366 



On the Buddhist Remains of Sultdnganj. 





[No. 4, 



be one-sixth of the body, but in the statue this has been exceeded by a 

 few minutes. The torso is slightly shorter than the Grecian standard. 

 On the whole, even after making ample allowances for the fact that the 

 changes which the human form undergoes from infancy to old a^e and 

 in different nationalities and climates preclude the possibility of limiting 

 its measurements to any ideal standard, it must be admitted that the 

 artist of the statue had a very imperfect knowledge of proportion. He 

 had evidently adopted the tall North Indian and not the squat Bhot 

 for his model. 



The figure is erect, standing in the attitude of delivering a lecture) 

 and in this respect bears a close resemblance to the sandstone statues 

 so largely found at Sarnath by General Cunningham. The right 

 hand is lifted in the act of exhortation ; the left holds the hem of a 

 large sheet of cloth which is loosely thrown over the body. Both 

 hands bear the impress of a lotus, the emblem, according to Indian 

 chiromancy, of universal supremacy, and as such is always met with on 

 the hands of Vishnu, Brahma and some other Hindu divinities. The 

 ears are pendulous and bored, and the hair on the head disposed in 

 curled buttons in the way they are usually represented on Burmese 

 figures, and not very unlike the buttons on the heads of some of the 

 Nineveh bas-reliefs. The lips are thin and the face, though more 

 rounded than oval, is not remarkable for any prominence of the cheek 

 bone. On the forehead there is a circular tilafo or auspicious mark. 



The material is a very pure copper cast in two layers, the inner one 

 in segments on an earthen mould, and held together by iron bands 

 which were originally f of an inch thick, but are now very much 

 worn down by rust. The outer layer of the copper has also oxidized in 

 different places and become quite spongy. The casting of the face 

 down to the breast, was effected in one piece ; the lower parts down to 

 the knee in another, and then the legs, feet, hands and back in several 

 pieces. A hole has been bored through the breast, and chips have 

 been knocked off from other parts of the body since the exhumation of 

 the figure, evidently with a view to ascertain if it did not contain 

 hidden treasure such as is said to have been found by Mahmood in 

 the belly of the famous idol of Somnath, but it has led to the dis- 

 covery of nothing beyond the mould on which the figure had been cast. 

 The substance of this mould looks like a friable cinder. Origin- 

 ally it consisted of a mixture of sand ? clay, charcoal and paddy husk, 



