The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.75

c11.s1.75

9. (L., 144). Rudrâyaṇa, as soon as converted, begged to receive instruction from a monk, and the master despatched to him the reverend Mahâkâtyâyana : a monk is, in fact, sitting at the right of the king, and even on a higher seat than he. In the most gratuitous — and also the most perplexing — manner the designer considered it necessary to surmount the shaven head of this monk (cf. pl. XXXVII, 2) with the protuberance of the *ushṇîsha*, which is special to Buddhas. Let us add that Mahâkâtyâyana seems, in the midst of the edified hearers, to be making a gesture of refusal : what he refuses is, doubtless, to preach in the gynæceum of the king : that is the business of the nuns.