A Graeco-Buddhist Sculpture representingenting The Buddhas Descent from the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods

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A Graeco-Buddhist Sculpture representingenting the Buddha's Descent from the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods

By C.L. Fabri, Leiden

Acta Orientalia

1930, pp.288-293

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p. 288

Queen Maya, we are told, died seven days after her son

Siddhartha the future Buddha, was born. She was reborn a god

in the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods. Later on when the

Bodhisattva became enlightened, he once followed the voice of

a mild filial feeling and visited the Trayastrimsa heaven in

order to teach his mother the Good Law and to convert her.

After three months and seven days the Lord returned to the

earth. The gods through their heavenly architect made him a

triple ladder: Brahma descended a golden one on his right,

together with all the gods of the Rupaloka; Indra descended a

crystal ladder, accompanied by all the devas of the Kamaloka;

while the Blessed One went down in the centre on a staircase

made of pure lapis lazuli.

A great crowd awaited him. But the nun Utpalavarna, who

would have liked to be the first to greet her Master, by

magic power took the shape and appearance of a great emperor,

and was admitted with her chariot and troops into the

foremost row. She said:

With chariot and horses four I came,

Made visible by supernormal power,

And worshipped, wonder working, at his feet,

The wondrous Buddha, Sovran of the world.(1)

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1. Iddhiya abhinimmitva caturassam ratham aham, buddhassa pade

vanditva lokanathassa sirimato (Therigatha, 229). I quote

above the beautiful rendering of Mrs. Rhys Davids, Psalms,

I, p. 113. For the story of the Descent of Buddha and the

nun Utpalavarna (pali: Uppalavanna), cf. Rockhill, Life,

pp. 80-82; Beal, Si-yu-ki, I, pp. 202-205; Watters, On

Yuan Chwang, I, pp. 333--339; Divyavadana, ed. Cowell and

Neil, p. 401; M.E. Lulius van Goor, Do buddhistische non

[in Dutch]

p. 289

This is in short what the texts relate us with some slight

divergences of the various sources. It must have been a

favourite legend with the Buddhists, as we see it represented

since the very beginnings of Buddhist art until the time that

Buddhism became nearly extinct in India. We are here

especially interested in the representations of Gandhara; but

a brief survey of other reliefs will not be out of place.

In Bharhut we meet the first illustration on the

Ajatasatru Pillar(1): here we see a very realistically

sculptured simple ladder, divided into three by two

perpendicular beams. In the centre, at the topmost step,

there is a footprint, and a second one is on the lowermost

step. This is all that symbolizes the descent of the Buddha.

There are moreover, 24 personages, some of whom must be gods,

others men. It is quite impossible to ascertain whether the

flying figures must represent Sakra and Brahma, and why a

caitya-tree is placed below, with a sitting-pad covered with

flowers.

The same legend is found on a basrelief of Sanchi, which

seems to us-notwithstanding the fact that the monuments of

Sanchi must be some 100 years younger than those of

Bharhut--in every way more primitive and less skilful than

the previous.(2) Here the ladder is not triple, but an

excessively narrow flight of steps, with a clumsy railing on

one and a voluminous beam on the other side. Instead of the

two footprints two caitya-trees are sculptured above and

below the ladder. Adoring figures find celestial musicians

encircle the ladder; among them a turbaned person with a

chauri and a lotus may be either Brahma or the nun disguised

as a cakravartin emperor. The whole is very indistinct, and

one can easily understand Fergusson who was not willing to

accept Beal's identification.(3)

As far as I can ascertain, there are only three Graeco-

Buddhist illustrations of the legend in question so far

published. We are glad

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1. Cunningham, Bharhut, pp. 91--93, pl. XVII, middle.

2. Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, pl. XXVII, 3, and

pp.133f.; Maisey, Sanchi, pp.33 f., pi.XI; Marshall, Guide

to Sanchi (1918), p. 56.

3. Fergusson, loc. cit., p. 133, note; JRAS, N. S., vol.V,

p.181.

p. 290

to publish here a fourth relief representing the same scene.

It is quite peculiar that the treatment of the subject-

matter is obviously highly different in all the four reliefs.

Nothing is found of that mechanical, monotonous treatment

which characterizes many another scene represented in

Gandharan sculptures.

Professor Foucher publishes two of these reliefs.(1) One,

now in the Museum of Bombay, originating from Babuzai, has

two panels below each other, representing two phases of the

descent. In the upper compartment the Buddha is standing on

the second step of a staircase of only two steps, flanked by

Indra and Brahma and some other adoring figures. Below the

same scene is repeated. There is, however, some reason for

supposing that here the nun Utpalavarna was sculptured

kneeling on the left side in front of the steps. Professor

Fouchcr does not mention this, but we there see traces of a

figure now broken. Besides, Brahma is put somewhat higher

than Indra (whereas in the upper panel the two deities are

placed at the same level), obviously in order to leave place

for a kneeling figure.

The second relief (fig. 265 in Prof. Foucher's work) has

been found at Loriyan Tangai, and is now in the Museum of

Calcutta. It has very little in common with the previous one.

The staircase consists of some 19 steps, and has three

compartments between which the supporting beams(? ) and

pillars(?) are depicted in a curious manner. Somewhere on the

seventh step stand Brahma, the Buddha and Indra. On both

sides hosts of gods are seen in the air. On the earth, at the

left, a king approaches, riding an elephant, and followed by

his suite. Below the Blessed One a person with hands folded

in adoration is kneeling or rather sitting, evidently the nun

Utpalavarna who 'reassumed her form as a bhiksuni.'(2)

There is a third relief in the Lahore Museum (no. 1133),

which prof. Foucher calls-for good reason-- 'fort miserable'

(p. 537); a re-

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1. Art greco-bouddhique, I, figs. 264 And 265.

2. Beal, Si-yu-hi, p. 205.

p. 291

production of this piece of sculpture is found in Mr.

Hargreaves' The Buddha Story in Stone.(1) Only four persons

figure in this relief. On the top, of a triple ladder stand

Brahma, the Buddha and Indra. Below Brahma a person is

kneeling in adoring attitude, who must be our bhiksuni in her

natural form.

The fourth relief, published here for the first time, is

now since many years in the collection of Imre Schwaiger,

Esq., in London.(2) It is, no doubt, the fullest illustration

extant of the Descent from the Trayastrimsa Heaven, and it is

in many respects the finest of the four known

representations. It measures 22 1/2 inches in width and 19

1/2 inches in height, and, as may be seen from the plate, it

is very well preserved except for the two top corners and the

face of the lowermost Buddha. Traces of red colouring are

found in many places.

It is really 'an assembly of gods and men' (devamanusya-

sampada, Divyavadana p. 401), There are not less than 70

persons and 5 horses sculptured and arranged in a skilful

composition. In the centre, on a triple staircase leading

from top to bottom, the Buddha appears thrice in

abhaya-mudra, flanked by Indra and Brahma, who turn towards

him with hands folded in worship.(3) On both sides of the

staircase four horizontal rows of heavenly beings are turned

towards the Lord in adoring attitude or throwing flowers.

They are kneeling and standing in alternating rows. Below, on

the earth, are two rows of human beings, distinguishable from

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1. 1914, p. 32, fig. XXIV.

2. Here I wish to thank Mr. Schwaiger, who was good enough to

show me his remarkable collection in September 1929, and

gave me his consent to publish it. I intend to publish

also the other pieces which, I believe, represent the best

what is now to be had on the European market.

3. The sculpturing in one panel of different phases of a

happening is very common in early Buddhist art; e.g. the

Mahabhiniskramana scene on the torana of Sanchi. Prof.

Vogel kindly draws my attention to the fact that in

Gandhara very few instances are known. They are the Birth

of the Bodhisattva, the Story of Angulimala, the

Dipankara-jataka, and, perhaps, the Attempt of Devadatta

to crush the Buddha under a huge stone. As to this last

legend, I hope to publish some new documents in short.

p. 292

the gods only by the fact that they have no halo. To tile

left: a king and two(?) queens in a chariot(1) drawn by two

relatively very small horses (crude work) with suit, bearing

flowers and a tray with fruit; one personage riding a horse,

with hands in worshipping pose. To the right: adoring

figures, some of them casting flowers, one bearing also a

cup, two riding on horses, preceded by a person (head broken)

who carries a bunch of lotuses in his left arm. All turn

towards the Blessed One.

The execution of the figures is not bad, except the

horses which are very coarse. To bring some variety in the

representation of the heavenly beings, the author sculptured

some of the gods in a different attitude from the others, and

has put flowers or a garland in the hands of some of them.

The pageant of the disguised nun-emperor is composed with

much skill, especially at the left, where only the wrong

proportions give some disharmonious effect. The first queen

carries some flowers, and she is clad and her hairs are

dressed in an evidently Hellenistic manner. The figures of

Indra and Brahma are made with much effect. The sculptor has

bestowed great care on the figures of the Buddha; the heads,

however, have turned out too large. The whole relief is, to

be sure, too crowded owing to the Indian horror vacui; in the

present instance, however, this mode of representation is in

accordance with the subject-matter as related in the texts.

We can at once realize how utterly different the rendering

of this legend became in later times, if we cast a glance at

the stupa drum of Dhruva Tila, now in the Museum of Mathura.

An illustration is found in Professor Vogel's paper devoted

to this interesting docu-

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1. Sir Aurel Stein was kind enough to draw my attention to

the fact that there is perhaps some similarity between

this chariot and that depicted in the mural paintings of

Miran. See: Serindia, vol. I, figs. 135-136. Sir Aurel

described the drawing of that chariot as 'curiously

clumsy' (p.518). I believe that our chariot has still more

resemblance to one of the chariots at Sanchi; see:

Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, pl. III, fig. 6, or

Maisey, Sanchi, pl. XV, fig. 12, and see also pl. XXXVI,

fig. 12; for a chariot in Bodh Gaya see Cunningham,

Report, vol. III, pl. XXVII.

p. 293

ment of Mathura art.(1) Before a very crude triple ladder in

the centre stands a Buddha. On both sides stand two uncouth

figures of what must be Brahma and Sakra. Professor Vogel

calls this justly 'as summary a manner as possible.' The same

may be said with regard to another Mathura sculpture,

numbered II 1, which is illustrated in his Catalogue of the

Mathura Museum.(2) Here, however, a small kneeling figure

must represent the nun Utpalavarna.

Yet, even this summary treatment is perhaps surpassed by

the concise manner in which the Gupta sculptors and the later

mediaval artists used to render the scene. A standing Buddha

in the centre flanked by Brahma and Indra is all what

remained. Sometimes a few steps are visible below their feet,

and in a few instances the figure of Utpalavarna is also

symbolized by an adoring female personage.(3) Indra usually

carries an umbrella, while Brahma holds a water-gourd or a

fly-whisk (chauris, in one instance also an aksamala

(rosary).

In conclusion we may state that the bas-relief published

here-with is the most realistic and the fullest illustration

of the legend among all the representations known to us.(4)

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1. J. Ph. Vogel, Etudes de sculpture bouddhique, III. In:

BEFEO, 1908, pp. 492-500, fig. 5. Cf. also: The same,

Cat. Mus. Mathura, p. 167. The item is numbered N 2.

2. Pl. VI, cp. p. 125.

3. See: Burgess, AMI, I, pl. 68, 1, right uppermost panel;

Sahni and Vogel, Cat. Sarnath Museum, nos. C (a) 3, 18,

10, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and D (b) 10. For a Pala sculpture

from Jagdispur, distr. Patna (ancient Magadha territory),

see: Foucher, Art greco-bouddhique, II, fig. 500, PP. 545

and 610. The same, Etude sur l'iconographie bouddhique de

l'lnde, 1000, pp. 86 and 157, figs. 20-30, pl. III, 2. An

interesting piece is published by Prof. Vogel, Note on a

Buddhist Sculpture from Kandy, Ceylon, in JASB, N.S., vol.

XI (1915), pp. 297--303, and pls. XX-XXIV. The last plate

illustrates a bas-relief of Pagan where, however, the

scene of the descent is utterly damaged.

4. Cf. further: Foucher, Une liste indienne des du Buddha.

(Ecole Pratique.des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences

Religieuses), Paris, 1908, pp. 1-32, especially p. 21, no.

45, where a few further references are found --A Nepalese

representation dated 1621 A.D. is illustrated in Buddhist

India, vol. II (1928), p. 138f.-- A remarkable rendering

is found in Mythologie Asiatique Illustree, 1928, p. 129.