Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s2.42

c12.s2.42

According to the Buddhist cosmogony the place of Dhṛtarāṣṭra and the Gandharvas occupies the east side of the Yugandhara rock, that of Virūḍhaka and the Kumbhāṇḍas the south, that of Virūpākṣa and the Nāgas the west, and that of Vaiśravaṇa and his Yakshas the north. These four guardians of the four quarters form as it were a *Rakṣā-Pañjara*, apotropaic hegemony entrusted to the care of all the popular deities classified as Yakshas, Gandharvas, Kumbhāṇḍas (ithyphallic dwarf) and Nāgas. This arrangement is perfectly preserved in the Sanchi Stūpa. Two of these were found by Cunningham in the Bharhut Stūpa also, viz. Kubera on the north (*Kupiro-yakho*) and Virūḍhaka on the south. On the north gateway the figures of Ajakālaka Yaksha (some bucolic deity) and Candrā Yakshī were found on the pillars associated with that of Kubera. On the eastern gateway was found the figure of Sudarśanā Yakshī and in the south gateway were found carved on the pillars in addition to Virūḍhaka Yaksha the figures of Gaṅgita Yaksha and Cakravāka Nāgarāja. On the western gateway were figures of Suchiloma Yaksha and Sirimā Devatā on one pillar and on a second the figure of Supāvasa Yaksha. Dhṛtarāṣṭra was the deity of the east side but pillar bearing his sculpture has disappeared. There is however a corner pillar bearing the figure of Sudarśanā Yakshī which should have belonged to the east way. We thus see that the Bharhut Stūpa on the basis of its labels presents a more extended scheme of the tutelary deities which were once common in folk belief and admitted in the conception of the Stūpa.