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AUGUST, 1876.]
ON THE MAHABHASHYA.
none more
objected that had any such wigs been in use or known, the story-certainly very ancient-of Buddha's having cut his hair with a sword, and its never afterwards growing longer, could not have arisen; but there is no appurtenance of man so liable to frequent, rapid, and extreme changes as the head-dresses and the fashion of the hair and beard: consequently none liable to be forgotten or confused. It is certain that wigs of the most ample and elaborate style were in use in Egypt and Assyria, even long before the time of Buddha,-curious specimens have been found in tombs; and Jaina sculptures abound with figures wearing full-bottomed wigs, though shaven heads are rather now the fashion, except amongst Sanyasis and ascetics. In Java, at Chandi Sewu, or the Thousand Temples, Captain Baker saw two gigantic janitors kneeling with uplifted clubs before a temple, "wearing large full-bottomed wigs in full curl all over, which the Brahman sipahi said was the way in which the Munis dressed their hair "(p. 17).
When a fashion drops out of use, legends like the cutting of Buddha's hair with a sword might easily arise to account for any surviving representation of it; and how rapidly and completely fashions may change, all may realize who look upon portraits of worthies who lived in the earlier part of last century, and reflect that the wonderful flowing wigs depicted were habitually worn by the grandfathers of men now
When last year I wrote for this journal (vol. IV. p. 107) a note on a passage of the Rajatarangini,
ON THE MAHABHASHYA. BY DR. F. KIELHORN,
Mr. J. Fergusson-after remarking, "It has ever been one of the puzzles of Buddhism that the founder of the religion should always have been represented in sculptures with woolly hair like that of a negro. That the prince Siddhartha had flowing locks is certain, but how and when the change took place is the difficulty" (Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 122, ed. 1868)-thinks that a woollyhaired people, apparently not Hindus, represented in the Sanchi sculptures (Ibid. plate XXVIII.) may have been the first to make images of Buddha, and endowed him with their crisp locks. But what if the woolly hair and foreign garments represented in the sculptures should have been close-fitting curly periwigs and particular vestments worn by ascetics at some penitential stages, but since as much fallen into disuse as the fashion of sitting on couches and seats, which the sculptures show to have been then general ? See, too, page 132 of the same work. It may he observed, also, that Buddha was not everywhere represented with woolly hair; the gigantic bronze image of ancient Japanese work (which it is said could not be produced now) at present in the South Kensington Museum, shows Buddha with the hair straight, and brushed back from the forehead. Engraved gems of Roman imperial
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living. Were the last traces of the once general custom, surviving in barristers' and coachmen's wigs, to be represented in statuary,§ perhaps the effect night not be greatly unlike the Jain and Buddhist carly|| heads, or some conventional indication would be adopted and maintained, which in after-ages might conceivably become a cause of perplexity, and give rise to myths and legends. It is curious to look back upon the various lights in which long hair in men has been held by different nations and ages. Now regarded effeminate, it was not so in Homer's time, and when the Persian host caught sight of the Six Hundred in Thermopyla the Spartans were engaged in dressing and arranging their long hair. The fierce Norse sea-kings when taken captive disdained to ask any other boon than that no slave should touch their hair, and the grim Earls of the Heptarchy strode about, "Their beards a foot before them, and their hair A yard behind."
Later the Cavaliers, with their 'long essenced hair,' were not less keen than their opponents, the Roundheads, to whose 'crop-eared' style the youth of to-day, both English and French, seems to incline. Beards, the preeminent mark of manhood, were held craven by the warlike tribes of Germany, and no young warrior was allowed to shave till he had slain a foe. We, too, have witnessed how little more than a generation can bring a change in all classes from shaven lips and chins to beard and moustache.¶
DECCAN COLLEGE, PUNA.
I had just been reading, later perhaps than I ought to have done so, Prof. Weber's valuable article
times represented ladies wearing immensely thick chevelures, covered with close short curls, much of which must have been artificial, delineated in engraving just like Buddha's hair. The curly-headedness characterizing all Assyrian sculptures needs only be mentioned; it must indicate a universal wearing of wigs in Old Egypt. All classes seem to have shaved the head and worn wigs, the poorer people even using perukes of sheep's wool, ve Buddha-like. Sir W. Jones, in several of the Discourse in the third volume of his Works, favours the idea of Budha having been a stranger from northern or western countries.
§I venture to refer to the apparently peruked equestrian statue of George the Third, hat in hand, in Cockspur Street, Charing Cross.
Mr. Bryan Hodgson (apud the late Dr. J. Wilson in Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Jan. 1853, p. 359) was informed by a Buddhist priest that curled hair was introduced into statues of Buddha simply because it was esteemed a beauty.-ED.
This note should not close without referring to the instructive and interesting, Observations on the Kudumt or hair-tuft, by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell (Ind. Ant. vol. IV. p. 166).
