Indian Antiquary Vol 22

SR No.: 032514
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 442
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 393

DECEMBER, 1893.] NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA.
From Plate XI. fig. 8, I extract two more varieties of armament: an axe and a pestle.79
The two axes and the drum below are taken by myself from bricks in the Phayre Museum, which are not shewn on the Plates.
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Many more forms could, I think, be made out from a careful examination of the whole 110 bricks in the Museum, but enough have been given to shew the value of these bricks historically.
I would, however, warn antiquaries that it is quite possible that these bricks represent the Yamazàt, which is the Rámáyana in disguise, and that it is not, therefore, to be assumed from them that such foreign articles as the composite bow and the round embossed shield exhibit anything more than what the artists had seen in pictures.
Flates XIIIa, XIV. and XIVa.
These represent sculptured stones from Thaton. One would say that they were unique in Burma, were it not for the description of Pagàn in Yule's Ava, p. 54, and in Crawfurd's Ava, p. 69.80 They are prima facie Hindu, and Vaishnava or Saiva in type, according to the reading of the symbols carved on them. But I think Rajendralâla Mitra's remarks in Buddha Gayá, p. 138 f., are instructive in this connection, as shewing how much Tantrik Hinduism and Buddhism are mixed up in Buddhist sculpture in Gayâ itself. He also shows that a Burmese inscription was found at the foot of an image of 'Siva and Parbati! (page 227).
The head-dresses of the figures are remarkable, presuming them to precede the figures in the Cave remains. It will be seen that they are practically the same as those attributed to
79 One of the "elephants" in Plate X. fig. 2, has a distinct axe in his hand.
se Crawfurd's remarks, page 70, in explanation, I think, hit the right nail on the head. In his Siam, p. 150, Craufurd makes the following statement, which may prove of use in this connection. "Some questions put to our visitor upon the present occasion, respecting the origin of the Hindu images we saw in the temple, elucidated a point of some consequence in the history of Hindu emigration. They stated that the images in question were brought to Siam from Western India in the year 765 of the vulgar era of the Siamese, which corresponds with the year 1406 of our time. This fact, if correct, proves that an intercourse subsisted between Western India and Siam a full century before Europeans had found their way to the latter country."
81 See ante, Vol. XXI. p. 381.