Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s2.45

c12.s2.45

3. NĀGAS:—Similar to the Yaksha and Śrī Lakshmī Devatā cults the Nāgas also were accepted as an element in the religious form of the Stūpa. They are mentioned as the guardian deities (Rakshitā). Amongst the five Rakshā-Maṇḍalas of the Sudarśana City in Uttarakuru visited by Māndhātā there is one presided over by the Nāga chief emerging out of waters (Udaka-niśrita). At Bharhut the figure of Erāpata Nāgarāja is shown worshipping the Bodhi Tree with his family and is half submerged in water. Iconographically he is represented as a human being with a canopy of hoods similar to the Nāga figures of Kushāṇa and later arts. On a pillar, now in the Allahabad Museum in the central medallion is a Banyan Tree below which is the five hooded Muchulinda Nāgarāja, as shown by the epigraph, sheltering an altar and the footprints of the Buddha. Muchulinda is said to have protected the Buddha during a storm. The story is depicted at Sanchi, Amaravati and Nagarjunikonda Stūpas also. The Nāga King Chakravāka is carved on the corner pillar of the south gate.