Photo 1003(1099)

This is one of a series of photographs taken for H. H. Cole at Mardan by Serrot, and not, as Theodor Bloch, A list of the photographic negatives of Indian antiquities in ... the Indian Museum... (Calcutta: 1900) states, by Cole himself. Reproduced in photogravure in Illustrations of Graeco-Buddhist sculptures from the Yusufzai District, in vol. I of H. H. Cole, Preservation of monuments in India (c. 1885), pl. 1: 'The elaborate piece of carving was found by Mr Dempster, C.E., Executive Engineer, Swat Canals, and he kindly allowed me to have it photographed. In the upper right-hand corner we have a very perfect representation of a hemispherical dome on pillars with Corinthian capitals. Whether the domed roofs were of actual leaf seems doubtful. The columns below are certainly taken from stone models, and the domes may have been of stone with a leaf ornament applied to the surface....Dentils of a classical form enrich the various mouldings, and the rail here used ornamentally is copied from the railings which usually surround Indian Buddhist topes. General Cunningham has given me the following note: - 'The small figure at the top reprersents Buddhaon and his horse Chanda leaving his home by night. The central figure is Buddha teaching, with a royal figure standing on each side. Below is a row of eight Buddhas.'

Piece now in Chandigarh Government Museum and Art Gallery (Inventory number 1134).