Life of the Buddha

PAKISTAN

The Gandharan relief is shaped like a stupa. A patterned surround frames three registers depicting the Birth of Prince Siddhartha, the Decision to Renounce, and the Great Departure.
The top register is an arched niche in which Queen Maya holds onto a branch of an asoka tree in Lumbini Garden. The newborn prince, distinguished by a nimbus, is supported in the arms of Sakra.
The middle register has a curved surround above and a floral base. Prince Siddhartha, waking after a banquet and appalled by the inelegant sleeping postures of the exhausted palace women, decides to renounce worldly pleasures. The prince silently leaves his sleeping wife, Yasodhara, and summons his charioteer Chandaka and his horse Kanthaka.
The bottom register depicts the prince, with his hand in abhaya (fearlessness) mudra, riding his horse. The hooves are silenced by being supported by a yaksa, who spills over the frame. Chandaka is on the right shielding the prince with a parasol. An armed warrior is on the other side. Some scholars identify this figure as the demon Mara who has come to hinder the prince’s renunciation, while others say it is Sakra or Vaisravana, who is there to guide and protect him.