Previous Births: Dīpaṃkara Legend; Bodhisattvas with devotees

Part of a relief probably belonging to a complex false niche and showing two superimposed registers. The scene in the lower one probably represents the Dīpaṃkara legend, that in the upper one displays bodhisattvas with devotees. A circular hole for nail was drilled in the proper right bottom part of the upper register. The back face shows tool marks. The registers are divided by a band decorated with a row of saw-teeth below and a plain fillet above. They were both encased within a door-like frame with jamb decorated with an inner half-rosette scroll. On the left is a framed Gandharan-Persepolitan semi-column with zoomorphic (back-to-back animals) bell-like capital and modillion. A row of bunch of grapes is carved above the architrave. The surviving portion of the upper part shows a row of male figure under an arch. The scene in the lower register probably depicted the Dīpaṃkara legend. The bodhisattva as the ascetic Sumati pays homage to Dīpaṃkara – a buddha of the past – by launching flowers obtained from a woman and by spreading his hair on the ground to make a passage over the mud for the Awakened One. Then, Sumati vows to become a buddha in the future and Dīpaṃkara predicts that this will indeed happen in a future existence. Dīpaṃkara is carved in the centre, his head is slightly tilted down and against a nimbus. This latter is surrounded by five rosettes (three of which are carved on the band dividing the registers) and two buds. On the left are two male heads with a turban, possibly worn sideways. The scene in the upper register shows three bodhisattvas (that on the left preserving only the lower part of the body) with devotees. The two surviving bodhisattvas are identical. They are both standing frontal, the weight of the body is placed on their right leg. Their right hand was in abhayamudrā, the left is on the hip. They wear a paridhāna with exposed girdle, an uttarīya, a turban, earrings, and wristlets. The figure on the right is adorned with a short flat band necklace, that on the left with a long multiple strands necklace. Both are barefooted. On the right, a male devotee is standing in three-quarter view with joined hands. He has short curly hair with a small globular knot. He is dressed in a paridhāna and an uttarīya, and wears wristlets. On both sides of the second bodhisattva are two mirroring male figures. They are smaller than the others, suggesting they have to be identified with children. The two figures have joined hands and wear a paridhāna and an uttarīya. In the background and on the right, Vajrapāṇi is carved in bust and is holding a vajra in the left hand. He seems to be wearing a frontal crossed-bands turban with a globular diadem and has a short flat band necklace and wristlets. On the left is another figure shown in bust, of which only the outline is discernible. The upper portion of the relief preserves three male figures (the scanty traces of a fourth one can be seen on the left) carved in bust under a voluted raised round arch with carinated extrados and joists. The first figure is shown in a three-quarter view with joined hands. The second is frontal and is bearing a bunch of flowers in the right hand. The third figure is identical to the first one. Two mirroring birds facing each other are depicted at the sides of the second arch.