The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.115

c9.115

(²) We may connect with this group that of the British Museum, reproduced by Dr. Burgess (*Journ. of Indian Art and Ind.*, no. 62, 1898, pl. 8, 2 = *Anc. Mon. India*, pl. 92, in the middle): the teaching Buddha and the two divinities are seated, or standing, on the enlarged pericarp of a lotus flower. In the acolyte at the right we recognise Brahmâ by his head-dress and his water vessel, in the one on the left Çakra by his diadem. The two worshippers are withdrawn to the bottom of the stele and separated by what is usually the stalk of the central lotus, but is here treated as a pyre. — We pay no regard to another image (that of the Calcutta Museum), likewise published by Dr. Burgess (*J. I. A. I.*, no. 69, Jan. 1900, fig. 24 = *Buddh. Art* parasols, adorned with garlands (pl. XXIV, 1). On plate XXIV, 2 we scarcely divine the suggestion of the lotuses on which rest the seat of the Master and the feet of his two acolytes : on the other hand, two other busts of the Blessed One are interposed in the hollows delimited by the lines of their shoulders : except for the exchange of place between the two gods and the two magical Buddhas, it is evidently the same group as on plates XIX, 2 (first row) and XXI, 1. At other times the ingenious art of the sculptor erects graceful architectures (pl. XXV) above the three principal characters : doubtless we must here recognize the *prātihārya-maṇḍapa*, built expressly for the occasion of the miracle; but we remain free to admire in it, together with the Mûla-Sarvâstivâdins, the royal munificence of Prasenajit, or, with the Theravâdins, the divine skill of Viçvakarman (¹). At one time (²) it is a simple portico that presides above the three seated figures (pl. XXV, 2). At another time bolder constructions lodge beneath their domes or arches images of Buddha or even accessory episodes (pll. XXV, 1 and XXVI, 1). On this last plate the two divinities, again standing, have each provided themselves with a long garland, which we shall find in their hands on all the reproductions that we still have to examine (pll. XXVI, 2-XXVIII, 1). The latter, like those first cited, place the scene — or rather, the vision — in the open sky : at the most, they