Last Existence: Preparation for the First Sermon

A relief showing the Preparation for the First Sermon. After he attains enlightenment, the Buddha goes to Sarnath to meet the five ascetics with whom he practiced the path of austerities in Uruvilvā before renouncing it. According to sources, the five ascetics first greet him with coldness, considering him as a traitor. When Buddha approaches, struck by his bearing, they welcome him, offer him a seat, listen to his first sermon and become his first disciples. The base was possibly plain. The cornice consisted of three superimposed listels; the upper one was decorated with a row of tangential half-double concentric disks with a central circle, and the other two were plain. Two vertical, rectangular sockets are carved on the top face. The back and bottom face show tool marks. The Buddha is standing in the left three-quarter view. His right hand was in abhayamudrā, and the left is holding an edge of the saṃghāti. His hair is parted in the middle with continuous, vertical waves from a peak over the forehead, and the uṣṇīṣa is not separate. The nimbus is plain. On his left is Vajrapāṇi standing frontally. His right hand, on the chest, is bearing a vajra. He is dressed in a tunic and a mantle. He has a beard, and his hair is arranged in short, tight curls. Next to him is a bodhisattva carved in the left three-quarter view. He has joined hands and a plain nimbus. The figure wears a paridhāna with a girdle and an uttarīya, a skull-cap turban with zones, fantail, and a diadem, a long necklace, and earrings. The left section of the scene displays five standing monks, three in the foreground and two in the background. The first one, next to the Buddha, is joining his hands. The second one is carrying a prop, possibly a small seat for the Buddha, in both hands. The third figure is bearing a small jar with a vertical top handle in his right hand. The two monks in the background have joined hands. All of them wear the saṃghāti with the right shoulder exposed. The upper left corner of the scene shows the upward branches of a tree crown carved in the background. The same element was possibly depicted in the centre. The scene was encased between two framed semi-columns of the Gandharan-Persepolitan type, of which only that on the left remains.