A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c16.s3: Section III. Jewellery
A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c16.s3
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Section III. Jewellery
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The prevalence in India of the practice of cremation deprives the archaeologist of the chance of obtaining the rich sepulchral deposits so abundant in other countries, and the frequent catastrophes to which nearly every Indian town of importance has been subject have involved the destruction of countless hoards of private wealth. Ancient jewellery of intrinsic value is consequently very rarely found in India. The few examples known are believed to have all come from the relic chambers of *stūpas* or *dāgabas*, in which it was customary to deposit valuables at the time of dedication, in honour of the relics. The most artistic specimens extant are a pair of pendants bought, with other minor articles, from a dealer at Rāwal Pindi, and alleged to come from the site of Taxila, but conjectured by Mr. Marshall to be part of a hoard found in the Yūsufzai subdivision of the Peshāwar District, and to date from the third century of the Christian era. The better preserved pendant is reproduced in Plate LXXIII, Fig. 13.
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'The lower half of the ornament consists of a fanciful design, on either side of which is an infant Eros riding on a winged sea-lion, with four chains and bells suspended beneath him. . . . The Erotes and sea-monsters appear to have been cast in a mould, and afterwards chased with a graver's tool; the hair of the boys is very carefully worked, and falls on their shoulders in a natural row of ringlets. Their wings, and the wings and ears of the monsters, both front and back, were inlaid with paste, a fragment of which, of blue-green colour, still remains in one of the ears. A very similar figure of a boy riding on a sea-lion, but without wings, occurs on a golden plaque discovered with a great many other relics on the northern bank of the Oxus in ancient Persia [and now in the British Museum]. . . . As to the influences traceable in the designs and technique of these articles of jewellery, the seemingly Western features which they exhibit . . . are the Erotes riding on sea-lions, the granulated decoration, and the clusters of gold drops; while the Eastern and Indian elements are discernible in the
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incrustate gems, the pendant chains and bells, the *stūpa*-like design of the medallion, Fig. 3 [not reproduced], and perhaps also in the floral *motif* of the upper portion of Figs. 1 and 2 [the pendants].'
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The ornaments presenting this hybrid character may be presumed to be of Indian workmanship, designed in accordance with the principles of the widely diffused art of Western Asia.¹
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¹ Marshall, 'Buddhist Gold Jewellery' (*Ann. Rep. A. S., India*, 1902–3, pp. 185–94, Pl. XXVIII). For 'Indian Jewellery' generally, see the exhaustive treatise by Col. Hendley, C. I. E., in *J. Ind. Art*, vol. xiii, fully illustrated.
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The Hindus, as Mr. King observes, were among the earliest of mankind to attain to mechanical perfection and facility in the treatment of the hardest stones, executing with facility many operations which would baffle the skill of the most expert modern lapidary; such as boring fine holes with the greatest precision, not merely through the sardonyx, but even through the sapphire and ruby.² The components of the broken jewellery deposited with the relics of Buddha in the very ancient Piprāwā and Bhattiprolu *stūpas* include many examples of minute leaves and other pretty trifles wrought in various hard stones with the most exquisite delicacy. All considerable collections of Indian antiquities comprise numerous specimens of pierced beads made of various precious and semi-precious stones, which display the complete mastery of the old craftsmen over the most difficult materials.³
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² King, *Antique Gems and Rings* (1872), pp. 86, 87.
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³ For Piprāwā, see *J. R. A. S.*, 1898, p. 573 and plate. For Bhaṭṭiprolu, see Rea, *South Indian Buddhist Antiquities*, vol. xv of *A. S. Rep., New Imp. Series*.