National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

M.V. Both were built structures, in a very ruinous condition; their exact form in

elevation could not be determined, but enough remained to show that they were

an an

square on external plan   that they each contained a circular cella enclosing a stúP a with circular base, the space between sal-pa-

pa and cella walls providing

a circumambulatory passage. It was from these cella walls that some of the

examples were recovered. In the case of M. V, there was another passage or

corridor running round the outer, square walls, also painted and probably enclosed

by protecting walls outside these again, which, however, had completely disap-

peared. The excellent preservation of many of the fragments is due to their pro-

tection, after falling, by the masses of debris that choked the corridor, and in

which they were embedded. This accumulation of fallen plaster and masonry also

protected portions of the dados, two or three feet high, which occupied the lower

part of the walls, and remained in position. Above the dados the walls had been

originally painted with subjects from Buddhist legends, but most of this had

fallen.

Apart from their artistic and technical interest the Mirán paintings have a

special archaeological value. From evidence afforded by certain Kharosthi inscrip-

tions recovered from the debris the probable date of the shrines is about the third

or fourth century A.D. While we are familiar with the Buddhist sculptures of

Gandhára from the numberless fragments in many public museums and private

collections, the only examples of the same art expressed in painting, at present

known, are these from Mirán. The subject-matter of the pictures, seen and photo-

graphed in situ by Sir Aurel Stein, has been described by him in Serindia and need

not be repeated here. A few points noted during the present writer's intimate asso-

ciation with, and close study of, them may be mentioned. The motive of the fes-

tooned garland carried on the shoulders of amorini is constantly used in Gandhára

sculpture, as are also the winged angel busts placed in the upper hollows of the

festoon; but in the dado of M. V it is rendered in a far more interesting way than

in any of the sculptured versions. Here the characterization of the alternate male

and female heads is very striking, and among the amorini there is a definite and

successful attempt to express individuality. The homely touch of the foot-weary

boy is delightful, and his appearance on the Kaniska casket, now in the Peshawar

Museum, and again in a sculptured fragment of a step `riser' from Gandhára, in

the British Museum, is significant. See Figs. I and 2,p. 13.

In Sir Aurel Stein's description of the fine painting illustrating illustrati the Vessantara

xx