A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s3.t2.12

c15.s3.t2.12

The labels indicate that the artist or artists had a surprising knowledge of distant countries, implying an active communication between the most widely separated Buddhist lands. The paintings include representations of images or buildings, not only in every part of India, but in Northern China, Java, and Ceylon. For instance, one of the miniatures in the Cambridge MS. (Foucher, Plate IX, 2) depicts the obese 'Jambhala of Ceylon' (*Sinhaladvīpe Jambhalaḥ*), the popular god of riches (Fig. 221), in a form not quite identical with, but closely resembling Dr. Coomaraswamy's bronze statuette (*ante*, Fig. 196), which could be identified with certainty from M. Foucher's photograph, here reproduced by permission, as a sample of the style of these curious little paintings.