Buddha and devotees

Fragment of a simple false-niche, preserving the nave of the lower part and the left-proper voluted semi-arch of the upper part. The two parts are divided by a row of vertical separate acanthus leaves with plain leaves behind. The bottom face shows a triangular tenon. The nave is framed by a bead-and-reel and a saw-teeth motif. The figured field shows the Buddha and two male devotees – the one on the right preserving only its outline. The Buddha is sitting in padmāsana and dhyānamudrā on a seat decorated with a row of square panels bisected into triangles, each containing a smaller triangle, and under the canopy of a tree whose type cannot be discernible. On the left, a male figure is standing with joined hands. He wears a paridhāna with a girdle and an uttarīya, a turban, and ring-shaped earrings. The upper part preserves the feet of a standing figure in the centre, which was separated from the lateral semi-arches by two small pillars. The remaining voluted semi-arch shows an extrados and intrados, and is decorated by a row of saw-teeth. An indistinct figure or motif is carved atop the volute. The figured field shows a rosette. The right-proper semi-arch – now broken – was identical to the left one as suggested by the scanty traces of a rosette leaf and the lower part of a pillar.