The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c13.s2.4

c13.s2.4

Fig. 74 portrays the Bodhisattva in the Tushita heaven, deliberating on his impending earthly birth, a suggestion of which is provided by his lotus throne. His attire is similar to that of the trim-looking gods beside him. The celestial beings above the heads of the Tushita gods are distinguished by a simpler dress, *uṣṇīṣa* and halo. In other panels of this stūpa some of the *devas* wear jewelled head-dresses and ornaments, but in every case they are provided with a halo. In reliefs of the Early Indian School such celestial beings usually appear floating like birds in the air, and it is thus that they are occasionally depicted by the sculptors of Gandhāra. But the more usual practice in Gandhāra is to portray them at full length in a standing posture, with their lower limbs hidden behind the heads and shoulders of the figures below them, thus avoiding the incongruous appearance of one row of figures standing on the heads of another. At Sikri, most of the reliefs, including the one we are discussing, are marred by this patent defect, but fig. 76 is a notable exception to the general rule.