Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.33

c7.33

In certain cases, the scene of the birth is combined with that of the divine child taking the first seven steps. This is more noticeable in the huge stele of the second class at Jagdispur near Nālandā in the Patna District. Here we find a large number of attendant figures. In addition to Buddha's mother, her sister, Buddha himself, Brahmā and Indra we find a female seated on the ground in front of Māyādevī's sister Prajāpati over which are the busts of two devas and just below the figure of the child is a small figurine of Buddha, standing on the top of seven circular lotuses, which indicate the seven steps taken by the infant Buddha immediately after his birth. Usually in stelæ of the second class, the scene of the birth consists of Māyādevī standing under the śāla tree and the child issuing from her right side; such are stelæ Nos. 3752¹, 3737², 3713³ and 3755⁴ of the Indian Museum collection. There are three stelæ in the collection of the Baṅgīya Sāhitya Parishad. In C (a) 2/185 there is an additional figure, which is that of Brahmā⁵. In C (a) 3/5 we find the seven steps⁶. Among the metal images discovered at Nālandā we find the figure of Indra in addition in one case (photograph No. 2123)⁷, but it is absent in another case (photograph No. 2078).⁸ The seven steps taken by the child Buddha immediately after his birth are prominently associated with the scene of the birth in the following stelæ. In fragments Nos. 4575-6⁹ of the Indian Museum collection we find Māyādevī, her sister Prajāpati, and the child Buddha. Immediately under the child we find another figurine of Buddha standing on five lotuses, no doubt meant to represent the seven celebrated steps. In two other cases the seven steps are represented by a number of lotuses without the figure of the child Buddha; these are No. Br. 68¹⁰ of the Indian Museum collection and stele discovered at Nālandā—(photograph No. 2080)¹¹. The steps are also to be found in two separate images representing the birth of Buddha; these are No. B. G. 50¹² of the Indian Museum and No. A (f) 1/292 of the Museum of the Varendra Research Society at Rajshahi¹³.