THE COLOSSAL BUDDHAS AT BAMIYAN THEIR INFLUENCE ON BUDDHIST SCULPTURE
BY J. HACKIN
The Eastern Art
vol.1:2, 1928.10, pp. 109-116
p. 109
In the fourth century of our era, when the
Greco-buddhist art of Gandhara and of Kapisa seemed
irretrievably on the decline, there appeared in that
part of India held by the Gupta emperors from Sarnath
to Mathura certain works inspired by a return to the
national tradition, which may be rated among the most
appealing and most beautiful expressions of Indian
sculpture. The late schist bas-reliefs of Kapisa
display a confusion of forms where of the clumsiness
is particularly accented when contrasted with the
delicate slenderness of the great buddhas of Mathura
(Figs. I, 2). This contrast is plain, however, not
only in the handling of anatomical detail, but it is
equally evident in the rendering of the drapery. In
late Grerco-buddhist sculpture the drapery is highly
stylized: for the deep folds of the Hellenistic
prototypes padded ridges were substituted at wide
intervals. (Figs.I, 2). It is in antithesis to this
meagreness, this stiffness, that the works of the
Mathura school seem endowed with magnificent
grace:the delicate folds, clinging to the body as
though the garment were of thin, transparent fabric
(Fig.3),(1) separate at the left shoulder and curve
inward over the right side of the chest to return
upwards in the direction of the right shoulder. On
the lower part of the body--and this treatment is not
without importance--the thighs are covered with
symmetric folds. This particular rendering of the
drapery is also found no more distant from India than
Sarnath, where patently the figures are,
anatomically, very similar in conformation to those
of Mathura, but are cloaked in robes completely
devoid of folds. In other words, where, on the one
hand, the treatment resembles an expanse of water
stirred by a gentle breeze, on the other it is the
tranquil reflection of a still pool. On these grounds
we cannot believe that the sculpture of Mathura is
descended directly from that of Gandhara. In our
opinion the origin of this very characteristic
drapery in close.folds is to be found at Bamiyan in
Afghanistan.
The Chinese pilgrim, Hsuan Tsang, visited Bamiyan
in 632 and has left us a description of the two
colossal buddhas carved in the cliff of tertiary
conglomerate that flanks the valley. We have had an
opportunity to examine(2) the original method
developed by the Bamiyan artisans for fixing the lime
mortar shell which was employed to show the folds of
the monastic robes on the figures. "On the right
thigh of the great Buddha the holes for the wooden
pegs which supported the mortar still form a dotted
line, indicating the original course of the folds or
monastic garments (Fig. 4). Cords were stretched from
one peg to the next and these cords are still to be
seen in places. These pegs and cords served as a
support for the lime mortar coating. In the spots
where this support still remains, the drapery
resembles padded ridges arranged in parallel lines
from the left shoulder, diverging. however, from the
parallel toward the centre of the breast to curve
upward and return toward the right shoulder."
This rendering of the drapery in close padded
ridges is virrtually that of the Mathura sculptors.
It goes without saying, naturally, that the work at
Bamiyan is decidedly earlier than that of Mathura.
Nothing could be more natural than that the artists
of Mathura were inspired by the statues at Bamiyan
justly famous at that time throughout the Buddhist
world. These same models determined also the style of
sculpture in farther Asia: MM. von. Le Coq and Paul
Pelliot and Sir Aurel Stein have brought to light
sculpture showing this same characteristic drapery.
To illustrate this point it is sufficient to examine
side by side the thirty-four metre Buddha at Bamiyan
and
________________________________
1 Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of
India. 1922-23; Pl. XXXIXa.
2 A. Godard, Y. Godard and J. Hackin, Les Antiquites
Bouddbiques de Bamiyan, Paris 1928, pp. 12-13.
p. 111
the Buddha of Schor-tschuq(3) published by M: A. von
Le Cog (Figs. 5, 6). In both examples the folds still
curve inward toward the right side of the breast in
order to extend up the length of the body. At Mathura
itself this treatment was little by little abandoned,
and the folds are arranged according to a somewhat
different rhythm. We have observed, in examining out
first example from Mathura (Fig. 3), that in the
lower part of the robe the wrinkles curve inward at
the crotch in order to cover the legs and the thighs
with symmetrical up-pointing folds; in our next
example from Mathura (Fig. 8) this rhythm reaches the
breast and we maintain that all these short lines if
prolonged would extend to the middle of the upper
part of the body. This selfsame innovation travelled
to Yun Kang (the attendant figure, for example,
beside the great Buddha in Fig. 7) but here the folds
were represented not as rounded quiltings, but in
flat: relief, a detail which we find again in two
specimens, also of Chinese provenance, one in the
Metropolitan Museum(4) the other belonging to Dr.
Otto Buchard, Berlin (Figs. 9, 10).
In the statue at the Metropolitan (dated 476) the
gestures of the two hands are not precisely
abhaya-mudra (gesture of reassurance made by the
right hand) or varamudra (gesture of dispensing
favours made by the left) yet all examples though of
different origin may be traced back, it seems plain,
to the great Buddha at Bamiyan, which represents,
without exception, their forebear in style, with the
abhaya-mudra present and the gesture of the left hand
being in the majority of instances, the varamudra.
The well-known statue at the Seiryo Temple, Kyoto,
(Fig. 11), does not deviate from this standard
treatment. This piece is of undoubted antiquity and
is closely related in other respects to models in the
Gupta style which have been questioned. According to
the Nihongi Ryakky the Kyoto figure was brought to
Japan from China in 987 by the monk Chonen of the
Todai Temple.(5) If one can give credence to one text
written by the monk Jozan, pupil and travelling
companion of Chhoen, a text which is little more than
a compilation of works written by the monks Sonan and
Jumei, this image of the Seiryo-ji was a copy,
executed by a sculptor named Chang Jong, of the
famous sandalwood figure(6) which King Udayana had
made when the Buddha was preaching the law to his
mother in the heaven of the thirty-three deities. Of
this legendary attribution we need only believe the
part confirming the Indian origin, and that this
statue, so celebrated in the Buddhist world, found
asylum, after many vicissitudes in the imperial
palace of the Chinese capital Pien King (K'ai
Feng-fu) and it was there that, at the end of the
tenth century, a copy was made by order of the
Japanese monk Chonen. The replica at Seiryo-ji
follows, with certain clumsy renderings. an original
which must have been related to the statue of
Mathura, judging by the median drapery, which we have
had occasion to
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3 A. von Le Cog. Spatantica I, PI. XXXIX.
4 A Bronze-gilt Statue of the Wei Period, by S. C.
Bosch Reitz, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum,
October, 1927 (Vol. XXI, No. 10).
5 Hi Minamoto, The Buddha sratuc of tbe Seiryo-ji
Temple in Kyoto, Bukkyo Bijutsu No.1, Nov. 1924.
Text ia Japanese; for an analysis of this valuable
article we are under obligation to M. Serge
Elisseev.
6 We should here note in regard to this famous
sandalwood Buddha that M. Paul Pelliot translated
(Journal Asiatique, July-August 1914, XI series,
Vol.IV. p. 188-190) the memoir, where in K'ang Hsi
dedicated the temple of Chan T'an Ssu (or the
Temple of Sandalwood) in Peking in 1721 to this
sandalwood figure which was considered the true
statue that had miraculously come to China.
p. 115
describe at the beginning of the present discussion
(Fig. 8). it is sufficient for us to note here that
the folds extend, just as in the case of the Mathura
Statue, from the centre of the breast, yet the statue
of Seiryo-ji has these folds but more compact and
also more irregularly arranged(Fig. 11). On the lower
part of the body, below the knees, the folds are
arranged in unrelated curves which cover the right
leg and the left leg separately while on the Mathura
statue the return is brought about in the space
between the legs by a simple fold which is nothing
but a perfect continuation of the rhythmic folds
covering the breast. It should be noted-further that
the Seiryo-ji Buddha displays a tendency, in common
with certain Central Asian works (those of Turfan in
particular) of showing the garments clinging closely
to the forward planes of the things.
After examining carefully these small differences
in the rendering of she drapery, there seems to us no
chance of admitting any other than a purely Indian
origin for the piece of sculpture which inspired and
guided the artist who executed the replica at
Seiryo-ji. The majority of Japanese scholars have
come to the same conclusion. It is only necessary for
us to introduce the opinion of M. Bunsaburo Matsumoto
to maintain, after examination of the Sakya of
Seiryo-ji, that the body is covered by a sheer
garment, with folds which, taking the head as a
centre, extend like ripples all ever the rode, a
mannerism characteristic of Gupta sculpture? This
work, related as, it is to the tradition of the
Gupta school, harks back, through. the same inter-
mediates, to the great buddhas at Bamiyan.
The Tibetans also boast of owning statues which
were made during the life of the Buddha. The legend
relates that the first Indian statue was sent to the
Emperor of China by the King of Magadha in
recognition of aid lent by the Emperor at a time when
Magadha was attacked by the Yavanas (the Greeks).
This statue was included among the treasures taken to
Tibet by the Wen-Cheng, a relation of T'ang T'ai
Tsung and wife of the Tibetan king Sron Tsan Sgam-po
(mid seventh century)
Sarat Sandra Das(8) who tells this tale, saw this
figure in the chief temple at Lhassa, where it was on
display to be adored by the faithful. "The image is
life-sized and exquisitely modelled and represents a
handsome young prince. The Kunyer (keeper of images)
said that the images represented the Buddha at the
age of twelve; hence the princely apparel in which he
is clothed and the dissimilarity of the image to
those seen elsewhere." Two other statues, one
preserved in the monastery or Kum-bun, the other at
Lhassa where it is included in the treasures of the
Temple or the Master (Jo-Khan) comprise, together
with the figure at Chan-T'an Ssu the triad of
original images which the Tibetan lamas designated
under the name of Sku Gsum--three bodies (Sanskrit:
Kaya traya the one at Lhassa being the Dharmakaya,
that at Peking the Sambhogakaya, and the one at
Kum-bun the Nirmanakaya.
Unfortunately no photograph of the two statues
actually at Lhassa are available, but we can gain
some idea of them from the figures in modern Tibetan
books; these have folds of the drapery rendered in
the same characteristic manner and, therefore, it
seems to us reasonable to relate these later copies
to the figures on view at Lhassa, the latter being
without any doubt near relations to the figure at
Seiryo-ji. Figure 12, which shows a person of
youthful mien, with a headdress of five jeweled
points and long hanging ear-rings, will prove to be a
reproduction of the statue at the main temple of
Lhassa, representing the Buddha in the guise of a
youthful prince. We find here again the
characteristic median drapery, as well as the four
folds which divide at the shoulder and terminate in a
diagonal across the thighs. A second example
________________________
7 Cited by H. Minamoto. Bukkyo Bijutsu, No. 1. This
authority agrees with M. Munsabura Matsumoto and
brings forward certain works which seem to him to
possess similarities to the Seiryo-ji figure
Ancient Khotan Pl., XVII; Serindia, Vol. V, Pl.
VIII, X; P. Pelliot, Les Grottes bouddbiques de
Touen Houang, Pl. CXCI, CCLXXXV, etc., etc. See
also A. Foucher, L'Art greco-bouddbique du
Gandbara, Vol. II. Fig. 589-590 and p. 767-771.
8 Sarat Sandra Das, Journey to Lbassa and Central
Tibet, p 201-202.
9 W. W. Rockhill. The Land of the Lamas. Notes on a
Journey through China, Mongolia and Tibet, p. 105.
p. 116
(Fig. 13) shows Avalokitesvata,(10) if we may judge
by the dhyani buddha enthroned in the headdress, with
a stylization differing in one respect: the oblique
folds of the preceding figure are here reduced to
four strokes which represent on the upper part of the
skirt three wings reminiscent in a singular manner of
the drapery on the torso. These appear as most
graceless superfluities. Distortion after distortion
brings us thus to a rendering hopelessly divergent
from the fine early standard and exhausts the subject
which can well be brought to a close here.
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10 Art Bouddbique Catalogue Sommaire de la 4e
exhibition des Arts de l'Asie au Musee Cernuschi,
April-June, 1923, No. 642, p. 47. We cannot nerre
make any allusion to the influence exercised by the
Mathura school on the sculpture of Ceylon,
Indo-China (the Buddha of Dong-Du'o'ng) and
extending even to China by the maritime route. This
subject will merit a second article.