Upper right corner of relief slab with spectators, grey schist, 1st century AD, Swat Valley.

This fragment is probably the upper right hand corner of a door frame, in the architrave of which are carved the heads and upper bodies of three females, who are probably divinities as they are shown with aureoles behind their heads (two circular ones and an inverted crescent-shaped one on the left). The two females on the right,who are looking towards each other, appear to be holding sceptres in their two outer arms and a bunch of lotus blossoms and a circular object respectively in their other inner hands. The third female on the left has a damaged right hand, as well as an abraded face, as does the middle one. A chubby, winged putto stretches out at the corner to grasp an end of drapery. Below him there is the top half of a figure in profile with an inclined head and damaged arms and hands which were probably formerly held together in adoration.

Presented by Barger and White

Acquired from Evert Barger and Philip Wright, as part of the collection of finds excavated during their expedition to the Swat valley in 1938. This is no. 75 in Barger's lists.
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. 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.

Ackermann suggests that the complete slab may have incorporated a representation of the Great Departure of the Buddha from Kapilavastu.

IM.91-1939