The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c13.s2.14

c13.s2.14

In the relief which follows (fig. 84) we see once more the essentially Buddhist character of this art beginning to prevail. The slab portrays the Bodhisattva as a starving and emaciated ascetic before he found true enlightenment. He is seated, yogi-fashion, on a grass-covered throne. The halo behind his head is large and rimmed, like the haloes of the early Buddhas in the Mardān group (e.g. figs. 61, 63, 66), but so far as the mutilation permits one to judge, his *uṣṇīṣa* appears to be smaller than in those examples. On his left is Brahmā and, behind Brahmā, Indra—recognizable by his distinctive head-dress (cf. fig. 80). Observe his charming, almost girlish, face and the offering of ambrosia which he bears in his hand for the starving Bodhisattva. The lady on the right of the Bodhisattva is no doubt Sujātā, as Foucher rightly divined, with an offering of more human food in her hands. Like Brahmā opposite to her, she is dressed in Greek *chiton* and *himation*, the *chiton* in her case reaching, as usual, to the feet. Behind Sujātā is the Vajrapāṇi in the guise of a Silenus (?), bearded and wreathed with the grape-vine. The workmanship in this relief is a little perfunctory, particularly in respect of the hands and the folds of the drapery. On the other hand, much care and feeling have been expended on the delineation of the faces, and the group as a whole is very attractive—the finest, I think, as it is also the earliest, version of this episode that has come down to us.