Elements of Buddhist Iconography c8.151

c8.151

This representation, like our Fig. 17, is one of those that has been compared to the Tree of Jesse formula as it appears in Christian art from the eleventh century onwards (see Kingsley Porter, “Spain or Toulouse? and other questions,” Art Bulletin, VII, 15 f.; Coomaraswamy, “The Tree of Jesse and Indian parallels or sources,” ibid., XI, 217–220; Watson, Early Iconography of the Tree of Jesse, 1934, pp. 58–66; Coomaraswamy, “The Tree of Jesse and Oriental Parallels,” Parnassus, VI, Jan., 1934). Without assuming any contemporary borrowing or influence, it may be safely asserted that all these are cognate forms, having an ultimately common origin and the same fundamental significance. This common significance is most apparent in the fact that the Christian virga (often hermeneutically assimilated to virgo) is identified with the Virgin, as being the ground of the divine manifestation that flowers above (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “The Virgin Mother of God is the stem, her Son is the flower. . . . O Virgin! stem of the highest, to what a summit thou liftest on high thy holiness! even to Him that sitteth on the throne”) the Indian lotus, as “earth,” being in precisely the same manner the support and ground of manifestation.