Mogao Cave 17: Battle Between Sariputra and Raudraksa

CHINA, Gansu, Dunhuang; Tang dynasty

This fragment from the 9th century is the oldest surviving depiction of the battle between Sariputra and Raudraksa. Although there are meant to be six scenes of the battle, the painting is damaged and only parts of the first and last scenes can be discerned.
A jagged pond bank separates the two scenes. In the upper right corner, an elephant, miraculously conjured by Sariputra, stands in a lotus pond created by Raudraksa. In the lower left corner, an astonished Raudraksa reels and falls backwards as the elephant instantaneously sucks the pond dry. The last episode, in the lower right corner, portrays the humiliated Raudraksa in final defeat. The landscape with tiny deer at the bottom gives the painting scale and depth. Captions within cartouches read: “There appeared thousand-leaved precious flowers in the pond” and “The elephant entered the pond.”