Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c8.62

c8.62

In the centre of the frieze on the top of the slab the Buddha appears receiving worship. Here, and elsewhere in these reliefs, he is clad in the same loose robe as the Gandharan Buddhas. This partially conceals the form and makes the idealistic treatment less conspicuous than it is in the nude figures of the *vidyâdharas*, or in the Buddha of later Indian sculpture which we have seen before. In the small upright panel on the right and left of the centre are two very expressive figures of a Nâga Raja and his wife worshipping. They are well drawn and modelled with more anatomical precision than the *vidyâdharas*, as if to suggest a contrast between ordinary mortal form and a divine one.