panel
- Museum number
- 1880.62
- Description
-
Panel showing the Birth of the Bodhisattva.
Māyā stands with her left leg across the right at the ankles, grasping a branch above her with her right hand and supporting herself round her attendant's shoulder with her left. She wears a tunic and girdle with a paridhāna and a long overgarment draped over her left shoulder, a wreath headdress, earrings and a necklace. Her attendant wears a tunic. Beside her attendant, another woman, dressed like Māyā, holds a water pot and very damaged palm branch. On Māyā's right Indra, wearing an indistinct turban, collar, uttarīya and paridhāna, bends forward to receive the infant emerging in high relief and appearing to reach for the swaddling cloth.
Above Māyā are summary branches; beside them and above Indra a harp and garland hanging from it and above the attendant women crossed drum sticks. Framing the panel are an acanthus register above and a damaged fillet below.
- Production date
- 2ndC-3rdC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 14.30 centimetres
-
Weight: 1.90 kilograms
-
Width: 14.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 5.50 centimetres
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2010/11 14 Oct- 3 Apr, London BM, Images and Sacred Texts: Buddhism across Asia
- Condition
- 1.Grey schist, chipped, worn and with soil incrustation.
2.Top and bottom flat but bottom somewhat rougher and both rebated horizontally behind, both with mortise, at top open to back.
3.Sides straight, partly smooth with large tenons apparently chiselled away.
4.Back roughly flat, perhaps partly cut down and with incised 'J'.
- Associated events
- Associated Event: Birth of Buddha
- Acquisition notes
- Formerly in the India Museum from the Archaeological Survey of India. Identified by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks in his letter to Sir Alexander Cunningham of 21 February 1881 as part of the material transferred from the India Museum.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1880.62