Serindia : vol.3 / 210 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0210	Serindia : vol.3
セリンディア : vol.3

longitudinal stripes, treated as pleats of the garment, from right to left : a band of white circlets
on dark blue wash ; a palmette ornament, figured by small white dots (pearls ?) over black ;
an elaborate floral design with small blossoms in white, dark blue, and green ; a band of white
circlets over light pink wash ; a palmette pattern as previously described ; fern-like tracery in dark
brown over red ground, and finally a band of white circlets over pale blue and pink washes
suggesting shot-silk.

Remains of
mural
paintings. Of the mural paintings in tempera more fortunately remained, and the best-preserved portions
I succeeded in safely removing with Naik Rām Singh's help. From the right of the statue
last described came the fine figure of a standing Avalokiteśvara, F. XII. 005, which is reproduced in
Plate CXXV. As it has been fully described in the List below, it will suffice here to call attention to
the manifold features of detail in drapery, ornaments, etc., which show very close attachment to the
style of Graeco-Buddhist sculpture. The medallion ornamentation of both halo and vesica is
uncommon, and is curiously suggestive of a favourite motif of Sassanian textiles.¹ The influence of
Persian art makes itself distinctly felt also elsewhere in some of these frescoes. Above this there
remained the lower portion of a figure, standing on a lotus, F. XII. 006 (Figs. 312, 313). The south-
west wall had lost almost the whole of its plaster surface. But in the south corner there remained
portions, seen in Fig. 314 on the right, of a vesica decorated with large round flowers, and above of
a diaper of small figures of seated Buddhas. A similar diaper, but with somewhat larger figures,
filled what remained of the south-east wall surface by the right side of the vesica of the completely
destroyed colossal statue.² F. XII. 0010 is a portion of the frieze, gracefully decorated with floral
motifs, which extended along the foot of this wall. Fig. 296 shows what survived of the frescoed
surface to the north-east. Of the design to the right of the relievo figure, which showed Buddhas
seated in meditation with the flowers and stem of a large lotus plant extending towards the corner,
F. XII. 009 comprises the best-preserved portion.

Fresco of
'Buddhist
Madonna'. But by far the most interesting piece of the wall-paintings in this shrine is the fresco which
decorated the south side of the entrance. This fresco, of which the position is seen in Fig. 312, had
suffered below badly by abrasion for which the feet of worshippers visiting the shrine were probably
responsible. But the upper portion had retained most of its harmonious colouring, and was safely
recovered (Plate XIII).³ It shows, as was first recognized by M. Foucher, the Indian goddess
Hāriti with five of her offspring. In his brilliant essay on La Madone bouddhique M. Foucher has
proved this identification, and that of a similar representation in linen painting found at Yār-khoto
and now in Berlin, by conclusive evidence drawn from his unequalled knowledge of the Graeco-
Buddhist sculptures of Gandhāra.⁴ This makes it unnecessary here to point out in detail how
closely all features of the composition agree with the conception of the goddess developed in
Indian Buddhism. From being in origin a 'Yakṣiṇī' personifying the dread disease of small-pox
and a destroyer of children, she had been elevated by a process of pious superstition, which has
many parallels in the history of folk-lore and religion, into a benign goddess not merely protect-
ing young children but producing fecundity.

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