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0357 Serindia : vol.2
Serindia : vol.2 / Page 357 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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Sec. v]

BUDDHAS AND BODHISATTVAS   863

That these Bodhisattva pictures of ` Indian ' style, however interesting iconographically, cannot Mixture of

ICnhdiinaens'eand

compete in artistic merit of design and colouring with the good specimens of the much larger ` Chinese ' class to be briefly described next will be obvious from an examination of the ' Indian ' Bodhisattva Bodhisattva banners reproduced in Plates LXXX (Ch. lv. 0034), LXXXVII (*xxvi. a. 007, ooio), types. LXXXVIII (lv. 0037), LXXXIX. That the production of both types of Bodhisattva banners was in the main local is scarcely subject to doubt. It is directly attested by the number of specimens which show a mixture of characteristic features from either, and further by the fact that we find

both types represented among the pictures comprised in what manifestly is one simultaneously produced series or set.12 Here I may conveniently mention also that Bodhisattva figures, mostly

of ` Indian ' type and usually traced in mere outlines, serve for the decoration of a number of silk

rolls which, though not having the regular shape of banners, may yet be supposed to have been

intended for display in a similar fashion.13

The other type of Bodhisattva figures, which for brevity's sake we may designate here as the Chinese' ` Chinese ', is presented to us by the great majority of the silk banners as well 'as by a small number tByôdhof of linen ones. It is unnecessary for us to discuss here the detailed features which distinguish this sattvas in type clearly from the preceding ones. They will be found duly indicated in the descriptions of banners.

typical examples as recorded in the List,14 and the reproductions of such specimens as are furnished by Plates LXXVII—LXXXIII help more than any description of details to demonstrate the general

character of the type and to justify its designation as ` Chinese '. Though in certain features of the

figure, dress, and jewellery, as well as in some of the emblems and accessories, it is still easy to recognize the influence of originally Indian convention, yet the general type evolved and its

artistic treatment are unmistakably and thoroughly Chinese. The banners show us the type of

these ' Chinese' Bodhisattvas in a finished stage of development. For, as Miss Lorimer rightly points out in a general note, ' the same type of figure, dress, jewels, canopies, etc., appears in all,

with narrow variation in details ; and the same perfected technique, in different degrees of delicacy

or carelessness. Both subjects and treatment have become stereotyped, and the paintings are accordingly marked by a certain monotony and lifelessness on the imaginative side ; but the

conventions followed, in externals, are full of grace and dignity. In particular, the Chinese mastery of line finds full scope in the treatment of the trailing robes in which this particular class of divinity is arrayed'.

tinct emblems or inscriptions : Maiijuiri (Ch. 0036 ; xxii. 004 ; *xxvi. a. 007 ; Iv. 0030); Vajrapirvi (lv. 008); Ksiiigarbha (Ch. oo6o). With regard to the last named it is significant that only the inscription distinguishes this figure from its replica in *i. 0016, here labelled as Kuan-yin or AvalokiteS`vara.

14 Thus we see features and general treatment of the ' Chinese' Bodhisattva type combined with the pose, dress, jewellery, etc., of the ' Indian' type in the silk banners Ch. ooI 16 ; i. 007 ; xxii. oo4; xxxviii. 002 (Pl. Lxxxi) ; xl. 005. The same is the case in the series Ch. *00,08, 00110; xlvi. oor0—II, all evidently from the same hand and, where sufficiently preserved, bearing Tibetan inscriptions.

The fine silk banner Ch. 0036 (Thousand B., Pl. xXVii), representing Mafijusri on his lion, may also be mentioned here as a good example, as it shows Indian conventions in physical type, pose, and dress carefully preserved, while the features of the deity and the figure of his ' Vâhana' are

treated in a style closely corresponding to that of the ' Chinese' Bodhisattva type.

As instances of sets or series of banners comprising specimens of both the ' Indian' and ' Chinese ' Bodhisattva types may be quoted, e.g., the companion pictures (those of Indian ' type being placed first) *Ch. xxvi. a. oo 7 : : xxvi. a. 009 (Pl. LXXXVII) ; xxiii. oo6 : : Ch. 00140 ; liv. 009 : : *liv. oo8.

13 See Ch. 00474-80 ; xxiv. oo8. Most of these show the same Bodhisattva figure repeated several times, evidently by means of stencils. Ch. xxviii. 007, measuring over 12 feet in length and of silk damask, shows a standing Bodhisattva of life-size. Two silk banners, Ch. 0024, 0089, otherwise complete with accessories, show respectively a floral design and a Padmasana drawn or stamped.

14 Cf. the descriptions under *Ch. 001, *002 for these Bodhisattva banners as a whole; under *i. 003 for those representing K§itigarbha, and *xvii. 001 for a small variety differentiated in dress but as yet unidentified.