Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c8.s1.2

c8.s1.2

(1) The illumination, (2) The First Sermon at Benares, (3) The descent from the heaven of the *Trayastriṃśas*, (4) The submission of Nālagiri or Ratnapāla, (5) The presentation of honey at Vaiśālī and (6) The Miracle of Śrāvastī. Besides these six different forms we possess separate representations of the birth and the death and, if these are also counted as images, then there are eight different species of the Buddha images amongst specimens of the Eastern School. The only case, where, in the Eastern School, artists have represented the figure of Buddha only without reference to any particular incident of his life is in the representation of the seven past Buddhas and the Messiah of Buddhism, the Bodhisattva Maitreya. Here we find that the seven past Buddhas, including Gautama, stand under their respective Bodhi trees.¹ In this group the future Buddha Maitreya is known by the *chaitya* in his head-dress. Such groups of Buddhas including the one referred to were found in comparatively large numbers at Bodh Gaya and another of the series was dedicated by a Chinese pilgrim (B. G. 133).² Another specimen was dedicated either in the Kushan or Gupta period and a portion of it was recovered during the excavations at Bodh Gaya by Cunningham and Beglar.¹ Yet another specimen was found at Bishanpur Tandwa in the Gaya district by Sir Aurel Stein in 1901.²