Last Existence: The Bodhisattva watching sleeping women

A relief showing The Bodhisattva Watching Sleeping Women. When his father Śuddhodana opposed his resolve to leave the palace, the bodhisattva returns to his apartments where beautiful women await to entertain him. As they succumb to sleep, he is disgusted by the view of their distorted bodies. The base consists of a plain fillet. A circular nail for hole was drilled in the proper left lower part of the relief. The left and bottom face shows tool marks. The scene is set in a palatial interior with moulded architrave and possibly capital crown which forms the cornice of the relief. Two Gandharan-Corinthian pilasters, one carved on the left and the other in the centre of the figured field, conventionally divided the scene in two distinct portions. In the left portion, the Bodhisattva is sitting on a bed, his feet are resting on a footstool. The right hand is in abhayamudrā, the left is resting on the knee. He wears a paridhāna with a visible girdle, his chest is exposed. He has a plain nimbus. Behind him, Yaśodhara is sleeping on her right side on the bed – only her shoulder, wreath and braid are preserved. A drape decorated with a vertical band of triangles with two parallel lines is hanging from the front of the bed. On the lower right is a woman sitting on the ground and sleeping against the bed. She is holding an arched horizontal harp with both hands, and is wearing a large wreath and earrings. Two lamp stands with turned shaft are carved in the background behind the bed. The right portion displays five female figures in different attitudes. On the lower right, a woman is sleeping on the ground with her left side leaning against a barrel drum, possibly with V-crossed straps. A woman is standing back-turned on the right. She is bearing an indistinct object in her right hand. The remaining three women are depicted in bust in the background. On the right, a woman is leaning against the pilaster. The following one is shown standing and in three-quarter view. Her hands are placed on a barrel drum with V-crossed straps. The third and last figure is standing frontal with her head tilted down. She is bearing a stick in both hands. All the figures wear a dhotī, a large wreath, earrings, a long necklace, and anklets.