Last Existence: Princely life

Part of a curved frieze depicting scenes from the Last Existence. The projecting base is a plain fillet, the cornice is decorated with a row of ogival leaf-and-darts. There are large vertical tool marks on the back. There is a socket on the left side of the top face, and two tenons on the bottom. The scenes are separated by a framed semi-column of the Gandharan-Corinthian type. Of the first scene is only preserved a standing male figure leaning on a large sword – pointed down to the floor – held in the right hand, he wears a short tunic; next to him flanking the dividing element there is a tree with upward branches. The central scene depicts Siddhārtha in school. Prince Siddhārtha is taken to school to be educated as befits his rank. He proves to be well-learned in all the sciences, including writing. The bodhisattva sits frontally on a low stool with a writing implement on the knees and a stylus in his right hand. He wears a paridhāna, an uttarīya, a long necklace, and wristlets with raised edge. He has a plain nimbus around the head. In the centre a juvenile figure sits on the floor, holding the writing implement with the left and a stylus with the right. On the left, a male figure is sitting in three quarter right profile on a wicker/cane lattice stool with cylindrical body. He is holding a writing implement vertically with his right hand. He wears a paridhāna and an uttarīya. In the background, a tree crown with upward branches fills the hollow above the juvenile figure. Other branches appear on the left behind the figure in profile. The scene on the left depicts the Archery Competition. In order to win the young Yaśodharā over, Prince Siddhārtha proves his physical prowess and skills in archery, swordsmanship, wrestling, and other athletic practices. Siddhārtha engages in an archery competition in which he is asked to use a bow nobody could bend to shoot an arrow at a distant target, succeeding in front of the audience. The scene only preserves two headless standing figures depicted from behind and remnants of the lower body of a third figure. They only wear a short dhotī, revealing muscular bodies. They are showing their back with the right arm raised to bend a bow.