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

thick rather curly hair, short but with a rippling lock falling in front of the ear,

and a greatly amplified top-knot, which forms the usnisa. The significance of

the treatment of the human hair is world-wide, and since the inexplicable indiscre-

tion of Samson in confiding to the perfidious Delilah the secret of his strength, the

hair has been subjected to many fantastic variations, prescribed by tribal or

canonical edict, superstition, or just by the equally inexorable decrees of fashion;

and perhaps nowhere has this been more widely observed than in India. It is an

attractive subject for investigation, but cannot be pursued here.

In the Introduction I have said that the sharp black contour lines of later paint-

ings are not found in those of Mirán (p. xxii). A qualified exception may be made

in respect of the M. V. 004 `angel', in which the contours are black and sharp; but

they have not the fearless sweep and expression such as a Chinese painter would

have given them. Nevertheless, there are other features in this example which

suggest the work of a hand other than those which painted the M. III `angels'. The

flesh is without shading, and the neck is short. The eyes are long and narrow, the

upper lid drawn with a single line. The irises are black, whereas in every other

case they are dark brown outlined with black and with black pupils. Then there is

the Chinese cloud scroll on the band of the lunette.

Although eyes and mouth are generally well drawn in all the N_irán pictures and

are expressive and animated, study of the nose seems to have been less successful.

The Semitic curve is confident as far as the tip of the nose but the form of nostril

and wing is generally meanly and inadequately sketched; giving the impression

that the slight foreshortening called for presented an unsolved difficulty. Fore-

shortening involves an application of the laws of perspective, and judging from

the drawing of the chariot in the Vessantarai picture on the upper part of the walls

of this shrine, the Mirán artists had less understanding of these laws than had

their fellow craftsmen in the West.

I Cf. Figs. 135, 136, Serindia, vol. 1.

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