Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.263

Language: English

c7.263.1

Very little difference is to be found in the representations of this scene in the Mathurā school. Here in one specimen we find an exact replica of the Gandhāra basrelief,³ and in another we find the full figure of the nun.⁴ The first change in the manner of representation of this incident is to be found in the Benares school. Here Indra and Brahmā descend with hands clasped in adoration but the former holds a fly-whisk. Only in one case do we find the latter holding a kamaṇḍalu instead of the fly-whisk. Out of four cases of the representation of this incident in stelæ of the Benares school we find the representation of the ladder in two cases only, (1) S. 4⁵ of the Indian Museum collection, and (2) a fragment discovered by Sir John Marshall.⁶ In the case of the remaining two, there is only one ladder in S. 1 and none in the other. The nun Utpalavarṇā is represented in two cases only. In the first case we find her kneeling on one side of the ladder, with two male figures on the left.⁷ We see that in the Benares school the steps do not form an inseparable adjunct of the representation of this scene and Indra and Brahmā hold different objects in their hands. Thus on the stelæ, discovered at Sārnāth in 1906-07, Indra is holding an umbrella and Brahmā a kamaṇḍalu, indicating that in this particular basrelief Buddha is represented as descending from the heaven of the thirty-three gods.

c7.263.2

Coming to the Bengal school we find that the presence of Indra with the umbrella and of Brahmā with the fly-whisk represents the descent from the heaven. The steps are absent in the majority of cases. In the stelæ of the second class, which represent the eight principal incidents of the Master's life, this event is very rarely represented. It is to be found in one case only, in the fragment of the backslab from Ghasikundi, No. 4575-76⁸ of the Indian Museum collection. In this particular case, the incident is represented in the second horizontal row. Here Buddha is standing on a lotus in the centre. Indra stands on his proper right on a smaller lotus, holding an umbrella over the head of the Master and Brahmā to his left with a fly-whisk in one of his four hands, while in front of the large lotus is to be found the kneeling figure of the nun Utpalavarṇā. This incident is to be found in one of the three stelæ discovered at Nālandā, on the upper horizontal row, to the proper right, where only one attendant figure is to be seen holding an umbrella over the head of the Master. Though the incident of Saṅkāśya is not to be found in stelæ of the second class usually, the artists of that school represented this incident very profusely in separate images. It has been stated above that the artists of the Benares school represented the steps, which are said to have stretched from the heaven to the earth at the time of the Master's descent, in some cases only.

c7.263.3

In the eastern school the steps are very rarely represented. So far as we know they are to be found on one specimen only (Kr. 5).¹ In this specimen, we find Brahmā holding an umbrella over the head of the Master and Indra a bowl. The ladders are three in number according to the requirements of the legend. In another case we find Brahmā holding a fly-whisk and a kamaṇḍalu, while Indra holds the umbrella. This is the image, which was dedicated in the third year of King Sūrapāla I of Bengal (No. 3763).² In other images we find a similar arrangement, but no ladder (Kr. 13).³ In another specimen it is extremely difficult to recognise who is Indra and who is Brahmā. The figure on the proper right holds an umbrella and that on the proper left the fly-whisk, but both have only one head (Br. 8).⁴ A somewhat similar specimen is No. N. S. 2072 of the Indian Museum, where the place of Indra and Brahmā is taken by the Bodhisattva Maitreya on the proper right and Lokanātha, with two hands, on the proper left.⁵ In all of these specimens the proper left hand of the Master holds part of his upper garment, while the proper right is in the posture of blessing. One cannot therefore but come to the conclusion that in the Bengal school, the artists, in depicting the scene of the descent of the Master from the heaven of the thirty-three gods, placed Indra and Brahmā on the sides and placed the left hand of the Master in the varada-mudrā.

c7.263.4

In less elaborate images the Master is represented as standing under an umbrella, with his hands in the varada-mudrā, indicating the incident of the descent at Saṅkāśya. The hands of the main figure in stelæ No. C(c)1 ⁶ of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Parishad collection and No. 3766⁷ of the Indian Museum collection are broken, but as in both cases the incidents of the mad elephant and the robbers are separately represented, it can be safely stated that the main figures, in these two stelæ, represent the Master as descending from the heaven of the thirty-three gods.