!!!!! Dionysiac Aspects of Kushān Art

Dionysiac Aspects of Kushān Art
Author(s): Martha L. Carter

Source: Ars Orientalis , 1968, Vol. 7 (1968), pp. 121-146
Published by: Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the
History of Art, University of Michigan
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629244
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DIONYSIAC ASPECTS OF KUSHAN ART
BY MARTHA L. CARTER
Nous y reconnaisons au passage la plupart ly Western interpretation of the origin and

des figurants habituels du cortege de significance of such motives does not seem
Bacchus, tout comme s'il les avait oublies
adequate to justify their basic raison d'etre,
derriere lui, a son retour de l'Inde, dans
la lointaine vallee ou la tradition plasait we must, of necessity, search for it prima-
la fameuse Nysa et qui est encore celebre rily within the diverse elements from which
aujourd'hui pour ses raisins magnifiques.1 the traditions of Kushan art were created.2
THIS OBSERVATION BY THE GREAT ALFRED The most spectacular sculptural forms
Foucher recalls most eloquently a striking of this imagery occur on Mathuran double-
and often overlooked aspect of Kushan sided relief blocks, of which the so-called
sculptural imagery. In using the term "dio- Stacy Silenus and Palikhera block are the
nysiac," I must explain at the outset that it best known examples. Both are so familiar,
should be understood not simply as that in fact, that it may seem redundant to de-
which may be associated with any specific scribe in detail the features which lend them
theme from the classical repertoire but their markedly dionysiac character; yet,
rather in a freely improvised generic sense despite all that has been written about these
appropriate within the context of the Ku- extraordinary works, the essential problem
shan world. This would include all the of their usage and inherent meaning re-
varied and curiously bacchanalian scenes mains unresolved.
of wine drinking, drunken and amorous The Stacy Silenus was brought to light
carousal, harvesting, and pressing of grapes, in I 836 by Colonel L. R. Stacy who sug-
in addition to the symbols of the grapevine, gested that it might have been the base of
grape cluster, and wine vessel. Since a pure- an offering vessel or aEewQQavrtwov used for
1 A. Foucher, L'art gre'co-bouddhique du assume that some transformation of meaning has

Gandhara, Paris, I907, vOl. I, p. 246. taken place. The most pertinent iconographic prob-
2 Benjamin Rowland has recently taken to lem is thus not what motives were borrowed from
task those scholars who have tended to dismiss the classical sources, but rather why they were selected
suggestion of classical content or style in the Bac- and for what purposes. Perhaps the best illustra-
chanalian Groups of Mathura, and he is undoubt- tion of this selective process of assimilation in late
edly correct in pointing to strong elements of antiquity may be found in the transmutation of
Western influence (foreword to J. Rosenfield's pagan into Christian themes. Here the old Life
Dynastic Arts of the Kushans, Berkeley, I967, Symbols of the kantharos and vine of Dionysos
p. x.). Although classical prototypes may be found took on new significance to become the Eucharistic
for Kushan dionysiac imagery in some instances, chalice and the Vine of Christ. Cf. G. W. Elderkin,
in others none exist. Seen as a whole, it presents a Kantharos, Princeton, I928, The Continuity of
stylistic and iconographic amalgam, not a patent Pagan and Christian Eucharistic Symbolism, pp.
borrowing; and even when this does occur we may 4I-47.

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I22 MARTHA L. CARTER
wine oblations outside neck. The couple to ahisGreek

right appear to betem
top of the block displays a hemispherical merely spectators, but the male is distinc-
cavity, approximately i 6 inches wide and tive in that he is dressed in a short-sleeved
8 inches deep, giving the obvious impres- tunic covering the knees over a pair of tight-
sion that it was meant to be a socket of fitting trousers. Two covered vessels are
some sort. The relief on its obverse face shown on the ground on either side of the
Stacy observed to be a drunken Silenus second lady.
supported by a male and female bacchant, The Paiikhera block was discovered in
and, although it is much damaged and the I 875 by F. S. Growse, who noted its close
heads of the figures all but obliterated, the relationship in form and dimensions to the
main protagonist of the scene is indeed a Stacy block but preferred to believe that
corpulent male with an enormous paunch,both works were intended as pillar bases at
seated precariously on a rock or mound the entrance to a shrine, and that their re-
with one leg tucked under him and the liefs represented either Balarama and his
other hanging down. On either side stands family or some unknown Buddhist legend.5
a naked infant in an attitude of playful The obverse face of this block is essentially
familiarity and directly above each one an the same composition as that of the Stacy
attendant supporting one of the inebriate's block, the only difference being that here
outstretched arms. The Silenus wears a the seat of the central personage is clearly
drape over his thighs covering his right lega rusticated mound or mountain form. On
and a chaplet of vine leaves in his hair.
Whereas the male attendant on his left 3 L. R. Stacy, Note on the discovery of a relic
of Grecian sculpture in Upper India, Journal of
wears only a mantle fastened at the neck
the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 5, i836, pp.
by a clasp, the female is fully clothed in a 567-570, pl. XXXI. See also F. S. Growse, A sup-
long skirt and sleeved tunic reaching to posed Greek sculpture from Mathurai, JASB, vol.
mid-thigh, a form of attire often depicted 44, i 87s, pls. XII-XIII; J. Burgess, Ancient Mon-
in Gandhara sculpture.4 uments, Temples, and Sculpture of India, London,
On the reverse stand four alternately i897, p.4, pls. 6o-6 i; V.A. Smith, A History of Fine
Art in India and Ceylon, Oxford, I 9I, p. 136, pl.
male and female figures, perhaps more ap-
3 I; R. Chanda, The Mathura School of Sculpture,
propriately seen as two couples, against a Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Reports,
background of flowering as'oka trees. Both 1922-23, p. I67, pl. 37; J. Ph. Vogel, La sculpture
women wear the same costume as that on de Mathuri, Ars Asiatica, vol. I 5, Paris, I930, pp.
the opposite side of the relief, with the ad- 54-55, p. ii8, pl. LVII, a (Indian Museum, Cal-
cutta, no. M i. ht. 3' 8").
dition of a drape across the legs and left
4 For comparable styles, see H. Ingholt, Gand-
arm and jewelry consisting of heavy an- haran Art in Pakistan, New York, 1957, nos. 7,
klets, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. 4I, I 36, 3 I0, 36I; also M. Chandra, The History
The male on the left side of the scene turns of Indian costume from the ist c. A. D. to the be-
on unsteadily crossed legs toward his com- ginning of the 4th c., Journal of the Indian Society
panion, his left arm around her and his of Oriental Art, vol. 8, I940, pp. 203-205.
5 Growse, JASB, vol. 44, p. 2I4; F. S. Growse,
right lifted toward her, as if to offer some-
Mathuri, a District Memoir, Allahabad, I883, p.
thing which is now unfortunately lost. He I24, p. i66; A. Cunningham, Mathurai, Archaeol-
wears a loincloth and mantle tied at the ogical Survey of India, Reports, vol. I, I86I-62,

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DIONYSIAC ASPECTS OF KUSHAN ART I23
the reverse (fig. i), however, behind the drinker's

another elbow, stands a male
portly
Silenus is seated on the leftdressed sideinholding in
a long-sleeved coat, trousers,
his right hand a peculiarly shaped and boots, tankard
cluthing the stem of another
with a handle joined at the lip bunchand footByof
of grapes. his costume and place-
the vessel.6 To his right appear a naked in-
ment in the scene, he appears to be an Indo-
fant at his knee and a male wearing a Scythian devotee of the type commonly as-
mantle who looks over his shoulder. Beside sociated with Kushan Buddhist sculpture.7
them stands a lady, in a costume much like Even a cursory study of Mathuran im-
those described above, whose hair, hangingagery of the Kushan era will provide plenti-
in loose curls over her shoulders, is bound ful evidence that the Sileni of the Stacy
with a wreath. She holds another vessel, al-and Palikh&ra blocks correspond to pot-
bellied and often bibulous Yaksha figures,
most identical to the first, as if to offer a fresh
cup to her master; and a similarly clothed with a cup or goblet attribute, who were
female behind her holds a large grape intended to represent the Yaksha king Ku-
cluster. On the opposite side of the relief, bera or an intimately related Yaksha type.8
p. 242. See also J. Ph. Vogel, Catalogue of the and Yakshas": no. C 4 (seated Kubera-type hold-
Archaeological Museum at Mathura, Allahabad, ing cup in right hand, sack or mongoose in left,
I 9 I 0, p. 8 3, pl. I 3; Smith, p. I 3 6, fig. 8o; Foucher,with a female on either side, one of whom holds
vol. 2, p. I49, p. 604, fig. 492; Rosenfield, p. 248, a pitcher). The group is surmounted by a solid
fig. 47; V. S. Agrawala, A Catalogue of Images of projection and may have been a bowl support, ac-
Brahma, Vishnu, and giva in Mathura art, Journal cording to Agrawala; no. C S (seated Kubera-type
of the United Provinces Historical Society, vol. holding a sack in left hand and a cup in right into
22, 1949, pp. I94-196. (Mathura Museum no. C 2, which a female pours liquid from a pitcher); no.
ht. 5 1/2".) C 6, badly broken Kubera-type image which orig-
6 The tankard seems to be an unusual goblet- inally held grapes in one hand and a cup in the
form to which a handle has been added. The deco- other (cf. Vogel, Catalogue, p 87); also nos. C 8,
ration consists of schematized rosettes on the body, C9, CIO, CII, C24, C25, C26, C27, C28,
and a band of lotus ornament around the juncture C2g, KT55, I38, 240, 242, 244, KT246, 499,
of the body and the foot. The closest pottery shape 594, et. al. The use of the cup attribute persisted
to this is a footed vessel with a loop handle found well into Gupta times, if not longer. These images
at Taxila and called a censer (J. Marshall, Taxila, were probably not all specifically Kubera but any
Cambridge, i95 I, vol. i, p. 286, Vol. 2, p.42I, of a constellation of royal Yaksha-types, similar
nos. I33-I34, vol. 3, pl. i25, nos. I33-I34). The in form and function. One such was published by
decoration recalls that of a schist goblet from K. D. Bajpai (A new inscribed image of a Yaksha,
Taxila (Ibid., vol. 2, p. 492, nos. 6o-6i, vol. 3, pl. in India Antiqua, Leiden, I947, pp. 7-8). It bears
I4I, j and pl. I43, o). Marshall calls this a cibori- an inscription rendered by the author: "The Ma-
um. It has a heavy stemmed foot but no handle. haraja, Graha Yaksha, called Dharmanitya, makes
The decoration consists of lotus-leaves in a band it known that in his hand is the prasada of the
springing upward from the stem, and quatrefoil god." The image (Mat. Mus. no. 3232) is that of a
rosettes between dogtooth borders on the body. seated pot-bellied Yaksha, nimbate and holding a
7 See Rosenfield, p. 248, fig. 47, a. cup and a fruit. From its inscription it is not Ku-
8 There are, in the Mathura Museum, numer- bera, but a Graha (Guhya?) Yaksha named Dhar-
ous images of the Kubera-type, either singly or at- manitya. If he is a Guhya he would be an attend-
tended by one or more females. Almost all hold a ant of Kubera, lord of the Guhyas (guhyapati).
cup or goblet, while the other attributes vary. See Since the fruit and vessel ostensibly belong to Ku-
Agrawala, JUPHS, vol. 22, chap. XIX, "Kubera bera, he appears to hold them on his behalf.

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Whether we may see is,the

tectural supports of course, classi
common at
ence of a Silenus, Bharhut and Bacchus,
San-chi, but we now have or ac- H
stylistic prototype, tual evidence that the fact
such figures were used, re
in the Mathuran priorsculptural
to the Kushan era, as bowl idiom supports
most obviously within resembling
early Buddhist establishments. th A
sonage of the block well-documentedreliefs
example of a Yakshais im- K
porting in bacchanalian age of this type was uncoveredfashioseveral years
Yaksha entourage ago in the on forecourtMt.
of Cave III Kaila
at Pital-
sented by his mountain-shaped khora (datable by its inscription and sur- t
It is probableroundings that to the some of Itt
second century B.C.).13
Yaksha images may of the Kubera
be that this grinning gnomelike bearer t
originally intended with raised arms to be who,
is Sankarin, atlanaccord-
bowl supports, as Vogel first
ing to the Mah2mzyyurt, was the tutelary
These usually show Yaksha of Pitangalya
an (ancient
obese Pitalkho- sq
seated dwarf-like ra). 14 figure with
although in almost To return to the Mathuran
every relief
instanc
are gone and theirposemust blocks, it seems reasonable to concur ber with
ed from the position Vogel's theory that of the
these, too, were usedsh to
substantiate his support theory, Vogel
large vessels."5 A massive stone
representations of bowl-bearing dwarf bowl was found at Palikhera and would
Yakshas shown on either side of the tora- have required a base at least as large as the
nas of 7yaigapattas at Amaravati." More Palikhera block, although Vogel was forc-
recently, Mme. J. E. van Lohuizen-de ed to admit that the two would not have
Leeuw has found two relief panels from fitted together. Whether stone bowls of
Mathura which show the same form.12 The this size were made for sculptured supports
use of dwarf Yakshas as decorative archi- or simply placed on pediments, as van Lo-
9 Cf. Smith, p. 13 7. figure depositing flowers in a bowl borne by a

10 Vogel, Sculpture de Mathura, pp. 54-55S dwarf atlantid base. Another armless Yaksha im-
Vogel points to an armless Yaksha figure of the age which could easily have served this purpose
Kubera-type, (pl. XLIX, b. Mat. Mus. no. C 3) was found at Ahichchattra and is now in the
and another of similar pose (Mat. Mus. no. C 7). National Museum, NewDelhi. (AncientSculpture
We may also add to this class no. C4 (vide, note of India, Gov. of India exhibition in U.S.A., I964-
8), and possibly some others. i965, catalogue, Cleveland, I964, fig. 63.)
13 M.N. Deshpande, Rock-cut caves of Pital-
11 Vogel, loc. cit.; see J. Fergusson, Tree and
khora, Ancient India, vol. iS, i959, pp. 8I-82,
Serpent Worship, 2nd. ed., London, I873, pls.
pl. LVI. Cave III belongs to the 2nd c. B. C. The
LXXV-LXXXI; J. Burgess, The Buddhist Stiipas
inscription is rendered: "made by Kanhadasa, a
of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta, London, I887.
goldsmith."
12 J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Two notes 14 Ibid., p. 82; S. Levi, Le catalogue des Yaksa
on Mathura sculpture, in India Antiqua, 1947, pp. dans la Mah4amayuiri, Journal Asiatique, ii ser.,
234-23 5, pl. XVII, d (Mat. Mus. no. J I3), and vol. S, I9I5, p. 93, no. 42. This is possibly the
pl. XVII, e (Mat. Mus. no. J 17). Both are on the Petirgala of Ptolemy (Geography vii. I. 8 3 ).
central panels of stambhas and show scenes of a 15 Vogel, Sculpture de Mathura, pp. 54-56.

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huizen believes,16 their carved decoration relief panels that some of the single bowl-
has much in common with the bacchana- bearing Yakshas were used to contain
lian blocks. The Palikhera bowl is cylindri- flower offerings, but we cannot assume
cal and flat-bottomed, displaying a band that all related forms were intended as
of ornament containing a running vine such.23The theories of both Vogel and Coo-
motive of asoka flowers, grapes, and othermaraswamy are plausible and may be ac-
fruit above a design of schematized lotus cepted in many instances; yet they do not
petals."7 The vine issues from the mouth of satisfactorily explain one essential icono-
a squatting Yaksha, encircles the bowl, and graphic problem. If the Stacy and Pali-
returns to be held by the same figure. A
khera blocks were used as bases for offer-
second Mathuran stone vase of unknown
ing bowls or ablution vessels, why do they
provenance is rounded in contour and dis-
specifically allude to a Yaksha bacchanale
plays a similar lotus petal design below a
and to wine as the vehicle of their intoxica-
band of running grape-and-leaf pattern.18 tion?
There can be little doubt that most if
A uniquely Mathuran variation on the
not all the works described above were,
theme of drunken Yakshas may be found
like the Pitalkhora Yaksha, intended for
on a second series of pedestal blocks dis-
some use in or around a Buddhist shrine.
playing the motive of an unsteady female
The Palikhera bowl bears a dedicatory in-
supported by a male and a child. This
scription to the Mahasamghika sect,'9 and
group includes three works, from Nar6l!,
the head of a Yaksha pedestal figure from
Jamna Bagh was donated by one Ayala,
MahOli, and Tusaran Bihar respectively,
son of Imdrasama for the Suvanakara- which follow the models of the Palikhera
vihara, according to its inscription.20 Vogeland Stacy blocks, but are more indigenous-
maintained that these bowl-and-pedestal
forms were meant for pious offerings of
the faithful, and that the stone vessels re- 16 van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, India Antiqua, p.
235. The central panel of a stambha (pl. VII, f.,
presented the pinda-patra of the Buddha.2'
Mat. Mus. no. J 6o) shows two laymen depositing
Coomaraswamy, however, noted that the a garland in a large bowl on a pediment. It is im-
stone vases are unlike the Buddha's alms possible to tell whether the bowl has any promi-
bowl in shape, and that the ornamentation nent decorative features.
of a pinda-patra was explicitly prohibited 17 Vogel, Sculpture de Mathur4, p. 54, p. 76,
pl. XLVIII, b.
by Vinaya rule. He, in turn, suggested that
18 Ibid., pl. XLVIII, a.
since the Yaksha pedestal figures are con-
19 See H. Liiders, Mathura Inscriptions, Got-
nected with the idea of liquid, either water tingen, I96I, p. I65 (I43 d), insc. no. I25.
or intoxicating liquor, that they should be 20 Ibid., p. I22 (97 a), incs. no. 89.
interpreted as ablution bowls (zcamana- 21 Vogel, Sculpture de Mathursa, pp. 55-56.
kumbhi or acama-kumbhi), ". . . regularly 22 A Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, Washington,
placed at the entrances to Buddhist shrines D.C., I928, I93I, pt. II, p. 65.
23 See van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, India Anti-
to hold water for washing the hands and qua, pp. 234-235. She has proved this by her
feet of the visiting worshipper."22 We know illustrations of flower offerings in bowls (pl.
from their representation on Mathuran XVII, d, e, f).

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
ly Indian in style and subject.24 The best This same theme also occurs in relief scene
preserved, from Maholi (fig. 2), shows a fe-on two stone toilet trays from Gandhara.
male of Yakshi or Devata type seemingly One, from an unknown site in Swat, de-
on the verge of collapse with her left knee picts a nude standing male with his arms
resting on the ground. Her right arm is draped over two robed females, one of
held by a male companion and her left is whom holds a cup (fig. 3).27 The other,
draped limply over the shoulder of a found in the Parthian stratum at Sirkap,
young girl who carries a footed goblet. Anrepresents a bearded male in a short robe
older personage of indeterminate sex stands either striding or dancing while supported
to one side with the left hand on the chest by a female on either side.28 Both of these
and the right pointing to the mouth in appear to be of pre-Kushan date, and the
what seems to be a gesture of surprise.25 first in particular recalls the classical theme
The opposite side of the block shows a fe- of the drunken Dionysos or Silenus; yet it
male with an umbrella who turns toward would be hasty to conclude that it was in-
a dancing lady on her left. The dancer ap- tended as such by its creator.
pears to be holding something in her left A similar theme may even be found at
hand which may be the end of a scarf or a Sa-nchi, although it is usually given a much
tree branch. A male onlooker is represent- different interpretation. A panel from the
ed on the right side of the scene, and an- west pillar of the South Gateway of Stupa
other male, now headless, stands behind I displays a scene designated by Marshall
the first with hands on his shoulder and and Foucher as the grief stricken Asoka
right arm, and seems to be whispering mourning the death of the Buddha's sacred
something to him in confidence.26 tree.29 Here we may see a royal figure sup-
In all the pedestal blocks described ported by two of a group of solicitous
above, the common motive is that of a court ladies who surround him. One of the
drunken reveler whose balance is precari- group holds an umbrella over him, and an-
ously maintained by a pair of attendants. other carries a pitcher with an overturned
cup as a lid. Garlands hanging on pegs are
24 For the Nar6li block, see R. Chanda,
ASIAR, 1922-23, p. I67, pl. 38, b. For the frag- represented on the right side of the group.30
mentary block from Tusaran Bihar, see A. Cun-
ningham, ASIR, vol. II, I875-78, pp. 64-66, pl. 27 E. Barger and P. Wright, Excavations in
XX. For the Mahal! block see V. S. Agrawala, A Swat and Explorations in the Oxus Territories of
new Bodhisattva and a bacchanalian group from Afghanistan, Memoirs of the Archaeological Sur-
Mathursi, JISOA, vol. 6, I938, pp. 70-72, pIS. vey of India, no. 64, I94I, pl. VIII, 4, no. 2I.
XXI-XXII. 28 Marshall, Taxila, vol. i, p. i68, VOl. 2, p.
25 Agrawala, JISOA, I938, pp. 70-7I. Agra- 495 no. 66, vol. 3, pl. 144, no. 66. This may not
wala calls the figure a hermaphrodite harem-at- actually represent a dance but may be a clumsy
tendant, and the gesture, the vismaya attitude. I attempt to show movement.
cannot see a family group here or, as Codrington 29 J. Marshall and A. Foucher, Monuments of
supposes, some scene involving the birth of the San-chi, Calcutta, 1940, vol. I, p. 2I2, vol. 2, pl.
Buddha (see Art of India and Pakistan, ed. L. Ash- i8b2. See also vol.3, pl.79, 27b, for a similar
ton, London, I947, p. 25) (Mathura Museum, no. relief from Stupa II.
2800, ht. 3'4"). 30 Ibid., vol. 2, pl. I 8. Between scenes a 3 and
26 Agrawala, loc. cit., pl. XXII. b3 the border decoration is a running grapevine

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Whatever the identity of the royal per- manufacture and consumption of wine oc-
sonage may be, his unsteady posture, to- curs on a relief in the Peshawar Museum
gether with the festive atmosphere of the (fig. 5), beginning in the center where two
scene, could easily evoke the idea of a vintagers tramp grapes in a vat with a lion-
courtly drinking party. headed spout from which the juices flow
Even more numerous depictions of into a shallow vessel, while a third vintager
dionysiac activities are found in the relief supplies more grape.s.33 To his right, two
sculpture of Kushan Gandhara. One such more workers supervise the filtration of
relief (fig. 4) now in the Lahore Museum the liquid through a bag suspended on a
shows four scenes separated by vinestocks tripod. In the last scene on the right side
with overhanging branches and leaves.31 In of the panel the process reaches its logical
the center a naked Silenus rides a lion while conclusion as two revelers pour wine from
holding a cup in his right hand, and to his a large vase into the mouth of a third who
immediate right, a lady in long robes offers lies beneath them. The scene on the far left
his mount an object, probably a bowl to side, although badly abraded, shows a
drink from, as seen in representations of royal personage wearing a wreath, seated
Gandharan amorini and their vehicles.32 on a throne equipped with a canopy sus-
On their left a vintager tramps grapes in a pended on poles.34 In his left hand he holds
rectangular vat with a spout, and a second a spear, the end of which rests against his
vintager carries in a basket of grapes to be right foot. His right hand is raised, either
added to the vat. On the opposite side ap- in gesture or to hold an object which is
pears an embracing couple, and to the far now missing. Standing male attendants on
right a naked amorino playfully pulls the either side of the throne turn toward their
mane of the lion he is riding, while a second master, one gesturing with his right hand
places a krater of wine before the animal. and the other holding what may have been
A more thorough representation of the a vessel of some type.
In a discussion of this limited length it
which issues from an elephant's mouth. This clear-
would be impossible to include more than
ly shows the presence of this motive in India be-
fore the appearance of the Kushan vine scroll. a few of the better known examples of the
31 Foucher, vol. I, p. 246, fig. I29; Burgess, drinking or cup-bearing dionysiac figures
p. 39, pl. I44; Ingholt, p. 157, nO. 397; cf. Fou- of Gandhara sculpture. Perhaps the most
cher, vol. I, p. 25I, fig. 128 (Lahore Mus. no. remarkable of these is contained in a scene
I493).
carved between the lion-legs of a statue
32 See Ingholt, pp. i56-i57, no. 296 (a frag-
mentary relief in the Peshawar Museum of a cup-
bearing amorino riding a dragon while another J3 Ingholt, pp. I83-I84, no. I75.
offers the monster a drink from a cup); ibid., p. 34 Cf. Marshall, Taxila, vol. 2, Pp. II2-II3,
177, no. 453 (another work in the Peshawar Mu- no. 93, vOl. 3, p. 2I7, no. 93. This is a relief scene
seum of an amorino between the forepaws of a from the Dharmarajika Stiipa showing the instiga-
seated lion and offering the beast a drink from his tion of the bodhisattva by the gods. The future
cup); also A. Coomaraswamy, Catalogue of the Buddha is enthroned under a canopy with slender
Indian Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, shafts which rise from acanthus capitals of Indo-
Boston, I923, no. .07.488; and Marshall, Taxila, Corinthian columns, and is obviously a royal bal-
vol. 2, p. 496, no. 72, vol. 3, pl. I44, no. 72. dachin.

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128 MARTHA L. CARTER
base in the Lahore Museum

the basic theme of festal drinking, (fig.and
the left side of especially theofblock amorous drinking a couples,
bare-
beardless young man cannot be said to have holding
sits been introduced to o
a woman whose India undraped
as late as the Kushan era. back is
with crossed bands.36 One of the most To frequenttheir
motives of r
similarly posed the couple:
toilet trays fromthe femal
the Saka-Indo-Par-
same obviously classicizing thian period at Sirkap is that ofback-v a loving-
the male, a more mature
couple sharing the contents ofbearde
a cup.38 No
who wears vine-leaves in his hair and obvious counterpart for this occurs in the
offers his mistress a drink from his goblet. classical repertoire, but there can be no
In addition to the purely human figures doubt that it was known in Indian art
who drink together in Gandharan reliefs,prior to the Kushan era. One notable ex-
even tritons and ichthyocentaurs occasion-ample, dated to the second century B.C.,
ally do likewise.37 One such representationmay be found on a railing pillar from
on a triangular panel in the Lahore Mu- Amin (fig. 8), in a traditional depiction of
seum (fig. 7) shows a male and female ich- a mithuna pair. Each stands with one arm
thyocentaur with tails intertwined holding around the other's shoulder, and the male
cups. The male turns toward his mate and holds a cup as if to offer his companion a
tenderly offers her a drink from his vessel, drink.39 A number of other drinking cou-
much in the manner of the statue base relief ples may be seen among the accessory fig-
scene. ures at Sainchi,40 especially in two elaborate
Although in many instances motives
38 Marshall, Taxila, vol. I, p. I94, VOl. 2, p.
such as these evoke the retinue of Bacchus,
495, no. 67, vol. 3, pl. I44, no. 67 (upper compart-
together with the accessory piscine mon- ment of a tray showing half-figures of a male and
sters of sarcophagus reliefs, one should not female holding cups); ibid., vol. I, p. I94, vol. 2,
be misled by too direct a comparison. The p. 496, no. 69, vol. 3, pl. I44, no. 69; ibid., vol. i,
strong influence of Hellenism was obvi- p. i82, vol. 2, pp- 495-496, no. 68, vol. 3, pl. I44,
no. 68 (a tray with nine compartments and a
ously at work in Kushan Gandhara, but
drinking couple in the center square); ibid., vol. I,
p. i8i, vol. 2, p. 496, no. 7I, vol. 3, pl. 144, no. 7I
35 See J. Burgess, Gandhara Sculpture, Jour- (a tray with six radiating compartments and a
nal of Indian Art and Industry, vol. 8, 1900, p. 40, standing couple with a cup in each segment); ibid.,
pl. 22,7; Foucher, vol. I, p. 246, p. 248, fig. I30; vol. I, p. I90, vol. 2, p. 496, no. 70, vol. 3, pl. I44,
Ingholt, p. I 57, no. 398. For a relief with a similar no. 70 (a more Indianizing version of the same
couple, see A. von Le Coq, Die Buddhistische Spat- motive); also Ingholt, p. I77, no. 486.
antike, Berlin, I922, vol. i, Die Plastik, pl. i6. 39 Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, pt. I, P. 39 and
36 The crossed bands are of Western Asiatic p1. 7, b; G. Combaz, L'lnde et l'orient classique,
origin seen on Aphrodite-Atargatis types. See Du Paris, I937, vol. I, p. I79, vol. 2, pl. 123.
Mesnil du Boisson, Le sautoir d'Atargatis et la 40 See Sanchi, vol. 3, pl. 74 I b (ground balus-
chaine des amulettes, Leiden, I947; cf. Marshall, trade of Stiipa II showing a mithuna pair with a
Taxila, vol. 2, p. 70I, nos. 3-4, vol. 3, pl. 2II, vessel); and, pl. 88, b (central panels shows a male
nos. 3-4 I. with a sword and a female with a cup); also Desh-
37 See Ingholt, pp. i5-i 56, no. 390 (a triton pande, Ancient India, i959, pl. LXI, b; A. Coo-
drinking from a tankard); ibid., p. i55, no. 389 maraswamy, La sculpture de Bodhgaya, Paris,
(a male and female ichthyocentaur holding cups). I93 5, pp. 5o-5 i, pls. LIV and XXXIII, 64.

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landscape panels from the Northern and attired couple, carved on the right side of
Western gateways of Stupa I. The North- a bodhisattva group at Karl!, holds a ver-
ern Gateway relief shows two amorous tically fluted stemmed goblet,45 and at Na-
pairs seated on either side of a waterfall on garjunakonda goblet-bearing couples occur
a rocky hillside.41 The male of the couple with relative frequency.'
on the right side holds a cup for his lady, The idyllic scenes of the Sa-ichi gate-
who sits on his knee with her arm around ways portray an Elysium as seductive as
his neck (a pose reminiscent of that on the any from Roman Bacchic sarcophagi, but a
Lahore statue base). Below, in the fore- thoroughly Indian one, replete with lotus-
ground, two more sets of lovers cavort in filled pools, jewel producing trees, and
a pool with a pair of elephants who have playful lovers belonging to the mithuna
large lotuses in their trunks. In the panel tradition. V. S. Agrawala has suggested
from the Western Gateway, the setting is that such paradisical motives may illus-
a paradisical garden with rich vegetation, trate the fabulous Uttarakuru of Indian
scarf and jewelled-ornament producing legend, described in the Mahabharata as a
trees, and a lotus-filled pond.42 One of the land of jewel, ornament, and even garment
males appears to be picking a jewelled producing trees, where its inhabitants, per-
necklace or girdle from a tree for his mis- fect in dress and appearance, draw suste-
tress. Of the five pairs of lovers in the nance from the nectar of trees.47 At Bharhut
landscape, two display the identical gesture and Sa-nchi, however, the whole repertoire
of the offering of the cup to the coy female. of jewel and ornament producing vegeta-
It is not surprising that this same es- tion, particularly the lotus-vine, is most
sentially indigenous theme continued rela- closely related to Yakshas or Yaksha vehi-
tively unchanged in the Kushan Mathura cles, from whose mouths or navels they
school, where it may be seen among the often emanate.48 Yakshas themselves were
half-figures of couples on balconies above also considered to dwell in the paradise of
the elegant Yakshis of the Bhutesar railing Alaka, the happy abode of Kubera and his
pillars.43 Another similar motive occurs on hosts on Mt. Kailasa. In Kalidasa's Megha-
a Mathuran relief in the Museum of Eth-
nology in Munich, which shows a mithuna 45 Ibid.,VOl. 2, pl. I67.
pair, each of whom holds a heavy stemmed 46 See A. H. Longhurst, 7he Buddhist Anti-
goblet in a lovers' toast." Likewise in quities of Nagariunakonda, MASI, no. 54, I938,
Andhra sculpture, the male of a regally pI. XXXII, c, pl. XXXIII, b, pl. XXXIII, c, pl.
XXXVI, a, pl. XXXVIII, a, pl. XXXVIII, b. R.
Rao notes that the proferred cup of wine is com-
mon among the Nagarjunakonda mithunas (The
41 Soanchi, vol. 2, pl. 34b v (lower panel on Art of Nigarjunakonda, Madras, I956, p. 82).
front face of east pillar of Northern Gateway). 47 V. S. Agrawala, in introduction to A. Cun-
42 Ibid., vol. 2, pl. 64 C I (front face of north ningham's, The Stuipa of Bharhut, 2nd ed., Vara-
pillar of Western Gateway). nasi, I962, p. viii (Mahabharata vi, 6, 2o8 ff.).
43 Vogel, Sculpture de Mathura, pp. 30-31, 48 See Safichi, vol. 2, pl. 2 (Southern Gateway
pp. IOO-IO I, pl. XVIII, b and d, pl. XIX, b and c. lintel, Stiipa I); Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, pt. II,
44 L. Bachhofer, Early Indian Sculpture, New pp. 58-60, pl. I2, I, p1. I3, I, pl. 29, 5, pl. 30, 2,
York, I929, vol. 2, pl. IOO (left panel). pl. 34, I, pl. 34, 2.

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data (II, 3), a Yaksha to have come as close as possible towist

exile it in a
calls its delightful groves
jamb relief of
from the Peshawar jewel
Museum
wherein Yakshas of Kubera's court drink which shows a figure, in a short tunic, who
(with lovely women) the wine of the kal- holds the ends of a large vinestock rising
pavriks'a tree to engender passion. above him.49 Moreover, the dionysiac Yak-
In view of the prominence of Yaksha sha vintagers, sileni, and mithuna couples
imagery in early Indian art, it seems prob- are frequently seen within the Gandharan
able that the motive of the lovers' toast, or inhabited double-vine scroll in a relation-
of the offering of the cup to the female ship essentially similar to that of earlier
among mithuna types, should be seen as a Indian Yakshas and the lotus-vine.50 Even
theme belonging to the Yakshas. It appears the tritons and ichthyocentaurs of Gand-
again at Kushan Mathura in relatively un- hara are obvious Yaksha variants, much
changed form, but in Gandhara the influ- like their fish-tailed predecessors on the
ence of Hellenism has transformed the cup- rail coping at Bodh Gaya who have the
bearing mithuna couples into seeming bac- same gnome-like faces and big ears as the
chants of the thiasos of Dionysos. human-bodied Yakshas, and function in
The whole panoply of Gandharan amo- the same ways."
rini, sileni, vintagers, inebriates, and lovers Together with the Yakshas, the Nagas
appear to have been intended to be seen as must also be included in Kushan dionysiac
Yakshas. Although the classicizing pro- imagery. Mathuran Nagaraja images often
clivities of the Gandharan sculptor eschew- display the goblet or kalasa as an attrib-
ed the depiction of a Yaksha producing ute,52 and in Gandhara, a relief panel from
vegetation from mouth or navel, he seemsKafir-Kot, now in the British Museum
49 J. Marshall, 7he Buddhist Art of Gand- produce and inhabit the lotus-vine. Rowland sees
hara, Cambridge, I960, pp. 58-59, pl. 54, fig. 78. the loving-couple as a possible nymph and satyr,
50 See B. Rowland, The Vine Scroll in Gand- but in Gandhara they are more appropriately a
hara, Artibus Asiae, vol. I9, i956 p. 3 5 3-36I and mithuna. See also Foucher, vol. I, p. 155, fig. 127
fig. i. Rowland discusses the very fine Gandharan (a similar medallion-vine frieze from Nutthu); B.
inhabited double-vine on a door jamb, now in the Dagans, M. le Berre, D. Schlumberger, Monuments
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (no. 39. 36). Within pre'-islamiques d'Afghanistan, Memoires de la de'-
the medallions are consecutively a silenus drinking le'gation arche'ologique franfaise en Afghanistan,
from a rhyton, an amorous couple, a vintager with vol. I9, I964, p. 3I, nos. 8I-83, pl. XX (a frieze
a basket of grapes, another treading grapes with a in the Kabul Museum).
child on his shoulder, and an archer. Rowland's 51 Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, pt. II, pp. 49-
stylistic comparison with the medaillon vines of 50, pl. 50.
the Severid School at Leptis Magna is most ap- 52 See Vogel, Sculpture de Mathura, pp. 48-
propriate, but we cannot assume that, in the case 49, p. I 4, pl. XLI, a-b (a Naga image from
of the Gandharan inhabited vine, the figures were Chargaon appears to have held a goblet), pl.
introduced haphazardly, as from a copybook. The XLI, c (a Naga image from Kukargam holding a
silenus may be equated with a Kubera-type of goblet), pl. XLI, d (a Naga image of unknown
Yaksha, the vintagers with lesser Yakshas of Gand- provenance holding a kalasa). See also Agrawala,
hara who tend the vines and produce wine much JUPHS, 1949, chap. XXII, Naiga Images, nos.
as their Indian counterparts at Safichi literally C I4, 21, 439, 966, 1314, i6IO, 2665.

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DIONYSIAC ASPECTS OF KUSHAN ART I 3'
(fig. 9) shows a Nagaraja and his queen general posture and spear attribute of this
seated on a wide throne drinking from Pa'ncika image, and a number of others,
cups.53 On their left stand three Nagis immediately recalls the enthroned royal
holding vessels, one of which is a rhyton. figure of the Peshawar dionysiac panel.
Three more figures on the opposite side in- Ingholt is perhaps justified in noting that
clude a Nag! with a goblet, a wineskin this royal figure under a canopy was prob-
bearer pouring wine into a large krater, ably intended to be Paincika.Y The base of
and a female holding flowers or fruit. the well-known Paincika and Hariti group
Combaz has pointed out a possible prece- from Sahrf-Bahlol displays no less than
dent for this scene in a balustrade relief fourteen playful amorini-Yakshas and two
from Stupa I at Sanichi which shows the sileni, one of whom rides a donkey.58 Be-
adoration of the Bodhi Tree above a seated tween the royal couple is a small cup-bear-
Nagaraja surrounded on either side by ing attendant of a type often repeated in
Nagfs who entertain him with music and other images of the Gandharan Tutelary
share the contents of a shallow bowl.54 Pair.59 The persistent inclusion of this fig-
If the Gandharan Yakshas are fre- ure holding a drinking vessel suggests that
quently associated with dionysiac activi- this attribute had a significance similar to
ties, their chief, Pa"ncika, alter-ego of thethe vessel held by the Mathuran Kubera.
usually benign Mathuran Kubera, is no less In other Gandharan representations,
so. A typical Pafncika image, now in the the Tutelary Couple are actually shown
British Museum (fig. io), portrays the truc- equipped with drinking vessels. One such
ulent Yaksha senaopati seated between two relief, now in the British Museum (fig. ii),
tiny attendants on a high-backed throne shows them seated together on their usual
with a spear held diagonally in his left wide throne with a small adorant and the
hand.55 Above the throne back appear ubiquitous genius between them. Both Pain-
two more small figures. A relief panel on cika and Hariti appear to be drinking from
the base shows a reveler in tunic and trou- the cups which they hold. Another version
sers, possibly nimbate, seated on a recum- of the Tutelary Couple, from Takht-i-
bent lion while brandishing a cup in his Bahi, is of a distinctly different type (fig.
right hand. He is attended by an amorino I2).60 Here, the male, a less corpulent and
on his left and by a kneeling male and fe- more youthful beardless figure, wears a
male devotee. The male appears to offer a short tunic, greaves, and a fillet in his curly
large spirally wound object which Rosen- hair. The female is attired in a double chi-
field suggests might be a wine jar.56 The ton, with the remains of what probably
53 Foucher, vol. I, p. 256, fig. I 33,b; Marshall, 55 Foucher, vol. 2, p. II3, fig. 370; Rosen-
Buddhist Art, p. 6o, pl. 6, fig. 82. See also the field, p. 24S, fig. 75 .
companion panel to this one, showing the Naga- 56 Rosenfield, p. 245 .
raja alone on the throne entertained by Nagil mu- 17 Ingholt, p. I04.
sicians (Foucher, vol. I, p. 256, fig. I 3 3, a; Mar- 58 Ibid., p. I47, no. 342.
shall, Buddhist Art, p. 6o, pl. 56, fig. 83). 59 See Foucher, vOl.2, p.137, fig. 379, p. I45,
54 Combaz, vol. I, p. I 79, vol. 2, pl. I 23; fig. 382, p. 149, fig. 383.
Sadnchi, vol. 2, pl. 65 a2. 60 Rosenfield, p. 247, fig. 78.

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was a polos on her head. She holds in her It is evident from the wealth and vari-
left hand a cornucopia with an animal- ety of the imagery of the Tutelary Couple
headed finial and her consort turns toward that their following was a large one in the
her holding up a large kylix in his right lands to the south of the Hindu Kush in
hand. The motives of the small child cling- the era of Kushan domination. Since this
ing to the woman's knee, the demonic fig- region included a mixed population with
ures pouring out the contents of large vases the elements of Indian, Iranian, and even
beneath the feet of the couple, and the Greek cultural inheritance, it would not
small bearded genius who peers over the seem too unusual to find the Tutelary Cou-
back of the throne with a full money-bag ple in a number of differing guises, depend-
in his hand may all be related to the gener- ing on the time and/or place they were
al scheme of the imagery of Paincika and created. If a Graeco-Iranian, or perhaps
Haritl." Bachhofer has observed, however, more precisely Dynastic Kushan influence,
that the clothing and attributes of pairs is to be held responsible for transforming
such as these are derived from the images the usual Pafncika and Hariti into the
of PHARRO and ARDOXSHO on Kus- equivalent of PHARRO and ARDOX-
han coins; but he has perhaps gone too far SHO, something of the same hybridiza-
in asserting that these deities were meant tion must have produced the extraordinary
to be an Iranian replacement for the more representation on the medallion of a silver
familiar Indo-Kushan Tutelary Couple.62 bowl found near Tank in the Punjab (fig.
It seems apparent from the many charac- I3). Here, surrounded by an undulating
teristics that they shared with Paincika and vine motive, a pot-bellied, mustachioed,
Hariti that they were identical in the func- nude male sits drinking from a rhyton with
tions of bestowing wealth and progeny to an animal-headed spout.63 He wears vine-
their Gandharan devotees. leaves in his hair, a thin drape over his
61 Hariti, in the more usual version of the PHARRO and ARDOXSHO to be an Iranian
Tutelary Couple, is frequently shown with nu- reaction against Indian influence, but this does
merous infants. The Shah-ji-ki-Dheri group in the not seem probable. There is too much syncretism
Peshawar Museum has the identical motive of the of imagery, and both share too many attributes to
child clinging to her right knee (Ingholt, p. I47, be entirely separate entities. Rosenfield notes the
no. 344). The theme of the half-figures pouring appearance of a figure resembling PHARRO in
out the contents of vases is more complex. In a the place of Kubera-Vais'ravana as chief of the
version of the Tutelary Couple from Jamalgarhi, Four Guardian Kings, in a scene of the donation
in the Peshawar Museum, these vessels are money of the four bowls to the Buddha (p. 247, fig. 83).
bags streaming coins (Ibid., p. I47, no. 343). But, 63 0. M. Dalton, Treasure of the Oxus, Bri-
in another representation from Sahri-Balhol, of tish Museum, 2nd ed., I926, pp. 5 8-59, no. 204,
the PHARRO and ARDOXSHO type, the mo- and pl. XXXIII. Dalton first suggested an iden-
tive has become a stylized pattern of two vases tification of the main figure as Kubera cf. ibid.,
lying on their sides, exuding a design that is more pp. 5 I-52, no. I98, and pl.XXVIII. This is a sil-
vegetal than coin-shaped (Ibid., pp. I47-148, no. ver roundel showing a seated goddess on a high-
345). backed throne decorated with a running vine mo-
62 See L. Bachhofer, Pancika und Hirit - tive. She holds a bunch of grapes in her right hand
Pharo und Ardoxsho, Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, to a small adorant with a bowl. The goddess is
n. f. I3, I937, pp. 6-i5. Bachhofer believes most likely an Hariti-ARDOXSHO type. AR-

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DIONYSIAC ASPECTS OF KUSHAN ART I 3 3
thighs, and boots with turned-up toes. In and corresponds most closely with Kubera.
his left hand he clutches the neck of a full It is a work which appears to have been
wineskin. A smaller seated female on his created out of a series of iconographic and
right is dressed in a long skirt, a shawl stylistic amalgamations that preceded it
fastened with a brooch at the neck, and a and thus to have been produced in a very
diaphanous upper garment. She carries a late era of Kushan influence. One signifi-
footed goblet in her right hand and a cant piece of evidence that seems to cor-
wreath or diadem in her left. This wreath roborate this view is a large square clay
is very close to one held by a royal per- tablet seal modelled on both faces, from
sonage in a festal scene engraved on a sil- Taxila." The obverse shows a garuda, or
ver plate of Sasanian type in the Walters possibly a cock with a lotus stalk in its
Art Gallery;64 and the undulating channels beak, trampling a snake, represented above
which radiate from the edge of the medal- a Brahmi inscription of Gupta character,
lion to the rim of the bowl are almost iden- belonging, according to Marshall, to the
tical to those found on another Sasanian fifth century A.D. On the reverse (fig. I4),
silver dish in a private collection in Tehe- is a seated figure with legs spread apart,
ran.65 Although we cannot believe that the wearing a fillet with long tails and a thin
Tank bowl was the product of a Sasanian drape over the thighs, and holding aloft in
atelier, it does bear the mark of a tradition his right hand a horn-shaped object. This
contemporary with cultures within the Sa- led Marshall to identify him as a wind god
sanian orbit which display elements of a blowing a horn. Some sort of foliage and
dionysiac symbolism in silverwork deco- a small attendant bearing indistinguishable
ration in many ways parallel to that found objects appear on his left, and on the op-
in Gandhara. posite side are two dwarf-like figures, one
The portly vine-wreathed wine drinker of whom holds a long-necked vase. Com-
of the Tank Bowl belongs most obviously parisons between the so-called "wind god"
to the Kushan dionysiac Yaksha tradition and the deity of the Tank bowl are una-
DOXSHO is commonly seen seated on a high- as its provenance, which could be from Central
backed throne on later Kushan coinage (see V. Asia rather than Iran. Some of the Chionite coin
Smith, Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Mu- types from the group to the north of the Hindu
seum, Calcutta, Oxford, I906, vol. i, pl. XIII, Kush show royal profiles having a crown with
no. ii, pl. XIV nos. 2, 5, and 6; Foucher, vol. 2, a peculiar lobe-shaped korymbos-device, similar
pl. V, no. 2o; A.Cunningham, Later Indo-Scy- to that on the crown of the royal figure on the
thians, Numismatic Chronicle, I893, pl. IX). The Walters Art Gallery plate (cf. R. Ghirshman, Les
grape cluster held by the goddess may be related Chionites-Hephtalites, MDAFA, vol. I3, I948,
to that of the Shah-ji-ki-Dherf Hariti (Ingholt, pp. 9-IO, figs. 5-6).
p. 25, Pl. II 3). 65 Sept mille ans d'art en Iran, exhibition
64 F. Sarre, Die kunst des alten Persien, Ber- catalogue, Paris, I96I, no. 82I. The central me-
lin, I922, p. 65, pl. 3; K. Erdmann, Die kunst dallion has a monogram in the form of a trident.
Irans zur zeit der Sasaniden, Berlin, I943, p. 98, The bowl was supposedly found in Deilaman.
fig. 69. This plate, unlike those of the more usual 66 Marshall, Taxila, vol. 2, p. 682, no. 38,
applied-relief or repousse techniques of Sasanian vol. 3, pl. 208, no. 59 a,b. Marshall renders the
silverwork, is engraved. Its date is as problematic inscription: "of Harischanda."

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voidable; both are guardian.

seated Hsiuan-tsang in mentions
the an image
sam
ner, with a drape across the thighs, and of the King of the Spirits at a Buddhist
both hold a horn-shaped object, which on monastery in Kapis'a which protected a
the Tank bowl is obviously a rhyton. Since treasure beneath its right foot. When a
the "horn" does not appear to touch the petty king tried to dig it up, the parrot on
lips of the figure on the seal, it seems likely the figure's headdress flapped its wings
that it is not a musical instrument at all and the earth shook causing the terrified
but a horn-shaped rhyton from which he ruler to flee.68 In a similar report by Hsiuan-
drinks in proper Iranian fashion. tsang, we are told of a spear-bearing image
A similar motive occurs on a moulded of Vaisravana at Balkh placed in front of
relief roundel on a large unglazed amphora a monastery which was the repository of a
of Sasanian type from Khotan, again dis- vast treasure. A Turkish prince who had
playing a portly figure, here bearded and intended to raid the place dreamed he was
nimbate, seated with an animal-headed pierced by Vais'ravanaa's lance and subse-
rhyton in his right hand and a vessel or quently died.69 According to the Annals of
sack in his left.67 Another of the roundels Li-yul, a Tibetan history of Khotan, Vais-
shows a female attendant with a tall ewer. ravan.a was not only a tutelary deity of the
Of the three examples of the Kubera- country but also the divine parent of its
with-rhyton motive described above, the first king.70
third is surprisingly far removed from its It may also be of some significance that
original Kushan habitat. This migration of the Candragarbha-sutra, written in the sec-
imagery, however, may be explained in ond half of the sixth century A.D., refers
large part by the wave of Buddhist Indian to Kubera and Hariti as tutelary deities of
civilization, emanating from Kushan con- Persia.71 This is obviously not Iran as a
trolled area of north India, which swept geographical entity but probably an area
along the trade routes of Central Asia to of Sasanian control in Central Asia. Sung-
China beginning in the second century yun (ca. 520) speaks of Persia as a wild and
A.D. Kubera (Vais'ravan.a) appears to have backward region in the western foothills
been brought to this region through the of the Pamir (T'sung-ling) mountains.72
medium of Kushan Buddhist influence Sung-yun's report comes, of course, from
where his cult became extremely popular, an era prior to that of the Sasanian Khosro
particularly in his function as treasure I and the reappearance of Iran as a formi-
67 A. von Le Coq, Die vierte deutsche Turfan-

expedition, Tu'r'an, I91 8, pp. 338-343, pl.V; R. don, I935, vol. I, pp. 98-99, pp. 303-309. Hsiian-
Ettinghausen, Parthian and Sasanian Pottery, tsang has a different version of this story in which
Survey of Persian Art, ed. A. U. Pope, rev. ed., the founder of the dynasty, Kustana, miraculously
London, I964, vol. i, p. 672, vol. 7, pl. i86, b. appeared as an infant from the head of an image
68 Hsiian-tsang, Si-yu-ki, trans. S. Beal in of Vaisravan.a (Beal, vol. 2, pp. 3 I 0-3 I ).
Buddhist Records of the Western World, London, 71 S. Levi, Notes chinoises sur l'Inde, Bulletin
I884, vOl. I, p. 59. de l'Tcole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, vol. 5,
69 Ibid., vol. I, p. 45. I905, p. 267 no. 33.
70 F. W. Thomas, 7ibetan Literary Texts and 72 Sung-yun in Buddhist Records, trans. S.
Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan, Lon- Beal, pp. xcii-xciii.

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DIONYSIAC ASPECTS OF KUSHAN ART 135
dable power in Central Asia under in the

Kushan second
domination. One inscription
half of the sixth century. found If near
theMonastery
Candra- II at Nagarjuna-
garbha-sutra is a product of konda thementions
era the pious gift of a pati-
follow-
ing the destruction of the Hephthalite Em- padia (pratipada), or footprint slab, by
pire, as it seems to be, then Buddhi,"Persia"
sister of Moda, may the 'aka.75 Al-
mean a large area under Sasanian though it is impossible
control to find any exact
up to the Oxus. counterparts for the Vijayapuri "Diony-
To return to India and sus" anamongearlier pe-of Mathuran or
the remains
riod, yet another and even more
Gandharan unlikely
art, it seems reasonable to sug-
image of a deity holding gest a rhyton maymust
that the prototype be have come
found on a pillar relief from from this the palace
area, and that the intention was
site of Vijayapuri at Nagarjunakonda to portray the Yaksha (fig. king Kubera with
I5).7 Here the personage is represented his vessel of wine.
standing and semi-nude, with a drape The Yaksha imagery of early Indian
across his thighs. He is bearded and holds Buddhist art, particularly at Bharhut and
aloft in his left hand a rhyton-shaped ves- Sajnchi, exhibits many examples of these
sel which, if it is such, has been completely playful demigods producing and inhabit-
misunderstood since the figure appears to ing vegetation (very often the lotus-vine),
be about to drink from the wrong end. riding fantastic beasts, and engaged in fes-
Longhurst has called this image "Diony- tal drinking. In Kushan Gandhara, their
sus," noting that it was probably an in- activities are basically similar; the major
expert copy of a Roman work. It seems far difference being that the miraculous lotus
more likely, however, that its inspiration has been replaced by the grapevine, and
came not from the West but from more that their beverage is clearly wine. At Mat-
or less classicizing models of the Kushan hura a compromise seems to have been
School. An indication of Kushan presence achieved, since both the lotus and other
at Vijayapuri is seen on a similar pillar indigenous vegetal motives appear along
relief displaying a standing warrior with with the grapevine or actually mixed with
spear, wearing the typical Indo-Scythian it in the decorative repertoire.76
costume of a long coat, trousers, and orna-
mented cap.74 The sculptor seems to have 75 J. Ph. Vogel, Epigraphia Indica, vol. 20,
erred once more in giving this heavily p. 37; Longhurst, p. 24. Longhurst suggests that
clothed foreigner bare feet. It is very prob- there may have been Scythian soldiers employed
as a royal bodyguard, and thus a colony at
able that Indo-Scythian types were em-
Nagariunakonda.
ployed as guards by the Iksvaku rulers at 76 The Palikheri stone bowl displays a com-
Vijayapuri, and that contacts such as these bination of grape, asoka, and other motives within
brought about at least some familiarity one vine (vide supra). See also Rosenfield, fig. 4I
with the culture and art of north India (a relief fragment showing two worshippers be-
side a Sivaite lingam, next to a piece of running
vine ornament with grapes and leaves, inhabited
73 Longhurst, p. i I, pl. X, d. by peacocks); cf. V. S. Agrawala, 7he Vine Motif
74 Ibid., pl. X, c; cf. Rosenfield, p. 224, figs. in Mathura Art, JISOA, vol. 4, I936, pp. I30-
I 57-I 58. I 34, pl. XVII.

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136 MARTHA L. CARTER
Viticulture most certainly thrived in I requesting Smyrna figs, a Sophist, and a

the lands under Kushan rule, and it is like- type of Greek sweet wine. Antiochus re-
ly that the vine was known and cultivated plied that the figs and wine would be sent,
in the Indo-Afghan highlands many cen- but that a Sophist, according to Greek cus-
turies before their arrival. The earliest In- tom, could not be given away as a gift.80
dian reference to it comes from Panini, To the historians who documented
who noted that a grape-wine called k2pi- Alexander's campaigns in Asia, the"India"
sayani (after the Kapisa region), was im- of his conquests was not a grapeless region,
ported in his time.77 Two other varieties since viticulture had been introduced there
which he mentions are the kalika and ava- long ages before by Dionysos himself when
datika, probably from the Kabul valley.78 he had conquered India.8" When the Mace-
The use of wine in Maurya times is sound- donians reached the city of Nysa (perhaps
ly substantiated by Kautilya, who noted Nagarahara on the Kabul River), Alexan-
that the best known vintages were the ha- der spared it in deference to its immortal
rahuraka and the kapisayani.79 A taste for founder and visited the shrines of the god's
imported Greek wine must also have been sacred peak, Mt. Meros.82 Dionysos had
cultivated at the Maurya court, since the named this mountain, so it was claimed,
Greek historian Hegesander quotes a letter after the Greek word [tnqo; (thigh) in honor
from Bindusara to the Seleucid Antiochus of his second birth from the thigh of Zeus.83
77 Panini, Ashtadhya-yi iv. 2. 99. Cited by 0. dad (i. 8). There is no reason why a region or set-
Prakash in Food and Drinks in Ancient India, tlement on the Kabul could not also have been
New Delhi, 9g6i, p. 44. given the Iranian name Nisaya or Nysa during
78 Ibid., v. 4. 3; Prakash, loc. cit. the Achaemenid era. The Mt. Meros of Alexander,
79 Kautilya, Arthasastra ii. 25.25; Prakash, however, has been equated with the triple-peaked
p. 96, cf. pp. 94-9 5. Mt. Koh-i-Mor in Swat (Cambridge History of
80 Hegesander in Fragmenta historicorum India, vol. I, pp. 3 53-3 54). This presents certain
graecorum, ed. T. Muller, Paris, I878-85, frag. 43, geographical problems, since Nysa was supposedly
iv, p. 42I. located at its foot. A. K. Narain supposes that
Greeks, like the Branchidae, may have settled
81 Arrian Indica i. i-8; Arrian Anabasis v. I;
Nysa during Achaemenid times, but this cannot
Diodorus Siculus Bibliothekis I .38.4; Q. Curtius
Rufus De rebus gestis Alexandri Magni viii. io. be proven (7he Indo-Greeks, Oxford, I957, pp. 2
-5). Arrian mentions that the Nysaeans were
82 Anabasis v. i. 6., V. 2. 5-7; Indica i. 6. The
shorter and fairer than the Indians, more like the
Nysa found by Alexander is likely the NayaQa Greeks, themselves (Indica I. 24). This could have
Alovvao;rctg of Ptolemy (Geography vii.1.43), been due to a strong admixture of non-Indian ele-
which could only be Nagarahara in the Jelalabad ments in the population.
district; cf. A. Cunningham, Ancient Geography 83 Ivy grew wild on Mt. Meros, as did the
of India, new ed., Varanasi, I963, p. 39. Nysa, vine, but because of heavy rains, the grape clusters
outside its mythological associations with Dio- tended to fall before ripening (Strabo, Geography,
nysos in several different locations, is an old Ira- xv. I,8). See also Pliny, Historia Vi. 22.23. Ac-
nian place name. According to the great Darius cording to Julius Solinus, there was a cave on Mt.
inscription, Nisaya was district in Media (see F. Meros where Dionysos was nourished (Collectanea
W. K6nig, Relief und inschrift des koenigs Dareios 52. I7). Polyaenos tells us that the mountain had
I am felsen von Bagistan, Leiden, 193 8, p. 39 [ I 3], three peaks, one called Meros, the other two,
p. 69). Another Nisaya is mentioned in the Vendi- Kondraske and Korasibie (Stratigica i. 1.2).

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
Actually, this appellation may be a Greek were Muziris, Nelcynda, Bacare, and Bar-
corruption of its true name, Mt. Meru, the baricum, the port of Minnagara on the In-
fabulous Indian World Mountain, by which dus Delta.
it was known to the local populace. On its Although viticulture is probably less
slopes grew the laurel, ivy, and grapevine extensive in modern times, botanical sur-
so familiar to the homesick Greeks who veys of the last century have demonstrated
were allowed to linger there to attend bac- that the grape still grows in the northwest
chanalian celebrations.84 We shall return to hill country, particularly around Jelala-
the Indian Dionysos presently; suffice to bad, Peshawar, and in the Punjab.87 The
say that classical evidence strongly infers variety abundant around Peshawar is the
that Alexander's armies found the vine al- vitis parvifolia, or Himalayan wild grape,
ready flourishing when they descended in- which has small leaves and small berries of
to northwest India. This area of viticul- a sweet delicate flavor and thrives in a
ture to the south of the Hindu Kush was wild or semi-cultivated state.88 It is not
probably part of a much larger complex of impossible that this was the variety of
ancient vine-growing areas in Central Asia. wild grape discovered by the Greeks on
The first accurate report of these was made Mt. Meros.
by the Han emissary Chang-Ch'ien (ca. Since local traditions of Yaksha-lore
I30-I25 B.C.) who found the new and un-in India have their origins in the most re-
familiar fruit in Ta-yuan (Ferghana) and mote antiquity of popular culture, we may
among the An-hsi (Parthians).85 suppose that the Yakshas were not un-
We may assume that the Yiueh-chih hadknown in the northwest prior to the ar-
already become acquainted with grapes rival of the Kushans or perhaps even be-
and wine in Ferghana or Bactria before the fore any significant missionary activity of
establishment of the Kushan kingdom. Sub-Buddhism in the region. With this in mind,
sequently, they probably not only fostered the question inevitably arises as to whether
vine cultivation in their realms but also the Yaksha-cult of this grape growing area
exported grapes and wine to the vineless became associated with the vine during the
areas of India. The demand for wine must Kushan era or whether this had not taken
certainly have been great, since the Peri- place previously.
plus of the Erythraean Sea records imports One of the railing pillars of the Bhar-
of Italian, Laodician, and Arabian vintages hut Stupa bears the image of a standing
at Barygaza.86 Other wine-importing ports warrior (fig. i6) holding in his hand what
84 The vine flourished in the territory of the Sino-Iranica, Field Museum Anthropological Se-
Oxydrakai (Strabo, Geography, v. 8) and in the ries, vol. iS, no. 3, Chicago, I919, P. 223, pp.23I-
country of the Mousikanos (Ibid., V. 22. I). 233.
85 B. Watson, Records of the Grand Historian 86 Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, trans. W.
of China, translated from the Shih-chi of Ssu-ma- H. Schoff, NewYork, 19I2, p.42, no.49, p.77,
ch'ien, NewYork, I96I, vol. 2, pp. 266-269, pp. PP 44-45, nos. 53-56.
279-280. The inhabitants of Ta-yuan stored vast 87 For references see G. Watt, A Dictionary
amounts of wine. Strabo relates that Margiana, of the Economic Products of India, London, I 893,
Hyrcania, and Ariana produced grapes of pheno- vol. II, pt. IV, pp. 270-27I.
menal size (Geography, ii.I .I 4); cf. B. Laufer, 88 Ibid., p. 360.

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
I 3 8 MARTHA L. CARTER
appears to be a tiny vine-sprig and grape specific suggestions have been made by
cluster, not unlike the botanical description Majumdar, who is undecided about the
of the Himalayan wild grape.89 Unlike the Warrior's identity but notes that the vine-
other railing pillars on which Kubera, sprig relates the image to the northwest,93
Yakshas, Yakshis, and related beings are and by Prakash, who surmises that it might
depicted as recognizable Indian types, the be an Indo-Greek king.94 One can hardly
Bharhut warrior is unusual. He wears a imagine why an Indo-Greek king should
long sleeved tunic tied in front with cords be found in the midst of Yaksha-types as a
and reaching to mid-thigh, a robe or dhoti stupa guardian, but this theory may not be
falling in swallow-tail folds to the knee, too far from correct.
high boots, and a sheathed sword hanging The Warrior's boots are characteristi-
from his left shoulder by a strap. His head cally non-Indian as is his sleeved jacket.
is uncovered, displaying short-cropped Such jackets or tunics are frequently worn
curly hair bound by a ribbon tied at the by the "foreigners" depicted at Sainchi95
back with two long ends floating out be- and may be associated with generally Ira-
hind. R.P.Chanda once suggested that this nian modes of costume. The particular cut
strangely attired figure might represent of the jacket, with sleeves and ties to fasten
Vepacitta, the chief of the Asuras, mention- it in front, are similar to a garment repre-
ed in the Samyutta-nikaya (I, 223-226) sented on the stone image of a Parthian
as wearing boots and carrying a sword.90 nobleman found in Iran and tentatively
Barua thinks that it might be the solar dated to the second century B.C.96 The
deity Mihira and associates it with the Ma- sword, which is long and broad and fitted
hila, the name of the monk who is inscrib- into a scabbard with crossed thongs and a
ed as dedicator of the pillar.9' Coomaras- nandipada pin, is probably of the manda-
wamy calls the Warrior either Vepacitta lagra type known in Kautilya's time97 and
(Virocana) or Sambara, the Asura chief as the same as that described by Arrian as a
a solar divinity.92 On the other hand, less sword of three cubits in length which the
89 Cunningham, Bharhut, pp. 32-3 3, p1. tunic boots and short hair on a winged lion); ibid.,
XXXII, fig. i; Coomaraswamy, La sculpture de vol. 2, pl. 36 cl (inner face of west pillar of North-
Bharhut, p. 62, pl. XVII, fig. 43. ern Gateway of Stiupa I showing foreign musicians
90 B. Barua, Barhut, Calcutta, 1934, vOl. 2, wearing sleeved tunics, sandals, cloaks fastened
p.69. at the neck, and on their heads, round or pointed
91 Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 68-70. caps, or fillets).
92 Coomaraswamy, loc. cit. 96 R. Ghirshman, Iran: Parthians and Sasa-
93 N. G. Majumdar, A Guide to the Sculpture nians, trans. S. Gilbert, J. Emmons, London, I962,
in the Indian Museum, Delhi, I937, pt. I, pp. 24- p. 27, fig. 36. The long-sleeved jacket has several
25. ties in front. The hair is treated in typical Par-
94 Prakash, p. I49. thian style, bound by a fillet, but with long side-
95 See San-chi, vol. 2, pl. 24, 3 (false capital on
locks covering the ears, unlike the Bharhut War-
front of east end of Northern Gateway of Stiiparior I whose hair is uniformly short in the Greek
showing riders wearing sleeved tunics mounted on manner.
winged lions); ibid., vol. 2, pl. 62, 4 (north end of 97 Cited by M. K. Dhavalikar in San-chi, a
Western Gateway of Stiipa I showing a rider with Cultural Study, Poona, I965, p. 29, pl. 62,2.

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
DIONYSIAC ASPECTS OF KUSHAN ART 139
Indian warriors wielded with both hands nificance. In this instance, it would appear
in close combat.98 The Bharhut Warrior's that the sculptor has shown us two cultur-
headband and uncovered close-cropped ally and geographically separate breeds of
hair are clearly exotic accretions, and seen Yaksha: one from the northwest vine
together, they most closely approximate country and the other an indigenous Indian
Greek fashions. The ribbon with long tails type.
is a Greek fillet, most commonly recogniz-

able in Hellenistic times in white diadema
of royalty following the style set by Alex-
ander. A preponderant number of the ruler
portraits on Bactrian and Indo-Greek coins
show the bareheaded profile with short
curly locks bound with the diadema.99
From these details of costume, all so seem-
ingly disparate in origin, the Bharhut War-
rior is revealed as a remarkably hybrid
type, combining features of dress which
are Indian, Iranian and Greek.
On a false capital from the torana or
the Eastern Gateway of Stupa I at Safnchi, TEXT FIG. 1.-RELIEF FROM EAST GATEWAY AT
there is a pair of small figures riding fan- SANCHI. Photo from A. Griinwedel, Buddhist
tastic winged-lions with antlers (text fig. Art in India, Fig. 10.
i).c00 The rider on the right side of the block
wears a turban and brandishes a large lotus In regard to the Bharhut Warrior, I
stalk above his head while his counterpart, would like to suggest that he too should be
who wears a sleeved-tunic and has short interpreted as a Yaksha, like those of other
curly hair bound with a fillet, similarly pillars, but one whose attire and vine-sprig
holds a large grape-cluster. There can be no attribute associate him with the northwest.
doubt that both these diminutive riders are Furthermore, his aspect as guardian war-
Yaksha-types, yet each is represented in a rior or senapati together with the exotic
different costume with different attributes. Graeco-Iranian elements of his appearance
The lotus, so often associated with Yakshas suggest that he may have been intended to
in early Indian sculpture and in all periods represent a prototype of the Gandharan
the most auspicious vegetative life-symbol, warlord, Pajncika, of Kushan times.
is here juxtaposed with the alien vinestock There is a relief on the inner face of
as if both were endowed with a similar sig- the south pillar of the Western Gateway
of Stupa I at Sainchi displaying a standing
98 Indica I6. 9. warrior-guardian holding a spear in his left
99 See A. N. Lahiri, Corpus of Indo-Greek
hand.10" He is, however, clearly an Indian
Coins, Calcutta, i965, pp. 22-23.
1'0 A. Grunwedel, Buddhist Art in India, rev. type, dressed in dhoti and turban, with
and enl. by J. Burgess, 2nd ed., I965, pp. 3 3-34,
fig. IO. 01 Sdinchi, vol. 2, pl. 66, a.

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bare feet and chest adorned with heavy to India and discovered there a rustic open-
necklaces. Hanging from a mango tree on air shrine encircled with a thick planting
his right is a long sword in a scabbard of trees and vines to form a natural roof or
bound with crossed thongs and fastened arbor. Inside the sacred area he saw vats,
with a nandipada pin. This figure was baskets, and implements of viticulture of
identified by Marshall and Foucher as an gold and silver and a white stone image of
anonymous Yaksha-senzpati, but Foucher Dionysos in Indian guise.104 It is not be-
went so far as to suggest that it might re- yond the realm of possibility that Philos-
present Pancika.102 The Sa-nchi senapati is tratus' description is more or less accurate
basically Indian in conception, without the (although the accoutrements of the shrine
unusual features of the Bharhut Warrior, were perhaps not so splendid) and that it
but his very presence and position on the was a well-known place of worship in the
Safnchi Gateway lend authority to an iden- surrounding region. Since Yakshas, as we
tification of the Bharhut images as that of have seen, were linked with the vine in this
a proto-Paincika. area, the sanctuary could have belonged to
It seems clear that the Yakshas of the an important Yaksha whose image Apollo-
Kushan northwest had intimate associa- nius took for Dionysos. The description is
tions with the vine and viticulture and that not much different, in fact, from those of
these connections were recognized prior to early Yaksha shrines in Indian literature
the Kushan era, if we consider the evidence since they could be, and usually were, in
from Bharhut and Sa-nchi. A broad inves- the open air, in groves or on mountains,
tigation into the antiquity of the Yakshas within some sort of enclosure surrounding
in this region is not possible here, but we a tree or image of the deity.'05 Moreover,
should not overlook the fact that Alexan- the whole spirit of bhakti worship within
der's armies were said to have discovered theYaksha cult-the unrestrained personal
the worship of Dionysos and his thiasos to devotion of the adorants with music, danc-
the south of the Hindu Kush. Megasthenes ing, pageantry, and the annointment and
states that the Indians of the mountains garlanding of the image-all these elements
worshipped Dionysos,103 and, according to of Indian popular religion had much in
Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana climbed common with the cult of Dionysos.,' If the
the god's sacred mountain during his visit grapevine had been given a place of some
102 Ssin-chj, loc. cit.; Foucher, vol. 2, p. i I6,

Punnabhadde (Purn.abhadra) had ritual jars (van-
P. 375, fig. 470. The spear or lance is characteris- daraghade) beside the entrances. It was located in
tic of the Gandharan Panicika. a clearing in a wood around an as'oka tree with a
103 Strabo, Geography, xv. I. 5 8 stone dais beneath it. The area was enclosed by a
104 Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, vedika or prakaira; cf. 0. Viennot, Le culte de
ii, 8. l'arbre dans l'Inde ancien, Paris, I954, pp. II3-
i 05 See Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, Pt. I, pp. ''5.
I7-28. The abode of a Yaksha may be outside a 106 See Yaksas, pt. I, p. I9. The Yaksha
city in a grove of trees or on a mountain. The cen- shrine was a popular haunt of dancers, musicians,
ter of the shrine usually included a tree with an minstrels, and other entertainers. The Jaina
altar or stone dais beneath, and possibly a statue. Jiv,ika-cintamani tells of a drama relating the his-
According to the Aupapatika-su-tra, a shrine of tory of a Yaksha presented on special occasions

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special importance within the the cultYaksha cult

of the Yakshas and Dionysos dur-
of the northwest prior to ing thethe advent
Indo-Greek era,of although this is a
Alexander, it would not bedistinct difficult to
possibility. Thesee
vinestock and kan-
how the Greeks might have tharos were symbols ofits
transposed new life and ulti-
rites and shrines to those mately seemingly dedi-
of the felicity of the blessed in Ro-
cated to the Asiatic Dionysos. man sarcophagi. It is conceivable that the
The most apparent reasondionysiac for the motives of the Kushan sculptural
pres-
ence of wine and drinking among repertoire had
the similar
Kus- connotations within
han Yakshas is that these deities Buddhism.as In Coomaraswamy's
well as Yaksas,
Nagas and other related types were con- part II, we are presented with two impor-
sidered by their devotees to enjoy offerings tant generalizations. First, the author rec-
of sura (spiritous liquor). In this heterodox, ognizes that all Yakshas, great and small,
non-Brahmanical form of popular religion, are vegetative spirits, directly controlling,
meat and intoxicants were the traditional and bestowing on their bhaktas fertility
offerings to all beings of the Yaksha- and wealth, or to use a single word, abun-
class.'07 According to the Laws of Manu (XI, dance. Secondly, Coomaraswamy points
96) a Brahmin was forbidden to partake of out that Yakshas are intimately connected
what had been consecrated for the Yaks- with the waters and water symbols, such
has, but this prohibition probably did not as the conch, makara, lotus, or the purna-
include the vast majority of their worship- ghata. Yakshas are the veritable Lords of
pers. Since wine made from the grape was Life: "The fact is that the Yaksas control
the most common intoxicating drink in the not so much the waters as mere waters, but
northwest, it could easily have been used the essence (rasa) in the waters which is
as a form of sura, and, as such, used in one with the sap in trees, with the amrta
Yaksha offerings. or elixir of the Devas, especially Agni,
We have no way of knowing whether with the Soma, and with the seed in living
there was any direct association between beings."'08 This rasa is in its purest form in
the sap of plants which are the embryo of
(ibid., pt. i, pp. 24-28). Yaksha worship contains the waters (apam garbah) and draw it
all the essential characteristics of popular Hindu from the rain and water in the soil. Soma
worship; only the animal sacrifices and liquor of- is the purest form of the rasa of plants, but
ferings are peculiar to it. Correspondences be- it is also found in milk, rain, dew, mead
tween the ancient cult of the Yakshas and the ele-
(madhu), semen, and sura.'09 The Yakshas
ments of a popular fertility cult surrounding the
Greek Dionysos are self-evident. The presentation thus symbolize the fructifying power of
of a cult drama is most striking, and we should the Waters and protect, or actually contain
not forget that a primitive form of the god is within themselves the germ of creation.
Dionysos-dendrites. The whole of Coomaraswamy's Water
107 See Jatakas, no. II3, describing a Yaksha
Cosmology has its origin in the ancient
festival with liquor offerings; no. 146, in which
liquor offerings are made to Nagas; and the Kal-
h,sarits4gara (chap. CV) where offerings of meat 108 Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, pt. II, pp. I 3-I4.
and wine are made to Yakshas on the wedding 109 Cf. F. D. K. Bosch, The Golden Germ,
day; also Rosenfield p. 3 I 5, note i 6o. 's-Gravenhage, 1960, pp. 59-60.

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
popular conception of the creation of the quor, but it is difficult to see why this pro-
world from the Primal Waters. From this pensity alone would have caused the at-
is derived the concept of a Primal Spirit, tribute to be so commonly repeated. The
present in or upon the Waters, out of most reasonable assumption, in light of
whom all life is engendered, seen as a greatCoomaraswamy's characterization of the
Yaksha, Varuna, or Vishnu.1"0 Although Yakshas, is that these vessels were meant
there are reasonable objections to links be- as containers of the rasa which they pro-
tween a vague conception having its origin tected, and from which their powers as
in the Vedic age and the imagery of the Lords of Life were derived. Although the
so-called Plant Style at Bharhut, Cooma- Yaksha cult was never connected with the
raswamy argues that such motives were Brahmanical Soma of the Devas, it is in-
products of a very old, but unknown, icon- deed possible that, to the pious devotees of
ographic tradition."' their cult, sura or wine was seen not simply
The Yakshas of popular ancient Indian as an intoxicant but as an amrita substance.
folk religion, according to Coomaraswa- If this is true, there is a much greater in-
my, became the guardians and bearers of trinsic similarity of meaning between the
the fertilizing essence, the rasa necessary symbolism of the Hellenic Dionysos and
for birth and regeneration, which was ulti- that of the Kushan Yakshas than has for-
mately the same as the heavenly amrita, or merly been acknowledged. The grapevine,
Soma. In the Vedas and Brahmanas the like the lotus vine, is a true arbor vitae in
deities who fulfill this function in respectKushan imagery, and the flask or vessel of
wine may be the vas vitae, conceptually
to Soma were the Gandharvas and Apsara-
ses, who are considered to have their abode akin to the kantharos of Dionysos.
in trees.1"2 It seems probable, as Coomaras- Stacy may have been not altogether
wamy has suggested, that the original na- wrong in suggesting that the Silenus block
ture of the Gandharvas and Apsarases was originally supported a vessel for wine of-
transmitted to the Yakshas who had be- ferings, even if it has since been demon-
come the popular deities of fertility.1"3 strated that it was probably used within a
Kushan Yaksha images and those of Buddhist establishment. The use of wine
Nagas often carry the attribute of the offerings to Kubera or other important
flask, goblet, or drinking vessel of some Yakshas would only have been a contin-
type, which, as we have seen, also occurs uation of cult practices under the aegis of
in Indian art prior to the Kushan era. Al- Buddhism, at a time when the cult of the
though there appears to be no standardiza- Yakshas in the northwest had not been
tion of these vessel types, it seems apparent fully assimilated within the framework of
that the attribute had a universally similar Buddhist orthodoxy. It is probable, how-
meaning. Yakshas and Nagas were believ- ever, that later during the Kushan era the
ed to be great imbibers of intoxicating li- practice was discontinued. There are, of
110 See Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, pt. II, pp. 112 Ibid., pt. II, P. 33 (with numerous refe-
25-26, p. 29, p. 35 rences).
1"I Ibid., pt. II, p. I7. 113 Ibid., pt. II, P. 34.

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
course, a number of reported instances of the amrita kalasa, and not merely as an
the habitual offering of different types of iconographic allusion to the Yakshas' fa-
food to tutelary Yakshas or Nagas within vorite beverage, a very probable relation-
Buddhist monasteries; so this, in itself, is ship exists between this attribute and the
not unusual.1"4 A late Chinese source, ac- amrita kalasa of the bodhisattvas."18 In
cording to Peri, mentions outdoor altars Buddhist iconography there is, however,
for Yaksha offerings made of stone in the some confusion about the name and func-
form of an open lotus and having smooth tion of this vase, since it is often called a
flat tops to serve as tables."t5 The Mathuran kamandalu, or monastic water vessel. Ac-
stone vases are obviously hollow, not flat tually, the shape of both the amrita kalasa
topped, but both are decorated with the and the water pot are identical in basic
open lotus motive. An additional bit of in- shape, having an ovoid body, with or with-
formation from Coomaraswamy, offered out a case, a long neck, and a flared rim.
to him by Sir Charles Elliot, is that in Jap- The usual kamandalu, however, has an ad-
anese Buddhist temples where Ganesha is ditional spout on one side for the purpose
worshipped, the offerings include sake, al- of adding water to the vessel.1"9 During the
though, as a general rule, alcohol is forbid-
Kushan era this form does not appear as a
den in such places."6 Since this benevolent
bodhisattva attribute, and we may indeed
elephant-headed deity has Yaksha connec-
wonder whether the flask was ever in-
tions, this factor seems, to Coomaraswamy
tended specifically as such. In this regard
to justify the offering of such liquor."t7 It
Marie-Therese de Mallmann, in her study
may well be that this is a modern survival
of Avalokitesvara, has justifiably observ-
of heterodox practices followed by pious
ed: "Dans l'art Kush'ana de Mathur'a-ou
Buddhists in the early years of Kushan rule
le col du vas se distingue nettement de la
at Mathura.
panse, oui la bordure de l'orifice est retour-
If we may regard the vessels and flasks
nee, et ou le goulot n'est pas pointu-il ne
of Yaksha and Naga images as a form of
s'agirait pas du kamandalu, mais du vase-
a-nectar-d'immortalite, amrita-kalasa, em-
114 Bali offerings were placed before icons of
Hariti and her hungry brood each day in the re-
fectories of monasteries. See N. Peri, Hariti, la
118 The development of the Buddha and
mere-de-demons, BEFEO, vol. I7, I917, pp. II-
bodhisattva image in the Kushan period is a sub-
I 2 (from the Samyuktavastu chap. XXXI); I-tsing,
ject of the utmost complexity which cannot be
a Record of the Buddhist Religion, trans. J. Taka-
kusu, Oxford, I896, pp. 37-38. I-tsing also men-
dealt with here. The Mathuran Yaksha or Naga
tions similar offerings before images of Mahakala flask, however, is so close to that of Mathuran
(Kubera) either in front of the porch or beside a bodhisattvas that the meaning of the attribute
pillard in the kitchen of the monastery. must be essentially similar; cf. A. Coomaraswamy,
115 Peri, BEFEO, I917, pp. 55-56. The Origin of the Buddha Image, Art Bulletin,
116 Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, pt. II, p.4. vol. 9, no. 4, I927, pp. 303-305, figs. 48-5o.
117 Cf. A. Getty, Ganesa, Oxford, I936, p. I2, 119 This is, of course, the fully developed
p. I 8. According to the Mahanirvaina-tant0a, Ga- Buddhist kamandalu. It may actually have evolv-
nesha is offered meat, fish, and wine. His images ed from a primal kalas'a form, in which case the
may show him with a wine jar in his trunk. confusion would be one of terminology.

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
bleme des developed

divinites Mahayana form,
royales is the second
telles qu
et Maitreya. Dhyani bodhisattva, and reflex of Aks-
Maitreya's flask, his most characteris- hobhya, but his earlier guise, before ele-
tic attribute during the Kushan era, con- vation to bodhisattvahood, was that of a
tains amrita, but it has clearly become an Yaksha whose function was to protect the
abstract essence of spiritual regeneration Buddha throughout his earthly career.123
and symbolic promise of salvation in the This minor divinity in Gandharan im-
future. The Lalita Vistara (VII, 9I) states: agery, as Foucher and others have demon-
"With the Water of life shalt thou heal the strated, has all the qualifications of a rustic
suffering due to the corruption of our mor- Yaksha, and in the Mahamayuri is said to
tal nature.' Here the amrita has lost any be the Yaksha of the Vulture Peak in Ra-
association with the fecundating germ of jagriha.'24 Although the bodhisattva Vaj-
creation or propagation of life in the na- rapani is far removed from his original
tural world and has emerged as the suste- character, his appearance with two amrita-
nance of the spirit alone. bearing deities as protector recalls his
There is, interestingly enough, one as- Yaksha nature. Vajrapaii, himself, does
pect of Mahayanist iconographic develop- not hold the amrita-kalas'a, but his prima-
ment which appears to recollect the origi- ry associations with the Water of Life have
nal function of amrita guardianship by the been retained within Buddhism long after
Yakshas. One of the primary triad of their significance had been forgotten; so
Mahayana imagery is that of the Dhyani long, in fact, that a new mythological ex-
Buddha Amitayus, flanked by the bodhi- planation was created to justify them. The
sattvas Padmapani and Vajrapati.122 Ami- latest and most obviously syncretic of these
tayus holds a bowl or covered vase contain-comes from Tibetan tradition, in a variant
ing amrita, and his reflex, Avalokitesvara, of the ancient cosmological myth of the
in Padmapani form, carries the amrita ka-Churning of the Cosmic Ocean. According
las'a. The third member of the triad, Vajra- to this myth, when the demons had at one
pzaii, is represented with the essential vajra time concocted a substance to poison man-
as spiritual protector. Vajrapaii, in fully kind, all the Buddhas met atop Mt. Meru
120 M. de Mallmann, Introduction a l'etude 123 The inclusion of Vajrapani is extremely

d'Avalokiteqvara, Paris, I948, p. 266. frequent in Gandharan reliefs illustrating the
121 Cited by Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, pt. I, earthly career of the Buddha. He is always a se-
p. 3I. condary figure standing guard with the ubiquitous
122 See A.Getty, Gods of Northern Buddhism, vajra, and his appearance and dress could easily
Oxford, I9I4, pp. 37-38. Getty mentions a Tibetan be that of any of a number of nameless Yaksha-
ceremony surrounding Amitayus which is a type types of Gandhara sculpture. Most often, Vajra-
of communion, for the purpose of obtaining long pani is represented as a bearded silenus or pastoral
life. Bits of dough and amrita (Tibetan beer) are type, wearing an exomis or dhoti. See Ingholt,
offered to the image of Amitayus, consacrated, and nos. 92, 99, Ioo, I04, I37, i88, i89, 333, 334, 336.
then given to the body of worshippers. Amitayus, 124 Foucher, vOl. 2, pp. 5o-64; J. Ph. Vogel,
in this instance, fulfills perfectly the embodiment Le Vajrapani gre'co-bouddhique, BEFEO, vol. 9,
of the deity of Eternal Life, and the amrita, as 1909, pp. 523-527; S. Levi, Journal Asiatique,
Elixir of Life, is shared with his devotees. I915, p. 3o, no. 3; cf. Lalita Vistara I, 358.

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to devise a means of obtaining wrought an by the Hephthalite invasion (ca.

antidote.
This was accomplished by the churning of A.D. 460) we cannot be sure that all forms
the cosmic ocean, whereby the divine nec- of artistic creation came to an immediate
tar, amrita, rose to the surface. Vajrapalni end. The Taxila seal may be dated to the
was set to guard it, but in a momentary fifth century, and the Tank Bowl is prob-
lapse allowed it to be seized by the demon, ably also from the same general era of the
Rahu. A struggle ensued and Rahu was mid-fourth to mid-fifth centuries A.D.
finally overcome, but not before the amrita Perhaps the last visual reference to the
had been defiled by the demon's poison. traditions of the northwest in Indian art
As punishment, Vajrapatni was forced to may be found in the representation of the
drink the tainted amrita, whereupon he Iranian-Central Asian Kubera-Vaisravana
turned dark blue in color.125 One need drinking in the midst of his court in the
hardly comment on the derivative nature fashion of a barbarian prince, painted on
of this myth, except to point out that this the ceiling of Cave I at Ajanta.1"
is an excellent example of a kind of ex post
facto myth making that incorporates ele- 127 See A. Foucher, Lettre d'Ajanta, Journal
Asiatique, ser. I I, vOl. I7, I921, p. 233. Foucher
ments of diverse and half-forgotten origin,
identified the feasting chieftan as Pancika. See
including the Yaksha function of amrita also J. Griffiths, Paintings in the Buddhist Cave
guardianship by Vajrapani. Temples of Ajanta, London, I896, vol. 2, pls. 94-
It would seem that after the final 95. There were originally four of these scenes,
eclipse of Kushan culture as an active three of which were well enough preserved to be
illustrated by Griffiths. All are very similar in
force, recognizably dionysiac themes came
schema, showing closely related princely types in
to an end in Buddhist India, although theytunic and conical cap. A vase held by one of the
may have lingered for some time longer in female attendants is a rhyton-form. Perhaps, as
their place of origin. Between approxi- V. Goloubew has suggested, the panels were meant
mately the mid-fourth and mid-fifth cen- to represent the Regents of the Four Directions,
turies A.D. the Kidara Kushans controlled in which Kubera-Vaisravaana would be present
(Documents pour servir a 1e'tude d'Ajantci, les
Gandhara, and allowed Buddhism to flour-
peintures de la premiere grotte, Paris, 1927, pp.
ish there, a fact which, in itself, implies a 19-20). The whole ceiling seems to be representa-
continuance of artistic productivity in the tive of a Yaksha paradise, with small figures, both
region.126 Even after the destruction Indian and "Iranian" types, drinking and carous-
ing in the midst of lush vegetal motives. The
125 Getty, Gods of Northern Buddhism, p. 49. princely drinker may be compared to Late Kushan
Vajrapaii is also a rain deity and patron of the donor figures such as the excellent example found
Nagas. beside a Buddha image from Jaulian (Marshall,
126 A Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms, Taxila, vol. 2, p.47I, no. i8i, vol. 3, pl. 139 nos.
trans. J. Legge, Oxford, i886, pp. 30-36. Fa- i 8 i-i 8 i a). A very similar type of head and cap
hsien, in the early fifth century, found Buddhism may be found on an unusual Indo-Iranian silver
flourishing in Northwest India. He mentions par- bowl in decorative medallions (Dalton, Treasure
ticularly the profuse patronage of the four great of the Oxus, pp. 59-6o, no. 205, pls. XXXIV-
stuipas at Taxila. Sung-yun mentions the Heph- XXXV). If Cave I may be dated c. 480, as Spink
thalite ravages of Gandhara in the early sixth has postulated, the paintings on the ceiling were
century, from which the Buddhist culture never probably accomplished within a few decades of
revived. See Beal, vol. i, pp. xcix-c. the initial Hephthalite invasion of Gandhara, a

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
Although the grapevine and dionysiac of Light, since they are shown together as
motives related to theYakshas disappeared an offering in a fragmentary illustration of
in northwest India after the fifth century, what is thought to be a Manichaean Bema
numerous silver vessels of Iranian or more festival.130 A Manichaean painting from
probably Central Asian manufacture, gen- B'az'aklik shows a fantastic tree with a tri-
erally termed late-Sasanian, display the ple trunk growing from a large basin, with
vine scroll or vine tree together with un- large grape clusters hanging from its foli-
usual variations on dionysiac themes.128 age, which must be a Tree of Life.13"
None of these have Buddhist connections, In T'ang China, where the art of wine-
but we may surmise that there may have making had been introduced from Central
been some influence upon their imagery, Asia during the seventh century, the aus-
either directly or indirectly, from Kushan picious vine is commonly found on Lion-
tradition. The running vine motive is found and-Grape mirrors."32 Within Central
in the architectural decoration at Pyandji- Asian Buddhism, however, there is little
kent in Sogdiana as late as the seventh cen- evidence for the continuity of the earlier
tury."' Grapes and vine tree motives also dionysiac themes of the Kushan era, except
appear in Manichaean manuscript illustra- for the notable inclusion of the grape clus-
tions from Central Asia, and grapes, like ter as an attribute of Avalokitesvara at
melons, were probably considered a Fruit Tun-huang.133
relatively short period of time which was certain- of scribes under trees with hanging grape clusters).
ly not enough to obliterate the Indian image of See also G. Widengren, Mani and Manichaeism,
the Kushan lord as Kubera-Vaisravana (W. Spink, London, I 96 I, p. I 5.
Ajanta and Ghatotkacha: a Preliminary Analysis, 131 A. Griinwedel, Alt-Kutscha, Berlin, 1920,
Ars Orientalis, vol. 6, I966, pp. I42 f., pl. I). p. 176, fig. 66. J. Hackin, Recherches archeolo-
128 J. J. Smirnov, Vostochnoe Cerebro, St. giques en Asie Centrale, I93I, Paris, I936, pp. I9
Petersburg, I909. See pl. XXXVII, 66, pl. XLIV, -21, pl. I, pl. XII, pl. XIII, a and b.
77, pl. XLV, 78, pl. LII, 86, pl. LXV, I09. See 132 S. Cammann, The Lion-and-Grape Pat-
especially pl. LXV, II0, and pl. LXVI, II 3, (the terns on Chinese Bronze Mirrors, Artibus Asiae,
flanges on top of the handles of both vessels show vol. i6, 1953, pp. 265-29i. Cammann sees Ma-
a bearded silenus bust with cup or rhyton, not un- nichaean influence in the mirror motives. Wine
like the representation on the medallion of the making was introduced to China c. 64o A. D. from
amphora from Khotan). Turkestan; cf. B. Laufer, p. 232.
129 A. Belenitski, Skuptura e szevopece dryev- 133 See A. Waley, A Catalogue of Paintings
nevo Pyandshekenta, Moscow, I959, pp. 121-I25, recovered from Tun-huang by Sir Aurel Stein,
figs. 20, 21, 22, and 24. London, 193 1, pp 54-59, no. XXXV; A. Stein,
130 A. von Le Coq, Buddhistische Spatantike, Serindia, Oxford, I92I, vol. 4, pl. LXIII; Old
vol. 2, Die manichaeischen miniaturen, Berlin, Chinese Art, ed. T. Misugi, Osaka, i961, no. 63
I923, pl. 85, a (a fragmentary illustration of a (a silk painting from Tun-huang of a standing
ceremony in which a bowl of melons and grapes thousand-armed Avalokitesvara in the Hakutsura
appears as an offering); pl. 85, b (an illustration Museum, Kobe).

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
t-/-s - :< ?
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FIG ;1 a. RIH SIDE_ OF PAIHEAB CH NLA RU.FG - ETSD FP LKF

Mathurd Museum Phot coreyo'_h oefed

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CARTER PLATE2
_ | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l b-I
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137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
CARTER PLATE 3
FIG. 3.-STONE TRAY FROM SWAT. Photo

courtesy Archaeological Survey of India.
Taken from MASI, no. C 4, Excavations in
Swat and Explorations in the Oxus
Territories of Afghanistan, pl. VIII, no. 4
(no. 21).
................~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
FIG. 4. -DIONYSIAC SCENE. LAHORE MUSEUM. Courtesy Islay Lyons and Harold Ingholt.
Taken from Gandharan Art in Pakistan, no. 397.
w _ ". .. <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.... . ...
FIG. 5. WINEMAKING SCENE. PESHAWAR MUSEUM. Photo courtesy of Is

Taken from Gandha ran Art in Pakistan, no. 175.

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00
CARTER PLATE 4
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CARTER PLATE 5
FI.9-EIFO ACAAINNGA.Poocuts rts uem
FIG. 8.-RELIEF OF MITHUNA COUPLE

FRom AmIN. Courtesy Archaeological
Survey of India. Photo from A.
Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, Part I, pl. 7.

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CARTER PLATE6
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FIG. 13.-SILVER BOWL FROm TANK. British
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'q1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~P
FIG. 14.-CLAY SEAL FRom TAXILA. Photo FIG. 15.-RELIEF OF DIONYSIAc FIGURE FROM FIG. 16
taken from J. Marshall, Taxila, Vol. 3, NAGARJUNAKONDpA. Photo from MASI, no. 54, FRom
p1. 208-59 b. A. H., Lonehurst, The Buddhist Antiquities Museum,
of Niigarjunakonda, pl. X, d. from

137.132.26.157 on Wed, 17 Apr 2024 03:14:53 +00:00

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Nous y reconnaisons au passage la plupart ly Western interpretation of the origin and

1 A. Foucher, L'art gre'co-bouddhique du assume that some transformation of meaning has

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wine oblations outside neck. The couple to ahisGreek

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the reverse (fig. i), however, behind the drinker's

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Whether we may see is,the

9 Cf. Smith, p. 13 7. figure depositing flowers in a bowl borne by a

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base in the Lahore Museum

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data (II, 3), a Yaksha to have come as close as possible towist

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voidable; both are guardian.

67 A. von Le Coq, Die vierte deutsche Turfan-

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dable power in Central Asia under in the

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Viticulture most certainly thrived in I requesting Smyrna figs, a Sophist, and a

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is a Greek fillet, most commonly recogniz-

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102 Ssin-chj, loc. cit.; Foucher, vol. 2, p. i I6,

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special importance within the the cultYaksha cult

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bleme des developed

120 M. de Mallmann, Introduction a l'etude 123 The inclusion of Vajrapani is extremely

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to devise a means of obtaining wrought an by the Hephthalite invasion (ca.

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j~~~~~. i, Z ,s, , i - , ,,, |,g ,,, ,., , , , ,

_ : , S.-~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ....

FIG ;1 a. RIH SIDE_ OF PAIHEAB CH NLA RU.FG - ETSD FP LKF

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I | , _ l l | * _ | l l .... -x. w!.

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FIG. 3.-STONE TRAY FROM SWAT. Photo

w _ ". .. <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.... . ...

FIG. 5. WINEMAKING SCENE. PESHAWAR MUSEUM. Photo courtesy of Is

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4w^' ' _ - s 9 U ;;; ;<<L

1 ' F|? ^ 9 - sIz__I

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FI.9-EIFO ACAAINNGA.Poocuts rts uem

FIG. 8.-RELIEF OF MITHUNA COUPLE

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