Relief
Relief
1st century (made)
1st century (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Curved fragment of an architectural frieze. On the left of this relief we see the scene of the Interpretation of Prince Siddhartha's Horoscope by his Seer Asita. The four figures are of Queen Maya, King Suddhodana (with a large nimbus), a nurse, possibly Maya's sister Mahaprajapati and the Seer Asita, who holds the swaddled child Buddha in his arms. His left hand supports the head of the newborn babe and with his right he grasps its body.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Relief (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Grey schist |
| Brief description | Relief showing the Interpretation of Prince Siddhartha's Horoscope, grey schist, 1st century AD, Gandhara |
| Physical description | Curved fragment of an architectural frieze. On the left of this relief we see the scene of the Interpretation of Prince Siddhartha's Horoscope by his Seer Asita. The four figures are of Queen Maya, King Suddhodana (with a large nimbus), a nurse, possibly Maya's sister Mahaprajapati and the Seer Asita, who holds the swaddled child Buddha in his arms. His left hand supports the head of the newborn babe and with his right he grasps its body. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Barger and Wright |
| Object history | Part of the Barger and Wright Collection, No. 78 in Barger's list. The site of Gumbat (Pashto for ‘stupa’) was first visited by Sir Aurel Stein in 1926 (Stein. M.A. An Archaeological Tour in Upper Swat and Adjacent Hill Tracts. Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, 42. Calcutta). It was visited in 1938 by E. Barger and P. Wright during their expedition to Swat and Afghanistan. Despite considerable looting it has been and continues to be an important site and it has been excavated further by the Italian Archaeological Mission (IsIAO) from 1956, in 2005 and from 2011and 2012 in collaboration with the Pakistan government under the Pakistan-Italian Debt Swap Agreement (PIDSA). Evert Barger, Lecturer in Medieval History, University of Bristol, and Philip Wright, from the Indian Section of the V&A Museum, undertook a survey and excavation of the site during their expedition to Swat. Philip Wright with T.D. Weatherhead, working as surveyor and photographer, were largely responsible for the excavation work in Swat where they stayed for two months in the summer of 1938 while Barger travelled on to Afghanistan. Forty fragments of architectural and sculptural objects were brought back to England, of which 16 were acquired by the V&A Museum. The residue of the collection, which had been left in store at the museum was acquired in 1961, of which this object is a part. Photographs of the expedition by Weatherhead are in the British Library in the collection of William Vernon Emanuel, who was also a member of the expedition. |
| Production | Swat valley (Gumbat), Gandhara. |
| Bibliographic reference | Ackermann, Hans Christoph. Narrative Stone Reliefs from Gandhara in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Catalogue and Attempt at a Stylistic History. Reports and Memoirs. Director of the Series Giuseppe Tucci. Volume XVII. IsMEO, Rome, 1975.
p. 62, pl. Xb
Barger, E and Wright, P., 1941, Excavations in Swat and Explorations in the Oxus Territories of Afghanistan, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, 64, Calcutta
Barger, E., (1938), The Results of the recent Archaeological Expedition to Swat and Afghanistan, in relation to the present position of Indian Studies in this Country, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, No. 4490, vol. LXXXVII, pp.102-124. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | IS.110-1961 |
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| Record created | April 22, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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