Antiquities of Northern Pakistan: Reports and Studies, vol. 3.

• Author: Salomon, Richard

The discovery of a vast quantity of antiquities in the valley of the upper Indus and adjoining parts of the Northern Areas of Pakistan began in 1979, and to date a total of nearly thirty thousand engraved images and over five thousand inscriptions have been found, according to Karl Jettmar's preface (p. vii) to the present volume. Since then, in addition to numerous articles in various scholarly journals, two major series have been established for the publication of the results of the archaeological, philological, and art-historical analysis of these relics. The first of these is Antiquities of Northern Pakistan, which is dedicated to "preliminary papers and special studies devoted to selected finds" (Gerard Fussman's introduction, p. x), and of which the book under review here constitutes the third volume. The second series will contain "the final reports of archaeologists, i.e., a full and detailed publication of every discovery" (ibid.), with one volume dedicated to each of the sites.(1) The publications reflect the efforts of an international team working under the auspices of the research unit "Felsbilder und Inschriften am Karakorum Highway" of the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften and of the Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique. The international nature of the project and the character of the present volume as "a token of the French, German, and Pakistani cooperation in the field of Upper Indus studies" (p. xi) is reflected by the contents and languages of the six articles - three in French, two in English, and one in German - in the present volume.

Of these six articles, five focus, at least in some broad sense, on art-historical or iconographic studies of the rock carvings found at the various sites of the upper Indus. The first of these is Fussman's "Une peinture sur pierre: Le triptyque au stupa de Shatial" (pp. 1-55). Here Fussman presents a detailed and penetrating analysis of this unique rock carving, "la plus grande et la plus spectaculaire representation bouddhique du Haut-Indus" (p. 10), which portrays a large ornate stupa at the center, a stylized representation of the Sibi-jataka at the (viewer's) left, and a smaller, somewhat enigmatic structure (p. 35) to the right. According to Fussman, the carving reveals "une technique qui s'apparente plus au dessin ou a la pienture qu'a la sculpture" (p. 4; see also pp. 44-45), whence the title of the article; the triptych is, in effect, a "painting on stone" rather than a sculpture or a bas-relief. Fussman hypothesizes (p. 18) that it was the work of a local professional artist who was commissioned by a Buddhist pilgrim. If the representation of the Sibi-jataka is not strictly in accord with the known textual versions, this is because it "n'est pas l'oeuvre d'un moine, ou d'un theologien, mais d'un artiste qui s'interessait plus au contenu doctrinal du bouddhisme qu'a la lettre des textes" (p. 10). But as to the apparent peculiarities of the construction of the main stupa, these can be explained on the grounds of "contraintes techniques du dessin" (p. 31), as is shown in detail by comparisons with miniature models of Gandharan stupas as well as with other representations of stupas on stone reliefs...