A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c16.s7.2

c16.s7.2

The only wooden carvings ever found in the Yūsufzai country were discovered in 1888 by the late Sir Harold Deane buried in guano on the floor of a huge, mysterious cavern named Kashmīr-Smats, containing several chambers and galleries. The carved plaques (Plates LXXVIII, LXXIX) were ‘in excellent preservation, though blackened with age’. It is not easy to determine their date. The form of the trefoil arch and the cornice suggest the eighth century, but they may be older. Both designs are conceived in a spirit of mockery which baffles explanation. The subject of No. 1026 (Plate LXXVIII), a skeleton figure posturing to the music of a demoniac band, suggests a burlesque of the Dancing Siva (Naṭeśa), but why such a sacred composition should be burlesqued is a mystery. I cannot make any guess concerning the intention of No. 1027 (Plate LXXIX), which represents a demon figure receiving with contemptuous gesture a young man who carries an earthen pot suspended from the fingers of his left hand. Although the carvings have been already published to a certain extent in *Ancient Monuments*, edited by Dr. Burgess, they are little known, and it is possible that wider publicity may elicit satisfactory explanation of their meaning. From the artistic point of view both groups deserve high praise for their originality, grim humour, and bold modelling.¹