Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven

India, Nagarjunakonda Stupa Site 6, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 999

This panel depicts a grandly decorated stupa with the Buddha at its entrance, his hand raised to grant protection. The scene represents his descent, at the conclusion of the rainy season, from Trayastrimsa Heaven—the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods presided over by Indra. The Buddha descended a golden ladder to the jubilation of devotees, seen here kneeling. This panel, likely once brilliantly polychromed, belongs to a small group of narrative reliefs that provide the greatest source of visual evidence of the appearance of these structures in the third and fourth centuries.

Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven, Limestone, India, Nagarjunakonda Stupa Site 6, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh

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Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven, Limestone, India, Nagarjunakonda Stupa Site 6, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh
Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven, Limestone, India, Nagarjunakonda Stupa Site 6, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh
Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven, Limestone, India, Nagarjunakonda Stupa Site 6, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh

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