SCULPTURE FOUND BY SIR A. CUNNINGHAM AT SĀRNĀTH, NEAR BENARES,
Illustrating the four principal events in Gautama Buddha’s life—his birth from his mother’s side, his attainment of Buddhahood under the tree, his teaching at Benares, and his passing away in complete Nirvāṇa. (Date of the sculpture, about 400 A.D.)
As to the attitudes of Gautama’s images, they may be classed under the three heads of sedent, erect, and recumbent. I use the word ‘sedent’ for what ought to be called a squatting position, with the legs folded under the body. Images which represent a figure sitting in European fashion are rare.
Four principal images represent the four principal events in Buddha’s life, as shown in the Sārnāth sculpture engraved on the opposite page (compare [p. 387]).
The first sedent attitude may be called the ‘Meditative.’ The example below is described at [p. xxx]. 15.
This represents the Buddha seated, in meditation, on a raised seat under the sacred tree, with the two hands supinated, one over the other.
The second sedent attitude may be called the ‘Witness-attitude.’ It is perhaps the most esteemed of all, and is represented in a good sculpture delineated below (from Sir A. Cunningham’s photograph, see [p. xxx]. 17). This represents Gautama at the moment of achieving Buddhahood after his long course of meditation, seated on a lion-throne (siṉhāsana) with an ornamental back, having two lions carved below (compare [p. 394]). His legs are folded in the usual Indian fashion, the feet being turned upwards, while the right hand hangs over the right leg and points to the earth, and the left hand is supinated on the left foot. He has an aureola round his head and a mark—perhaps the caste-mark of a Kshatriya—on his forehead, and an umbrella over the sacred tree. This attitude is well shown in the Sārnāth sculpture (facing [p. 477]).