1834.] Note on the Bauddha image from Kabul. 455 



sole dominion like the God of this world,' which to ignorant people 

 must be his most glorious and natural type, will of course have attract- 

 ed the earliest adoration, and where revelation was withheld, will almost 

 necessarily have been the primary fount of idolatry and superstition. 

 The investigators of ancient mythology accordingly trace to this prolific 

 source, wherein they are melted and lost, almost every other mytholo- 

 gical personage ; who, like his own light, diverge and radiate from his 

 most glorious centre." 



Postscript on the image of Buddha from Kabul. 



The Bauddha image represented in figure 1 of Plate XXVI. is describ- 

 ed in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, of the 6th August last, 

 page 363. 



It was discovered by Doctor Gerard in the course of some excava- 

 tions made by him in the ruins of an ancient town about two miles 

 south-east of Kabul, and near a modern village called Bent hissdr. 



According to the description given by Mohan Lal, the image was 

 not found in an insulated tope, but in a mass of bricks and rubbish, 

 which more resembled the ordinary ruins of a desolated town. After 

 penetrating through a mound of such debris, a chamber of masonry was 

 by accident found in entire preservation, the walls of which were orna- 

 mented with coloured stones and gilding ; and here the statue wa3 

 discovei'ed. It was evidently the ruin of some Bauddha temple, or 

 oratory in a private dwelling, that had been deserted on the demolition 

 of the town. The image itself has been partially mutilated, as if in a 

 hurried manner, by striking off the heads of the figures with a hammer; 

 one only has escaped : the principal figure has lost the upper part of 

 the head. This mode of desecration points to an irruption of Muham- 

 medans in their first zeal for the destruction of graven idols. The faces 

 at Bamian are described by Lieut. Burnes to have been mutilated in 

 a similar way, while the rest of the figures remain tolerably perfect. 

 The town was probably plundered and destroyed ; such of the Buddhist 

 inhabitants as escaped, taking refuge in the neighbouring hills, or in 

 Tibet, where the religion of Buddha continued to flourish. The age of 

 the image, if this conjecture be well founded, will be about ten centu- 

 ries, falling far short of the antiquity of the topes themselves, and 

 having no immediate connection with them, unless as proving the con- 

 tinued prevalence of the Bauddha doctrines in Kabul to the latter period, 

 a fact well known from other sources. 



The lambent flame on the shoulders is a peculiarity not observed in 

 any image or drawing of Buddha that I have seen. It seems to denote 

 a Mithriac tinge in the local faith. The solar disc or glory behind the 



