Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c7.86.4

c7.86.4

Thus in one specimen there is only one figure.¹ On another specimen there are two,² while the full number, three, is to be found in two cases only.³ Besides these, we find Māra himself, in the act of shooting arrows towards the Bodhisattva, with one follower, represented as a demon. The attitude of touching the earth is almost universally common in the representations of this incident in the Mathurā school of sculpture, with the exception of one specimen (H. 6 of the Mathurā Museum) where Buddha has raised his hand in the attitude of protection (abhaya-mudrā), thus showing that the daughters of Māra were already vanquished and Buddha had extended his protection to them. The same arrangement is also to be found in an unpublished basrelief in the Lucknow Museum which appears to have been brought from Mathurā by Dr. Führer. It has not been noticed before and was found by me in the Lucknow Museum in 1908.