Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s3.t4.4

c12.s3.t4.4

Third architrave shows the visit of Aśoka to the Bodhi tree. In the centre, the temple and trees of Bodhgaya; to the left, a crowd of musicians and devotees with water vessels; to the right, a royal retinue and a king and queen descending from an elephant and afterwards doing worship at the Tree. This is the ceremonial visit which Aśoka and his queen Tissarakkhitā paid to the Bodhi Tree, for the purpose of watering it and restoring it pristine beauty after the evil spell which the queen in a fit of jealousy had cast upon it. In the pairs of peacocks at the ends of this architrave there may be a special allusion to Aśoka, since the peacock (Pali: mora; Sans: Mayūra) was the badge of the Mauryan times. On the south voluted ends of the architrave and on the dies and false capitals are scenes of Chakra and Stūpa worship and Gaja-Lakshmī.