The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.181

c9.181

II. — Pl. XXIII, 2 is only a reproduction, for the convenience of the reader, of the middle part of plate 164 of Anc. Mon. and Temples of India, published by Dr. BURGESS (London, 1897). The original decorates the largest of the twenty-six caves of Kuḍā, in the district of Kulābā, to the south of Bombay (cf. FERGUSSON and BURGESS, Cave-Temples of India, pp. 206 sqq.; Arch. Survey West. India, IV, pp. 12 sqq.) The two Nāga-rājas, Nanda and Upananda, are with both hands supporting the stalk of a large lotus, on which a teaching Buddha is seated in the Indian manner. At either side, on two other padmas, stand two divine personages, both armed with fly-flappers. Considering the late date of the sculpture, we must apparently recognize in them two Bodhisattvas, and more especially in the one on the right, judging by the long sinuous stem of the pink lotus which he holds in his left hand, an Avalokiteçvara Padmapāṇi.