Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s3.t3.4

c12.s3.t3.4

Lowermost architrave : On this lintel one of Sanchi's masterpieces is carved, showing the Buddha in his last but one incarnation born as Prince Vessantara who realised the Perfection of Charity (Dāna Pāramitā). Here the story is told with a great wealth of detail and has the unique distinction of covering the entire architrave, both front and back. Here we see three panels, prince Vessantara giving away his royal elephant; his banishment and saying farewell to his parents outside the city; driving away in his chariot with his family and presently parting with his chariot and horses through some Brāhmaṇas. From the point of view of carving this is one of the most vivid representations at Sanchi marked by the greatest clarity of treatment of city architecture, personal ornaments and dress as well as of the quadriga and the horses. On the soffit or underside of this architrave is a row of beautifully carved lotuses showing in the centre a red lotus (padma) framed between blue lotuses (nīlotpala). On the two die portions of these three architraves there are two Gaja-Lakshmī representations in which the goddess and the elephant are all shown seated and standing on full blown lotuses. This had become an established style for a number of other statuettes of the goddess seen in Mathura art. Between the three architraves on the two sides of the Gaja-Lakshmī figures are to be seen standing Vṛikshakas under distended boughs of mango or Aśoka trees which set the norm for such figures in later art. But the most beautiful and delicate are the toraṇa caryatids festooning the corners on the outside which are also seen in their best preserved form in a similar position on the eastern gateway.