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JUNE, 1874.]
DR. LEITNJ." BUDDHISTIC SCULPTURES.
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the recluse; then a peculiar Hindu-Buddhist to be killed, whilst one of the group of attend. figure (transition period), obtained at Ketas, ants seems to keep back his brother, or perhaps the ancient Sinhapurâ * (?), from a female saint, a pretender; whilst at the side niche the boy is in whose family it is said to have been for sight already on the sacrificial altar, his mother (prohundred years; then a Skythian (?) or aboriginal bably that of Buddha) vchemently interceding head, which, with another representing a face for his l'fe before the same stern ruler. In the in deep agony, surrounds a group in which next, Buddha, riding an ass, with his attendants, two persons carry a horse and its rider. The arrives at the gate of a town, where they meet smaller fragments before and beyond it are too with a writer with a tablet. At a place in the indistinct to furnish any immediate explana- Kyang plain, in Middle Thibet, about 10,000 tion, but attention is deservedly arrested at a feet high, a similar carving is seen, where Budhighly elaborated and perforated bit of archi- dha is represented riding on an ass, and preceded tecture surrounding a group in various and and followed by men wearing branches of the nobly conceived attitudes of prayer.
palm-tree (which is unknown in that region). On the lowest ledge is a confused mass of In connection with this group Dr. Leitner fragments, one belonging to the fragment on mentioned a very remarkable carving, showing the second row which represents,-beginning, Indians at Olympian games. A most remarkon the extreme right,--the usual group surable point about all these groups is the minuterounding Buddha followed by a well-bearded oldress of the carving on the stone or slate, and man in a kilt, and other indistinct figures of the variety and completeness of historical and men, dragons, &c. &c., none of which, however, religious representation, which yet require are at all conceived in the grotesque spirit of | much study. Of architectural fragments, the Indian idols.
most notable is the “Buddhist railing"- the The whole antiquarian collection of Dr. Leit- device of serpent ornamentation. Curious ner consists of 172 pieces, of which the majority were the two specimens of figures in mortar were excavated by him in 1870, at Takht- (gypsum) resting on a thick base, and reprei-Bahi.
senting Buddha and two worshippers. The "One group presented by Dr. Leitner to the Græco-Buddhists evidently knew how to cast Belvedere, Vienna, is interesting as the most moulds in mortar, and the art of casting moulds complete specimen of the ordinary Buddhist in mud is still faintly preserved at Lahor. worship of the purest type. There were bas- There are also cornices, capitals, &c., of which reliefs showing Buddha surrounded by female the highest school of architecture need not be as well as male worshippers. In one figure, the ashamed. The figure of a Buddhist hermit North Indian Raja, with his thin moustache, who has just breathed his last is a marvellous and the fileká mark on his forehead, was success of artistic representation. The sunken represented with a Greek diadem and head- eyes and the lines in the cheeks, and the mouth, dress. The face showed dignity and resolution, showed thought and privation. The carving and Dr. Leitner considered it the finest speci- had received a red daub on the forehead by men in his collection. One particularly beau- some Hindu who wanted to worship it. On tiful group, of which casts have been sent to most of the statues, to whatever type they both the Belvedere and the Vienna Exhibition, might belong, the tikka was worn on the consists of ten sculptures, which seemed to forehead. Very few, in fact only two of the represent almost a continuous tale. A young faces were bearded, and those that were so prince (probably Buddha) is led by an attend belonged either to a Mubammadan cast of counteant holding an umbrella (the sign of authority) nance or to the kilted invaders (probably Sky. towards an idol, to which he appears to refuse thians). Modern Hindu village gods, in clay and worship, beyond which and a solitary pillar brass, showed that the lineaments of Buddha agly dwarfs are seated. Again the boy (who still lingered in the mind of the sculptor in appears to be the rightful prince) is led forward the Panjab, Zanskar, and Ladak." on to a block, in front of a stern-looking king, Dr. Leitner's collection is by no means &
• Cunningham's Anc. Geog. of India, pp. 124-5; but see Ind. Ant. vol. II. p. 16, note 1-ED.
From report of Lecture by Dr. Leitner in The Building News, March 6, 1874.
