National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

he symbolizes the way of salvation, and for Chinese eyes this may seem appropriately
replaced by the vision of a heavenly abode. The large paintings show us how completely
the hope of Sukhāvatī, the Buddhist Paradise, has effaced the desire of Nirvāṇa in the
minds of pious Chinese.

The succeeding scene represents the Bodhisattva's miraculous Descent or Conception
as revealed to his mother in her dream. In a court of the palace of Kapilavastu Queen
Māyā is shown lying asleep upon a couch placed within a projecting apartment. Its green
rush-blinds are partly rolled up. The infant Bodhisattva is seen kneeling with hands
clasped on the back of the traditional white elephant, which gallops towards Māyā ; two
attendants kneel beside him. The whole group, enclosed within a circular space, is carried
on a cloud and thus clearly marked as a vision.⁸⁰

The bottom scene, which, unlike the rest, is not to be found among the very numerous
representations of Gautama's Nativity in Graeco-Buddhist sculpture, seems to show Māyā's
return to her father's palace after the dream.⁸¹ Māyā, distinguished by a golden ornament
on her head, is seen walking with a woman attendant from the palace of Kapilavastu. Both
wear wide-sleeved over-jackets in which they muffle their hands.

In the companion banner (Ch. lv. 0010) on the right we see scenes which continue the
story of the Nativity in chronological sequence. The top scene shows Māyā asleep in
the same pavilion and pose as in the ' Descent ' scene, but with three figures kneeling
outside to the left on a cloud and in adoring attitude. The interpretation is uncertain.
The succeeding scene, though also absent in the Gandhāra relievos, is quite clear in its
character. It presents to us Māyā on her way to the Lumbinī garden. She is seated in
a gaily coloured palanquin carried by four bearers, whose rapid movement is excellently
expressed. Two more men carry trestles on which to set the palanquin down.

Immediately below we see the miraculous birth of Gautama Bodhisattva, a familiar
subject in Buddhist art of all times and regions. The child's issue from the mother's right
flank and her pose grasping a bough are in close conformity with Indian tradition. But
the ingenious use made of Māyā's wide-hanging sleeve discreetly to screen the act of birth
seems characteristically Chinese. The infant is springing downwards where a woman
attendant kneels to receive him on a cloth. A white lotus appears where he is about to fall.

The ' Nativity ' series is completed in the lowest panel by the famous incident of the
Seven Steps, with lotuses springing up beneath where the Infant Bodhisattva has set his
feet. To the right stands Māyā, with her hands muffled in her long sleeves and her head
turned back towards the young child. To the left of him stands two women attendants
with bowed heads and hands raised in wonder or adoration. Enough of the landscape
remains to show that the scene was laid in the same grounds as the preceding two. The
Chinese inscription in the cartouche confirms the interpretation.

The scene of the Seven Steps appears also at the bottom of the silk banner (Ch. 00114),
which is shown in the middle of the Plate reduced to one-third of its size. It is painted
in a more ornate style than the other two, but lacks their sense of life and space. Here
the child steps forward with an air of difficulty but determination, the left arm stretched
upwards. Four ladies bend over him in surprise and adoration. Behind to the left appear
a fifth lady and a man wearing a belted yellow robe and tailed cap. Their identity is
doubtful.

The scene is preceded by the Bath of the Infant. The newly born Bodhisattva stands
in a golden laver, raised on a stand between two palm-trees. Their tops are lost in a curling
mass of black cloud, and in this there appear, ranged archwise, the heads of the ' nine
Dragons of the air ', gazing down on the infant with open mouths. A well-known Buddhist
tradition makes Nāgas or divinities of the thunder-clouds, i. e. ' Dragons ' in Chinese eyes,
perform the laving of the New-born. The descent of the water, which their mouths are