284 EXCAVATION OF BUDDHIST SHRINES [CHAP. XVIII.
here again were constructed of a wooden framework with layers of hard plaster on either side, showed a uniform thickness of six and a half inches. The cella was enclosed by a quadrangular passage about four and a half feet wide, with outer walls of the same materials. This passage, which almost certainly served for the purposes of the circuinambulation (` pradakshina ') common to all traditional forms of Indian worship, also had its entrance in the centre of the north wall. The interior of the cella was once occupied by a colossal statue made of stucco and painted, which iiiost probably represented a Buddha. But of this only the feet remained, about thirteen inches long, raised on an elaborately moulded oblong base about three feet high. The other parts of the statue had crumbled away long ago, and the fragments comprising parts of the legs and of the lower drapery which were found in the sand above the base broke at the slightest touch. Of the wooden framework, too, which once supported the heavy image, only the lowest part was still intact, fixed within the left foot. Each of the four corners of the cella was occupied by a draped stucco figure standing on a lotus-shaped pedestal. But of these statues only the one in the north-west corner was found intact up to the waist. A photograph of this cella, taken after the excavation, is reproduced on p. 285.
The walls of the cella, which, judging from the size of the statue, must have been of considerable height, were decorated inside with frescoes showing figures of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas enveloped in large halos. As these too were over life-size, only the feet with the broad painted frieze below them showing lotuses and small figures of worshippers, could be seen on the walls still standing. The colours looked faded and worn, as if the frescoes had been exposed for a considerable time before the protecting sand invaded the building. But the outlines, drawn mostly in a kind of terracotta colour on the fine-grained, well-prepared plaster surface, were still sharp and clear. The decoration of the outside of the cella walls consisted mainly of fresco bands containing small representations of seated Buddhist saints in the attitude of meditation, only
IIIFカラー高解像度
