________________
428
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1903.
luminous rays; the reverse bcars the figure of the god Lunus, MAO, on foot, with the nimbus and the aureole; on other coins Huvishka is seated on a throne, cross-legged (the attitude called mahdrajasana), with a double luminous circle, or else seated with one leg hanging down (mahárdja-lilá "royal relaxation") and a double nimbus, three lobed and radiated, surrounding the head and the bust. The coinage of this sovereign presents a great variety of pieces, all interesting from an iconographic point of view.
Vasudeva has simply the nimbus round his head, which is itself surmounted by a pointed tiara. This last type remains that of the Indo-Skythian Kushan kings, called Later Kusbans, who reigned in India till about the year 300 to 319 A, D., when their place was taken by the dynasty of the Guptas, whose sovereigns (319 to 550) preserved the same divine symbol.
The coins of Kanishka and of Huvishka, farther, present on the reverse an infinite variety of desigos, representing for the most part Greek or Iranian divinities, such as Selena, Helios, Meiro, Nana, Ardokhsho, Mao, &c.; all have the hea 1 adorned with the nimbus. On sereral copper coins of Kanishka (British Museum and Wilson, pl. xii) the god of wind, OAAO, is represented running, his head with rays, and his whole body en veloped by several concentric circles. Later, on the coins of the successors, and on those of the Guptas, it is Siva or the Hindu goddess Laksbmi, who are represented with the same attribute.
But the most important instance to notice on the reverses (157] of some coins of Kanishka is the representation of Buddha Säkyamuni with the legend BOAAO and BOYAO CAKAMA. The postures (asana) are interesting to study. The holy personage is facing, sometimes standing, sometimes seated. On a well-preserved gold stater, in the British Museum, Buddha is seated, his right hand on his breast, making the gesture of argument (vitarkamudra), his left hand holding the bottle of ambrosia (amrita); he is clothed in a mantle (uttardsanga) which comes up to his neck and in a tunic (antararúsaka) which descends to the feet. His bead is surmounted by the ushnisha or cranial protuberance, characteristic of Buddha, as well as by the ind or excrescence between the eyebrows, which we do not see on the medal because of the smallness of the face. We know that the ushnisha and the irnd are the marks of the bodhi, or sacred knowledge, which belong to Buddha only, and which the other divinities have not.
The whole body is enveloped in a trilobate aureole (prabháinandala) on the gold piece of the British Museum. On other examples (Wilson, Ar. Antiq. pl. xiii; Cunningham, Num. Chron.. Vol. XIII. pl. viii), Buddha is represented standing, with a simple nimbus round his head, without the aureole, and with both hands joined upon his breast. This posture is called that of instruction, (dharmachakramudrd) the two bands seeming to turn the wheel of the law.
The other posture, in which the Buddha is also represented on the same coins of Kanishka, is the [158] seated position, cross-legged, on a sort of throne, his hands sometimes separate, sometimes joined on the breast. This seated attitude (maharajâsana, royal) has different names according as the saint is seated on the lotus (padmasana), on the diamond (vujra), or on the lion (sisha) ; sometimes one of his legs bangs down (makárája-lila), as was seen above for Huvishka; but we have no example of it on the coins, nor have we the attribate of the lotus flower (emblem of divino birth), which probably was only introduced later, like the other attributes (lakshana), which serve as distinctive marks of divinity.
There is one important fact in Indian iconography, we might say, in the history of Buddhism, On none of the most ancient monuments of India, those that are supposed to be before the Christian era, such as those at SAñchi, at Bharhut, the bas-reliefs of the caves of Orissa, the Agóka rail, the inscriptions at Bodb-Gaya, do we find an image representative of Buddha Buddhism is
Por a desoription of Buddha's acetumer, se A. Ponober, Iconographie Fouddhique de l'Inde, 8°, Paris, 1900, PP. 68 1.
