The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.179

c9.179

At the bottom, the two Nāga-rājas, Nanda and Upananda, whose busts terminate curiously in the curling and scaly tails of serpents (we may compare with them those on one of the frescoes of Ajaṇṭā, GRIFFITHS, fig. 16 = J. Ind. Art. and Ind., no. 69, 1900, fig. 19), encircle, with their joined hands, the peduncle of a great lotus rising from waves, upon which a teaching Buddha is seated in the Indian manner. Behind each of these Nāgas stands one attendant, and two others either crouch or kneel; the nimbus of the middle one on the left may be distinguished. Between the heads of the two outside attendants rise the stems of the lotus stools on which rest the feet of two other teaching Buddhas, seated in European manner and looking in opposite directions.