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

occupations, is in pleasant contrast with the sublime air of the celestial host
above it.
The rhythmic sensitiveness in composition and drawing instinct in the southern
Indian paintings contrasts fundamentally with the rigid ordinance governing many
of the Bezeklik schemes. Whereas the southern pictures bear the impress of the
hand and inspiration of the artist, those of the north mostly show the mechanical
habitude of the artisan. In the southern paintings there is a subtle quality of depth
and atmosphere, lacking in those of the north. Such qualities reflect psychological
differences—the imaginative, poetical nature of the one as against the matter-of-
fact and practical outlook of the other. These generalizations, in so far as they
relate to the northern pictures, refer only to examples reproduced in this work,
and even among these there are exceptions, but they are rare. A few points of
comparison in certain details are interesting. The powdering of a deep red back-
ground with little white flowers, frequently found at Ajanta, occurs in Bal. 0102,
Har. H, plate ix, and Har. B on the title-page. The garments, mostly dhotīs,
in Ajanta and Bāgh are nearly all woven in plain stripes. Some of these stripes are
more elaborate and are woven in small diced patterns, both in Ajanta and Bāgh,
not unlike some bands of pattern on the garments in Bal. and Har. examples, plate
ix, already referred to. In one instance at Ajanta, Cave I, said to be fifth or sixth
century, the stripes show rows of geese—the only example noted at Ajanta of the
use of an animal pattern on a textile. In the north, at Toyuk, winged lions occur in
a widely spaced spot pattern (Toy. VI. 02, plate viii). Simple spot patterns appear
on sārīs worn by a few figures at Ajanta, and on garments figured on painted
wooden panels from Dandān-oilik. The use of white dots and rings to form
patterns is common to Ajanta, Toyuk, Tārīm sites, and Turfān; and, it may be
interesting to note, in early medieval veils in Europe.
The evidence of Chinese influence mingled with the art of other races declares
itself in small details in compositions which, as a whole, are un-Chinese in their
conception. In such rigid and formal schemes as those of Bez. xii, plate xxviii, and
Bez. iii, plate xvi, quite unlike the invention of a Chinese artist, there are build-
ings in the upper corners, Chinese in design and bearing a Chinese character
written on the gable-end; the cloud-like rendering of floral forms in the vesica
borders and the treatment of details on the armour of certain figures are quite
Chinese. The badly damaged pictures, Bez. x. K–O and Bez. x. P, Q, plates xxiv
and xxv, are conceived and drawn with that freedom, lightness of touch, and such

xxviii