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

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PLATE IV

PAINTING FROM FARHAD-BÉG-YAILAKI

F. XII. 004

ROM a small shrine built of clay blocks, its walls about 42 feet thick enclos-

ing a cella measuring about 8 feet by IO feet. The painting was on the right-

hand side of the entrance, placed low on the wall and therefore exposed to

damage by the passing of visitors to the shrine.

The subject is the goddess Háriti in her regenerate aspect as the protectress and

nourisher of children and goddess of fecundity. Legend credits this cherisher of

children with a lurid `past'. She was a Yaksini, a demon goddess, promoter of

disease, personification of small-pox, and devourer of babies. But whether she had

exhausted all varieties of exercise for her evil inclinations and yearned for new

fields of enterprise, or suffered from shock after thoughtlessly devouring her last-

born, it appears that she sought or encountered the Buddha who administered a

severe rebuke against her evil practices, and by indicating to her the more desirable

paths, she was converted, dedicated her life to good works, and became the benign

goddess here depicted.

The fearless playfulness of the children clambering about her shows the apparent

thoroughness of her regeneration, and if we detect in the mingled sadness and

sweetness of her expression a smouldering survival of the old fires still capable of

renewed activity, they are, at least, well under control. The heavy-lidded, half-

closed, dreamy eyes denote introspection in which perhaps visions of the exciting

past may not all be as completely effaced or even repented as they should be. How-

ever sad her eyes, there is something of the Persian houri in her appearance especially

marked by the rather insistent love-locks, the complementary bloom on her

cheeks (now, alas, sadly discoloured), and the approved voluptuous folds of her

plump neck. Her hair is decked with strings of pearls and a central jewel (broken

away). Large rings seem to depend from her ears or it may be simply that the lobes

are pierced with gaping holes. The halo is turquoise green surrounded with red

and buff.

The badly damaged condition of the painting makes some description of detail

necessary. Háriti, dressed in a costume of Persian character, sits cross-legged, her

right forearm bent to support one of the boys who sits astride her wrist. Her left

arm is akimbo, the closed hand with first finger pointing downwards, resting near

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