The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.226

c11.s1.226

I. — Upper scene. On the left the Bodhisattva (in the form of a Buddha), seated in meditation among the rocks and in the shades of Uruvilvâ, raises his right hand in order to make to the fifteen gods (one of whom is broken) ranged on his left a polite gesture of refusal. What he declines is the proposal, which they have just made to him, to breathe in through his pores a secret vigour, which may sustain him in the midst of his super-human austerities : for he will owe his salvation to himself alone. His well-bred interlocutors receive his decision with a demeanour as discreet as it is varied. It will be observed that the macerations of the Bodhisattva are not in any way shown, as in Gandhâra, by the loss of flesh on his body : so much realism would here be regarded as the height of impropriety.