Marshall's Detailed Account of Archaeological Excavations at Historic Taxila City

Taxila.
An Illustrated Account of Archaeological Excavations Carried Out at Taxila under the Orders of the Government of India between the Years 1913 and 1934 by John Marshall Review by: J. Ph. Vogel Artibus Asiae, Vol. 16, No. 1/2 (1953), pp. 124-136 Published by: Artibus Asiae Publishers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3248733 . Accessed: 31/01/2014 07:36
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BIBLIOGRAPHIA
Sir ZfohnMarshall. Taxila. An Illustrated Account of Archaeological Excavations carried out at Taxila under the Orders of the Government of India between the years 1913 and I934. Three volumes. Cambridge at the University Press, 1952, pp. 895 and 245 plates. Price e 2I. The appearance of this great work by a great scholar is a significant event in the history of Indian archaeology. It is the accurate, detailed and well-illustrated account of the first excavation of an extensive city site in India carried out on strictly scientific lines. The author was Director General of Archaeology during and thus charged with the responsability for the conservation of a period of thirty-four years (1902-I936) the numberless ancient monuments scattered over that vast subcontinent. This task not only required continual travelling but also entailed an enormous correspondence. The opportunities for exploration were therefore strictly limited. In September 1927 Sir John Marhallwas placed on special duty and thus enabled to devote the remaining seven and a half years of his term of office to his excavations and to the publication of monographs on Mohenjo-daro, Taxila, and Sanchi. The latter part of this task had to be largely accomplished after his retirement in March 1936. Sir John Marshall's imposing work on Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization appeared in I931. It was followed in 1940 by the magnificent monograph on the Monuments of Sanchi, presenting a detailed description and illustration of that famous group of Buddhist sanctuaries. For the iconographical portion of this work the author had secured the co-operation of the late Alfred Foucher, the foremost authority in this field of studies. The texts of inscriptions were edited, translated and annotated by the late N. G. Majumdar. The third and concluding portion of this great archaeological trilogy has now appeared and there is every reason to congratulate the author on its appearance. The work was composed under very trying circumstances. "Even in normal times and in the most favourable conditions", the author says in his Preface (p. XVIII), "the task of handling so large a mass of material, and particularly the many thousands of minor antiquities, would have been burdensome enough. It was made doubly so under the stress of failing health and the inevitable wear and tear of the Second World War, which, besides many other penalties, cost me the loss by 'enemy action' of more than four hundred pages of my records and notes". Among the persons to whom acknowledgements are made Sir John Marshall mentions in the first place Mr. Harold Hargreaves who from 1913 took a prominent part in the excavations. A detailed description of the Gandhara sculptures was contributed by him to the present volume (ch. 36). Taxila, owing to its position on the highway from Bactria and Gandhara to Mathura and beyond, was the first Indian city of the Panjab to receive the cultural influences from Iran and the Graeco-Roman world. It was also doomed to suffer the devastations caused by the successive invasions of foreign conquerors
124
Figs. I and 2 Fig. i View of Parthian City showing Court of Apsidal Temple in centre of background Fig. 2 Dharmarajika Stipa in course of excavation
-Persians, Macedonians, Bactro-Greeks, Sakas, Parthians, Kushans and White Huns -which swept over the Land of the Five Rivers. During the ten centuries from the incorporation of North-West India in the empire of Cyrus till the final destruction of the ancient city by the Huns in the fifth century of our era the kingdom of Taxila appears to have known only a brief span of autonomy following the break-up of the Maurya Empire. Sir John Marshall's excavations have proved that no less than twelve cities have succeeded each other covering three well-defined sites. The first four were situated on the southernmost site, known as the Bhir mound and, as far as examined, show an Indian character in their arrangement. Here lay the Taxila in whose ruler Alexander found a welcome ally against Porus. The city founded by the Bactrian Greeks in the opening years of the second century B. C. occupies the neighbouring site known as Sirkap. This Hellenistic town was laid out in the typical 'chess-board' pattern, with streets cutting one another at right-angles and regularly aligned blocks of buildings. Notwithstanding repeated destruction and rebuilding, this Greek outlay was preserved by the Saka and Parthianconquerors. The site of Sirsukh situated further to the north-east covers the remains of the last city built by the Kushans and laid out in the traditional manner of Central Asian towns of the same period (p. 4). Sir John Marshall mainly concentrated his explorations on the site of Sirkap and the results fully justified this choice. He succeeded in laying bare the entire Indo-Parthian city with its main street, running from north to south, intersected by thirteen side-streets, as it existed in the first century A. D. The most conspicuous building with a frontage of 352 ft. and a depth of about 410 ft., occupying a central position, must have been the royal palace of the Parthian rulers (pp. I71-8). Amongst religious buildings inside the town there is a large Buddhist temple standing in a spacious rectangular court enclosed by a wall (fig. i). This sanctuary is an apsidal temple of an early type, structural and rock-cut examples of which are known from various parts of India. The object of worship is a chaitya, i. e. a stiipa, and this accounts both for the rounded backwall of the building and for the name chetiyaghara (Sanskrit chaityagriha) by which such temples are designated in Prakrit inscriptions. The author observes that the people of Taxila must have been very religiously minded (p. 20I). This is evident from the large number of sacred edifices, mostly Buddhist, found not only within the city, but also in the surrounding country. "Of monasteries located outside the city walls there were literally scores upon scores" (p. 234). The most important and probably the oldest, is the sangharama, situated to the south of the city. The central stupa (fig. 2) which still dominates this group of ruins, is the Dharmarajikawhose origin may be ascribed to Asoka although there remains nothing of the original fabric that can be definitely recognized as Mauryan (p. 235). Next to the Dharmarajika,the most important Buddhist settlement is the monastery now known by the modern name of Kalawan, situated on the slope of a hill at a distance of nearly two miles from the Bhir Mound. The ancient name of the locality must have been Chadagila. This appears from an inscribed copper-plate, recording the enshrinement of a relic by the upasika Chandrabhi and her relatives, which was discovered beside a stiipa-shaped relic casket of schist. The inscription is dated in the year 134 of Azes, the Saka king. The era of Azes is identified by Marshall with the Vikrama era which began in
I26
PERISTYLE
Li
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58 B. C. On this assumption the date of the copper-plate corresponds with I92 A.D.1 Another stpa occupying a commanding position on the northern slopes of Hathial is identified by Marshall with the monument which according to Hsiian Tsang commemorated the legend of Asoka's son Kunala. The touching story of the Prince whose eyes were put out by order of the Emperor owing to the machinations of his queen Tishyaraskhita is essentially the same as that of Hippolytus and Phaedra (pp. 348 f). Chapters 18 and 20 give a detailed account of the two sangaghdrmas, situated in an enchanting position among the hills at some distance to the north-east of the city. They are named after the neighbouring villages Mohra Moradu and Jaulianf (chapters i 8 and 20). The Buddhist monasteries present the same character as found other parts of India, although the unsafety prevailing in the border districts of the North-West evidently necessitated certain measures of fortification such as were not called for in more peaceful parts of the country. A building of unusual interest is the Jandial temple, standing on an artificial mound some 25 feet above the surrounding
PRONAOS
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country and facing the north gate of the Graeco-Parthiancity. Its plan shows a striking resemblance to the classical temples of Greece. "The only essential difference in plan between this and a Greek temple is that, instead of an extra chamber between the opisthodomos and naos, we have at Jandial a solid mass of masonry, the foundations of which are carried down over 20 ft. below the temple floor. From the great depth of these foundations it may be safely inferred that this mass of masonry was iutended to carry a heavy superstructure, which apparently rose in the form of a tower considerably higher than the rest of the building" (p. 223). Access to this tower was provided by flights of broad steps which are partly preserved. This Fig. 3 Plan of JandialTemple unusual adjunct of a tower has led to the assumption that the temple was dedicated by some Saka or Parthian ruler to Zoroastrianism or Magianism. But the author also admits the possibility of its having been founded by the Bactrian Greeks for the worship of one or the other of the many Greek deities, whose effigies are found on Graeco-Bactrian and Graeco-Indian coins. Another point of great interest discussed by the author is that this remarkable Greek temple is perhaps the temple described by Philostratus in his Life of Apollonius,in which the sage and his companion Damis
1
It is impossible here to enter on the much debated question of the eras used in the dated documents found in Gandhara and at Taxila.
127
awaited the permission of the Parthian king to enter the city of Taxila. In other respects too the account of Apollonius' visit to Taxila in the year 44 A. D. is corroborated by Marshall's excavations. Earliest in date among inscriptional records is the fragmentary Aramaic inscription engraved on an octagonal pillar of white marble which was found built into a wall of the Parthian city (pp. 164-6, P1.34d). It must therefore have been in its present worn and broken condition at the beginning of the Christian era. Despite its incompleteness Professor F. C. Andreas has succeeded in deciphering it. According to his interpretation the monument to which it refersas set up in honour of a high official named Romedote. It is a point of great interest that the inscription makes twice mention of "the lord Priyadari" at whose instance apparently the monument was erected. It seems therefore to confirm the historical tradition preserved in Buddhist literature that Asoka (or Priyadarsi, as he calls himself in his Edicts) was Viceroy of Taxila during the reign of his father Bindusara. The excavations have yielded an enormous number of minor antiquities which are classified and described in the second volume of the monograph. They consist of gold and silver jewellery, fingerrings and gems, bone and ivory objects, seals and sealings including a conical onyx seal from Assyria dating from the seventh or sixth century B. C. (p. 677), stone and stucco sculptures, metal utensils, beads, terra-cottas, and pottery. "For India", the author says (p. XVI), "this collection of objects illustrative of the daily life of the people is more i r~t i othanusually valuable, since it is the only really representative collection of such objects belonging to the historic period that exists, an observation which is true not only of the North-West but of the whole Indian peninsula". The minor antiquities recovered in the Parthian city are partly or Western Asiatic, partly Indian in character. "Speaking Fig AogtebjGreek the author remarks (p. 202), "Greek and Western ro st Hgenerally", Asiatic influence appears most prominently in the more expensive articles such as the gold and silver jewellery, silver and bronze vessels, engraved and carved stones and glass. Indian influence, on the other hand, is most conspicuous in the cheaper kinds of wares made of baked clay, iron, bone and the like. This is only what might be expected in a society where the wealthy ruling class was foreign and much affected by the Hellenistic culture of the West and where the poorer people were largely Indian and necessarily permeated with much of the traditional culture of India. But this generalisation must not be pressed too far. There are many exceptions
to it".
Fig. 4 Bronzestatuetteof Harpocrates
Among the objects of Western art there are two deserving special notice. One is a charming bronze statuette (fig. 4)
128
;::i9 1^
?:100 l_
t A i9r8t
(height 5 inches) of the Egyptian child-god Harpocrates,2 probably from Alexandria and a "characteristic GraecoRoman work of the first century A. D. or thereabouts", (pp. I59 and 605, plate I86, 2). The other is a bearded and vine-wreathed head of Dionysus or Silenus in silver repousse, (fig. 5) supported on a silver stand and used apparently as a table ornament (pp. 159 and 614, no 21; p1. 209a). Three silver goblets with carinated and fluted must be Parthian. The author observes, that these N^' V,5-~~ Xbodies and other silver vessels, including an inscribed askos and several phialai mesomphaloi, though of a distinctly classical type, exhibit features which point to their having been manufactured locally (p. 608). The excavation of the numerous Buddhist buildings in and around Taxila has led Sir John Marshall to important conc elusions regarding the history of Buddhist art in north-
Fig. Head of Dionysusor Silenusin silverrepousse
west India during the first five centuries of our era. The author points out that we should discriminate between the earlier School of Gandhara and the later IndoAfghan School. The latter name does not of course imply any connexion of the Afghans with the school of Art in question, but was chosen because the most typical sculptures had been found within the borders of Afghanistan. Both schools flourished under Kushan patronage, the Gandhara under that of the early Kushans from V'ima Kadphises to Vasudeva I, and the Indo-Afghan under the Kidara Kushans 3 (p. XVII). "The Gandhara School", the author says (p. 72), "was an indigenous growth inspired as much by the traditions of the Early Indian Schools as by those of the Hellenised Orient. Its art, therefore, is to be sharply distinguished from the late Hellenistic art of Western Asia, many examples of which have been found, particularly among the Parthian ruins, at Taxila. The Gandhara School followed the precedent of the older Indian Schools in drawing on the Jdtakas and Life Story of the Buddha for its subjects; on the other hand, it defied all tradition and revolutionised liturgical worship by portraying the Buddha in bodily form. In the Indo-Afghan School the Buddha or Bodhisattva image was destined almost entirely to replace the pictorial panel in the adornment of sacred edifices. " Another point of difference is that the GandharaSchool is known to us almost exclusively from its stone sculptures, though stucco and clay were also used.4 The artists of the Indo-Afghan School, on the contrary, habitually worked in stucco or clay, rarely if ever, in stone.
2
In Egyptian he is called Hr-p3-hrd (i. e. "Horus-the-Child"), which is also transcribed: Hor-pe-khrot. The name was transformed by the Greeks into 'Ap7oxpcdTY;. 3 On the leading position of the Kidara Kushans from c. 390 to c. 460 in south-eastern Afghanistan and the North-West of India, including Taxila, vide pp. 74 f.; on their coinage pp. 789 f. 4 It is true that few specimens of stucco decoration have survived, but it must be taken into account that in the unsystematic diggings of the Igth century hardly any attempt was made to preserve them.
129
The stone sculptures employed to decorate the Buddhist sanctuaries of Taxila must have been brought from Gandhara. Only two statues of rather uncouth appearance have come to light, carved in the soft grey sandstone of Taraki and evidently the work of local craftsmen (p. 694). The Gandhara sculptures, recovered among the ruins of the Buddhist sanctuaries, are mostly of inferior quality. A descriptive catalogue of the stone sculptures prepared by Mr. H. Hargreaves and a brief but valuable note on their iconographic and artistic interest by M. Alfred Foucher are inserted in chapter 36 (pp. 695-728). The concluding section of this note deals with images of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. The French author states that the Taxila excavations have produced several images of the Bodhisattva Siddhartha, the future Sakyamuni. "A very magnificent type of the Bodhisattva in all the elegance of his rich costume and princely jewels," must represent Maitreya, who will be reborn as a Brahmin and therefore has the same head-dress and the same water-vessel (kamanzdalu) as Brahma. The identification of some figures with Avalokitesvara is uncertain; but in all probability they are the prototypes of that Bodhisattva in later Buddhist iconography. The Buddha images of Taxila exhibit a great variety in their postures and the treatment of the hair. But they are all representations of Sakyamuni. "There is no question here of Dhyani-Buddhas any more than in the rest of the Gandhara School". It would exceed the normal limits of a review to discuss or merely to survey Sir John Marshall's observations on many matters of great historical importance, based on numismatical or epigraphical evidence. An account of his conclusions relating to Buddhist art will be more welcome to readers of "Artibus Asiae". There is the more reason to deal with this subject in greater detail, as the sculptures in stone and stucco which have come to light at Taxila belong almost exclusively to that remarkable phase of Buddhist art which is usually indicated as the Graeco-Buddhist School of Gandhara. A standard work on this subject we owe to that great French scholar Alfred Foucher whose recent demise is deeply deplored by his colleagues and friends. The history of Gandhara Art-its origin, development and decline and, above all, its aesthetic appreciation-presents so many problems and has given rise to so wide a divergence of opinion that Foucher's great work, however excellent, leaves full scope for further research and study. It is therefore welcome news that a scholar like Sir John Marshall intimately acquainted with classical and Indian art is engaged in completing a book on the Gandhara School which is largely based on the evidence of his excavations at Taxila. We here wish to express our gratitude for his courtesy in procuring us a synopsis of his forthcoming book which carries his conclusions much further than in his "Taxila". We are pleased to avail ourselves of his permission to reproduce his synopsis in the present review. In the first century B. C. there existed in Gandhara a local School of secular art represented at Taxila only by a series of round toilet-trays usually divided into two or more compartments and embellished with figures or scenes sculptured in relief. (Taxila, pp. 493-8 and 692 f. Plates 144-I46). The subjects comprise drinking and dancing scenes; a pair of male and female figures holding drinking-cups, lions, leogryphs, hippocamps and other fishtailed monsters with or without riders. "Most of these subjects are clearly Hellenistic, and there can be no doubt that this kind of toilet-tray was introduced with HelI3o
lenistic culture from the West, where specimens of them have been found, especially in Egypt." Hellenistic in origin, they show progressive deterioration under the Sakas. The stone used in these trays is grey schist. During the first quarter of the first century A. D. the Buddhists enlist this secular art in the service of their religion, just as they had done in the case of the earlier art of Central India. But the local art of Gandhara being then at a very low ebb, they look for models in India. Examples of the Buddhist art of this period are the figural stipua-brackets,reproduced on plate 213. They are made of quartz schist and belong to a relatively early phase (p. 695). The ensuing period of Parthian rule was marked by a revival of Hellenistic art, due to the well-known philhellenic tendencies of the Parthian rulers. Philostratus notes that Apollonius conversed in Greek with the Parthian king of Taxila (p. 65). Many examples of this revived art came from the Parthian stratum in Sirkap, including objects of gold, silver, copper, bronze, iron, terra-cotta, stone, etc. They include the Harpocrates statuette and the silver Dionysus head mentioned above. The Buddhists quickly take advantage of this revival. At first they adorn their sti.pas with purely classical subjects; later they give the scenes a Buddhist flavour, e. g. by putting lotuses instead of drinking-cups in the hands of the actors (plates 148 and 149, a-h. Cf. Foucher op. cit. figs. 121, 123, i26, 127, 13I). "Of the stucco figures from the apsidal temple (in the Parthian city) a few are so characteristically Hellenistic that they might equally well have been turned out at Seleucia or at Antioch as at Taxila; and it is reasonable, therefore, to infer that they are the work of some foreign artist, who, if not a Greek himself, had at least been trained in a Hellenistic School. Most of the figures, however, are evidently the handiwork of local craftsmen who were doing their best to copy Hellenistic models but without properly grasping the essentials of Hellenistic art" (p. 5I3). At the close of this period, about 50 A. D., must be placed the first example of the Buddha figure known to us from Gandhara (cf. Foucher, op. cit. fig. 239) and the stucco Bodhisattvas in the Apsidal Temple of Sirkap (pl. 149, c, d, e, h). The "adolescent period of Gandhara art" is dated by Marshall from circa 50-I00 A. D. It now develops a truly Buddhist character and a hybrid style of its own. At first Hellenistic influence is still prominent but gradually it becomes more indianised. The sculptures display the individual inventiveness of the author; they are not yet produced in the mass or stereotyped, as they were later. As typical examples of this adolescent period Marshall quotes the remarkable reliefs of unknown provenance, representing scenes of the Buddha's legendary life, which were photographed by Mr. A. E. Caddy in 1898 and were partly preserved in the Guides' Mess at Mardan (Foucher, op. cit., figs. 151, 155, I56, i62, 189, 276). The second century A. D. is regarded by Marshall as the "Maturity period" of Gandhara art in which he distinguishes a first phase (c. 100-130 A. D.) and a second phase (c. I30-200 A. D.). The sculptures of the first phase are essentially Buddhist and entirely hybrid in style. In fact they have completely evolved their own style, which is still marked by originality and vigour of expression. But incipient signs of steriotyping and uniformity make their appearance. A considerable number of sculptures recovered at Taxila are attributed by the explorer to this first phase 131
Fig. 6
The Dream of Q(een Miay
of the Maturity Period. They are nos. 90, 92, 98, 99, Ioo, 105, 113, 114, I2I, 132, 136, 141 and 158 of Mr. Hargreaves' list and are reproduced on plates 217-225. They include two fragments of the Syamaa also on well a relief from Jamalgarhi (Foucher, fig. 143), pictured preserved jataka (no. go), subject preserved in the British Museum; a good specimen of Queen Maya's Dream (no. 92), (fig. 6), specially noted by the author (p. 328); and three fragments (nos. 98, 99, 100) which must be the remnants of a large sculpture of the "Sleeping Women". No. 113 is an unusual representation of Buddha visited by Indra. Marshall describes it (p. 346) as "a very striking relief of phyllite depicting Buddha in the Indragailacave and devas descending from above to shower flowers on his head. The composition, pose and modelling of the devas are exceptionally happy and rank this relief among the finest of the Gandhara sculptures from Taxila" (fig. 7). Another very remarkable piece of sculpture, no. I32, alas partly defaced, is interpreted by Foucher as the concluding episode of the Great Miracle of Sravasti (alias the miracle under the mango-tree). It shows the Buddha seated between Prasenajit, the king of Kosala, and an obese and naked person who probably is Purana-Kasyapa,one of the heretical teachers. Foucher (p. 698) draws attention to "the simplicity and homeliness of this sculpture, compared with the hieratic stylisation of later compositions". The Buddha image (no. i 58, height 37 inches) deserves special notice as representative of the early phase
132
of the Maturity period of Gandharan art. The Master is shown standing with the upraised right forearm lifting the sanghati and thus exposing the antaravdsaka (under-garment). The right hand, which is missing, was evidently raised with the gesture of imparting protection (abhayamudra); the left hand touches the robe. The face is moustached and the hair arranged in natural waves. Most of these sculptures came to light among the ruins of the Dharmarajika monastery. The second phase of the Maturity period (c. I30-200 A.D.) is marked by a stupendous productivity of Gandhara art which rapidly becomes stereotyped in style. The sculptor now aims at perfection of technique and repeats the stock themes at the sacrifice of his o. own artistry. To the latter half of the second century we must attribute e the numberless Buddha and 4q Bodhisattva images of highly refined workmanship but bearing a more physical than spiritual beauty. The best of these images were referred by Foucher to the first century B.C. We may assume that this great boom in sculpture and the tendency to commercialise it were due to the patronage of Buddhism by the great Kushtn rulers and the general increase in the number of Buddhist foundations. A typical example of this period is the Bodhisattva from Shmhbazgarhiin the Musee Guimet (Foucher, op. cit., frontispiece). The well-known elaborate scenes of the Buddha legend from Loriyan Tangai, preserved in the Calcutta Museum, as well as the Paficika statue from Tahkal in the Lahore Museum (ibidem, figs. 367-8, vol. II, pp. I 8 f.) are representative of this period. Taxila too has yielded a number of sculptures belonging to this second phase of the maturity period. One of the finest examples of Gandhara sculpture is a full-length image of Maitreya (no. 142; height 40 accurately described by Mr. Hargreaves (p. 722). It was discovered in a cell of the Mohra Moradu monastery together with another Maitreya, somewhat smaller in size and of inferior style, and a inches) 133 :
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Fig. 7 Buddhain the Indraiaila Cave visited by Indra
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false gable-window with three legendary scenes placed in superposed panels. We mention also a very good example the decorative device, abundantly employed in Gandhara art, of amorini carrying an undulating garland (no. 72). well-known classical motif, familiar from Roman, Alexandrian and Syrian sarcophagi and still employed in Renaissance art, found its way to the North-West of India and was thence carried first to Mathura and thence to while undergoing a curious process of indianisation. The specimen under discussion was discovered in the octagonal chamber A I of the Kalawan Stupa. Another larger fragment showing the same subject (no. 73) came from a chapel of the Dharmarajika. The years 200-230 A. D. bring the final chapter of the First Gandhara School. Its eclipse was due to the invasion of the North-West by the Sasanid king Ardashir-i-Babegan 230 A. D.) and the death of Vasudeva, followed by the disintegration of the Kushan Empire. Up to 230 A. D., in spite of steady decline, good work was still being turned out, but after that date the output was very small and the
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deterioration very marked. The renaissance of Gandhara art came about 390 after the Sasanians were supplanted by the Kidara Kushans in the North-West. The second Gandhara School arose, phoenix-like, out of the ashes of the First, and there was much in common between them though the differences were very marked. The Second School flourished between circa 390 and 415 A. D., when Buddhism was virtually annihilated by the White Huns. Fig. 8 fromKalawan headofBodhisattva Terra-cotta Among the essential differences the following may be noted. a) The sculptures of the First School are almost exclusively of stone, those of the Second School are of stucco and clay. These materials may have been employed by artists of the First School but in Gandhara few specimens in either material have survived, and only a very few at Taxila, where no stone suitable for carving was available. b) The area in which the First School flourished was confined to districts west of the Indus in which suitable stone was obtainable. The area of the Second School was much wider, including districts east of the Indus and in Afghanistan. c) In the First School, sculptors were largely concerned in illustrating the legendary life of the Buddha. In the Second, such illustrations generally gave place to images and their attendants. d) In the Second School, the use of clay and stucco instead of stone opened the way to a more sensitive and more spiritual expression in images of the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, etc. (e. g. Taxila, vol. II, front) (fig. 8). i34
The glory of the Buddhist monuments of Taxila is certainly their sculptural decoration in stucco. Several fine specimens are reproduced in the plates 5ga, 77a, 96a-c, 99, io6, 148I6I. The subject is discussed in chapter 26. (fig. 9). In the monastery of Jauliafi two subsidiary stupas are provided with dedicatory inscriptions containing either the name of the donor or that of the Buddha figure beneath which they are found. Inscriptions of the latter kind are very unusual in Indian art and in the present case they are particularly interesting because in two epigraphs the Buddha to whom they refer is designated by the name of Kasava corresponding with Sanskrit Kasyapa (p. 375). In this connection it deserves attention that in the city of Mathurathe lower half of a standing image of the Buddha
Kasyapa was discovered in I937.5 The wording of the
"
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dedicatory inscription on the pedestal is far from clear, but it certainly contains the words Budhasa Kasapasa. The itineraries of the Chinese pilgrims too contain several _ indications of a cult of Sakyamuni's ~~~~~~, predecessor existing
9 Stucco Head V~~~Fig.
in India. Naturally it never attained the importance of the worship of Maitreya, who was predestined to become the Buddha of the future aeon. The concluding chapters 38-41 on coins are of outstanding importance for the history of North-West India. The coins recovered by Sir John Marshall in the course of his excavations are numerous and of great variety. In all, they totalled over 12.000, of which 1.579 came from the Bhir Mound and 7.665 from Sirkap. The former group includes two important hoards: an older one dating from the close of the fourth century and comprising i, 167 silver coins, and another comprising i67 coins which must have been buried about the end of the third century B. C. The chapters on coins contain valuable notes by three distinguished numismatists. Dr. R. B. Whitehead has contributed a "Commentary on rare and unique coins" to chapter 39 (pp. 830-842) and Mr. E. H. C. Walsh a note on the two hoards of silver punch-marked coins found in the Bhir Mound (ch. 40). Notes on the punch-marked, local Taxilan and Greek coins by Dr. John Allan, are inserted in ch. 41. It is impossible in the present review to do full justice to Sir John Marshall's book and even briefly to mention the many questions of historical and artistic interest discussed by him with vast learning and sound judgment. Let us conclude with a general observation. Since the startling discovery of MohenjoDaro there has been a tendency among Indian archaeologists to concentrate their efforts on prehistoric research. It cannot be denied that interest in the historical period has consequently languished. The splendid results, achieved by Sir John Marshall at Taxila and now presented in so attractive a form, go far 5 V. S. Agrawala, Journal U. P. Historical Society, vol. X, Part I, p. 35. 135
to prove how great a wealth of historical documents and objects of art the partial excavation of one of the famous cities of ancient India can yield. They also clearly show that many important problems still require further elucidation. The number of ancient city sites awaiting exploration is immense and the workers are few. It is therefore devoutly to be wished that historical archaeology will again find fervent minds and competent hands to bring to light the cultural treasures still concealed in the ancient soil of India. 7. Ph. Vogel
A. L. Basham, History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas, a vanished Indian religion, with a foreword by L. D. Barnett. Luzac, London i951, XXXII, 304 PP This book deals with one of the most interesting chapters of Indian Philosophy, the Ajivikas being a school contemporary with Buddhism and Mahavira and an expression of that deep and active intellectual life, so characteristic of India Society, in the fifth and sixth centuries B. C. That school is also important on account of its connection with deterministic and naturalisticviews, which then were not uncommon. The literature of the leading masters of the Ajivika sect and allied school is lost, so biographies of the teachers and their doctrines have to be reconstructted on the basis of the Jainaand Buddhist polemical allusions to them; more scarcely from Hindu sources. The research is, therefore, rather difficult, because it is not always easy to distinguish truth from legend and to ascertain whether the references of the Buddhists or Jainasare completely unbiassed. The difficult task of making light on this sect has been undertaken by Doctor Basham with diligence and ingenuity. The book is divided into two sectattention is and Doctrine-and tions-History chiefly centered upon Makkhali Gosala (as to his name, reference to Liiders, Philologica Indica, p.414, is not made). I36
The author attempts to sketch the importance of the place held by the Ajivikas, in the evolution of Indian philosophy, for he holds them largely responsible for the theory of niyati, destiny; as such they are strictly connected with the svabhavavadins, the determinatists, who explained the course of life as determined by the intrinsic nature of every peculiar thing. The Carvaka and Lokayata, which developed later into many branches and ended in a kind of sophistry, which intended showing the inner contradiction of all human notions, have certainly a strict connection with these old schools. Interesting pages are written on the name of the Ajivikas (yavajjivika) supposed to indicate the lifelong character of the vows taken by the followers of Makkhali Gosala and, on their initation and practices. Then the author follows their fortunes, under the various dynasties and in the different parts of India, collecting a large mass of information, also from epigraphy (seventh Pillar Edict and dedicatory inscriptions in the Barabar and Nagarjuni caves). So the book under review, represents the basis for further research in one of the less known sects of India and can be considered as a noteworthy contribution to the study of Indian philosophy, in general. Giuseppe Tucci

Marshall's Detailed Account of Archaeological Excavations at Historic Taxila City

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Marshall's Detailed Account of Archaeological Excavations at Historic Taxila City

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Taxila.

Fig. 4 Bronzestatuetteof Harpocrates

Fig. Head of Dionysusor Silenusin silverrepousse

The Dream of Q(een Miay

Fig. 7 Buddhain the Indraiaila Cave visited by Indra

9 Stucco Head V~~~Fig.

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