Previous Births: Dīpaṃkara Legend

A panel depicting the Dīpaṃkara Legend. The bodhisattva as the ascetic Sumati pays homage to Dīpaṃkara – a buddha of the past – with flowers obtained from a woman, and by lying down and spreading his hair on the ground to make a passage over the mud for the Awakened One. Then, Sumati vows to become a buddha in the future and Dīpaṃkara predicts that the same will happen in a future existence. The base consists of a plain fillet. There are deep chisel marks on the back of the relief. There are two sockets for cramps on the top and two rectangular tenons on the bottom. Both sides are fashioned in continuous rebated joints. Sumati is depicted four times. He is standing in the centre of the scene in three quarter right profile towards Dīpaṃkara. His right hand held a bunch of lotuses, and the left the kamaṇḍalu. He wears a skirt with rolled upper edge. Before the standing Sumati, in the foreground, is depicted the same character while prostrating himself in front of the Buddha Dīpaṃkara, touching his feet and spreading his hair onto the ground. Sumati is then depicted on the upper left part of the scene, flying and kneeling with joined hands (añjalimudrā). One last time he is depicted standing in left profile turned toward the woman who gave him the lotuses. She is standing frontally, wearing a long garment and sturdy anklets. The Buddha Dīpaṃkara, to the right of the Sumati, is portrayed bigger in dimension than any other figure. The weight of his body is placed on the right. His right hand was originally in abhayamudrā, the left is holding an edge of the saṃghāti. On the right, besides the Buddha, stands Vajrapāṇi followed by a monk. Vajrapāṇi wears a short tunic and holds a large vajra in his left hand. The monk is wrapped in his overrobe standing in three quarter right profile. On top of the scene above Vajrapāṇi and the monk emerge two fragmentary figures with joined hands. In the left side of the relief the upper part is occupied by depiction of a pavilion with figures under a row of voluted arches. The remnant of the right side is badly damaged, only the base of an encased pilaster of Gandharan-Corinthian type is still discernible.