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 (abbaya mudrā). 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 Panchaśikha,
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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