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

BUDDHIST ART IN TURKESTAN 197
The ruin sites of Central Asia from Khotan to
Turfan have yielded innumerable examples of
the minor arts, including metalwork, woodcarving,
textiles, and jewellery. These objects
reveal perhaps even more tellingly than the
remains of religious painting and sculpture the
cosmopolitan nature of this civilization. They
illustrate the same assimilation of Classical,
Iranian, and Indian forms already demonstrated
in the major arts.
Among the many silk textiles found in the
graveyard of Astana in the Turfan district is a
design of a pearl-bordered medallion enclosing
a heraldic boar's head [135]. Such fragments,
cut from a large textile, were used to cover the
face of the dead. This is either an import or a
local imitation of Iranian silk-weaving in the
Sasanian Dynasty. 1 This motif, perhaps a
symbol of the Iranian god of victory, Verathragna,
occurs in Sasanian stucco sculpture
and is represented among the paintings of
Group D at Bamiyan. 11
A pottery amphora from Khotan represents
136. Pottery amphora from Khotan.
Berlm-Dahlem, Staathche Museen
135. Silk textile from Astana.
Sew Delhi, Museum for Central Asian Antiquities
the classical tradition in Central Asian art [136].
Not only is the shape a familiar form in Greek
ceramics and metalwork but the designs embossed
in medallions around the shoulder
include such classic motifs as palmettes, lion
heads, and a Silen.
The many fragments of carved wooden
furniture from the Xiya site to the east of
Khotan and datable to the second or third
century a.d. present a strange mixture of Indian
and Iranian forms, including the jar of plenty",
stylized winged dragons, and rosettes that look
like provincial derivations of the ornamental
repertory of Kushan and Sasanian art [137].--
A fascinating object, reputed to have been
found at Kucha or Kizil, is a painted wooden
relic casket [138]. On 1 :
the drum are representa-