of the horse, who often appear, are wanting in this case.

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FIG. 76. Worship of *trisūl* symbol by monks. (Photo. by Griggs.)

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Fig. 76 represents the worship, by shaven monks, of the *trisūl* symbol, signifying Buddha, the Law, and the Church. It closely resembles the representation of the adoration of the *labarum* in the Catacombs.¹

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¹ Roller, *Les Catacombes de Rome*, Pl. LXXXVII. The Christian work, assigned to the fifth century, is certainly much later than the Indian.

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The well-known unique relief representing a group of figures with demoniac faces attended by three soldiers (Plate XXX) has puzzled the interpreters, who usually assume the demons to be a part of the host by which Buddha was assailed in the Temptation. But that explanation takes no account of the soldiers. I do not believe that the picture has anything to do with the Temptation. I think it was Dr. Leitner who perceived that the so-called demons are simply monks wearing masks for a ‘devil dance’, such as those now worn by Tibetan Lamas. The soldiers are merely the escort of the performers’ procession. The equipment of the soldiers has been described sometimes as Greek and sometimes as Roman. But it is neither. The men evidently belong to the Himalayan region, and wear the dress and armour used in that region about the time of Kanishka, say A.D. 100. The arrangement of the scales of the armour, probably made of either leather or horn, with the curved ends uppermost, is explained by Dr. Stein’s discoveries of similar scales at Dandān-Uiliq in Khotan, and by a suit of Tibetan mail preserved in the British Museum.

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Plate XXX. Procession of maskers and soldiers.

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The scales found by Dr. Stein date from the seventh or eighth century, but there is no difficulty in believing that the fashion of armour may have remained unchanged for ages.¹

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¹ Stein, *Ancient Khotan*, pp. 252, 411, Pl. II, and Addenda, p. xvi. The stucco relief statue of a warrior in similar scale armour shown in Plate II may be as old as the second or third century, and approximately contemporary with the Gandhāra relief.

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An imperfect frieze in the British Museum, about 16 inches long by 6½ inches high (Fig. 77), which puzzled Dr. Burgess, has been convincingly interpreted by M. Foucher as a representation of marine deities in a quasi-Greek fashion. The character of the personages as tritons or marine deities of some kind is established by the paddles which they carry and their kilts of fins cut in the shape of vine-leaves. The object borne in the right hand of the figure the second from the right end appears to be a dolphin, indicating that the holder was intended for Poseidon. The

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[Figure: FIG. 77. Frieze of marine deities: B. M. (Burgess, *The Gandhāra Sculptures*, Pl. 15, Fig. 1.)]

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figure on the extreme left is in the familiar pose of Herakles. The Corinthian pillar on the right is in the style of Palmyrene work of the second or third century. The modelling of the forms would deserve praise but for the disfiguring exaggeration of the abdominal muscles. The bearded faces resemble that of an unmistakable triton, also in the British Museum, who has a fin and a curly tail (Foucher, Fig. 123).²

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² Foucher, *L'Art gréco-bouddhique du Gandhāra*, p. 244, *Fig.* 126.

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A striking, and at present unique, illustration of the progressive Indianization of the foreign types is afforded by the recent discovery, near Shabkadar on the Momand frontier, of a standing headless female figure, with four arms, executed more or less in Gandhāra style, with drapery described by Dr. Spooner as being especially Greek in character. The upper arms have been lost; the two lower ones hold respectively a spear and a wheel (Fig. 78).³ The drapery seems to me to be treated in an extremely formal manner, and I think the work is of late date.

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³ *Ann. Rep. A. S., Frontier Circle*, 1908–9, p. 4.

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The British Museum (Gem Room) possesses a deep silver bowl, about five inches in diameter, said to come from Sogdiana, to the north of the Oxus, adorned with the figure of a four-armed goddess. It is supposed to date from Sassanian times, subsequent to a.d. 226.¹ I am disposed to think that the stone sculpture is not earlier.

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¹ Described by Aspelin, *Antiquités du Nord Finno-Ougrien*, p. 147.

Linked texts (8)

Ἰνδική — Λούκιος Φλάουιος Ἀρριανός, Ancient Greek
Aeneis — P. Vergilius Maro, Latin
Bodh Gayā
Sāñcī
Bharhut
Rummindêi (Lumbinî garden)
Kapilavastu
Sanghao