Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.263.3

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.