Last Existence: Birth Cycle

Part of a panel with two registers separated by a straight festoon of lanceolate leaves. The base is a plain fillet, the cornice is not preserved. There are large vertical tool marks on the back. The bottom register depicts scenes from the last existence separated by encased semi-columns of Gandharan-Corinthian type. The lower register preserves three scenes, of which only the central one is complete. The first scene on the right arguably depicted Māyā’s dream. Māyā, the queen consort of Śuddhodana, dreams of a white elephant entering her womb through her right side. As soon as she wakes up, she finds out to be pregnant. There is only one remnant female figure turned to her left, probably one of Māyā’s attendants. She wears a large wreath on her head. The next scene depicts the interpretation of Māyā’s dream. After dreaming of an elephant entering her side, Māyā and Śuddodhana ask the astrologer about the meaning of this dream. The wise man says that the queen has been chosen as the mother of a great being. In the centre of the scene, King Śuddhodana sits with the head and bust are tilted to his right, the left hand rests on the left knee, while the right hand is raised, probably in a gesture of conversation/question. He wears a paridhāna and an uttarīya, and a turban. To the left of the king, Māyā is sitting with right hand raised to hold an unidentified object, while the left arm rests on the thigh. She wears a long garment, has a large wreath on the head with a loop of hair on the back, and large earrings. Next to the couple, on the left, the court astrologer is sitting on a stool. The right hand is raised up probably in a gesture of conversation/question. He wears a loincloth. His hair is pulled up in a coil. Between him and Śuddodhana, stands a male attendant figure in a long garment. The last scene on the left represents the Departure of Māyā from Kapilavastu. Māyā leaves Kapilavastu to give birth at her parents’, but birth time comes on the way at the Lumbinī Grove. The scene is fragmentary, the only remnant element being a canopied cart, with the wheel in the shape of a five petalled rosette, that emerges in profile from the right. The upper register of the panel preserves the remnants of a row of busts under arches.