The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.102

c9.102

² The only differences to be observed consist, 1ˢᵗ in the somewhat capricious detail (cf. p. 167) of the orientation of the acolyte Buddhas, turned or not towards the central Buddha; 2ⁿᵈ in the fact that the latter has a lotus not for a seat, but only for a footstool. This kind of throne and this sitting position « in the European mode » are current peculiarities of the local style, although they are not unknown to the school of Benares and although we may have found them even so far as in the great Buddha of the Chandi Mendut near Boro-Budur in Java. They constitute all the less an obstacle to the proposed attribution since the central lotus, while treated as a simple little bench, is nevertheless usually supported by the two classical *nâgarâjas* (cf. for example, in *Arch. Survey West. India*, IV, pl. XXXVI, 2, the Buddha carved on the *stûpa* of cave XXVI of Ajaṇṭa, and below, p. 168).