国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

descriptive notes on these frescoes, the pens are clearly held as if they were brushes, at right angles
to the leaves, which, moreover, have their narrow end towards the writers, a position suited only for
writing in vertical lines. Such writing must be either Chinese or Uigur here, and as there is
nothing else pointing to the frescoes being the production of a Chinese hand, the latter interpreta-
tion seems more probable. But obviously the argument is not one to be relied upon with full
certainty since we do not know what older prototype the painter-decorator may have followed.
The painting from the outer wall of the west passage, Mi. xiii. 10 (Plate CXXIV), though evidently
of the same period, is the work of a different and distinctly more skilful hand. It shows two rows
of Buddhist devotees, evidently meant for monks, though their heads are not shaven and their
garments vary in colours and ornamentation. Those in the upper row are represented as older by
the indication of hair on their faces. The drawing of the outlines is very clean and firm, but there
is no attempt at shading of the flesh such as is very noticeable in the figures of the chamber. Slight
variations in the expression, tilt of head, etc., are introduced to break the monotony of the subject;
yet the clumsy way in which the floral patterns are painted over the robes with total disregard of
folds, etc., shows the perfunctory character of the work.
Across an open court to the south of xiii is found a group of closely adjoining small cellas. In
the northernmost, xiv, there were found several pieces of fine wood-carving. The once painted and
gilded finial, Mi. xiv. 002 (Plate CXXVIII), may have formed part of a miniature shrine. The small
but very carefully carved piece M. xiv. 003 (Plate CXXVIII), evidently from the side of a circular
carved relic casket, shows a Buddha seated under an arcade. The Indo-Ionic column, the horse-
shoe arch, the bust rising above the spandrel, and other details are purely Graeco-Buddhist in style
and can all be exactly paralleled in stone from Gandhāra relievos. The work is undoubtedly of
early date, and the excellent condition of the wood even now makes it easy to believe that the little
casket had been a cherished object of worship for centuries before it met with destruction. In this
cella there turned up also a fragmentary Pothi leaf from a paper manuscript in Brāhmī script,
apparently Sanskrit.
The immediately adjacent cellas yielded no finds, but better results rewarded the clearing of
a group of small structures which occupy lower terraces on the slope further south. From the
shrine xv, a plain cella about 12 feet square, there came to light a considerable number of relievo
fragments, closely allied in style to those found in x–xii and furnishing useful supplementary pieces.⁷
The finest among these is the large head of a Bodhisattva, Mi. xv. 0010 (Plate CXXIX),
in graceful modelling and careful execution can bear comparison with the best of Gandhāra
sculptures of this type. All of them had been hardened by fire and in consequence lost their
colouring.
Yet it was from the débris of this cella that two of the best pieces of wood-carving found at
the site were recovered. One is the section of a carved wooden arch, Mi. xv. 0029 (Plate
CXXVIII), in very good preservation and still richly gilded, showing a series of carefully carved
seated Buddhas. It is highly probable that the piece, which has a tenon at one end and a mortice
at the other, belonged to the border of a large vesica of a type represented by relievo fragments
from Rawak and elsewhere.⁸ More welcome even is the other wood-carving, the excellently modelled
statuette, Mi. xv. 0031 (Plate CXXVII), close on 10 inches in height, representing a Lokapāla, in the
best Chinese style of the T'ang period. Full of character and simple dignity, it is undoubtedly the
work of a Chinese artist. In it we have tangible evidence of that reverse current of influence from