EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
borders of India the quaint painting which cover the walls of the dgon-pas are executed up to
the present day─ so I was told in Lahul─ by those of the lamas who possess the most accurate
knowledge of their stupendous pantheon.
This much, at any rate, is certain, that the Sârnâth and the Śrâvastî image were made
by the same master, if not by the same workmen. The style is that of the Mathurâ school ;
the material is the red sandstone of the Agra quarries. All this points to the conclusion,
already referred to above, that the donors of these images has their home at Mathurâ where,
as early as the reign of the satraps Rajula (or Rañjubula) and Śoḍâsa, a school of sculpture
flourished, which was strongly influenced by the Graeco-Buddhist art of Gandhâra. Seemingly
this Mathurâ school created a Bôdhisattva type, specimens of which found their way to
other famous centers of Buddhism. And all evidence now available points to the fact
that these were the very first images of the kind set up at those places.[1] For where else but
at these sacred spots, hallowed by the presence of the Buddha himself, should we expect
to find such images ? And yet not a fragment of anything earlier than these has been
found there. On the other hand, would Friar Bala and his companions have carried
those gigantic statues from Mathurâ to Śrâvastî and far-off Benares, if there had been local
artists capable of converting a block of stone into a sacred image ? Would he have thought it
necessary to mention expressly that the image represented a Bôdhisattva, if such images had
been familiar to the pious ? Let us bear in mind the numberless images of Mediæval India, all
evidently made locally,─ those of Sârnâth in Chunâr sandstone, those of Gayâ in basalt,─ among
which we hardly ever find one marked with the name of the deity which it represents.[2] Among
the numerous inscribed Buddhist images of the early Gupta period Dr. Bloch can quote only
three examples in which the subject is mentioned.
Then, if Friar Bala was a monk of Mathurâ, who were his patrons, the great satrap
Kharapallâna and the satrap Vanaspara ? That they were Buddhists is evident ; and it may be
inferred from their titles that the former was the latter’s father, and from their names that they
were of foreign extraction. As to the latter point, it is impossible at present to arrive at a definite
conclusion. For though these two names have a distinct Iranian sound,[3] I need only refer to
the instance of the Mughal rulers of later days, to demonstrate the unsoundness of inferring
anything therefrom as to their ethnographic origin. Perhaps from their connection with Friar
Bala we may hazard the conjecture that their seat of government was at Mathurâ, where a line
of foreign rulers is known to have existed only about a century before. It is true that on the
Kshatrapa coins found in and round that city the names of Kharapallâna and Vanaspara do not
occur. But this fact can easily be accounted for on the assumption that Kharapallâna, though
possibly a descendant of the independent satraps of the 1st century B.C., now owed allegiance to
Mahârâja Kanishka, in whose reign the inscriptions are dated, and consequently used the Kushana
coinage. May we go a step further and assume that his son Vanaspara, who in the umbrella
inscription is mentioned before Kharapallâna, resided at Benares and ruled the eastern portion of
the province governed by his father ?
The Sârnâth inscriptions partly confirm and partly modify Dr. Bloch’s conclusions regarding
the Śrâvastî epigraph. They show that he is undoubtedly correct in his interpretation of
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[1] That statues already existed in India at an earlier period is proved by the Parkham image (A. S. R. Vol.
XX. p. 40 and Plate vi.) with its inscription in Maurya Brâhmî. But apparently it has no connection with
Buddhism.
[2]A. Foucher, Êtude sur l’ Iconographie Bouddhique de l’ Inde (Paris, 1900), pp. 4 ff. and 7 ff. Regarding the
Mathurâ sculptures the author remarks : “ Elles sont tout de suite reconnaissables à la belle couleur rouge
tachetée de jaune du grès des Vindhyas.”
[3] The ending âna is also found in Hagâna (Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 87) and in Nahapâna
(A. S. R. Western India, Vol. IV. p. 99). For the first member of the name Kharapallâna we may compare
Kharamosta and Kharaosta (Bühler, J. R. A. S. for 1894, p. 532, and Rapson, Indian Coins, p. 9).
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