The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

ART UNDER THE KUSHANS: GANDHARA 145
cussed here. This material represents the same
mixture of Classical, Iranian, and Indian forms
and techniques that characterizes the art of
Gandhara. Most of these objects found at Sirkap
were presumably buried at the approach of the
Kushan invaders in a.d. 64. Among the objects
of metalwork are a number of silver goblets with
carinated and fluted bodies [88]. A tiny foot
supports the vessel; the shape has no relation to
any classical type and is possibly derived from
similar types in prehistoric pottery. Exactly
similar drinking vessels appear in early Gandhara
bacchanalian reliefs [71]. 31 The examples
of jewellery found at Taxila often duplicate the
cult images at Mat and Surkh Kotal may be
derived from this former part of eastern Iran in
the early centuries of the Christian era.
Although the first examples of actual Greek
sculpture have only recently been discovered
in Bactria, a number of magnificent silver plates
and bowls, most of them in the collection of the
Hermitage at Leningrad, have often been identified
as actual examples of Bactrian metalwork.
Many of these were undoubtedly exports from
the Seleucid West, but some at least, for example
two phalerae with representations of war
elephants [87], have haunting technical and
stylistic features that would appear related to
this isolated Hellenistic province. 29 The princely
personage riding in the fortified howdah bears
a marked resemblance to the coin portraits of the
Bactrian king Eucratides [65c]. The saddlecloth
is decorated with a representation of a
hippocamp, of a type that later makes its appearance
in the sculpture of Gandhara and in the
toilet trays discovered at Taxila and elsewhere. 30
An entire chapter could be devoted to the
hoards of precious objects in gold and silver
found at Taxila of the Saka-Parthian and
Kushan Periods, so that only a small number of
representative pieces may be conveniently dis-
87 (above left). Plate with war elephant from Bactria.
Leningrad, Hermitage
88. Silver goblet from Taxila.
Taxila, Archaeological Museum