Supposed Greek Sculpture at Mathura

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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

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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.