The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c13.s1.11

c13.s1.11

The death of the Buddha (fig. 72) was one of the earliest and most familiar subjects of Gandhāra art. One version of it we have already discussed (fig. 68); others we shall discuss in later chapters (figs. 87, 127-9). In all of them the essential elements were well established by tradition and unalterable, namely, the Buddha stretched at full length on his couch, the Vajrapāṇi, the sorrowing monks, the devas, the śāla trees in the background, and frequently but not invariably the Malla chiefs. But in the treatment of the individual figures and their grouping there was plenty of scope for the imagination and skill of the artist. Thus, if we compare this relief from the Lower monastery at Nathu with fig. 68, we observe several significant differences. Here, the form of the Buddha is somewhat more rigid, though not so rigid and statuesque as in later versions; the Vajrapāṇi here is standing at the further side of the couch instead of at its head, with three devas (?) on his right, three monks on his left, while Ananda, who has collapsed in front of the couch, is being helped to his feet by a brother bhikshu at the head of the couch. In this relief, too, the Malla chiefs are omitted; and so, also, are the dryads of the śāla trees. Of the three figures on the right of the Vajrapāṇi, Brahmā is recognizable in the figure with flowing locks at the edge of the panel, and the one next to him is presumably Indra though there is nothing special by which to identify him. But what of the charming young figure between the latter and the Vajrapāṇi? His strange head-covering looks in the photo like a canopy of snake hoods, but I must leave it to someone else to examine the original and decide whether he is a Nāga-rāja or not. For other figures in this relief, the reader may consult Foucher, *A.G.-B.G.*, vol. 1, p. 565 and fig. 281.