126 



V. A. Smith — Grcrco-Roman influence 



[No. 3, 



Both the compositions above described are admirably balanced, and 

 the attitudes and expressions of all the persons concerned are rendered 

 •with vigour and truth to nature. The drapery, as usual, is Greek, or 

 Graco-Roman, in style. 



The design of these death-bed scenes is certainly an importation 

 from the west. The recumbent figure on the bed surrounded by morn- 

 ing attendants is clearly copied from Greek banqueting reliefs of a 

 sepulchral character, as imitated on Roman sarcophagi. A sculpture in 

 the Towneley collection in the British Museum bears a very close re- 

 semblance to the reliefs from the Nuttu manastery above described.* 

 I have no doubt that the Gandhara sculptures were copied from Grreco- 

 Roman, and not pure Greek, models. 



The figure of the founder of their religion was the decorative ele- 

 ment most largely used by the Buddhist artists in all their works, with 

 the exception of the earliest buildings in Bihar, Central, and Western 

 India, where symbols occupy the place afterwards taken by images. In 

 the countries on the north-west frontier of India, the image of the per- 

 sonal Buddha had become an object of worship at least as early as the 

 latter part of the first century A. D., when it was stamped on coins of 

 Kanishka.t 



There is, therefore, no reason to be surprised at the fact that 

 hundreds of sculptures from Gandhara, in various sizes, represent the 

 seated or standing Buddha, posed in one or other of the conventional 

 attitudes (mudrd), either buried in meditation, or engaged in exhorta- 

 tion. Such figures are often executed in large numbers on the face of a 

 single slab. Multitudes of specimens present the founder of Buddhism 

 engaged with other persons in one or other incident of his ministry or 

 the preparation for it. 



A deeply-cut relief, found at the village of Mohammad Nari, and 

 reproduced in the first plate of Major Cole's book, is a good illustration 

 of the oft-repeated figure of the teaching Buddha, who is here shown 

 seated cross-legged on an open lotus-flower, with his feet draped in a 

 gracefully disposed robe. His right shoulder is bare, and his hair is 

 arranged in formal conventional curls, a style which in later times be- 

 came the only orthodox arrangement for the hair both of Buddhist and 

 Jain statues. 



* 'Engravings from the ancient marbles in the British Museum, Part V, Plate III, 

 fig. 5, London. 1826). In this work tho Towneley relief is described as being of Ro- 

 man origin, but it may be Greek. Prof. Gardner informs me that the Greek works 

 of this class are referred to the period extending from B. C. 300 to A. D. 1. 



f Gardner, Catalogue of Coins of Greek and, Scythic Kings of Bactria and India,, 

 pp. 130, 133, 175, PI. XXVI, 8; XXVII, 2 ; XXXII, 14. 



