Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.86.3

c7.86.3

In some cases, in the Gāndhāra school, the last part is supplanted by that of the presentation of four almsbowls by the guardian deities of the four quarters, as on the drum of the Sikri *stūpa*.⁵ No complete representation of the temptation of the Bodhisattva by the daughters of Māra has been discovered as yet among the specimens of the Gāndhāra school though the attack of Māra's army has been represented on numerous specimens.⁶ The defeat of Māra and the call on the Earth-goddess to bear witness to the illumination, are rather rare. The particular posture of touching the earth (*bhūmisparśa-mudrā*), which in later schools of Indian sculpture represents the particular moment when the Master attained perfection, is to be found very rarely among known specimens of the Gāndhāra school. There is only one mutilated image in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, in which two of Māra's partisans are lying prostrate on the ground in front of the adamantine throne, on which the Master is seated in the attitude of touching the earth.⁷ In the Mathurā school we find the temptation of the Bodhisattva by Māra's daughters, the attack on the Bodhisattva by Māra's army and the call on the Earth-goddess to bear witness to the illumination, all combined into one basrelief. In this specimen, Buddha is seated in meditation, with his right hand touching the earth, under the Bodhi tree. The daughters of Māra stand on his sides and their numbers vary according to the space available.