The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.3

c11.s1.3

Among the hundreds of bas-reliefs the first to arouse interest were those which Leemans calls « of the second gallery », but which Heer J. W. Yzerman’s discovery proves to have originally belonged to the first. This gallery is a corridor, having an interior width of m. 1,85, which, with twenty zig-zags, encompasses the whole monument (cf. pl. XXXI, 2). It is enclosed between two stone walls, built, like the rest of the construction, without any apparent mortar and interrupted only by the passage of the four staircases, both walls being ornamented by two superposed series of bas-reliefs. Among those which decorate the parapet (the « anterior wall » of Leemans), formerly 568 in number, whereof about 400 remain, Dr. S. d'Oldenburg has already identified a number of *jātakas*, or previous lives of Buddha (¹). On the wall itself of the *stûpa* (the « back wall » of Leemans) Wilsen had early recognized in the upper row scenes from the last life of the same Çâkya-muni; and Dr. C. M. Pleyte has recently published a detailed explanation, according to the *Lalita-vistara*, of the 120 panels which it contains (²). As regards those of the bottom row, the greater number still await an interpretation. We remark at once, by the light of the identifications already made, that these pictures conform in the order of their succession to the general rule of the *pradakshiṇâ* (³); that is to say, they follow the direction taken by the worshipper who circumambulated the *stûpa*, keeping it on his right hand. It results quite naturally from this that, on the walls of the parapet, the scenes follow one another from left to right, while, on the building, the succession is from right to left. On both sides they accompany the visitor who makes the round in the only direction compatible with the religious and auspicious character of the monument.