Bodhisattvas or Deified Kings: A Note on Gandhara Sculpture Author(s): Benjamin Rowland Jr.

Reviewed work(s): Source: Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, Vol. 15 (1961), pp. 6-12 Published by: University of Hawai'i Press for the Asia Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20067027 . Accessed: 10/03/2013 09:18
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Bodhisattvas
A Note
Benjamin
Harvard University,

or Deified Kings:
Sculpture
Jr.
Massachusetts

on Gandhara
Rowland,
Cambridge,

in has its statues with of Gandhara every collection figures sculpture and generally labeled "Bodhisattva." and bejewelled, dress, turbaned princely or even as as Siddh?rtha, these figures are designated Sometimes, Maitreya, a question in the There has always been of the Buddhist other members pantheon. on the validity The present writer's mind of these identifications. study is not directed a question that the identity of the various Bodhisattvas towards establishing portrayed, investigation. requires a separate and intensive iconographical Nearly
This these sattvas obviously acter of nection, for their article, figures at all, in other represent an words, but an is not an attempt

to explore

the problem

of which

Bodhisattvas
of

wedel, reverted

and subsequent to the original the later

examination

the justification

for describing

them as Bodhi

like perhaps, shown bodia,

this Coomaraswamy as Rajahs, identification of Cam royal portraits of divine beings.1

to

in the guise

is that of the subject aspect to the stylistic char related intimately as well. In this later con these images it is proposed with to analyze the style of

A
sattvas

number
in

of particularly
Ontario of

beautiful
Museum

Bodhi

the Royal

us with real

the Gandhara
prototypes.

Bodhisattvas

with
Indian

special regard
and Western

a variety and identity

affiliations

images. The of a youthful of dhoti, sisting torques and

present the regarding problems of these evolution stylistic first of these is the usual portrayal con in royal costume, personage and overmantle, necklaces ornamenting a variety of the nude

The

first impression which

the beholder has

is of Apollo-like of these statues weighted youths, dress com and sumptuous down by an elaborate northern of a variety of Indian, Asiatic, posed in which of dress. The way articles and classical and are enveloped in their heavy these figures a faint even carries remi costumes voluminous statue of King Mausolus the famous in which Their of Caria. dignity, ponderous these opulent from accoutrements, part derives us feel of royal person in the presence makes not even the best of these images ages. Although niscence of in proportion, they perfect anatomically none of the rigidity and Kushan of Parthian of Graeco reminiscent but are strikingly effigies of a in the suggestion both Roman precedent are have

torso (Fig. 1 ). The figure holds a kundik? in the left hand and for this reason is perhaps to in the plinth are rep be identified asMaitreya;
in medita seated resentations of two Buddhas to be an and left of what tion to right appears a royal umbrella. The surmounted alms bowl by two figures are attended in monastic Buddhas by are probably two Buddhas dress. The representa and the bowl and Maitreya, of S?kyamuni accord the patra of Buddha, is probably which, to the Tushita rose magically to legend, ing received it was Heaven where by the reverently As Fa Hsien Bodhisattva reported, Maitreya. tions

"The Thousand
will An The all of them

Buddhas
use this even

of this Bhadra Kalpa

same more alms dish."2 statue attractive

kind of physical vidual details. When

suppleness and in many first discovered

Cunningham

indi

is a black schist image of a royal personage in the 19 th

2). these images rulers. of They portraits as Bodhisattvas by Gr?n

esthetically

(Fig.

they were

century by General as were identified were later recognized

or an an undergarment figure wears in the usual archaistic falls which taravasarka, wears this the personage Over swallowtail pleats. a voluminous shawl or cloak, which passes over

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Fig.

1. Standing
2nd-3rd 34l/i

bod hisattva,
century Royal A.D. inches.

Maitreya
Black Museum,

(?)
schist.

Gandhara, Height: Toronto.

Ontario

or Bodbisattva, Portrait Gandhara, Fig. 2. Royal 49 schist. Height: 2nd-3rd Black century. Toronto. Ontario inches. Royal Museum,

the left shoulder and is rolled around the left

are evidently the "two These garments to the Kadam white robes" which, according bari, the king puts on after his bath, or the two costume of articles the mentioned by royal to hair falls in long ringlets Buddhacarita.' The it is the top of the head a network of jewels termi gathered together by below the krobilos in a half-length female nating two who of in her holds the strands figure hands. The face of this princely its with figure is bilaterally arched eyebrows symmetrical, in spite of a rather masklike and of dryness execution is still peculiarly in feeling classical even to the cutting of (Fig. 3). The prototype, the eyes and mouth, is to be found in models or the Apollo like the Capitoline Venus1 Belve the shoulders, and dere (Fig. 4). Around the neck is a wide torque on arm.

in the and with decorated coinlike medallions, a center bust of a bearded classical completely a and holding Herakles, draped deity, perhaps

club
similar Taxila figure dragon
mouths.

in his left hand. This

to a number of

object

is strikingly

manufacture (Fig. wears heads

objects a copper from bangle including to this torque the 5).n In addition a necklace in two terminating holding a cabuch?n in their

of Alexandrian

The
with

technique of the drapery of this figure

its multiple

folds has many paral ridge-like and Roman reliefs lels in Gandhara portrait statues of the 1st century as, for example, A.D., one from the Villa dei the two statues of Livia, at Pompeii, in the Bardo Palace Misteri other the in Tunis.0

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Fig. 4. Head
Hellenistic.

of the Apollo Belvedere. Late

Rome, Vatican Museum.

Fig.

3. Detail

of head, of Fig. 2.

%&

' 3*1'

Fig.

5. Copper Archaeo bangle. Taxila. logical Museum,

Fig. 6. Head of a Royal Personage, or the Bodhisattva Siddh?rtha. Gandhara. Slate. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
g

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of this The Graeco-Roman ancestry stylistic to find. statues is not hard and other portrait facial effeminate somewhat The type refined, a derivation the late is from of the young noble

are often real of like the faces, parts, sense of fundamental but without any beauty, as it is or aesthetic. Insofar anatomical unity, to be specific the mod possible chronologically, some

Hellenistic
even

ideal of the Apollo

of wearing

Belvedere,

and

elling of the bodies is like a further

tion or Indianization of the reminiscent of the Phidian some carving of the Antoine A statue of a Bodhisattva provides came who of of an

simplifica
vaguely in appears

the fashion

the hair

in a braided

structure

topknot or krobilos in examples like the head in the Philadelphia Museum follows the fashion of the Greek sun god (Fig. 6). The modelling
the body of fashion with in a rather smooth generalized an almost of suppression complete structure is somewhat reminiscent the muscular as will be of the Graeco-Roman tradition, but, even more is essentially formal below, explained of all to Western the representing swallow-tail shapes, with by hard, schematized is the precedents in a series of skirt

style that Period. in the to Gandhara Roman figure

Indian of

Mu how

seum, Calcutta the sculptors the the formulae costume

illustration

representing this princely a robe which

adapted for dress in Gand

ized. Closest manner of stiff, sented that fashion

hara

(Fig. 7). The Gandhara

figure
one

is repre

the closely copies of the earliest the drapery for imitating as portraits of Greek Although styles sculpture.7 ideal these donor appear figures may extremely are at the same time extraordinarily ized, they in the representation of details of cos realistic tumes. turban The pins, sculptor the has been at pains to repro

the folds repre is a style lines. This archaistic Neo-Attic

leaves shoulder sented wearing the heavy folds of which and a mantle, exposed of the body and are supported pass in front by which is an arrangement the arms. This approxi mates female of Roman the dress of a number one formerly in in the Altes Museum portraits, Berlin,9 bains.10 at Aix-les in the museum other are presumably first of the early of the drapery A.D. schematization The century statue into so many attenuated of the Gandhara in crests of the folds the lancet shapes, with a conventionalization of represents sharp ridges, the Both the structure of these Roman for the separate the feeling ence of the drapery is there, But prototypes. exist voluminous as the classic as well

duce with
which

considerable
earrings, closely similar

fidelity

the form of the

correspond With

and jewelled torques, to actual of specimens

jewelry that have been

elsewhere. represented boxes strung There portrait remotest lation of

found

at Taxila
the carver

and
has

fidelity and the armlet the golden across the chest (Fig. I).8

amulet

revelation of the full bodily form. It could be said that the relationship of pieces like this to
the same as the is very much originals at Visitation of the famous group relationship 8 and 9).n to a classical Reims (Figs. prototype Roman the drapery, the volumi something although preserving is re nous of the classical character original, that in a system of line-rhythms ordered sug of a Gothic the manipulations calligrapher, gests d'Honnecourt's of Villard the stone equivalents The of classical translations linear garments.12 ex animated of course, faces are, by spiritual art. Similarly, to classic unknown pressiveness and the folds in the Gandhara image, although to a Graeco-Roman close appear arrangement figures of model, a certain have and formalization stiffness into a more to transform the garment begun reminis The facial mask, mould. linear Oriental of the cent of the classical ideal, has something we associate with which and rigidity symmetry art. real The from Indian on the are of course jewels and although ornaments, is part of Roman actual taken this por In these Gothic at Reims

is not a single example of these bejewelled to me statues the that reveals known of the organic comprehension in the Graeco-Roman the body articu sense.

of the archaic has something The actual anatomy that combination and modelling linear definition marks the early but lacks Indian any images of vitality life. There and breathing suggestion or suggestion is more of than form pattern so that the impres or pose, in structure growth sion is very much the same sort of ornamental patternization of drapery. of that we The figures discern appear Parthian, evidently in the like or treatment the work it Indian, some learned

provincials?Syrian, does not matter?who

of

the superficial

tricks of
and able certain to grasp

the technique
with formulae, the underlying

of

Roman sculpture ever out being

problems
and combination

of

the formal physical

of of many the body. separately The

organization
figures are units a ;

Parthian insistence

articulation

composed

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Fig.

8. The Visitation. 13 th century, Gothic.

Reims

Cathedral.

Fig. 9. Portrait of Agrippina

Roman. Athens. National Museum,

Fig. 7. Royal Bodhisattva. Indian

or Portrait, Gandhara. Calcutta. addition of such to cult Fig. 10. Gold Amulet Taxila. Museum, boxes. Archaeological

Museum, the

regalia is part of the old Indian tradition. images A question in relation which should be raised to the date of the Gandh?ra statues of Buddhas and copies latter Greek Bodhisattvas of bear these is their connection with statues in China. Do Indian

traiture,

the the to

the relation of Roman copies or are they of centuries earlier originals are still being of cult images which replicas at approximately in Gandh?ra the same made schol time as these Chinese facsimiles? Japanese

came to be a typical hands which aspect stylistic in China. of Six Dynasties in every But sculpture other it is an accurate of the respect replica Gandh?ra Bodhisattva. typical realism of these sainted The extends portraits to the representation of details. The jewels are all bracelets and torques, actual at Taxila and else found was Some of this where. undoubtedly jewelry from the Roman such as the world, imported with the bust Herakles necklace of a bearded ornaments the armlets with their dragon figure; are perhaps Sarmatian Actual turban imports. representations as have such been to light in repouss? have come pins with figures at Taxila.14 to An which testifies feature iconographical the essentially human character of the Gandh?ra is the charm Bodhisattva boxes which he wears on one or more across the chest chains (Fig. 1). 10 of

ars have dated

the Fogg late third Museum

the Gandh?ra
and the gilt

type Buddha
bronze Bodhi

in

sattva of the Fujii Collection

century, that these possibility or copies from Gandh?ra so that

in Kyoto

in the
realm of

imports the Gand as an active in existence still h?ra school was ac in the Fujii Collection center.13 The figure seems more since it like a Chinese copy, tually made while has the formalized features and enlargd head and

it is in the are either icons

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to back going who that believed aborigines amulet-loving the wearer of such spells bore a charmed life.15 or dharanis?talismanic sets of words These spells of magic in the little caskets import?enclosed are an exotic device of animistic origin, adapted This the of

is a reflection

a custom

the crowns is whether as a means members of

of of

these

these

so-called royal Bodhisattvas be used attributes may really as these personages identifying

by the Buddhists
dangers means

for the purpose of protecting

fears and specific by the outward been accustomed. types exactly of charms the same

superstitious against humanity in the external world to which it had long It may that various be noted Amulet boxes of

The sub the Mah?y?na pantheon. con in these turban jects represented pins vary are not only miniature There Buddha siderably. of the Garuda but also representations figures in a four-horse chariot.19 Some of and a figure to do with have nothing these, like the Garuda,

and amulets are worn

Bh?rhut.16

by deities at S?nchi and figures have been

of any of the great Bodhisattvas. the iconography of figures that the appearance It should be noted or crowns is in headdresses of different types to Gandh?ra. not In a number of Pal limited busts myra the so-called been ures small half-length modius conical in appear figures It has headdress.20

type worn by the Gandh?ra found at Taxila (Fig. 10).

Besides the fact that

they are representations of sainted in Indian the personages royal dress, so-called Gandh?ra Bodhisattvas show little rela or tion iconographically to the por stylistically of the yaksas, in and other deities trayal nagas, the sculpture of the Sunga and Andhra Periods. Although like the essentially dhoti and elements of armlets and style as is the and of these articles style of carving costume, are necklaces, are the the

these miniature that possibly fig suggested divinities represent by the per worshipped crowns or sons whose that ornament, they of distinction represent badges possibly they It may be authorities.21 given by civic or religious in some cases these Palmyra that rep portraits resent priests wearing crowns with the image of

the god they served. A Hellenistic

Vatican shows a personage wearing

bust

in the

the type similar, just as different as a whole. figures

a diadem

with what looks like an enlarged medallion modelled from one of the early Seleucid coins
It has been that royal portraits. suggested I this is a representation of Antiochus possibly a portrait of his father medallion Seleu wearing a repre is simply the head cus, or that possibly with sentation of one of of a priest the Seleucid attached monarchs.22 to the These royal cult parallels

It isnoteworthy

that the dress of the Gandh?ra

Bodhisattva statues has no resemblance at all to the accoutrement of the Kushan royal portrait has many affiliations with Par statues, which costume.17 of the Gandh?ra The finery must on that of a local native be modelled images or Indo-Greek of Indian race, princes nobility, thian

make one wonder

if the richly attired Gandh?ra

who had no blood connection with

It is evident, rulers. are unrelated to the we know them from also, that features of

the Scythian

facial types as the Kushanas their coins and fragmentary statues. Kushan official art, as known portrait in the Mat at Mathura and the frag images ments from Surkh Khotal, is more to related western as represented Asiatic forms the by of Parthian and Sasanian date.18 royal effigies are no indications There of any sponsoring of

the

as Bodhisattvas, are not figures, loosely described cases representations in many of lay personages or donors wearing to in their turbans emblems or to the Buddha their attachment proclaim other members of the Buddhist It is pantheon. of course, in that dressed individuals obvious, same are unmistakably costume of the type as donors in many represented bearing offerings Gandh?ra reliefs. Another for the representation explanation of these personages in the crown and jewels of a maharaja some of them, is that at least, are as a Bodhisattva. of S?kyamuni representations Siddh?rtha, Kshatriya was the prince, clan of the S?kyas, a member and until of the the mo

Buddhism
patronage and

by
of

the Kushan
faith

rulers beyond
so that

the
one

the

may well ask if the entire support for Buddhism

school came from the native that is, a native Indian nobility de population; to Buddhism, voted whereas the religion of the the Gandh?ra

by Kanishka,

ment
career

of his Enlightenment

had before him the

Kushan ruling house, judging by their coins and the finds at Surkh Khotal, was of a decidedly
syncretic nature.

One question which

is raised by the figures in

11

of a cakravartin. It might be possible, of to identify all the figures wearing turban course, and jewels and no other attributes recognizable as Siddh?rtha. To this interpretation, of course,

may

be

added

the

suggestion

advanced

by

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Coomaraswamy have had may

that

noble

donors

themselves often

Bodhisattva
of Cambodia

Siddh?rtha,
were

just as the Khmer

in Gandh?ra as the represented

himself

even is a divine is who, human, prince though an incarnation or the Sun god. of Buddha

rulers

of Buddha, Siva, Mu from the Toronto like the first example seum are just as certainly representa 13) (Fig. tions of the Bodhisattva who Maitreya, enjoyed a considerable as attested in these regions, cult by the mentions There Gandh?ra in their on the a number is also by Fa Hsien the and Hsiian Tsang.23

represented or Vishnu. Some of

in the guise the figures,

as has been mentioned In the same way, above, in Cambodia of living kings were the portraits or Siva or Vishnu, in the guise of Buddha shown and the actual features the man were of subordi mass to the completely nated ideal and abstract

of the divinity. Because of this imposed idealiza

tion these in Gandh?ra it was of royal portraits as a Prince of Buddha a step to adapt only to representations donors into the and, ultimately,

of the occasional question miniature Buddha figures images crowns. the leading Although authority with study of of heads Avalokitesvara, Mlle. Marie

In this Bodhisattvas. the mythical of images statues transformed the Gandh?ra aspect royal came to affect the art of all eastern Asia. NOTES
du Gandh?ra, II, Paris, Foucher, Gr?co-bouddhique in India, Lon Art Buddhist 1918, p. 211, n.l; A. Gr?nwedel, "The Origin of the don, 1901, p. 182; A. K. Coomaraswamy, Buddha 1927, p. 309. IX, 4, June, Image," The Art Bulletin, 2. S. Beal, Records Budhist London, of the Western World, I, p. lxxviii. 1906, 3. Foucher, II, p. 75. II, pp. 179-181; Beal, // Campidoglio, 4. C Cecchelli, Rome, 1925, pi. 63. 5. Sir John Marshall, 18, 1951, Taxila, pi. III, Cambridge, a-no. 18. La Villa dei Misteri, 6. A. Maiuri, 1931, p. 223; F. Poul I, Rome, in English and Roman sen, Greek Sculpture Country Houses, 1. A. Oxford, 1923, p. 53, fig. 34. New The Art 7. H. B. Walters, 1911, York, of the Romans, pi. XVI. 8. Marshall, 59, a-f. III, pi. 191, h-no. in Deutschland, Madonnenstatuen Gotische 9- A. Goldschmidt, 1923, pi. 39. Augsburg, as Illuminator, Uni Columbia 10. M. Millard, Andrea Mantegna 1957, fig. 20. versity, New York, und Gotik, Griechentum 11. W. Worringer, 1928, Munich, fig. 71,75. 12. Worringer, fig. 74. and Stone Sculpture Bronze 13. S. Mizuno, I960, of China, Tokyo, p. 11, pis. 6, 7, 86, 87 a and b. 14. Marshall, III, pi. 190, 191, 196. Ostasia in Buddhism," Cult "The 'Dharani' 15. L. A. Waddell, tische Zeitschrift, pp. 158-159. I, 1912-13, see amulet 16. Waddell, boxes, p. 159, fig. 2; for the Taxila Marshall, III, pi. 191, h-no. 59, a-f. The Art and Architecture 17. B. Rowland, of India, Pelican His tory of Art, II, Harmondsworth, 1956, pi. 43, 44. Dec. London 18. Cf. Illustrated News, 18, 1954, p. 1116, fig. 3. 19. Foucher, III, pi. 191. II, figs. 320, 398, 399; Marshall, a l'?tude d'Avalokitesvara," "Introduction 20. M. T. de Mallmann, du Mus?e Annales p. 126; H. Guimet, 57, 1948, Ingholt, I (1934), in Beirut," p. 34. Sculpture Berytus, "Palmyrene with here that the personages It is suggested figured medal to ancestral lions in their crowns are priests of Bel or attached cults. Bulletin de Correspondence 21. Cf. L. Robert, LIV, Hell?nique, 1930, p. 264, n. 6. 22. Robert, und Denkm?ler p. 266; F. Bruckmann, griechischer Greek and Roman r?mischer 105, Sculptur, 106; A. Hekler, Portraits, 1912, pi. 124b. London, Bodhisattva 23. The may be recognized images of Maitreya by the mudra, stupa and the crown, by the vitarka or dharmacakra by or krobilos, the chignon of a the distinctive hairdressing or water-bottle, which and by the kundika Brahmin, again to the anticipated of the future Buddha refers birth into a "In future years when Brahmin household II, p. 47: (Beal, shall be at peace and rest, and of Jambudvipa this country to 80,000 shall amount the age of men years, there shall be a 24. 25. Brahmin called Maitreya.") de Mallmann, op. cit., pp. 121, 125. B. Rowland, "Buddha and the Sun God," pi. VII. L'Art

Th?r?se de Mallmann,

has tentatively

identified

and complete with figures as portrayals in the turban of the great Buddhas it is not at all sure that this identifi Bodhisattva, cation is acceptable.24 the Amit?yus Although sutra with dates the from the earliest the 2nd mention century of Avalokitesvara A.D., the earliest

description

of the Bodhisattva

is not found until

5th-century layasas. Insofar are completely their turbans

version of this sutra by Ka as we know, the dhy?ni Buddhas in Gandh?ra, unknown and so

the heads and isolated statues with

Buddhas

in

in reality be portrayals of lay may to Buddha their allegiance personages expressing in their crowns. It is per his likeness by wearing that this of course, obvious, type was fectly

adopted in later Mah?y?na

to represent Avalokitesvara

Buddhist
with

art in India
Ami

Buddha

t?bha in his diadem.

An lem on has a bearing image which in the Toronto is another figure this prob Museum,

which

I once published
of

in connection

with

wall-painting identification seems to me

a solar divinity at B?miy?n, of this image as a Bodhisattva Nowhere decidedly unlikely.25 of the attribute It seems much Asiatic the western of a donor with

the now in

laterMah?y?na
sattva

iconography do we find a Bodhi

a solar quad more likely

riga that, following is a representation his personal worship stance, the Buddha

image with in the crown.

this parallels, of the object in in his crown, in this as Sun god. transfigured

It is difficult
Gandh?ra

to know whether
in the

to call these
true

sense of likenesses images to more It would be the word. accurate, perhaps as transfigured since them describe likenesses, is coerced into the mould the actual appearance

of the godlike mien

of Apollo

to show that this

12

Zdmoxis,

I, 1938,

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