Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s3.t2.1

c12.s3.t2.1

This was the earliest gateway to be added to the great Stūpa. It was restored in 1882; as it stands it has three architraves. The top one shows the figure of *Śrī-Lakṣmī* standing in the midst of a lotus grove (*Padmavana*) and attended by two elephants which form a very charming representation of the scene. Foucher would take it as Māyādevī but it was more properly the cult *Śrī-Lakṣmī* (or *Sirimā Devatā* as seen at Bharhut). On the middle architrave is depicted the visit of the emperor Aśoka riding in a chariot and followed by elephant riders to the Stūpa at Rāmagrāma which was defended by Nāga guardians. Above the Stūpa are Suparṇas holding garlands. On the lowest architrave the dwarfish pot-bellied figures of squatting and sprawling *Kumbhāṇḍas* are holding pearl necklaces in their hands and spouting forth the lotus creeper of Life and Fortune from their mouth. This was a very significant motif of early Indian art relating to the cult of Kumbhāṇḍa gods whose chief was Virūḍhaka, the Lokapāla of the southern direction. It should be noted that the circular ends of the architraves on the two sides were occupied by a design of seven zones (*chakravyūha*) now termed as "spiral". The two cubicals separating the architraves on left show the Bodhi Tree and Stūpa and the Bodhi Tree and *Śrī-Lakṣmī* on right. The false capitals or the corresponding portions of the architraves themselves, both on the right and left show pairs of couchant animals with riders, e. g. horses (*haya-saṅghāṭa*), stags (*mṛiga-saṅghāṭa*). This was a decorative motif seen also on the pillars in the Western Indian caves and elsewhere at Bharhut, Mathura, etc. and occurs in the literary descriptions of the Jainas.