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

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474 notes
of passages in the classic text are the literary equivalents
to the conception at Sanchi. Asvaghosa in the
Buddhacarita (iv, 35) describes women who 'leaned,
holding a mango bough in full flower, displaying
their bosoms like golden jars'. In the Mahdbhdrata
(in, 265) one of the heroes challenges a tree spirit,
'Who art thou that bending down the branch of the
kadamba tree, shinest lonely in the hermitage, sparkling
like a flame at night, shaken by the breeze, O
fair-browed one?'
101. 3. In the relief of the Buddha's Return to Kapilavastu
on the northern jamb of this same gateway, the
Conception of Maya, an event that had taken place
many years before, is by this principle included in the
composition with perfect propriety (illustration 15).
102. 4. John Irwin in Indian Art, ed. by Sir Richard
Winstedt (New York, 1948), 72.
104. 5. The gorge at Ajanta, formerly sacred to a
Nagaraja who had his seat in the waterfall at the head
of the valley, was taken over by communities of Buddhist
monks as early as the second century B.C. These
Buddhist settlers began the work of hollowing out the
twenty-six cave-temples and assembly halls that was
not completed until the sixth century a.d. The early
paintings in Cave X are so darkened and damaged
that the composition can be studied better in a tracing
than a photograph.
107. 6. O. M. Dalton, The Treasure ofOxus, 3rd ed.
(London, 1964), plate xxviii, 199-200; Sir A.
Cunningham, The Stupa ofBhdrhut (London, 1879),
plate xxxiii; Sir J. Marshall and A. Foucher, The
Monuments ofSahchi, in (London, n.d.), plate lxxvi, ii.
108. 7. Marshall and Foucher, op. at., in, plates lxxiv
ff.
8. A. Maiuri, 'Statuetta eburnea di arte indiana a
Pompei', Le Arti, 1, 1939, in ff.
in. 9. Other examples of ivory carving from the
Begram treasure are discussed under the Kushan
Period (pp. 1 6 i -2) .
It isapparent to me that this collection
of ivories, like the accompanying Greco-Roman
objects, represents work of several different periods.
116. 1. Walter Spink, 'On the Development of Early
Buddhist Art in India', The Art Bulletin, XL, 2 (June
1958), 97-8-
CHAPTER 9
122. i. The most famous ruler of the Saka Dynasty
was Gondophares or Gunduphar. He is known by an
inscription at Takht-i-Bahi datable in a.d. 45, and in
Christian legend as the ruler visited by St Thomas
the Apostle on his mission to India.
2. It is important to note, however, that the era of
58 B.C., established by the Saka ruler Azes, continued
as a method of dating by the Kushans and their successors
in the Peshawar region.
3. A.S.I.A.R. (1908^9), 48 ff.
124. 4. R. Ghirshman, 'Fouilles de Begram (Afghanistan)',
Journal Asiatique, Annees 1943-5, 59-7 1 -
5. Op. at., 63.
125. 6. Both the position and the policy of the Kushans
in India have a close parallel in the history of the T'opa
Tartars who conquered northern China in the
fourth century a.d. These foreign invaders, excluded
from the national religions of China, became fervent
propagandists of Buddhism, and imported artisans
from the 'Western Countries' (Turkestan) to decorate
their religious foundations.
7. In many cases the closest comparisons for Gandhara
sculpture are to be found not in Rome itself, but in
such centres as Palmyra, Antioch, and Seleucia, as
well as in the Classical forms in Iranian art of the
Parthian Period.
8. Sir John Marshall, A Guide to Taxila (Calcutta,
1936), 78-100, and below. See also Marshall, Taxila,
1, 1 12-216, and 11, 517, 518, etc.
126. 9. D. Schlumberger, Comptes rendus de I'Academie
des Inscriptions (1965), 36-46; D. Schlumberger
and P. Bernard, Bulletin de Correspondance hellenique,
lxxxix (1965), 590-657; P. Bernard, Comptes rendus
(1967), 306-24-
10. Following ancient Oriental custom, it was the
practice in India to date events in years reckoned from
accession of a living ruler or from the first year of a
dynasty. In Gandhara it remains an unanswered
question whether a Saka era of 150 B.C. or a dating
from 58 B.C., the regnal date of Azes I, is to be applied
to the inscribed Gandhara fragments. For many
reasons the former of these two systems is preferable,
because it serves to place some of the best or most
classic examples of inscribed sculpture in the great
period of Kushan power; that is, before the Sasanian
invasion of a.d. 241.
n. See, for example, the Buddha images from
Loriyan Taiigai (Indian Museum, Calcutta) and
Hashtnagar, dated in the 318th and 384th years of the
era of 150 B.C., or a.d. 168 and 234 (illustrated in
Bachhofer, 11, plate 142). Presumably the finest
specimens from Charsada, Takht-i-Bahi, and Sahri
Bahlol also belong to this period of florescence. The
character of the masonry at these sites corresponds to
the type assigned to the second and third centuries
a.d. by Sir John Marshall on the basis of his excavations
at Taxila.
12. For comparisons, see B. Rowland, 'Gandhara
and Late Antique Art', American Journal ofArchaeology,
xlvi (1942), No. 2, 223-36.