Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.5

c7.5

Specimens which can be relegated to the first group are very few in number. One of these has been discovered in the village of Sibbati in the Khulna District of Bengal which was brought to my notice by Professor Satish Chandra Mitra, M.A., of the Hindu Academy of Daulatpur in the same district as well as by Mr. Hemendra Prasad Ghosh, a well known journalist of Calcutta.¹ Another specimen appears to have been discovered somewhere in Bihar, most probably in the town of Bihar itself. It formed a part of the collection of Magadha sculptures described by the late Dr. John Anderson, the first Superintendent of the Indian Museum, who describes it in the following words : "An elaborate sculpture in very black stone, measuring 1'-11" high and 10".50 in breadth. Occupying nearly the centre of the sculpture is a recess 7".50 high and 1".75 deep, in which there is a figure of Buddha in the bhūmisparśa-mudrā. The arch of this recess is supported on octagonal pillars with bracket capitals, and, above each of the latter, there is a small recess bearing a small chaitya with a seated figure of Buddha, with another and similar recess above it. A vidyādhara is introduced between the main arch and these recesses, as if it were supporting the uppermost small recess with one hand, while its right hand holds up the basement of another large elaborate temple resembling the Great Temple of Buddha Gaya and which contains a figure of Buddha in the bhūmisparśa-mudrā. Above the chaitya-shaped pinnacle of this temple, there is a representation of the nirvāṇa of Buddha, the figure lying in a kind of frame supported at each corner by a seated human figure, above which, over the frame, is a small chaitya with a small human figure on each side of it. The remainder of the sculpture is covered with small figures, and, along the sides, there are a series of *chaityas* placed one above the other with small recesses containing figures of Padma-pāṇi, of Buddha and incidents in his life, of Māyā in the Lumbinī garden, this last scene, however, not being represented in the simple way it is in the Sarnath sculptures but in a conventional fashion. The mass of little figures in the upper part of the sculpture seems to refer exclusively to Buddha's temptation by Māra. The history of this sculpture is unknown, and it is only supposed to be from Bihar.¹