The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.119

c9.119

(¹) See the two upper corners of plate XXVIII, 1 and compare fig. 78 of *Art. g.-b. du Gandh.*, and especially the panel recently discovered by Dr. D. B. SPOONER at Takht-i-Bahai and published by Mr. J. H. MARSHALL in the *J. R. A. S.*, Oct. 1908, pl. VI, 3. Here again we recognize the *mâha-prâtihârya*. The lotuses which once decorated the bottom of the slab have almost disappeared through the defacement of the stone; but it is not so with those which support the characters above, that is, five little seated Buddhas (three of whom are at the top among foliage), and the two divine garland-bearers. By way of an exception the principal Buddha affects the pose of meditation. The front of his parasol is curiously adorned with a crescent moon, doubtless in order to emphasize the aerostatic character of the miracle. But the point which specially holds our attention is the indication on each side of his body, between the knee and the shoulder, of four little Buddhas, standing on lotuses and arranged obliquely like the outspread feathers of a peacock’s tail. — It is known that Sir AUREL STEIN found this procedure in use also on the sculptures of Rawak in Chinese Turkestan (*Ancient Khotan*, I, figg. 62-65; cf. *Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan*, frontispiece).