________________
168
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1925
the boots worn by the Indian Surya and the close-fitting drapery enjoined by the iconographic texts to be shown round the image, and in fact actually met with in most of these sculptures, would certainly justify an answer to the question in the affirmative. But it should also be remarked at the same time that the type which was thus evolved was the outcome of the genius of the Indian artists, and these few alien elements were so entirely subjugated in the later specimens that even the alien character of these features was completely lost sight of, and their presence came to be accounted for with the help of ingenious stories invented by the Indian myth-makers. The Indian artists endowed the image of Surya with all sorts of orna. ments pre-eminently Indian; e.g., kirita, keyûra, hara, valaya, udarabandha, etc. They placed two fully bloomed lotus flowers, Indian solar emblems, in his hands, and their conception of Sûrya as riding on a seven-horsed chariot attended by Úsha, Pratyúshâ, and several of the other accessory deities, was also indigenous in character. Here is another case in point where the Indian genius is responsible for wholly remodelling, and giving a new and original character to, a type that was primarily non-Indian in nature to a certain extent46A very careful consideration of a host of these Sun images found all over Northern India would most probably enable us to lay down the general rule that those images in which the alien elemente, e.g., the boots and the close fitting drapery, are most evident, are as a class earlier in point of date than those in which these features are least noticeable. The Sun-images of the extreme South, on the other hand, do not show the least trace of these characteristics, which were to a great extent overoome prior to their first introduction there. The iconographic texts also seem to support our conclusion, and these characteristics, which are more frequently to be noticed in the texts of the earlier period, came to be lost sight of or at most were very slightly noticed in those of the later period.
The legends that are current about the introduction of this form of Sun-worship, with this type of the anthropomorphic figure of the Sun-god as the cult-picture, have been briefly referred to above. But certain details are worth considering in order to account satisfactorily for the peculiarities of this type. The iconographic texts, also mentioned above, in brief, allude to these peculiarities in their own fashion. The peculiar kind of foot-gear, which is to be found worn by Sarya, was not known to the inhabitants of India proper, and so they enjoined that the images should be dressed like a Northerner (Kúryád udicyavegan). Now, what is meant by this injunction ? Iwe look at the effigies of Kaniska on the obverse of his coins, or at the headless statue of the same king 47 now kept in the Mathura Museum, we at once understand the meaning of this term, udicyaverum. Kaniska and the members of his race were to all intents and purposes looked upon by the dwellers of the Indian plain as peopk hailing from the north, aud quite consistently do we light upon certain elements of the dress of Kanişka himself, e.g., the peculiar boots, the heavy drapery, though Indianised afterwards to a great extent, the sword hanging down from the belt in a peculiar fashion, in the person of Sarya. Sometimes even the two male attendants on the side of the central figure, viz., Dandi and Pingala, are quite curiously enough, dressed in exactly the same way as Sûrya himself. We have seen that Mihira (Miioro) of Kaniş ka's coins, and ultimately Apollo of the coins of the Hellenistic kings of India, formed the original prototype of the Sarya image. The avyañga, or waist girdle worn by the Persians, is not to be found on the person of Mihira on the Kushan coins ; but we must bear in mind that Mihira there is covered from neck downwards with a heavy flowing drapery, which in the Indian sculptures of Surya gave placo to transparent garments, and the position of the Persian avyañga, various sorts of Indian ornaments like hara, keyûra, jewelled kañcidama, etc., was emphasised.
As regards the peculiar dress of this Sun-god, one other interesting observation can be made here, viz., that we know of at least two other Indian deities who are
46 of the observations of European scholars like M. Foucher and others regarding the evolution of the Buddha type.
* ASIAR., 1911-12, Plato LII,
