Silk Road Art and Archaeology, vol. 6: Papers in Honour of Francine Tissot.

• Author: Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie
• Position: Book Review

Silk Road Art and Archaeology, vol. 6: Papers in Honour of Francine Tissot. Edited by ELIZABETH ERRINGTON and OSMUND BOPEARACHCHI. Kamakura: INSTITUTE OF SILK ROAD STUDIES, 1999/2000.

This special issue of the journal Silk Road Art and Archaeology serves as a model Festschrift dedicated to the much esteemed scholar of Gandharan arts and culture, Francine Tissot. (1) The volume comprises twenty-two articles which, as a whole, can be characterized as exemplary products of careful research by scholars of the finest caliber. Their methodologies are in general unapologetically traditional and focused on examination and analysis of archaeological evidence. Art historians, archaeologists, numismatists, epigraphers, and philologists contributed papers that lead us toward a clearer understanding of the art and cultural history of Gandhara and its associated regions. While most of the topics concern issues in the art of Gandhara and Bactria (regions within modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan) from the first century B.C. to the third century A.D., some involve aspects of Buddhist iconography, Central Asian textiles, Kushan and Hun numismatics, Indian epigraphy, Buddhist art in early Medieval Gujarat, and more. Such diversity of topics at first glance may detract from the cohesion of the volume; however, when one reads the introductory note by Francine Tissot and reflects upon the nature of her own publications, a certain unity becomes apparent, in that the articles address three major concerns of Mme. Tissot: contextualizing works of art, identifying objects used in everyday life, and discerning interregional connections.

In her "Reflexions a propos de l'art du Gandhara," which opens the volume, Francine Tissot underscores the importance of knowing the original architectural context in which an object was placed and the archaeological context in which an object was found, in order to understand more accurately its meaning, function, and surrounding historical circumstances. Her own extensive work on the archaeological site of Sahri-Bahlol in Gandhara reflects this conviction. Marianne Yaldiz concurs in her excellent paper which discusses the enigmatic depictions of Buddhas with multiple emanations found in the art of Gandhara and Central Asia. She convincingly identifies the images in Cave 123 at Kizil as pratyekabuddhas, who have the power to multiply themselves and who also serve a protective function. Although she did not address the difficult and controversial question of the dating of Cave 123, her identification of what she calls the "Hinayanist Pratyekabuddha concept" at Kizil is an important contribution to our understanding of the art of these caves, which constitute the greatest collection of Hinayana, possibly Sarvastivadin, art in Central and East Asia.

In reading many of the papers we become keenly aware of the difficulties scholars face in researching the archaeological context from which even the most famous of objects were found. Saifur Rahman Dar's paper describes his painstaking efforts to learn the context in which the Gandharan sculptures housed in the Lahore Museum were discovered, by poring over all the records of the early curators and relevant British archaeologists. We learn with dismay that the site of Sikri, from which were unearthed some of the most remarkable and important pieces of Gandharan art such as the fasting Buddha and the stupa with narrative relief panels, cannot even be located with certainty. Furthermore, the early accession records are vague, confused, and incomplete; basic questions of provenance and date are unanswerable. All he can conclude from the sculptural evidence itself is that it is not...