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

law, with the thumb against the finger-joints. He wears a white robe, and an under-

robe of dark brown, below which are seen his feet standing on the seed table of a

lotus. To the left, below the valance of the domed baldachino, hangs a large

grelot bell.

The next, lower, figure stands on a pink and green lotus and faces towards the

right, with the right hand raised in pose of protection (abhaya mudrá). The black hair

is dressed with a floral tiara from which a narrow ribbon hangs to the shoulder.

The loose white robe is draped from the left shoulder across the breast, leaving

the right shoulder and arm bare. It falls in tubular folds above the ankles, allowing

the hem of an under-robe to show. There seems to be a broad stole hanging down

the right side, bordered at its end with a band of rosettes and a double flounce, the

upper green, and the lower pink. The nimbus is green and seems to be resting in

the hollow of a white crescent, of which one horn appears behind the right shoulder.

The vesica is rich brown decorated with petals and buds. The garland on the head,

the rosette band and petal and sepal flounces at the end of the stole, and the vesica

of petals, &c., suggest a deity of fertility or the earth.

Just below appears the upper corner of a third of these small panels. The top of

a head and long ear of a figure can be made out with a rope-like diadem and float-

ing white streamer. The nimbus is green and the vesica is decorated with over-

lapping green, triangular sepals and pink petals.

There is considerable carelessness in execution, throughout. The soft contour

lines of earlier work are absent —a thin expressionless line of black or red taking

its place.

PAINTED FRAGMENTS FROM BALAWASTE

Bal. 098

THE upper part of a princely figure, probably the divine musician Panchasikha,

playing a small harp. He seems to be seated with the lower part of the instrument

resting on his knees. As he bends forward, the curved frame of the harp fits

snugly between his left arm and breast, bringing the upper part of the frame

against his cheek and left ear; the support thus given leaving both hands free for

playing. The left arm is seen behind the harp and the right is lightly extended with

the hand, gracefully posed and carefully drawn, plucking the strings. The

expression on the face of the musician is one of dreamy ecstasy, as he listens to

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