Bharhut: Naga King
Red sandstone
Bharhut: Naga King
INDIA, Madhya Pradesh, Bharhut
The carving was located on a railing post of the Bharhut Stupa. The vertical inscription is located at shoulder level and identifies the relief figure as the naga king, Chakavaka. The horizontal inscription further states that Dharma Rakshita commissioned the post. A five-headed naga crests above the figure’s elaborate turban. The pose of the figure is rigid. Although the hands are in the anjali (reverence) mudra, they are turned sidewise, since the craftsman had yet to grasp the concept of perspective. The feet are shown pointing in opposite directions rather than straight ahead also for this reason.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F, page 135.
Cite this article:
Hsingyun, et al. "Bharhut: Naga King." Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F, vol. 10, 2016, pp. 135.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Yann Lovelock, Yuan Chou, Susan Huntington, Gary Edson, and Robert Neather. 2016. "Bharhut: Naga King" In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F, 10:135.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Lovelock, Y., Chou, Y., Huntington, S., Edson, G., & Neather, R.. (2016). Bharhut: Naga King. In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F (Vol. 10, pp. 135).
@misc{Hsingyun2016,
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Lovelock, Yann and Chou, Yuan and Huntington, Susan and Edson, Gary and Neather, Robert,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F},
pages = 135,
title = {{Bharhut: Naga King}},
volume = 10,
year = {2016}}
author = Hsingyun and Youheng and Lovelock, Yann and Chou, Yuan and Huntington, Susan and Edson, Gary and Neather, Robert,
booktitle = {Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F},
pages = 135,
title = {{Bharhut: Naga King}},
volume = 10,
year = {2016}}