A Tabula Iliaca from Gandhara

Abstract

In the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1923–4, pp. 125–6, Pl. XLI, c Mr. H. Hargreaves published an ‘unidentified relief from Gandhara’ the subject of which has not yet been explained. The relief (fig. 1), which is believed to have come from one of the numerous mounds in the Mardan subdivision of the Peshawar district, was the property of Mr. F. V. Wylie, I.C.S. (now Sir Francis Wylie, K.C.S.I., C.I.E.) then stationed at Mardan. The scene represents on the left a woman rushing out of a gateway in an attitude combining horror with warning; her arms are uplifted; she is naked to the waist and wears anklets and necklets. Mr. Hargreaves suggested she wore a crenellated crown and might be a city goddess. She seems, however, only to wear her hair in the usual Indian fashion in a top knot. She is obviously expressing hosror at the scene on the right and imploring the participants to desist. The main figure on the right is a tall, fully robed man thrusting a spear into the chest of a horse which is mounted on wheels. Behind the horse is another similarly clothed male figure—young or at least unbearded—with his hands resting on the flanks of the horse and apparently thrusting it forward. Between these two figures is another, an elderly bearded man standing on the other side of the horse. The dress of the male figure is classical, indeed one might say Roman; certainly their footwear appears to be Roman. The lady, however, is depicted in regular Indian fashion. On the extreme right is a standing soldier holding a spear, much damaged. The faces of the male figures are all more or less damaged, but they are certainly laymen and not any of the familiar figures of the usual Buddhist sculptures of Gandhara.