The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.111

c9.111

¹ In fact these contaminations have not failed to take place. The Buddha of the *mahâprâtihârya* of Çrâvastī makes the gesture of instruction, exactly as does the Buddha of the *Dharmacakra-pravartana* of Benares : nothing further was required to provoque confusions and exchanges between the two motifs originally characterized, the one by the lotus with the Nâgarâjas, the other by the wheel with the gazelles. On plate 164 of *Anc. Mon. India*, by the side of the subject of our plate XXIII, 2, we find some « First Preachings » treated as « Great Miracles », except that the gazelles have replaced the Nâgarâjas on each side of the lotus; on the façade of the great temple of Kârli (*ibid.*, pl. 168) the gazelles have even been intercalated above Nâgarâjas! From this it may be conceived with what precautions we must surround ourselves before risking a firm identification from descriptions alone.