Wall Paintings from Ancient Shrines in Central Asia : vol.1 / Page 58 (Color Image)

0058	Wall Paintings from Ancient Shrines in Central Asia : vol.1

•

her knee. She is dressed in a sage green tunic spotted with yellow, perhaps signify-

ing the devi's unhappy identification with small-pox. A red band on the lower

edge of the tunic has a spot pattern of little circles. High above the elbows the

short sleeves are trimmed with a buff (gold) braid and between this and the white

elbow frill is a band of terra-cotta colour figured with green and black scrolls.

From below the frills the arms are covered by the tight sleeves of a red under-

garment, the purple cuffs decorated with green scrolls. On the plum-coloured

skirt is a repeating pattern of terra-cotta and green trefoil flowers on a ground

spotted with pearl-like white dots. A green stole comes from behind the shoulders

and twines round the arms.

The five children, representing her five hundred, are more easily identified; one

astride her wrist, another embracing her left breast, two astride her shoulders, the

one on the left shoulder wearing a terra-cotta colour smock. The other three are

nude. The fifth, badly defaced, on the left of the picture, wears a green smock and

seems to be dancing.

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books