This painting (Ch. xxxviii. 004), reproduced here on the scale of
two-sevenths, is practically complete and in a very fair state of
preservation, still retaining its border of yellowish-green silk.
As already mentioned in the description of the preceding Plate, it
represents the Paradise of a Buddha in whom M. Petrucci recognizes
Śākyamuni, the historical Buddha.[6] The ordinance of the celestial
assemblage is simple, though showing some peculiar features. The
presiding Buddha, with legs interlocked and both hands in the
_vitarka-mudrā_, occupies a lotus seat in the centre and faces the
draped altar. By him we see seated two principal Bodhisattvas, alike
in appearance and dress but with hands in different poses. According
to M. Petrucci’s view based on the inscriptions of a much-reduced
presentation of the same Paradise (Ch. xxxiii. 001), we may identify
the Bodhisattva on the left with Ākāśagarbha and the one on the
right with Kṣitigarbha. Between them and the Buddha is shown on each
side a small shaven disciple, of childlike appearance with hands
in adoration. Above the heads of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas are seen
canopies carried by pairs of trees and encircled by big flowers, and
behind them appears the pavilion with boldly upturned eaves which
represents the celestial mansion, the habitation of blessed souls. In
the air above and carried on clouds float the small figures of four
Buddhas amidst a sprinkling of orange flowers.
On the main terrace in front of the triad we see a dancer performing
in spirited movement. Its rhythmic rapidity is happily conveyed by
the graceful scroll-lines of the scarf she waves freely in her hands.
On either side four Bodhisattvas occupy lotus seats with hands folded
in adoration. Pairs of musicians sit in front of them, playing on a
reed-organ, lute, psaltery, and clappers. Gangways lead down from the
terrace to the lotus lake. Its bottom corners are occupied by Garuḍa
figures, half human half bird, standing on rocks and displaying plumy
semi-floral tails, with hands folded in adoration.
Most of the foreground is filled by a large isolated terrace carrying
in the centre a subsidiary Buddha, an arrangement which is peculiar. On
his right is seated a small Bodhisattva adoring, while to his left the
corresponding place is taken by a haloed disciple with shaven head and
hands in the same pose. He wears monkish robes with the addition of a
necklace, and thus presents the appearance peculiar in our paintings to
Kṣitigarbha, as seen in Plates XXV, XXXIX, XL. This distinctly supports
the view of M. Petrucci, who takes the group below for a repetition of
the principal triad and accordingly identifies the Bodhisattva to the
left with Ākāśagarbha and the Buddha with Śākyamuni. The appearance
of the Buddha is very unusual; for the crimson robe lined with white,
which covers him closely to the neck, shows the red disc of the Sun
painted on the left shoulder, the white disc of the Moon (with the tree
of immortality) on the right shoulder, and Mount Meru on the front of
the body, flanked by a man’s figure on either side.[7]
The marginal scenes of the painting, eleven in all, are taken, as
mentioned above, from the legend of Kalyāṇaṃkara and Pāpaṃkara. Their
detailed interpretations were to have been furnished in the volume
which M. Chavannes was preparing on a selection of our paintings for
publication in the _Mémoires concernant l’Asie orientale_ with the help
of materials left behind by M. Petrucci.[8] In the absence of such
guidance it must suffice here to point out the purely Chinese style
of all details in these scenes, including the curving hill ranges and
pine-clad cliffs which serve to separate them.
A broad band resembling a tessellated pavement divides the main picture
and side scenes from a panel below, which shows the donors kneeling on
either side of what was the space left for a dedicatory inscription
completely effaced or, perhaps, never written. On the right kneels a
row of six men wearing loose belted coats of different colours, while
on the left we see in front a bald-headed aged figure which may be
meant either for a monk or a nun; behind it a lady alone, and in the
third rank three others of more youthful appearance. Behind these again
are three boys with their hair done in round tufts above the temples.
Here, too, the costumes are of interest as affording indications as
to the approximate date of the painting. Among the men’s we may note
that, whereas three wear black hats with wide side-flaps such as are
found regularly on the heads of donors in our tenth-century pictures,
the other three wear the black lobed and tailed caps which are common
in the side scenes and the banners representing legendary incidents of
Gautama Buddha’s life (see Pls. XII, XIII, XXXVII). Of the costumes in
these representations I have, as I believe, shown that they go back
to a period distinctly earlier than the bulk of our pictures from the
‘Thousand Buddhas’.[9] The chronological observation regarding our
painting (Ch. xxxviii. 004) is borne out still more clearly by the
fashion which the donatrices display. The elaborate head-dress worn
by the ladies in all tenth-century pictures is conspicuously absent,
and the hair is done plain in a flat round topknot or in a large
backward-waving crest just as in the donatrix figures of the picture
dated A.D. 864 and reproduced in Plate XVI.
Good and refined as the drawing is, especially in the faces and hands
of Bodhisattvas and donatrices, we meet elsewhere with details which
have not been highly finished. As in other paintings of this class, the
prevailing colour is crimson on dull light green, with orange on the
Bodhisattvas’ robes and the tiles of the terrace, turquoise blue on the
altar-cloth, &c.