Ayaka cornice with three narrative scenes
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.By the third century CE, offering platforms (ayakas) had become major locations for narrative and decorative sculpture at Andhra stupas. Cornices—the uppermost horizontal element crowning the ayaka—were sculpted from single slabs up to twelve feet in length and divided into narratives separated by pairs of garlanded pilasters between which amorous couples (mithunas) often appear. Three such scenes are preserved here, two relating to the lives of past bodhisattvas (enlightened beings that refrain from entering nirvana in order to help others) and one to the Buddha, at center. The latter is a battle scene, likely representing the War of the Relics, in which contending rulers laid claim to the Buddha’s corporeal remains, the first and highest relics of Buddhism.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ayaka cornice with three narrative scenes
- Period: Ikshvaku
- Date: 3rd century CE
- Culture: India, Nagarjunakonda, Gunter District, Andhra Pradesh
- Medium: Limestone
- Dimensions: Overall: H. 16 1/8 (41 cm); W. 58 1/4 in. (148 cm); D. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Archaeological Museum ASI, Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh
- Rights and Reproduction: Photo by Theirry Ollivier
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art