The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c7.s1.t2.6

c7.s1.t2.6

§ 7. Inner face of the right jamb. — This face, according to Fergusson, presents an exceptional interest, « being the only subject at Sânchî that we can, with certainty, attribute to Buddhism, as it is known to us ». To-day it is better known; but the representation, on the upper extremity of the middle bas-relief, of the « dream of Mâyâ », — otherwise, the « conception of the Bodhisattva », who descends into his mother’s bosom in the form of a little elephant — remains certainly in this case the pivot of all identification. We know that this scene, so strange to our eyes, in which it is a pachyderm which plays the part of the dove in our « Annunciations », is itself certainly identified by the Barhut inscription : « The Descent of the Blessed One ». Consequently, we might be tempted to see in the upper bas-relief a picture of the Bodhisattva in the heaven of the Tushita gods at the moment when he prepares to be born again in the royal family of Kapilavastu. But the sculptor prevents us from going astray in that direction by the care which he has taken to represent before and behind the empty throne obviously the same king and the same tree which we find again at the bottom of the lower panel. He could not more clearly indicate that he is referring us to the latter to find the solution of the enigma.