国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

{

to the right. His square head, low brow, and strong jaw have a rather Roman

appearance. He is clean shaven, has short curly hair, bushy at the neck, and large

straight eyes. His right hand is held up easily in front, showing the first and fourth

fingers raised and the middle two turned down —a well-known gesture of defence

against evil, and a precaution which his rather anxious expression suggests is

justified. The same gesture is used in playing the classical game of mora, and Stein

considered that this is the implication here. But the same sign is made by one of

the persons listening to the discourse in M. III. 002, plate I, an occasion when it is

unlikely that such diversion would be indulged in. I am inclined to think that in

both cases an attitude of protection against evil is intended.

The last supporter is a pleasant and rather nervous-looking boy wearing a

mauve Phrygian cap, below which his hair is arranged in a very neat row of tight

little curls across his forehead. His right arm is brought across the front of his

body, but the positions of both hands are obscured by damage to the painting.

Alternate pairs of the supporting putti face each other, as do the busts, alternately

male and female; and in the part of the dado here reproduced the pairs ofputtí look

towards the females, and so turn their backs towards the men; but this arrange-

ment is not constant throughout the cycle and has perhaps no significance. The pairs

of putti are alternately clothed and half-nude. The clothed wear Mithraic or simi-

lar caps, and the others are bare-headed with leaf-shaped tufts of hair on their

otherwise clean-shaven scalps.

The garland has lost most of its detail, appearing as a black band tied with

cinctures at regular intervals and a group of three disks (fruit or flowers) on each

side of the cincture. It is probable that leaves and blossoms were originally

painted on the black, as on the tree in M. III. 003, plate 1. At the lower part of

each downward curve is a light elliptical patch from which all details have faded.

In Gandhára sculpture, this position is occupied by a group of large leaves, fruit,

or a piece of drapery. The pink and green rosettes beside the busts serve to furnish

otherwise awkward spaces and to give a steadying balance to the design.

Black and buff border lines separate the dado from the subjects in the register

above. There is not enough of this to make out the scheme. All we can recognize

are several feet of men and animals, besides traces of other details, on a red

ground. There are cloven hoofs, pointing to the right, some lion's paws, and a

right human foot turned towards the left. The owner of the human foot is prob-

ably leading or controlling the lion-like creature, whose appearance, confronting

I2

~