Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.44

c7.44

The scene of the birth is invariably to be found on stelæ of the first class in the eastern school. It is also to be found in the majority of cases in the stelæ of the second class. It is absent only on one stele (No. 3766). This scene is represented in separate images or basreliefs in some rare specimens only in the eastern school of mediæval sculpture. One specimen was found at Bodh Gaya and belongs to the latter half of the tenth century A. D. (B. G. 50)⁸, and the second is at Rajshahi⁹. The representation of the infant Buddha taking the first seven steps is always combined in the eastern school with that of the birth and is nowhere separately represented. It is stated that immediately after his birth the infant Bodhisattva walked seven steps and recited some verses¹. In Gāndhāra sculptures also, this scene is more than often to be found combined with that of the Nativity of Buddha, such as No. 5034 of the Indian Museum. This incident is to be found solely in a basrelief in the Guide's collection at Mardan.² It is represented separately in one instance only in specimens of the Mathurā School in a fragment discovered at Mathurā but it seems to have been omitted by the artists of the Benares School³. In the stelæ of the second class of the eastern school of mediæval sculpture this incident is once more revived.