1889.] 



on llie Civilisation of Ancient India. 



131 



Six of these panels, (from the third step of the staircase), are 

 occupied by female busts with the arms raised, and having acauthus 

 leaves extended like wings from the waist on each side. These little 

 figures at once remind the spectator of the angels with which he is 

 familiar in Christian art. It is quite possible that the sculptors of 

 Gandhara may have picked up some hints from artists connected with 

 the churches of Asia Minor and Syria, and I have a suspicion that they 

 did so, though I cannot offer any decisive proof of the supposed fact. I 

 have no doubt that a real connection exists between early Christian art 

 and the Gandhara school. The four remaining panels (from the fif- 

 teenth step) contain each a grotesque bust terminating in two scaly 

 tails. 



Above these panels nine remarkable Atlanteau statuettes are ex- 

 hibited, which form, apparently, part of a set of twenty-three obtained 

 at Jamalgarhi by Sir A. Cunningham. He supposes that they "filled 

 the spaces between the large dentils which supported the heavy mould- 

 ings of the stupas,"* or, as he elsewhere expresses himself, that " they 

 were arranged in rows to support the lowermost moulding of a building. 

 The figures were generally separated by pilasters. "f 



Numbers of similar figures have been fouud. Most commonly they 

 are about eight inches high, but they vary in height from four to 

 eighteen inches. J 



The British Museum specimens range in height from about seven to 

 nine inches. All the figures are in a sitting posture, though the attitude 

 varies. One figure crouches like Atlas, as if oppressed under the burden 

 of a heavy load, while the attitudes of the others seem to express repose 

 rather than the endurance of crushing pressure. Some of the faces are 

 bearded, and some are not. The facial expression is freely varied, and 

 rendered with great spirit and vigour. The muscles of the chest and 

 abdomen are fully and truthfully displayed, with a tendency to exag- 

 geration, and a pair of expanded wings is attached to the shoulders of 

 each statuette. 



A group of wrestlers ((?. 82 Calcutta), and a composition ((7.89 

 Calcutta), catalogued by Sir A. Cunningham as " Herakles fighting 

 with a snake legged giant," both of which were found at Jamalgarhi, 

 are executed in the same style. The latter work (Plate IX, fig. 4) is 



* Archanl. Rep., Vol. V, p. 198. 



f Descriptive List, p. 2. 



t Descriptive List, and Indian Antiquary, Vol. Ill, p. 144 Sixteen statuettes 

 of this class are in the Calcutta Museum ((7. 81 and S3). A feeble terracotta imita- 

 tion of the design has been found far away eastward in the Bogra (Bagraha) District 

 of Lower Bengal. (Mn., 1, in Anderson's Catalogue). 

 R 



