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

ROMANO-INDIAN
176
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ART
120. Bamiyan, painting of flying divinities
in niche of 175-foot Buddha
Gaya [38]. Probably we are to recognize a
representation of Mithra as a symbol of the
Buddha's solar character. 18 The central figure
is dressed in a mantle like that worn by Kanishka
in his portrait statue at Mathura [96]; round
about are figures of the dawn goddesses
costumed like Pallas Athena, and, in the upper
spandrels of the composition, divinities of the
wind. The whole is an emblem of the sky dome
over the head of the colossus. The colours for
all portions of this ensemble are applied in flat
areas demarcated by hard outlines with no
indication of shading.
In attempting to systematize the development
of art in Central Asia, of which Bamiyan
is a part, it is possible to think of a belt of eastern
Iranian or provincial Sasanian art on the arc of a
circle with its centre in Iran and running
through Varaksha, Balalik Tepe, and Pyandhzikent
in Russian Turkestan, and Dukhtar-i-
Noshirwan and Bamiyan in Afghanistan. The
painting of all these sites is in many respects an
eastward extension of Sasanian art, as is
abundantly demonstrated by the resemblance
of forms and decoration to Sasanian sculpture,
metalwork, and textiles.
The second of the two styles of painting at
Bamiyan may be designated as Indian, since it
bears a resemblance to the surviving examples
of wall-painting in India proper of the fifth and
sixth centuries a.d. To this classification belong
the fragments of the decoration that once
clothed the entire niche and vault of the onehundred-and-seventy-five-foot
colossus.
In so
far as it is possible to tell, the whole concept was
at one time a unified iconographical scheme.
The side walls of the niche from top to bottom
were painted with row upon row of figures of
seated Buddhas, each in a different and
characteristic mudra. Above this, under the
cusp of the arch, may be seen medallions with
flying divinities scattering jewels and flowers,
and finally, on the vault of the niche, a whole
pantheon of Bodhisattvas. The significance of