Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.11

c7.11

Below the niche, containing the representation of the birth, is a small basrelief containing a seated figure of the Bodhisattva. Under it is a small basrelief representing the prediction of the sage Asita Devala, and below it again there is another basrelief, which perhaps represents the Bodhisattva going to school. Below this is a seated figure, at the proper left lower corner of the stele. To the proper right of this figure, which represents the first meditation of Buddha on the uncertainties of life, we find the following incidents :—(1) The Mahābhinishkramaṇa or the departure of Buddha from his home, (2) the leave taking of Chhandaka and Kaṇṭhaka, (3) the change of garments and (4) the emaciation of the Bodhisattva. At the lower proper right corner in the Bihar stele we find the figure of the donor kneeling with a garland between his hands. From this place we go up. On the Shibbati stele three recessed corners on the left or the proper right, bear three pairs of human figures, probably representing the family of the donor. Above the last two recessed corners, in this stele, we find a figure of the Bodhisattva seated in meditation, with two females standing on his right, the figures on the left having become indistinct. This portion of the basrelief may represent the presentation of the pāyasa to Buddha by Sujātā or Nandabālā, when the Master was famished; because one of the figures in the Sibbati stele, namely that on the extreme right, holds a vessel in her hand. We now return to the temple in the centre of the stele, the figure seated inside it, and the bands of basrelief immediately below the throne, which latter represent the incidents connected with the illumination of Buddha and his attainment of perfection. There cannot be any doubt as to this temple being intended to represent the great temple at Bodh Gaya, because just over the main figure there is a small chamber containing a similar but much smaller figurine, and corresponding to the chamber over the garbhagriha of the great temple at Bodh Gaya, which has survived to this day. The four small niches near the spire would then represent the four small shrines at the four corners of the great temple at Bodh Gaya, at the level of the upper chamber. On the top of the spire there is a chaitya, in the place of the usual finial, which has been placed over the āmalaka. It will be noticed that in both of the stelæ there are two smaller niches or miniature shrines, containing figures of minor Buddhist deities, near the base indicating that in the original temple there were four similar shrines on the ground level out of which only the two in the front have been portrayed in these stelæ. The representation of the temple in both of the stelæ is almost exactly the same. The next incident in the Master's life, immediately after the illumination, is the protection of his body from wind and rain by the Nāga king Muchalinda. This scene is to be found on both the stelæ, in the second line from the bottom near the lower proper right corner. The first sermon preached by Buddha at Benares is portrayed in a miniature temple at the level of the head of the main figure, on the proper right. A similar niche or temple on the proper left contains a similarly situated figurine, which, as we shall see later on when we come to describe the identity of the basreliefs of the eastern school of mediæval sculpture, represents the miracle of Śrāvastī. Higher up, on each side of the śikhara of the main shrine, there are two other miniature temples which contain scenes representing the taming of the robbers and the taming of the mad elephant Nālagiri or Ratnapāla by Buddha at Rājagṛiha. The upper part of the backslab, in both of the stelæ, represents the incidents connected with the death of Buddha.