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
square on external plan and that they each contained a circular cella enclosing a
stūpa with circular base, the space between stūpa 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 Mīrān paintings have a
special archæological value. From evidence afforded by certain Kharoṣṭhī 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
Gandhāra 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 Mīrān. 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 Gandhāra
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 Kaniṣka casket, now in the Peshawar
Museum, and again in a sculptured fragment of a step 'riser' from Gandhāra, in
the British Museum, is significant. See Figs. 1 and 2, p. 13.

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

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