Last Existence: Bodhisattva in Tuṣita Heaven, Offering of the Four Bowls

Part of a frieze depicting two separate scenes from the Last Existence. Both the base and cornice consist of a plain fillet. The back face shows tool marks. The right scene represents the Bodhisattva in Tuṣita Heaven. Tuṣita is the abode of the deities and bodhisattvas. The buddha-to-be Maitreya resides here, as other bodhisattvas do before they are reborn in the human realm as buddhas. Śākyamuni also resided in Tuṣita before his last existence. The bodhisattva is sitting in padmāsana on a low seat with turned legs and a drape hanging from the front. His right hand is in abhayamudrā, his left is holding the kamaṇḍalu. He wears a paridhāna and an uttarīya, a short flat band necklace, a long necklace, and earrings. On both his sides are two male figures sitting with their feet resting on a small footstool. The two outer figures have one hand raised, the other is resting on the knee. The two inner figures have joined hands. They all wear a paridhāna, an uttarīya, a skull-cap turban with zones, a fantail and a diadem, a long necklace, and earrings. A figure, whose gender cannot be discerned, is carved in bust in the background on both sides of Śākyamuni. Two balconies are carved on the upper sides of the scene above the sitting figures. The parapet of the right balcony is rendered with two parallel rows of saw-teeth. That of the left balcony is railing-shaped. The left scene illustrates the Offering of the Four Bowls. After the two merchants Trapuṣa and Bhallika saw the Buddha meditating under a tree and offered him food, the lokapālas of the four directions each provide a bowl for the Buddha to collect the offering. To avoid offending anyone by refusing their gift, the Buddha merges the four bowls into one. The Buddha is sitting in padmāsana on a low seat with grass. He is holding a bowl with both hands. The figure is wrapped in the saṃghāti with covered feet. The hair shows vertical rows of waves with not separate uṣṇīṣa. The nimbus is plain and surrounded by two branches of an indistinct tree with two pendants, of which the right one is not preserved. On both sides of the Buddha, the four lokapālas are standing in a three-quarter view turning towards him. They are all offering him a bowl and wearing a paridhāna, an uttarīya, a skull-cap turban with zones, a fantail and a diadem, and earrings. The scenes are separated by, and encased between a half-column of the Gandharan-Corinthian type with a long flute on the shaft featuring a concave upper bevelled end a convex lower bevelled end. The same dividing element is carved on both sides of the frieze.