1889.] 



on tlie Civilization of Ancient India. 



129 



by Greek artists in bronze longer than in marble,* and this observa- 

 tion may possibly serve as the explanation of the woolly-haired Buddhns, 

 which may be conjectured to have been derived from a bronze prototype. 



I cannot venture on trying the patience of my readers by describing 

 even a few of the many friezes and panels which vividly present inci- 

 dents of Buddha's life and preaching, such as his visits to ascetics and 

 Naga kings, and his miraculous escapes from the snares laid by Deva- 

 datta. The compositions are like most Roman work, generally crowded 

 with figures, which it would be tedious to describo in detail. Good 

 illustrations of several are given in Major Cole's Plates. 



A blue slate panel, about 13 inches in height, representing in high 

 relief a cliaitya front filled with small figures of Buddha and worship- 

 pers, the original of which is in the Lahore Museum, a cast being in 

 Calcutta, is reproduced in Plate IX, fig. 3, and is a fair example of a 

 very numerous class of works. 



The sculptors of Gdndhara were not restricted in their choice of 

 religious subjects to the birth, death, meditation, miracles, and preach- 

 ing of Gautama. 



At- the time when they flourished, Buddhist literature had attained 

 vast dimensions, and offered, in the collections of Jdtakas, or Birth- 

 stories relating to the adventures of the Buddha in his previous births, 

 an inexhaustible treasury of subjects for the art of the painter and the 

 sculptor. 



That subjects of this class frequently formed the theme of the 

 Grreco- Buddhist artists can be perceived from the mutilated extant 

 fragments of their compositions, though the brittleness of the stone in 

 which their works were generally executed is such that few of the in- 

 numerable friezes which decorated the buildings of Gandhara have been 

 preserved in a condition sufficiently perfect to permit of their story 

 being clearly read. 



The best preserved connected series of story-telling sculptures is 

 that which adorned the risers of the sixteen steps leading to the central 

 sfupa of the monastery at Jamalgarhi, excavated by Lieut. Crompton 

 and Sir A. Cunningham.t 



* Perry, Greek and Roman Sculpture, p. 351. 



t Lieutenant Crompton's report has not, so far as lam awaro, bocn printed in 

 full. Its substance is given in the Indian. Antiquary, Vol. Ill, p. 143. The friezes 

 of the risers are the only sculptures found in their original position at Jamalgapht, 

 All the others had been thrown down, and " in many cases large and heavy frag- 

 ments of the same sculpture wore found far apart." Lieut. Crompton hence con- 

 cluded that tho buildings had been "destroyed by design, and not by natmal 

 decay." Sir A. Cunningham's catalogue of the sculptures of the risers arranged in 

 the order of the steps is given in Archaiol. Rep., Vol, V, p. K)9. 



