Bharhut: Life of the Buddha - Queen Maya’s Dream
Red sandstone
Bharhut: Life of the Buddha - Queen Maya’s Dream
INDIA, Madhya Pradesh, Bharhut
The medallion was found on a railing post that surrounds the stupa at Bharhut. It has the inscription, “Descent of the Buddha” written above the circular image. The medallion depicts an elegantly dressed Queen Maya reclining on a royal bed being fanned by seated ladies in waiting. A water pot is located on the left of the bed, and a lamp is on the right. The queen dreams of a white elephant entering her side according to tradition, which is eventually interpreted as an indication of the coming birth of the Buddha. The elephant in the medallion is depicted as falling from above, a motif that was became widespread in Buddhist art.
For more details, go to the Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F, page 134.
Cite this article:
Hsingyun, et al. "Bharhut: Life of the Buddha - Queen Maya’s Dream." Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F, vol. 10, 2016, pp. 134.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Yann Lovelock, Yuan Chou, Susan Huntington, Gary Edson, and Robert Neather. 2016. "Bharhut: Life of the Buddha - Queen Maya’s Dream" In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F, 10:134.
Hsingyun, Youheng, Lovelock, Y., Chou, Y., Huntington, S., Edson, G., & Neather, R.. (2016). Bharhut: Life of the Buddha - Queen Maya’s Dream. In Encyclopedia of Buddhist Arts: Sculpture A-F (Vol. 10, pp. 134).
@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 = 134,
title = {{Bharhut: Life of the Buddha - Queen Maya’s Dream}},
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 = 134,
title = {{Bharhut: Life of the Buddha - Queen Maya’s Dream}},
volume = 10,
year = {2016}}