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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0235 Serindia : vol.3
セリンディア : vol.3
Serindia : vol.3 / 235 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000183
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Sec. iv]   TEMPLE REMAINS NORTH OF KHOTAN   1275

the top of the extant wall (ii in Plan). . The wall, built of sun-dried bricks and facing to the southwest, proved on complete clearing to be painted in tempera along its whole length, 34 feet, with colossal figures of alternating Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (?). When the wall was intact, they must have stood to a height of about 12 feet. The figures were surrounded by oval vesicas, and the spandrels left between these below were filled, as Fig. 327 shows, by small Buddha figures, 3 feet 3 inches high. The height of the sand still remaining in front of the frescoed wall made photographing of the colossal figures impossible. While the trench was being widened next day in order to overcome this difficulty, the whole wall collapsed. The brickwork of its lower portion was saturated with moisture, and whatever timber it may have once contained had completely decayed. The wall thus gave way under the pressure of the sand at its back which could not be kept off, and under its weight the painted plaster surface, already soft before, was completely crushed. In consequence of this mishap I must be content with giving a description of the wall-

paintings as recorded while excavation was in progress.   -

The colossal figures, of which six were actually brought to light, occupied each with their vesicas at their evidest a wall-space of 4 feet 10 inches. All of them appear to have been represented in three-quarters profile to the right proper. The right hand appears to have always been posed in the abhaya.-nzztdrâ, while the left was shown hanging down below the waist carrying a bluish loop or wreath between the thumb and the second and third fingers, much in the same fashion as seen in the fresco which Fig. 325 reproduces. The upper portion of the breast and the head were missing in alr figures. The dress, as far as preserved or distinguishable, consisted in each case of an ample outer robe laid over the left 'shoulder. This was in alternating figures coloured plain reddish brown or else showed on terra-cotta ground close-set bars of dark purple, about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide, with a white stripe running down in the middle.' The background of each colossal figure was dark blue, semé with white leaves resembling those of the lilac. In the case of the figures wearing the variegated robes last described, the vesica was formed by a broad central band of triangles pointed upwards with two narrower bands on each side, purple and terra-cotta on the inside and terra-cotta and black on the outside. The triangular strips of the central band showed the following succession of colours : black, terra-cotta, dark blue, terra-cotta, white, terra-cotta. The vesica of the figures wearing the plain-coloured robe showed a similar but slightly narrower border within. Outside this a border was formed by two bands, blue and white respectively, interlacing and forming lozenges as it were in relief. The ground was terra-cotta inside the lozenges and purple outside. The small Buddha figures already referred to as filling the spandrels below (Fig. 327) were all holding the right hand in the abhaya-mudrâ and wearing plain dark-red robes. They faced three-quarters to the left proper and had an elliptical halo besides a vesica.

The wall bearing the frescoes just described is likely to have belonged to a hall or court giving access to the shrine of which Ta. i, to be described presently, formed part, and possibly to one or more shrines besides, now completely perished. A wall adjoining at right angles and running southwest was found badly broken and could not be traced beyond i o feet or so. Destruction by moisture and wind-erosion in turn had left no other structural traces of the hall or court. In what manner it was roofed it is impossible to determine. But considering the great length of the frescoed wall and the fact that its line was continued by what is likely to have been the front of the temple of which Ta. i was a part, it seems probable that the roofing extended only along the frescoed walls, thus forming a kind of open verandah-like galleries or cloisters. Such a roofing must certainly have been provided for the enclosing quadrangle of the great Rawak Vihâra, and the frescoes here obviously

7 Fig. 327 shows on the right 'a small portion of a robe   also be made out.

of this type. There the two kinds of vesica decoration can

7 z 2

Wall with colossal fresco figures.

Colossal figures described.

Open court adjoining temple.