Indian Antiquary Vol 03

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 73

FEBRUARY, 1874.]
his camera will be brought to bear on monuments of still earlier periods in that part of Java. Thanks to the enlightened policy of the Government of Dutch India, and the praiseworthy and successful labours of the Batavian Genootschap, the student of Eastern Art will thus in a few years be able to avail himself of what will have to be considered as the first comprehensive view of the antiquities of an Eastern country. Even in its imperfect state, this collection is sufficient to make it evident that the antiquities of Java are much more extensive and interesting than was suspected by Raffles and Crawfurd, and it is probable that they will hereafter admit of arrangement in a consecutive series with at least relative dates. If ever anything equally systematic should be obtained from India, it may be possible not only to distinguish at what time the various migrations from India to Java and Cambodia took place, but also to ascertain from what place they embarked.
In Ceylon a series of some 200 photographs of the Antiquities of Anuradhapura and Tolamarua
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was taken by the late Mr. Lawton; and it is understood that the present enlightened Governor, Mr. Gregory, of that island, intends to continue the series, and to complete it by adding plans and other illustrations. When this is done, it may rival the Dutch series in completeness and interest. At present only one set of these photographs is known to have reached this country, and to be in the Colonial Office. But as they are without texts and subsidiary illustrations, they can hardly be said to be available to students for the elucidation of the antiquarian history of the island.
The Council are not aware of any new photographs having been taken in India since the date of the last report, which have any bearing either on the antiquities or the architecture of India. Dr. Hunter has added a few to his Mahawalpur series, alluded to in a previous report; and Messrs. Shepherd and Bourne have sent a photographer through Rajputana in company with Mr. Burgess; but neither in Bengal nor Bombay has anything new been attempted.
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Commissioner of Gantur, in 1840, he excavated a portion of the monuments which had not before been touched, and sent down to Madras a large collection of the sculptures, which were first deposited in the old College there, whence they were carried to the Central Museum on its establishment, and ranged in and around the hall on the left hand of the entrance. They were sent to England in 1856, and some of the slabs placed outside the Museum at Fife House, under a veranda roof which protected them from the direct action of the weather, where, however, they were so corroded by the atmosphere, as, in a great measure, to obliterate the delicate carving: the rest were stowed away in the.coach-house, under such rubbish as an old tent, three or four bales of seed-cotton, and a skeleton model of an Indian temple. There they remained till accidentally heard of by Mr. Fergusson in January 1867. The study of these sculptures led the author to write a paper on this Tope in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1867. Subsequently he appealed to the Secretary of State for India in Council for the necessary aid to publish photographs of these marbles through the section of the India Museum devoted to the reproduction of works of artistic value.
TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP: or Illustrations of Mythology and Art in India in the First and Fourth Centuries after Christ, from the Sculptures of the Buddhist Topes at Sânchi and Amravati. Prepared under the authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council. Second edition. Revised, corrected, and in great part rewritten. By James Fergusson, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., M.R.A.S., &c. London: India Museum, 1873.
The history of this work and the materials of it is a somewhat curious one: In 1797 the attention of Colonel Mackenzie was attracted by the remains of the Amravati tope on the Krishna in Gantur, then recently dug into for building materials by the petty Râja of Chintapilli, and he communicated an account of them to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1816 he revisited them, and during the two following years his assistants made plans of the building and maps of the surrounding country, together with eighty very carefully-finished drawings of the sculptures. These are "unsurpassed for accuracy and beauty of finish by any drawings of their class that were ever executed in India. Three copies were made of all these drawings. One was sent to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, another was deposited in Madras, and the third sent home to the Court of Directors, in whose library it still remains." "At the same time, Colonel Mackenzie sent several specimens of the sculptures to the three museums just mentioned, and they have remained their principal ornaments to this day."
The Sânchi or Bhilsâ Topes were discovered by General Taylor of the Bengal Cavalry when encamped near them during the campaign of 1818. Again, when Mr. (now Sir Walter) Elliot was The great Tope was still nearly perfect when CapAsiatic Researches, Vol. IX. pp. 272 seqq.