Page 19 - Met Museum Ghandara Incense Burner

Figure 35. Reliquary in the form of a miniature stupa. Gand- Figure 36. Model of a stupa. Gandhara, Kushan, 4th cen-
hara, Kushan, 2nd or 3rd century a. d. Schist, H. 19.2 cm. The tury a.d. Bronze, H. 57.8 cm. The Metropolitan Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Samuel Eilenberg Collection, of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Bruckmann, 1985
J.
Gift of Samuel Eilenberg, 1987 (1987. 142. 4a-c) (1985.387^0)

ribbons hanging down. The winged figures on the to have been used for incense. All of these were found
incense burner are also
base of the Levy-White holding at Greek and Shaka-Parthian levels of Taxila. One very
wreaths, and their identification is ambiguous. The important burner has a column on a base supported
use of wreaths is common in Gandhara and quite by four winged birds.77 A slight protrusion under the
often seen on the stone dishes.76 bowl that slants downward seems to prefigure the
burner. Another vari-
Elements of the Gandharan burner are similar to broader disk on the Levy-White
many objects from Taxila, some of them imports and ant has a round bowl without the protrusion.78 Design
burner also
others of indigenous manufacture. to elements found in the Levy-White appear
According John
Marshall, the excavator of Taxila, there are numerous on objects other than incense burners: a stone lotus
bowls which appear to be offering bowls but which are bowl on a stemmed base,79 an embossed copper vine
in fact too small to be used in that manner and seem leaf similar to one found at Begram,8° bells (which

87