The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.157

c9.157

At the bottom, from some bubbling waves, there springs up a large lotus, on which Buddha is seated with his legs crossed in the manner of the Indians, and his hands joined in the attitude of instruction. Around him radiate six other stems, which also branch as they mount higher and open out into tiers of padmas, which are various mudrās. At the bottom, on each side of the central Buddha, two attendants, who by their head-dresses and jewels can be recognized as laymen — gods or Bodhisattvas —, are fanning him with fly-flappers; at the top, two little flying genii fill up the rect angular corners of the slab. It will be noticed that on the part of the three Buddhas of the bottom row there is a tendency to look in different directions (cf. above, pp. 160 and 167).