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

rather coarse features, one carrying a typical crutched stick (*bairāgun*), are characters
still familiar in India. Four musicians contribute to the sounds of lamentation,
with professional enthusiasm and energy. The drummer holds the drum
under his right arm and beats it with a ball-headed stick—not the usual Indian
type—held in his left hand. It will be seen that he has reddish hair and green eyes.
It was recorded by the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan-tsang, in the seventh century, that
the people of Khotan had green eyes, and that they were very fond of music and
dancing. May not these be an itinerant party of Khotanese performers? To the left
of the drummer the cymbal player clashes his box-like instruments above his
head. The performer whose head is missing plays a flute, the end, with the left
hand fingering the notes, being still preserved. The white-haired *biwa* player uses
the classical plectrum, and, like the other members of the troup, seems to be
singing or humming. From the animated poses of the legs, especially those of the
flautist, they are all stamping or dancing in time with their music, and the old *biwa*
player is clearly beating time with the great toe of his left foot. The curious, short,
fur gaiters, with no visible means of support, occur frequently in the Bezeklik
pictures and are perhaps a local fashion of the period. The whole of this section is
remarkable for its character studies, and for the natural proportions of the bodies,
a quality not found in the other pictures from this site.

In the centre panel, D, E, F, the robust but short-legged standing Buddha figure
has a lotus under each foot. He stands on a wooden raft, of Chinese make, floating
on the swirling waters of a stream—perhaps the 'Ocean of Existence'—with
deeply eroded banks. I am diffident about describing the Buddha's dress by naming
each garment. Like those who compile cookery recipes or describe card games,
writers on costume usually succeed in creating baffling obscurity over the subject
they set out to explain. In the case of those who profess to enlighten us on the
subject of Buddhist canonical costume, confusion is increased by want of agree-
ment among the experts themselves. With the desire to avoid drawing down
upon myself similar criticism, it may be safely stated that here the Buddha
appears to wear the three canonical garments respectively called the *uttarāsanga*, the
*sanghāṭī*, and the *antaravāsaka*; and of these the first is the outer, enveloping red robe;
the second, the blue garment showing at the breast and below the lower edge of the
first; and the third, the crimson garment falling below the blue, to the feet. It may
be that a fourth garment lies close to the body, showing its upper edge at the
breast, above the edge of the blue. This would, perhaps, be the *nivāsana*, and is

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