Shotorak by Jacques MeuniéReview by: Ludwig BachhoferJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1949), p. 48Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/595401 .

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48 Regews of Books

Shotorak. By JACQUES ZIEUNIE. PP. 77, 42 plates. Paris: LES EDITIONS D'ART ET D'HISTOIRE, 1942. (Memoires de la Delegation arche- ologique francaise en Afghanistan, tome X.)

Shotorak (' Little Camel ') is the name of a steep clif on the right bank of the river Panjshlr, a few miles downstream from Begram, the }iapiql of old. On it lie the ruins of several Buddhist monasteries, one of which had been identified by Foucher as the ' Monastery of the Chinese Eostages of Wanishka.' The westernmost complex of this group was excavated in 1937 by Meunie, and this is his report. The monastery commanded a magnificent view of the valley, similar to Takht-l- Bahl. There was a big rectangular court, sur- rounded by colonnades; in it stood one big and four small stupas. A long hallway led to another court of irregular shape where several smaller stupas had been erected without any visible order. Neither pictures nor maps provide a sufficiently clear picture of the whole.

The lowest storey is all that has remained of the main stupa. It is 8 m. square; in the center of the front is a projection, obviously the stairs that led up to the platform on top of the first storey. The other three sides were pierced by three niches each. These niches are later additions; the walls of the original edifice were discovered behind their back walls. The old walls rose from a strong moulding; each side was divided by six pilasters of little elevation. The moulding rested on a low socle of slabs, deep enough to carry the side walls of the later niches and to leave a narrow bench running around the enlarged building.

The niches were once filled with statues in mortar of which only small fragments have sur- vived. To the left of what must have been the stairs the stone figure of the Buddha as ascetic was found in sitqb; when it was placed there, it was already a damaged piece; its hands had been broken off, and put back with the help of iron clamps. Eead and hands are gone now.

This is an important discovery; it proves that old sculpture was re-used, and this practice is borne out by what Meunie found in the small stupa F 6. Three periods of construction were plainly discernible there, and in the last two periods old reliefs had been inserted into the thell new walls. In one case, the socle of an ancient statue which probably was injured beyond repair was put to serve as a reliquary. In other words,

the co-existence of slate and of mortar, plaster or stucco sculpture in the same stratum does not necessarily mean contemporaneity.

No definite clues to the date of the several buildings have been brought to light. So much is certain that the monastery was occupied for s long time, that it was at least twice destroyed, once it seems, by an earthquake, and that it was rebuilt. It probably came to a violent end.

The second part of the book is dedicated to the description and iconography of the many pieces of sculpture dug up in Shotorak. Most of them are fragments, and of slate, the material favored by the artists of what is sometimes called the earlvy Gandhara school. Their presence in such large numbers in Shotorak is interesting, for it proves that this School was not confined to Gandhara proper, but had spread deeply into Afghanistan. The slate for the Shotorak sculptures was quarried in the vicinity. As far as style goes, these statues and reliefs are clearly on a level with hundreds of similar works found farther east. On the whole, they are more robust in appearance; the figures are rather squarish and stunted, and the tendency towards harsh lines and a summary rendering of form, present from the outset, became more and more pronounced as time went on. It was a rustic and provincial art.

The costumes of some donors and the style leave no doubt that these sculptures date from the :Sushana period, more exactly, from the second and third century A. D.; and this is very likely the date when the monastery was first built.

Meunie did an excellent job in identifying the various figures and scenes. It must be mentioned that he found the first illustration in Gandharan art of the Vyaghrl jataka; the meditating Bodhi- sattva seated upon an elephant is called, somewhat hesitantly, Indra on the elephant Airavata ( 54, P1. xxv); he looks very much like the 'Urtyp' of Samantabhadra.

The figures and heads in mortar, plaster, and stucco are in general of higher quality than those in stone. This is not surprising, for the same observation could be made in all sites from liapigt to Taxila. Though their output was tremendous, and their performance often slovenly, the modellers who worked from the third to fifth century, were greater artists than their predecessors.

LUDWIG BACEEOFER UNIVEPSITY OF CHICAGO

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