Text
extracted from
opening pages of book:
HANDBOOK TO THE
Sculptures in the
Peshawar Museum BY H. HARGREAVES, Superintendent,
Archaeological Survey of India, Frontier Gircle r and Honorary Curator, Peshawar Museum* REVISED EDITION CALCUTTA: GOVERNMENT OF INDIA CENTRAL PUBLICATION BRANCH 1930 PLATE 1. 1739, BODHISATTVA SlDDHABTHA, pp. 9, 11, 27, 69* 77, 101. To D. BRAINERD SPOONER, These to his memory since he held them dear. PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION So great was the demand for Dr. Spooner's Hand* book to the Sculptures in the Peshawar Museum that the edition published in 1909 was out of print in 1918. A re-issue of the original handbook would not, how. ever, have met the needs of visitors, for in the interven ing years the sculptures had doubled in number. More over, new legendary scenes required explanation and, in the light of increasing knowledge, reliefs of which the purport was once doubttul had become readily recogniz able. A revised edition was, therefore, called for one which should deal with the enlarged collection and, at the same time, embody the results of later discoveries in this field of Buddhist art. Although the matter is largely new, and a chapter has been added on the History and Art of Gandhara, the general arrangement of the first edition has been pre served and it is hoped that this volume will, like its pre decessor, provide visitors to the Museum with a handbook sufficiently explanatory of the sculptures while avoiding the excessive details of a catalogue. Without the whole-hearted co-operation of M. Dilawar Khan, the former Custodian and present Curator of the Peshawar Museum, the completion of the Handbook, after my transfer from Peshawar, would have been impos sible and for this and assistance in countless directions I am his most grateful debtor. U PREFACE. My obligations to previous writers on this subject are those enumerated in the Bibliography and the Preface to the First Edition, but to the list of these names I would add that of the late Dr. Spooner himself, the first Curator of the Peshawar Museum, to whose memory this volume is dedicated as a debt of gratitude by his friend, colleague and successor. H. HARGREAVES. PESHAWAR, December 30, 1928. PREFACE TO THE FIRST HANDBOOK THIS Handbook has been written entirely for the use of residents in Peshawar and other visitors to the Peshawar Museum. It does not claim to be a catalogue of the sculptures, but is merely a popular guide-book that shall explain the sculptures to those on the spot and, it is hoped, make them more interesting. Contro versial matters have not been altogether excluded, for it has been felt that possibly visitors would like to know the nature of the problems involved in the study of this school of art ; but tedious archaeological arguments have been avoided, and the specialist will observe that such new theories as are advanced here and there are merely stated rather than developed. The author hopes, however, that all controversial points have been duly indicated as such. A word as to the arrangement of the sculptures may be appropriate. Each of the larger collections has been sub-divided into groups according to subjects, and these groups arranged in the cases in systematic sequence. All the sculptures in the Museum, furthermore, have been numbered consecutively, beginning in the right hand gallery upstairs. It is hoped that this classifica tion will facilitate the study of the collections. My great obligations to M. Foucher, the well-known French archaeologist, call for cordial acknowledgment. His brilliant work, L'Art Greco-Bouddhique du Gan dhara, has been constantly referred to, while the iii IV PREFACED second part of the Introduction is little more than a com pilation from his pages. I am also indebted to the Reverend Samuel Beal, whose interesting work, The Romantic Legend of Sakya Buddha , has been most helpful in the interpretation of new sculptures; and particularly to Mr. Marshall, the Director General of Arc.
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