Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Railing pillar with scenes of the Great Departure
Bharhut Great Stupa, Satna district, Madhya Pradesh
Not on view
This railing pillar depicts scenes from Prince Siddhartha’s Great Departure, when he secretly left his father’s palace in the night, riding to a forest to cut his hair and discard his princely trappings in exchange for the soiled robe of an ascetic. The riderless horse with an honorific umbrella poised above evokes the prince’s departure on his favorite steed, Kanthaka, led by his groom first within the city walls and then beyond. An inscription refers to the celestial “Protector of the Arhats,” likely Indra, supreme god of the heavens, who is said to have witnessed the first step of the prince’s spiritual journey to Buddhahood.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
