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

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PLATE XXXI

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PAINTINGS FROM BEZEKLIK

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Bez. xiii. B

FROM the south wall of cella. A celestial figure—apsara--descends on very decorative clouds, her arms upraised and flowing draperies streaming backwards as she floats swiftly down. No wings control her flight. Aerial figures of human form are rarely, if ever, furnished with wings in Indian and Chinese

medieval art, unless under influence from the West. The only examples in the

paintings of this collection are the `angel' heads of Mirán (plates z and iii), and

these conform with the Gandhára practice and so may be considered as influenced

by Western convention. It is true that Garuda is given wings; but he is a bird, and

if often given a human body, in that incarnation presents but an inversion of the

principle.

Oxidization has disfigured the face of the apsara, and other parts of the picture

have suffered from abrasion and flaking. The long under-robe is pale pink, the upper

robe dull red trimmed with blue; the long stoles and sashes pale pink and blue.

The folds or pleats of the sleeves on the forearms are similar to those of the Minis

on plates xx and xxi. Below the apsara the rolling clouds are designed with true

Chinese fancy, in which the vapoury masses are gathered into floral forms, in

colour reflecting that of the draperies; and adapted as a repeating band of ornament,

now very fragmentary, between the two discoloured bands above. These two

bands seem to have been varnished to make the surface sufficiently hard to bear

the pressure of some kind of broad-tipped qalam with which the inscription in very

formal Bráhmi characters has been written. The background to the apsara is dull

pinkish-red.

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II

Bez. xiv. A–D

This painting is from the north wall of the cella and, if the scale of the plan is

correct, it extended the entire length of the wall.

For convenience of description the picture may be considered as divided into

four vertical sections. Of these, that on the left seems to be related to some scheme

farther in that direction, perhaps on the `return' wall at the west end of the cella.

It portrays two Nágarájás wading in the waters of a lotus lake contained between

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Fb

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