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

practice, corresponds with armour worn by soldiers in the army of Buddha's

enemy Mára, represented on a sculptured stone fragment from Gandhára in the

Lahore Museum. The practical advantage of the upward overlap of the scales

lies in the greater flexibility afforded than by having the scales arranged in the

reverse way. Other points of interest in this figure are discussed in Ancient Khotan.I

The wall painting appears to be a confused composition, not fully understood,

and for this reason may seem wanting in coherence. It obviously illustrates some

legend and has particular significance in presenting a figure which at once recalls

the western conception of Venus, here assuming the role of a Nágini rising from

the waters of a tank or lotus lake. The resemblance to the Medicean Venus is so

close as to give the immediate impression of that, or one of many similar Greek

or Roman versions, being the source of inspiration. We recognize the slight crook

of the left knee, the forward droop of the body, the youthful breasts and, most

significant, the action of the arms in bringing the beautiful hands into the positions

indicative of maidenly modesty. Further aid is afforded to this assumption of

virginal coyness by the introduction of an unorthodox vine-leaf `apron' where

western convention would prescribe the traditional fig-leaf. Only one other

example in Central Asian art of a leaf `apron' is known to me, and this occurs

on a stone figure of Háriti among the Gandhára sculptures in the Lahore Museum,

(No. 2100). The leaf in that case seems to hang from a girdle round the hips,

underneath the long flowing sari, which because of the introduction of the leaf

may be presumed to be semi-transparent. That western influence might be

present in the design of the Nágini is not improbable when one considers the

fine Graeco-Buddhist seals found at Yótkan in the Khotan region and the seal

impressions with figures of Athene Promachos, Pallas Athene, and Eros on

wooden documents of the second and third centuries A.D. recovered by Stein from

sites in the Taklamakán Desert.' It is not unlikely that seal gems bearing the

figure of this Venus should have reached the Khotan district. But the presence

of the leaf `apron' on such a figure in a Greek or Roman gem is very doubtful

and is perhaps an adaptation by the artist.

In the character of a Nágini our Venus is here decked with ornaments suited

to her part, consisting of armlets, bracelets, necklet, and, festooned round her hips,

cords carrying rows of little grelot bells. The mass of her hair seems to be tied

with a light-coloured band, and it is probable that she bore as cognizance a snake

I See Ancient Khotan, pp. 251-3.   2 See Ancient Khotan, p. 354.

IIo