Studies in Indian Art c12.s9.5

c12.s9.5

2. Big stone bowl (No. 97), about 3'-3" in diameter, carved all round with a border of vine, 10'-3" long, of which about 1'-6" is broken away. The encircling creeper is arranged as an undulatings scroll with about thirty-five leaves and eighteen grape-clusters. It issues forth from the navel of a squatting Yaksha and occurs in this specimen as the most luxuriant representation of this motif at Mathurā. The base is conceived of and represented as full-blown lotus, the symbol of cosmic purity and fulness. The surmounting border of the vine-creeper (drākshā-valli) most likely points to the joys of the 'Cup of Life', which offers its exhilaration to the human individual here represented as a Yaksha Fig. 98).