The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.27

c11.s1.27

14. (L., 28). Once again a royal personage is presented to us, seated in his palace in the midst of his court; but this time he has a halo. By this sign we shall recognize here, as well as in nos. 17 and 18, Druma, king of the Kinnaras. It is, therefore, his daughter, Manoharâ, who, crouched at his left, is relating to him the story of her romantic adventures on earth. It results, further, from this that the scene is suddenly transported beyond the first chains of the Himâlayas to the distant and inaccessible country of the genii and fairies. The sculptor does all that he can to vary in imagination, if in execution he hardly succeeds, the places and persons.