Supposed Greek Sculpture at Mathura

By F.S. Growse, M.A., B.C.S. (With three plates.)
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
Vol. XLIV:I, p. 212-215



p. 212 In 1836 Colonel Stacy discovered at or near Mathura--for the exact locality does not appear to have been placed on record--a large and curiously sculptured block of red sand-stone, which has given rise to much antiquarian discussion. It measured 3 feet 10 inches in height, 3 feet in breadth, and 1 foot 4 inches in thickness, and the top was scooped out, or worn by time, into a shallow circular basin 16 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep. It was carved on both sides with a Bacchanalian group, the principal figure in which was supposed to represent Silenus and the whole to be the work of Bactrian Greek artists. It was deposited in the Calcutta Museum (where it still is) by the finder, who described it as a tazza, or rather a pedestal that had been used to support a large tazza or sacrificial vase. This opinion was endorsed by James Prinsep, and has prevailed to the present day, though I believe it can now be shown to he erroneous. The following description of the design (which I have not myself seen*) is abridged from one given by Babu Rajen- _______________ *Since the above was written, General Cunninghaam has verrry kindy sent me two photographs of Groups I and II. He conjectures that the stones were intended for altars (which, however; I do not think possible), and writes: "Your altar is a very interesting discovery, as the head-dress of the female holding the cup is that of the p. 213 dralala in his `Antiquities of Orissa', where it is introduced a propos of the discussion regarding the amount of influence excercised by the Greeks on Indian art. GROUP No. I.--In this are four figures, (vide Pl. XII) two male and two female, standing under masses of long lanceolate, pinnate leaflets, with tufts of small flowers. The leaves are like those of the Asoka; but the flowers more resemble the kadamb. The first figure to the right is a female dressed in a long skirt and upper jacket, with a narrow shawl thrown across the body. On her feet are shoes, and thick heavy rings round her ankles. Her left hand holds the hem of her mantle and the right is in the grasp of an amorous swain who stands beside her with crossed legs, resting his left hand on her shoulder. He wears close-fitting drawers, which simply cover his nakedness and extend to about the middle of the thighs, but leave his protuberant paunch exposed. A scarf, fastened in front with a sort of sailor's knot at the neck, hangs down his hack behind. His feet are bare. The third figure is a female, dressed exactly as the first, but wearing elaborately worked bangles which cover nearly half the length of her fore-arm. In her left hand is a lotus-bud, while the right hangs down straight by her side. Near her feet art two covered vessels, one on either side. To the extreme left of the group stands a youth who appears to be a mere passive spectator.* He has no shoes and wears a flowered muslin tunic reaching down to the knee. A little above the ankle are marks which show that his under-garment is a pair of long close-fitting drawers. All four figures show traces of chaplets which had crowned their heads. The leaves may be those of the vine or the ivy. GROUP No. II.--The principal figure is a pot-bellied man, (vide Pl. XIII) seated in a wine-befuddled state on a rock, or low stool, with his arms supported by two attendants, who stand on either side of him. For dress he has only a wrapper, thrown round his loins, leaving his prominent paunch uncovered. One leg is raised on the seat, the other hanging down. On his head is a chaplet of leaves. The attendant on the right side is a male wearing a mantle fastened at the neck in front with a clasp. The right hand is stretched behind the central figure for its support. The attendant on the left is a female supporting the right arm of the drunkard. She wears a long skirt reaching to the feet, with a short, sleeved jacket over it. A neckace of five rows adorns her breast, and thick heavy jewels are pendant from ___________________________ Indo-Scythian females of the old sculptures and of the hill women to the north of Simla at the present day. I take the seated figure to be the Scythian Hercules"--a uggestion which strikes me as the most plausible yet advanced. * It does not so appear to me; but rather each of the male figures seems to be urging his female companion to do something about which they are hesitating. These are scarcely if at all perceptible in the photograph. p. 214 her ears. Before her stands sideways a small boy, naked, with his right hand resting on the thigh of the central figure. Before the male attendant is another boy in a dancing posture with the right hand uplifted. In front of the principal figure lies a flagon. During the cold weatherr of 1873-74, I discovered the companion block to the one above described, of precisely the same shape and dimensions carved with two.similar groups of figures. These are shewn in the accomnumbered groups III and IV (vide Pls. XII and XIII). The mound, out of which I dug the stone, is according to modern territorial divisions beyond the boundaries of the Mathura township, and is included in the small village of Pali-Khera. It is, however, only about two miles distant from the temple of Kesava Deva, and all the intervening space is dotted with mounds, -- the ruins of the ancient Madhupuri, -- in most of which Buddhist antiquities have been dicovered. GROUP No. III. -- Here four of the figures are apparently the same as in No. I. The grouping and action, however, are different; and two additional figures are introduced, viz., the principal personage, the so-called Silenus, who is seated with a cup in his hand, and the little boy at his knee, as in No. II. The cup is noticeable for a peculiarity in the handle, the lower end of which joins on, not to the bottom of the bowl, but to the foot of the cup. GROUP NO. IV.--The concluding scene of the drama, in which the cup has been drained and has had its intoxicating effect, is almost identically the same with No. II, already described. In my opinion the later discovery disposes of the tazza theory. The two blocks of stone seem to be the bases of a pair of pillars forming the entrance to a shrine, rather than pedestals for sacrificial vases. Such an idea would probably never have been conceived but for the shallow basin at the top of the stone first found; but on comparison with the later discovery this is clearly seen to be nothing more than a socket for the reception of a slender upright shaft. As to the subject which the artist intended to represent--Silenus may be dismissed at the same time as the tazza. Future research in Buddhist literature may result in the discovery of same legend which the three scenes, sit. the Plot, the Carouse, and the Effects of the Carouse, may be found to illustrate; but pending tills, the principal figure may with great probability be regarded as the mine-bibbing Balarama, one of the tutelary divinities of Mathura, attended by his wife Revati and the other members of his family. A confirmation of this view is afforded by an ancient and mutilated statue at the village of Kukargama in the Sa'dabad Pargana of this district, which is apparently intended for Balarama. He is stand- p. 215 ing under the conventional canopy of serpents' heads, with a garland of wild-flowers (ban-mala) thrown across his body and while his right hand is raised above his head in wild gesticulation, in his left hand he holds a cup very similar to the one represented in the Pali-Khera sculpture. His head-dress closely resembles Krishna's distinctive ornament the mukut, but it may be only the spiral coil of hair observable in the Sanchi and Amaravati sculptures. In any case, the inference must not be pressed too far; for first the hooded snake is as constant an accompaniment of Sakya Muni as of Balarama; and, secondly, I have in my possession another sculpture of an equally Bacchanalian character, which is unmistakeably Buddhist. This is a rudely executed figure of a fat little fellow (vide Pl. XIV), who has both his hands raised above his head, and holds in one a cup, in the other a bunch of grapes. The head with its close curling hair leaves no doubt that Buddha is the person intended; though possibly in the days of his youth, when "he dwelt still in his palace and indulged himself in all carnal pleasures" Or it might be a caricature of Buddhism as regarded from the point of view of a Brahmanical ascetic. Finally, as to the nationality of the artist. The foliage, it must be observed, is identical in character with what is pillars found in the immediate neighbourhood, and generally in connection with figures of Maya Devi; whence it may be presumed that it is intended to represent the Sal tree, under which Buddha was born. The other minor accessories are also with one exception either clearly Indian, or at least not strikingly un-Indian: such as the ear-rings and bangles worn by the female figures and the feet either bare or certainly not shed with sandals. The one exception is the male attendant in Group IV, with the mantle fastened at the neck by a fibula, and hanging from the shoulder in vandyked folds, which are very suggestive of late Greek design. But considering the local character of all the other accessories, I find it impossible to agree with General Cunningham in ascribing the work to a foreign artist, "one of a small body of Bactrina sculptors, who found employment among the wealthy Buddhists at Mathura, as in later days Europeans were employed under the Mughul Emperors." The thoroughly Indian character of the details seems to me, as to Babu Rajendralala, decisive proof that the sculptor was a native of the country; nor do I think it very strange that he should represent one of the less important characters as clothed in a modified Greek costume; since it is an established historical fact that Mathura was included in the Bactrian Empire, and the Greek style of dress cannot have been altogether un familiar to him. The artificial folds of the drapery mere probably borrowed from what Lie saw on coins.