The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c8.16

c8.16

The panel below (fig. 10b) depicts the visit of the Nāga king Mucilinda to the Buddha soon after his Illumination. The Nāga king is seated in the foreground, with two of his queens on his right and a ballet troupe of dancers and musicians making up the rest of the Nāga group. In the background, behind Mucilinda, is the throne of the Buddha in the shade of a *nyagrodha* tree, which is attended by two kinnaras and two female celestials riding, respectively, on a winged lion and a griffin. Legend tells us that it was in the shade of a *nyagrodha* (*ficus indica*) tree that the Buddha rested in the fourth or fifth week after his Illumination, and it is interesting to observe the meticulous care with which the artist has depicted that particular species of fig-tree, in contradistinction to the *aśvattha* or *ficus religiosa* ordinarily associated with the Illumination.