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| 0338 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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the colours of the robes and halos varying. But amidst these
conventional designs there was found a picture which, though
much effaced, at once attracted my interest as representing some
sacred legend, perhaps of a local character. It shows rows of
youths riding on horses or camels each holding a cup in his
outstretched right hand, while above one of the riders a bird,
perhaps meant for a falcon, is swooping down on this offering.
The popularity of the subject was subsequently attested by my
discovery of a well-preserved painted tablet in another temple
ruin on which a similar scene is figured.
Frescoes of Buddhist saints over-lifesize, similar to those found
in the cella, once adorned the inside of the walls enclosing the
passage. Below them there ran a decorative frieze in which lotuses
floating in the water and small human figures, perhaps meant for
Nagas or deities of springs, supporting the feet of the sacred
personages above, could still be made out. From the south wall
of the passage I succeeded in removing the piece of painted plaster
which is seen opposite, and which is now safely deposited in the
British Museum. It shows the figure of a seated Buddha or
Bodhisattva, occupying the triangular space left between the
lower portions of two larger frescoes. The inscription painted
beneath in black colour is in a cursive variety of the Brahmi
script; its language, however, like that of some other short in-
scriptions found on the frescoed walls of the Dandan-Uiliq ruins,
is not Indian, but probably the same as appears in the Non-
Sanskritic Brahmi documents I discovered at this site.
The excavations, when extended on the 21st of December to the
remains immediately adjoining the west wall of the shrine just
described, brought to light another Buddhist temple cella which,
notwithstanding its smaller dimensions, proved particularly rich
in interesting art relics. This little chapel, as it might be called,
measured only 12 ft. 8 in. from north to south with a width of 8 ft.
8 in., and had no enclosing square passage. Its walls, built of the
usual wooden framework and plaster, were only 4 inches in thickness
and had in consequence crumbled away to within a foot or two from
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