Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.s2.t5.8

c15.s2.t5.8

4. Birth and Seven Steps--Queen Māyā Devī is standing in *tribhaṅga* pose under a blossoming Śāla tree of much bigger size than usual with a female chowri-bearer on left and a spouted water jar. The presence of the jar is indicative of the First Bath. A female figure is repeated on the right side with a *chhatra* and two chawries over her head under a spreading Śāla tree. Figures of four Lokapāla gods hold, indicative of the royal presence of the Bodhisattva, the long scarf bearing the marks of the first seven steps of the Bodhisattva. The seven steps (*sapta-pada*) was an ancient Vedic symbol having reference to the seven component parts of creation and admitted into the Buddhist cosmology as illustrated here so prominently. The Nativity (*jāti*) and the Seven Steps are graphically treated in bas-relief in plate 20 (b) of Longhurst.