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| 0097 |
Archaeological Reconnaissances in North-Western India and South-Eastern Īrān : vol.1 |
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belonged to the outer ornamentation of the temple walls, reproducing on a
smaller scale the main architectural elements of the structure in the fashion
common to the Hindu style of buildings from an early period.
After the character of the structure marked by the mound had been definitely
determined, the whole of the ground around was carefully searched down to the
natural soil. Here, among the heaps of debris thrown aside during former
quarrying operations, a great mass of sculptural fragments was recovered.
Apart from plentiful remains of delicately executed relievo decoration belonging
to architectural features, there came to light in the course of this thorough
clearing numerous fragments from well-modelled figures executed mainly in
high relief and of varying proportions. The specimens reproduced in Figs. 20,
21, represent but a small typical selection from the hundreds of sculptured
pieces, most of them small but all executed with the same remarkable care for
true modelling and neat carving, which were recovered around the shrine and
subsequently deposited in the Lahore Museum.¹² Unfortunately all this wealth
of decorative remains, by its sadly injured state, affords only too clear evidence
of the vandal destruction inflicted upon the ruin of an exquisitely adorned small
shrine by ruthless quarrying operations.¹³
The style of the sculptures and decorative motifs is clearly that of the Gupta
period, thus proving beyond doubt that the ruined temple dated from a time
considerably older than Hsüan-tsang's visit to this region. As far as my know-
ledge of the Indian iconography of that period goes, there is among the re-
covered sculptural fragments none which could definitely prove whether the
shrine was meant to serve as a place for Jaina or Brahmanical worship. Of actual
cult figures which might perhaps have furnished some clue in this respect, the
badly injured life-size fragments of a hand and a leg were the only remains
recovered. I must leave it to others to decide whether the seated haloed figure
of a god shown in a sunk panel (Fig. 20.6) can possibly be taken for a Jina
represented after the Śvetāmbara tradition. The object held in the figure's left
hand, indistinct as it is, seems to speak against it.
With regard to particular pieces of sculpture it remains to be mentioned that
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