Seven Weeks After The Enlightenment of T

Seven Weeks
a f t e r t h e B u d d h a’ s E n l i g h t e n m e n t
Seven Weeks
after the Buddha’s Enlightenment
Contradictions in Text, Confusions in Art
Osmund Bopearachchi
MANOHAR
Manohar
2016
First published 2016
© Osmund Bopearachchi, 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without prior permission of the author and the publisher.
ISBN 978-93-5098-137-5
Published by
Ajay Kumar Jain for
Manohar Publishers & Distributors
4753/23 Ansari Road, Daryaganj
New Delhi 110 002
Printed at
Salasar Imaging Systems
Delhi 110 035
Contents
List of Illustrations 7
Preface 11
Introduction 13
Pāli, Sanskrit and Chinese Sources 16
First Week 17
Second Week 19
Third Week 20
Fourth Week 21
Fifth and Sixth Weeks 23
Seventh Week 24
Iconography 26
Gandhāran Art 26
Great Sāñcī Stūpa 34
Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Stūpa 42
Frieze from Kumbukwewa (Sri Lanka) 45
Mural Paintings from Sri Lanka 48
Mural Paintings from Myanmar 63
Conclusions 70
Bibliography 73
Illustrations
1. Hard limestone plaque found in the premises of the

Rankirimada Rajamahā Vihāra, Doluwa, Kumbukwewa
(Kurunagala district). 15
2. Reliefs from Gandhāra. Private collection, New York. 27
3. Reliefs from Gandhāra. Asian Art Museum, San
Francisco. 28
4. Reliefs from Gandhāra. Peshawar Museum. Depiction
on the base of the ‘Fasting Siddhārtha’ from Takht-i-
Bāhī. 29
5. Reliefs from Gandhāra. Private collection, San
Francisco. 30
6A&B. False-niche of the Greater-Gandhāran style. 31
7. Southern gateway (toraṇa) of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. 35
8. Reliefs on the east pillar of the southern gateway of
the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. 36
9. Reliefs on the front face of east pillar of the southern
gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. 36
10. ‘Mucilinda, the Nāga king’ panel on the front face of
east pillar of the southern gateway of the Great Sāñcī
Stūpa. 37
11. ‘Mucilinda, the Nāga king’, panel on the inner face of
the north pillar of the west gateway of the Great Sāñcī
Stūpa. 38
12. ‘Trapuṣa and Bhallika’ panel on the front face of east
pillar of the southern gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. 39
13. ‘Jewelled House’ panel on west face of the east pillar. 40
14. ‘Cloistered walk’, panel on the front face of the east
pillar of the north gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. 42
15. Slab found in the site 3 of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, Nāgārjuna
koṇḍa Site Museum. 43
8 list of illustrations
16. ‘Assault of Māra’, relief from Amarāvati School, Musée

National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet, Paris. 46
17. Medawala Tampita Vihāra commissioned by Kirti Sri
Rajasinha (between 1755 and 1760). 49
18. ‘First Week’, Medawala Tampita Vihāra. 51
19. ‘Second Week’, Medawala Tampita Vihāra. 51
20. ‘Third Week’, Medawala Tampita Vihāra. 52
21. Fourth Week with three-headed Brahmā’, Medawala
Tampita Vihāra. 52
22. ‘Fifth Week: three daughters of Māra’, Medawala Tampita
Vihāra. 53
23. ‘Sixth Week: Mucilinda, the Nāga king’, Medawala
Tampita Vihāra. 53
24. ‘Seventh Week: Trapuṣa and Bhallika’, Medawala Tampita
Vihāra. 54
25. Uḍa Vihāra in the Ridi Vihāra complex dated to the
eighteenth century. 54
26. ‘First five weeks’ Uḍa Vihāra in the Ridi Vihāra complex. 55
27. ‘Sixth and Seventh weeks’ Uḍa Vihāra in the Ridi Vihāra
complex. 55
28. ‘Fifth Week: three daughters of Māra’, Uḍa Vihāra in the
Ridi Vihāra complex. 56
29. ‘Seventh Week: Trapuṣa and Bhallika’, Uḍa Vihāra in the
Ridi Vihāra complex. 56
30. Hiṅdagala Vihāra probably built in 1775 by Rajadi
Rajasimha. 58
31. Shrine with the paintings of the seven weeks, Hiṅdagala
Vihāra. 58
32. Seven weeks, Hiṅdagala Vihāra. 59
33. ‘Sixth and seventh weeks’, Hiṅdagala Vihāra. 59
34. Kelaniya Vihāra, mural paintings following the Kandyan
style of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 60
35. Mugirigala Vihāra, near Tangalla with early twentieth
century paintings. 61
list of illustrations 9
36. ‘Seventh week’, Mahāraja Vihāra of the Dambulla Raja

Mahāvihāra in Dambulla. 63
37. Sulamani Temple in Bagan, Myanmar built 1183. 65
38. Deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani Temple in
Bagan, Myanmar. 67
39. Right wall with the paintings of the second, third and
fourth weeks, deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani
Temple in Bagan, Myanmar. 67
40. Left wall with the paintings of the fifth, sixth and seventh
weeks, deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani
Temple in Bagan, Myanmar. 68
41. Left wall with the paintings of the fifth and sixth weeks,
deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani Temple in
Bagan, Myanmar. 68
42. Left wall with the painting of the seventh week, deep
chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani Temple in Bagan,
Myanmar. 69
43. ‘The Buddha under the Bodhi tree’, painting from the relic
chamber, Mahiyangana Stūpa. 71
Preface
The present study is based on a hitherto unpublished relief most

probably sculpted in Sri Lanka by an artist of the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa
School, using a hard lime slab from Andhra. It was found accidentally
in the premises of the Rankirimada Rajamahā Vihāra, Doluwa,
Kumbukwewa (Kurunagala district) in Sri Lanka. This relief is the
most ancient document, attested to date, depicting the events that took
place during the first seven weeks that follow the Sambodhi (Perfect
Awakening) of the Buddha and its unique iconography led us to closely
examine the contradictions contained in some Buddhist texts when
describing these seven weeks. As we progressed in our research, it
became evident that certain flaws in the textual narrations have caused
confusion not only in the minds of visual artists of the past, but also
in the interpretations proposed by art historians of the present day.
This study is based on a paper presented at the 22nd International
Conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeologists
in July 2014, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm and a
series of conferences on related themes given at the Department of
Religious Studies, Yale University, on 4 March 2015; at the Centre for
Buddhist Studies, University of California Berkeley on 9 April 2015,
at the South Asia Institute, University of Texas, Austin, on 16 April
2015, at the Department of Asian Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-
Universität, Munich on 7 July 2015 and at the Royal Asiatic Society,
Colombo on 28 December 2015. I have largely benefited by the
discussions that followed these talks with the scholars who attended
them. In this regard, I wish to express my gratitude to Monika Zin,
Janice Leoshko, Akira Shimada, Alexander von Rospatt, Robert Sharf,
Donald Stadtner, Christoph Ander, Stanley Insler, Lilian Handlin and
very particularly to Phyllis Granoff for answering my numerous
queries. I am most grateful to late Sunil Ananda Samarakoon, former
curator of the Archaeological Museum at Panduwasnuwara for draw
ing my attention to this important relief. My special thanks go to
Dr Senartah Disanayaka, Director-General of Archaeology, Depart
ment of Archaeology, Sri Lanka, for authorizing me to publish this
relief as well as the paintings from the Kandyan period dispersed in
12 preface
many Buddhist temples. I am also much indebted to Dr. Gautam

Sengupta, former Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of
India for authorizing me to publish reliefs from the Sāñcī and
Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Stūpas.
The present study based on research in museums and fieldwork in
ancient sites in India, Sri Lanka, and Burma would not have been
possible without the generous support of the Trung Lam Research
Fund for Central Asian Art and Archaeology (2010-15) established
by Richard Beleson and Kim Lam Beleson at the Center for Buddhist
Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
I wish to dedicate this humble presentation to my friends, colleagues
and students who took part in my seminar on Buddhist art at the
University of California, Berkeley, as the Numata Visiting Professor
of Buddhist Studies during the spring Semester, 2015.
Osmund Bopearachchi
(UC Berkeley & CNRS-ENS Paris)
Introduction
The focal point of the present study is the unique and unpublished
relief of late Andhra style sculpted in Sri Lanka by an artist from
Nāgārjunakoṇḍa using a hard lime slab imported from Andhra
(Fig. 1). Unfortunately, the relief was found broken into two pieces.
In spite of the bad state of its preservation, the scenes in question can
be identified without any problem.
Archaeological evidence, along with epigraphic and literary sources
attest the intense interactions between the Buddhists of Sri Lanka and
those of the same faith in the Krishna Valley in Andhra during the
early centuries of the Common Era. The earliest Buddha images in
the round known in Sri Lanka were carved out of Andhra hard
limestone and were brought to the island by traders, pilgrims and
monks using maritime routes.1
It is also well-known that Buddhist art in Sri Lanka, apart from
rare exceptions, is deprived of bas-reliefs or rock cut images depicting
the life of the historical Buddha. Most of the portable slabs found in
the island were executed in the Krishna Valley in Andhra Pradesh and
were imported to Sri Lanka. The two panels found in 1894, in the
Bodhighara, in a paddy field about a mile from Anuradhapura depicting
the dream of Mahāmāyā and the interpretation of the dream, now
exhibited in the Colombo National Museum were certainly executed
in India, as their prototypes in Andhra art prove. Many fragments and
intact slabs found in the Bodhighara south of the Jetavana Stūpa in
Anuradhapura, unearthed during excavations conducted by the Cultural
Triangle, in November 1986, are made of Andhra hard limestone, and
stylistically they belong to the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa School. The slab
depicting the renunciation of Prince Siddhartha, now in the Gririhandu-
Vihara in Ambalantota executed in the Andhra lime stone is of the
later Nāgārjunakoṇḍa style.2 As we have pointed out elsewhere, two
out of four railing pillars found in the Bodhighara of the Jetavanarama
1
For a general introduction of these discoveries, see Bopearachchi, 2008a,
2012 & 2015, vol. II, pp. 201-45.
2
For a detailed discussion about these slabs, see Bopearachchi, 2008a.
14 Seven Weeks after the Buddha’s Enlightenment
monastery in Anuradhapura are unfinished, and it is almost certain

that the hard-lime stone slabs were imported to the island from Andhra
and were sculpted in situ by Andhra artists before fixing them to the
railing base.3 As Senarat Paranavitana, the first Director-General of
Archaeology of independent Sri Lanka, has suggested, “The evidence
of the influence of Andhra art on that of early Ceylon is so overwhelming,
that it may even be suggested that a branch of that school was
established in Ceylon, and that the sculptures on the frontispieces of
the ancient stūpas are the work of that school.”4
It is important to underline that during the immediate centuries
before and during the Common Era, Buddhism was the dominant
religion of South India and very particularly in Andhra Pardesh. One
of the Buddhist groups for which we have clear evidence at
Nāgārjunakoṇḍa is the Theravādins from Sri Lanka who have been
referred to as the Theravādins of the Mahāvihāra.5 Another Buddhist
sect from Sri Lanka lived at the Chula Dhamma Giri Vihāra in
Nāgārjunakoṇḍa.6
The Great Stūpas of Amarāvatī and Nāgārjunakoṇḍa symbolize,
in the same manner as many Buddhist monuments in India such as
Sāñcī, Bharhut and Kanganahalli, the political and economic supremacy
of the ruling dynasties. However, there would have been a powerful
religious motivation on the part of the local Buddhist population that
drove the construction of these Buddhist monuments in the Krishna
Valley. The huge amount of resources needed to build these gigantic
monuments would have come from devout nobles and traders of
Buddhist faith who were well established in Dharanikota. Their wealth
was based on the flourishing inland and international trade centres in
the ports of Dharanikota and other trade stations of the Andhradesa
on the rivers and along the coast.
Sri Lanka being an island situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean
at the intersection of many maritime routes played an important role
in this international trade network. Epigraphic, numismatic and
3
Bopearachchi, 2015, vol. II, pp. 210-11, also see the colour illustrations,
p. 220; plate 14.
4
Paranavitana, 1971, p. 13.
5
According to an inscription found at the site, the monastery was inhabited
by the Mahāvihāravasin from Sri Lanka, see Sircar and Lahiri, 1970.
6
Stone, 1994, pp. 18-19.
introduction 15
Figure 1: Hard limestone plaque found in the premises of the

Rankirimada Rajamahā Vihāra, Doluwa, Kumbukwewa (Kurunagala
district). With the courtesy of the Department of Archaeology,
Sri Lanka. Photograph O. Bopearachchi (hereafter O.B.).
archaeological discoveries in Sri Lanka and South India have added

to the growing body of evidence attesting the close cultural, social,
religious and commercial ties between Sri Lanka and Andhra-Tamil
Nadu from the early historical period.7 The underwater excavations
of the Godavaya shipwreck, close to Ambalantota near the southern
coast of Sri Lanka, dating back to the second century bce, conducted
by the American Universities of Texas A & M and Berkeley jointly
with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and
the Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka, have already revolutionized
our knowledge of the history of maritime trade in South Asia,
particularly between India and Sri Lanka.8
7
For a summary of these trade networks, see Bopearachchi, 2008b.
8
Bopearachchi et al., 2016.
Pāli, Sanskrit and Chinese sources
The frieze depicting the seven weeks after the Sambodhi that the
Blessed One spent in the vicinity of the Bodhi tree, that we wish to
examine follows the Pāli tradition very closely, much more than it
does the Sanskrit one, and it is quite possible the sculptor who was
from Andhra, judging by its Andhra style, executed it, inspired by the
Pāli texts in vogue at the time in Sri Lanka, on a hard lime stone
imported from Andhra.
The way the Buddha spent the weeks immediately after his
Enlightenment varies from one source to the other. For example,
according to the Mahāvagga, the second book of the Vinaya-Piṭaka,
the Buddha fasted only for four weeks, but the Mahāvastu,9 the
Lalitavistara,10 the Nidānakathā11 and the Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa,12 say
that Blessed One fasted for seven weeks or forty-nine days. It is
important to underline that in the Sanskrit text of the Buddhacarita
the last chapters of the second half of Canto 14 are missing, so the
9
The Mahāvastu is a text of the Lokottaravāda school of Early Buddhism
composed of Jātaka stories, Avadāna tales and the biography of the Gautama
Buddha. It is believed to have been composed between the second century bce
and fourth century ce. The Mahāvastu, translated by J.J. Jones, The Pali Text
Society, 1949, rpt. 2007, Lancaster (abbreviated hereafter Mahāvastu).
10
The Lalitavistara is a Sanskrit Buddhist text usually dated to the third
century ce. It narrates biography of Gautama Buddha from his descent from the
Tuṣita heaven up to his Great Awakening and preaching of the first sermon. We
use the French Translation: Le Lalitavistara. L’histoire traditionnelle de la vie
du Bouddha Cakyamuni, (traduit du sanskrit), translated by P.E. de Foucaux,
Paris, Les Deux Océans, 1884 (abbreviated hereafter Lalitavistara) and the
translated from the French: The Lalitavistara Sūtra. The Voice of the Buddha.
The beauty of Compassion, translated from the French G. Bays, Berkeley, Dharma
Publishing, 1983 (abbreviated hereafter Lalitavistara Sūtra).
11
The Nidānakathā was composed in the fifth century ce by Buddhaghoṣa in
Sri Lanka. Buddhist Birth Stories (Jataka Tales). The Commentarial Introductions
Entitled Nidanā-Kathā. The Story of the Lineage, transl. Rhys Davids, new and
revised edition by C.A.F. Rhys Davids, London, George Routledge and Sons
Ltd., 1880 (abbreviated hereafter Buddhist Birth Stories).
12
The Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa, is a prose poem composed by Upatissa in the reign
of Mahinda IV of Sri Lanka around 980 ce which carries some valuable information
about the seven weeks that the Blessed One spent around the bodhimaṇḍa
(abbreviated hereafter Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa).
introduction 17
events that took place after the Enlightenment are not known. They
are, however, preserved in the Chinese and Tibetan translations.13
First Week
There is some confusion and a number of contradictions in the texts

as to the first seven days of the Buddha’s activity. The Sanskrit, Pāli
and Chinese texts referring to this event admit that the Buddha spent
the first seven days, just after he had attained the Perfect Awakening
which marked his passage from Bodhisattvahood to Buddhahood,
under the Bodhi tree. The confusion is caused by the account given
by certain texts saying that the Blessed One spent the first seven days
and nights (a week) sitting with the legs crossed and meditating looking
at the Bodhi tree with unblinking eyes.
The Lalitavistara has two versions of the first week. At the beginning
of Chapter XXII, it is said the Buddha continued sitting at the foot of
the Bodhi tree: “Having subdued the enemy and triumphed in battle,
he remained seated, surrounded by parasols, standards, and unfurled
banners and entered into meditation.”14 At the beginning of Chapter
XXIV, the same Sanskrit text says: “After receiving Great praise from
the Gods, the Tathāgata, who had become the perfect and complete
Buddha, remained seated with legs crossed, gazing steadily at the
king of the trees.”15 In one of the Chinese translations of the
13
Buddhacarita. In praise of Buddha’s Acts, Translated from Chinese by
Charles Willemen (Berkeley, Numata Centre for Buddhist Translation and
Research, 2009); also see the note by Patrick Olivelle, in Life of the Buddha by
Aśvaghoṣa, translated by Patrick Olivelle, New York University Press, New York,
2009, 417. Katsumi Tanabe (2012) examines these contradictions to a certain
extent in his recent article, but he does not take the Pāli texts into consideration,
because his study is mainly based on the Gandhāran iconography.
14
Lalitavistara Sūtra, p. 515. For the French translation: “… le Bôdhisattva
ayant surmonté l’opposition du démon, dompte l’ennemi et complètement triomphé
en tête du combat ; entouré de parasols, d’étendards et de bannières déployés,
après avoir atteint la première contemplation, détachée des désirs, détachée des
lois du péché et du vice, accompagnée de raisonnement et de jugement, née du
discernement, douée de joie et de bien-être, il y demeure.”, Lalitavistara, p. 287.
15
Lalitavistara Sūtra, p. 559. “Ainsi, Religieux, devenu Bouddha parfait et
accompli, le Tathāgata bien loué par les dieux, sans cesser d’avoir des jambes
croisées, regardait le roi des arbres sans cligner l’œil. Nourri de la joie de la
Lalitavistara, the Fāngguǎng dà zhuāngyán jīng, it is said: “At that

time, the World-honoured One watched the Bodhi tree; the eyes of
the king [?] did not divert for a moment. The joy of meditation was
his food, and he did have any thought about further food [Hirakawa:
食想=âhâra-saṃjñâ]. He did not rise up from his seat before seven
days had passed.”16 The other Chinese translation, Pǔyào jīng, also
has a similar account: “… the Tathāgata sat straight up and single-
mindedly looked at the Tree; his eyes never blinked. The joy of dhyāṇa
was his food; wisdom was his broth, eternally peaceful and without
distraction. For seven [days and] nights he watched the Tree of
Enlightenment….”17
On the contrary, the Mahāvastu states as follows: “After the Exalted
One had awakened to the incomparable enlightenment, he sat for
seven days on his bed of straw at the foot of the bodhi tree with his
legs crossed.”18 The Pāli texts referring to this episode have a similar
version. The Nidānakathā also conveys a similar message: “This seat
is a seat of triumph to me, and a seat of glory; while seated on it my
aims have been fulfilled: I will not leave it yet. And he sat there
absorbed in many thoughts for those seven days referred in the text,
beginning: “And then the Blessed One sat motionless for seven days,
realizing the bliss of Nirvāna.”19
As we have seen, for the first seven days, the Lalitavistara, Chapter
24 and the two Chinese versions say that the Buddha contemplated
the Bodhi tree with unblinking eyes. The Mahavastu and many other
sutras state unanimously that he spent these first seven days under the
Bodhi tree in mediation.
contemplation, goûtant en lui-même le bonheur, il passe une semaine au pied de

l’arbre de l’Intelligence.” Lalitavistara, p. 308.
16
Translation by Christoph Ander, Fāngguǎng dà zhuāngyán jīng, 方廣大莊
嚴經 (*Lalitavistara), T. 3, no. 187: 599b 8-11. The Chinese texts are based on
P. Démieville et al. 1978.
17
Translation by Christoph Ander, Pǔyào jīng 普曜經 (*Lalitavistara), T. 3,
no. 186: 524c 16-20.
18
Mahāvastu, vol. III, p. 261.
19
Buddhist Birth Stories (Jataka Tales). The Commentarial Introductions
Entitled Nidanā-Kathā. The Story of the Lineage, transl. Rhys Davids, new and
revised edition by C.A.F. Rhys Davids (London, George Routledge and Sons
Ltd., 1880), p. 200.
introduction 19
Second Week
It is stated very clearly in the Mahāvastu that “Then having arisen

from his Lion seat, for the extent of a period of 7 days the Exalted
one kept on staring at the Bodhi tree with the stare of a serpent in
unblinking gaze. In joy and happiness he stood without eating for a
second period of 7 days regarding the Bodhi tree in unblinking gaze.”20
It is very clear from the Sanskrit text that the Buddha was standing
(asthāsi), not sitting when he paid respect to the Bodhi tree and he
looked at it with unblinking gaze (animiṣāye dṛṣṭīye). The Nidānakathā
has an analogous version about the second week: “And the Master
having thus by this miracle dispelled the devas’ doubts,21 stood a little
to the north-east of the seat, thinking: ‘It was on that seat that I attained
all-knowing insight.’ And he thus spent seven days gazing steadfastly
at the spot where he had gained the results of the deeds of virtue
fulfilled through such countless years. And that spot became known
as Dāgaba of the steadfast Gaze.”22
Because of the confusion created by not separating the first week
from the second, the Lalitavisatra is deprived of an account of the
second week. However, it is not too risky to consider that during the
second week, the Buddha Gautama, ‘remained seated with legs crossed,
gazing steadily at the king of the trees’.23 Apart from the confusion
of the respective weeks, the Lalitavisatra says that the Blessed One
20
Translation by Stanley Insler (Yale University). The translation by J.J. Jones
(Mahāvastu, pp. 268-9) is as follows: “Then at the end of the seven days the
Exalted One rose up from his throne, surveyed the bodhi tree with a Nāga’s look
and a steady gaze. In joy and ease he stood for the second seven days fasting and
gazing steadily at the bodhi tree.”
21
This is an allusion to the twin miracle that the Blessed One performed,
during the first week: “Now certain of the devas began to doubt, thinking: ‘This
day also there must be something more Siddhartha has to do, for he still lingers
seated there.’ The master knowing their thoughts, and to appease their doubts,
rose into the air and performed the twin-miracle (Yamak-paṭihāriyaṇ).” Buddhist
Birth Stories, p. 200.
22
Buddhist Birth Stories, pp. 200-1.
23
Lalitavistara Sūtra, p. 559. “Ainsi, Religieux, devenu Bouddha parfait et
accompli, le Tathāgata bien loué par les dieux, sans cesser d’avoir des jambes
croisées, regardait le roi des arbres sans cligner l’œil. Nourri de la joie de la
contemplation, goûtant en lui-même le bonheur, il passe une semaine au pied de
l’arbre de l’Intelligence.” Lalitavistara, p. 308.
remained seated looking at the Bodhi tree with unblinking eyes. The
same information can be gathered from the Fó bìnxíng jíjīng
(Abiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra): “At that time, the World-honoured One rose
from his lion’s seat and not far from the Bodhi tree sat down in
meditation again. For seven days, he did not move, and he used the
conduct of liberation as his peace. For seven days he carefully
contemplated the Bodhi tree, and did not divert his eyes for a moment.
Repeatedly he produced the following thought: ‘At this place I
exhausted the limitless suffering, in order to get rid of the heavy
burden.’ At that time the World-honoured One passed seven days [in]
right thought and right wisdom, he awoke from his samādhi. After
that there was a person who erected a stūpa at the place where the
Tathâgata had contemplated the Bodhi tree, and called it the ‘Stūpa
of the Not-blinking Eye’.”24 So, this Chinese version as well as the
Lalitavistara say that the Buddha kept sitting, not standing, con
templating the Bodhi tree.
Third Week
Concerning the third seven days, the Mahāvastu says quite explicitly:
“… he (The Buddha) spent in walking up and down a long way in
joy and ease”.25 Owing to the confusion of weeks, the Lalitavistara,
presents the same activity, for the second week, saying that the
Tathāgata spent the second week in walking up and down a long way.26
As far as the early Buddhist iconography is concerned, the Nidānakathā
carries the most pertinent description of the third seven days: “Then
he created between the seat and the spot where he stood a cloistered
walk, and he spent seven days walking up and down, in that treasure-
cloister which stretched from east to west. And that spot became
known as the Dāgaba of the Treasure-Cloister.”27
24
Translation by Christoph Ander, Fó bìnxíng jíjīng (Abiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra),
T. 3, no. 190: 799c 21-6.
25
Mahāvastu, p. 269.
26
Lalitavistara, p. 314: “La seconde semaine, le Tathāgata fit une longue
promenade comprenant les régions des trois milles grands milliers de mondes.”
27
Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 201.
introduction 21
Fourth Week
The confusion reaches its apogee when the Lalitavistara says that
during the third week – which is in reality the fourth week – the
Tathāgata looked at the bodhimaṇḍa, without blinking his eyes. The
Fāngguǎng dà zhuāngyán jīng, one of the Chinese translations of the
Lalitavistara, repeats, in a way, what has been recorded in the original
Sanskrit text: “When the third seven-day period had arrived, he
contemplated the place of enlightenment, never taking his eyes off
for a single moment” 28 (see the chart).
The Mahāvastu gives a clear picture of the activities of the Buddha
during the fourth seven days: “Now While the Exalted One was taking
his long walk up and down, Kāla, the Nāga king, came to him. He
bowed his head at the feet of the Exalted One, arranged his robe over
one shoulder, raised his joined hands, and said, ‘Lord, former perfect
Buddhas, the exalted Krakucchanda, Konākamuni and Kāśyapa, lodged
in my abode. Well would it be if thou, Lord, would take pity on me
and also lodge in my abode.’ And so the Exalted One spent the fourth
week in joy and ease at the abode of Nāga king Kāla. Then at the end
of the fourth week the Exalted One left abode of Kāla the Nāga king.”29
According to the Nidānakathā, it was gods who created the jewelled
house: “But for the fourth week the devas created to the north-west
of the Bo-tree a Treasure-house, and he spent the week seated there
cross-legged, and thinking out the Abhidamma Piṭaka and here
especially the entire Paṭṭhāna with its infinite methods.”30
28
Translation by Christoph Ander, Fāngguǎng dà zhuāngyán jīng,
(*Lalitavistara), T. 3, no. 187: 601a 1-2.
29
Mahāvastu, p. 287.
30
Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 201. The Nidānakathā furher says that the
sattaratanaghara is not made of actual jewels but is called, because it is where
the Buddha meditated on the seven chapters of the abhidhamma: “Catutthe pana
sattāhe bodhito pacchimuttaradisābhāge devatā ratanagharaṃ māpayiṃsu, tattha
pallaṅkena nisīditvā abhidhammapiṭakaṃ visesato cettha anantanayaṃ
samantapaṭṭhānaṃ vicinanto sattāhaṃ vītināmesi. Ābhidhammikā panāhu
‘’ratanagharaṃ nāma na sattaratanamayaṃ gehaṃ, sattannaṃ pana pakaraṇānaṃ
sammasitaṭṭhānaṃ ‘ratanaghara’nti vuccatī’’ti. Yasmā panettha ubhopete
pariyāyā yujjanti, tasmā ubhayampetaṃ gahetabbameva. Tato paṭṭhāya pana taṃ
ṭhānaṃ ratanagharacetiyaṃ nāma jātaṃ. Evaṃ bodhisamīpeyeva cattāri sattāhāni
vītināmetvā pañcame sattāhe bodhirukkhamūlā yena ajapālanigrodho
Weeks Mahāvastu Nidānakathā Lalitavistara Fāngguǎng dà zhuāngyán
jīng
1st Week Buddha sat on the bed of Buddha sat motionless for Buddha kept sitting at the Buddha watched the
straw at the foot of the seven days, realizing the bliss root of the Bodhi tree. Bodhi tree; the eyes did
Bodhi tree with his legs of Nirvāna. * * * * * * * not divert for a moment.
crossed. He remained seated gazing
steadily at the Bodhi tree.
2nd Week Buddha stood fasting and Buddha stood gazing Buddha spent the second Buddha remained seated
gazing steadily at the Bodhi steadfastly at the spot where he week in walking up and looking at the Bodhi tree
tree. had gained the results of the down a long way with unblinking eyes.
deeds.
3rd Week Buddha spent in walking up Buddha spent seven days He looked at the Buddha contemplated the
and down a long way in joy walking up and down, in the bodhimaṇḍa, without place of enlightenment,
and ease. treasure-cloister. blinking his eyes. never taking his eyes off
for a single moment
4th Week Buddha spent in joy and Devas created a Treasure-
ease at the abode of Nāga house, and Buddha spent the
king Kāla week seated there cross-
legged.
5th Week Buddha spent fasting in joy Buddha spent under the Buddha was in the house of
and ease at the abode of Shepherd’s Nigrodha-Tree and the king of the Nāgas,
Mucilinda the Nāga king. Māra’s daughters attempt to Mucilinda.
distract Buddha
6th Week Buddha spent fasting in joy Buddha went on to the Buddha was under the
at the foot of the Goatherd’s Muchalinda-tree and spent a Goatherd’s Banyan-tree
Banyan-tree week.
7th Week Buddha spent the seventh Buddha spent the seventh week
week fasting in joy and ease sat under the Rajāyātana tree
at a shrine of many devas in enjoying the bliss of
a thicket of kṣīrika tees. deliverance.
End of the 7th Trapuṣa and Bhallika came Tapassu and Bhalluka came
Week with five hundred chariots with five hundred carts
Chart summarizing the literary sources on seven weeks after the enlightenment of the Buddha.
introduction 23
Fifth and Sixth Weeks
The Mahāvastu tells us how the Buddha spent his fifth week: “The
Nāga king Mucilinda who also had shown respect to former Buddhas
came to the Exalted One. Having bowed his head at his feet, he
stood to one side with his joined hands raised and appealed to the
Exalted One. “Lord”, said he, “former perfect Buddhas, the exalted
Krakucchanda, Konākamuni and Kāśyapa, lodged in my abode. Well
would it be thou, too, Lord, would take pity on me and lodge in my
abode.” And so the Exalted One spent the fifth week fasting in joy
and ease at the abode of Mucilinda the Nāga king. Now in that week
unreasonable rainy weather came on. For the whole week it rained
night and day. But Mucilinda the Nāga king threw his coils seven fold
around the Exalted One to form an envelope of half a yojana and
covered him above with his broad hood.”31 “After he had left the
abode of Mucilinda the Nāga king, the Exalted One spent the sixth
week fasting in joy at the foot of the Goatherd’s Banyan-tree” says
the Mahāvastu.32 The Lalitavistara gives a similar description regarding
the sixth week.33
The Nidānakathā and the Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa record that the
encounter with the Nāga king, Mucilinda, took place in the sixth week.
More precisely, the Nidānakathā says: “Having thus spent four weeks
close to the Bo-tree; he went, in the fifth week, to the Shepherd’s
Nigrodha-tree: and sat there meditating on Doctrine, and experiencing
the happiness of deliverance.”34 It further says that at that time, when
tenupasaṅkami, tatrāpi dhammaṃ vicinantoyeva vimuttisukhaṃ paṭisaṃvedento

nisīdi.”
31
Mahāvastu, pp. 287-8. According to the Lalitavisatra (p. 314), during the
fourth week (in reality the fifth week), the Blessed One made a short walk from
the east sea to the west sea.
32
Mahāvastu, p. 290.
33
Lalitavisatra, p. 316: “La cinquième semaine, Religieux, le Tathāgata
demeura dans la maison du roi des Nāgas, Moutchilinda. Alors, au temps de la
semaine du grand mauvais temps, Moutchilinda, le roi des Nāgas étant sorti de
sa demeure et ayant enveloppé le corps du Tathāgata de sept relis, l’abrita avec
ses crêtes, en disant : Il ne faut pas que les vents froids s’attaquent au corps du
Tathāgata.” It should be remembered, the fifth week according to Lalitavistara
is actually the sixth week.
34
Craving (Taṇhā), Discontent (Arāti) and Lust (Rāgā), the three

daughters of Māra, found their father sad and sorrowful and having
heard the reason for his sorrow: “My women, this great recluse is
escaping from my power. Long have I watched, but in vain, to find
some fault in him. Therefore, it is that I am sad and sorrowful.” They
promised their father: “We will subject him (the Buddha) to our
influence, and come back bringing him captive with us.” But the
Blessed One neither paid any attention to their words, nor raised his
eyes to look at them. He sat, with mind free by the complete extinction
of rebirth-conditions, enjoying the bliss of detachment. At the end,
the three daughters were obliged accept their defeat again: saying
“Our father spoke the truth indeed. The saint, the Well-Farer of the
world is not easily led away.” And so on, returned to their father.35
The Nidānakathā when referring to the events that took place in the
sixth week says: “But the Blessed One when he had spent a week at
that spot, went on to the Muchalinda-tree. There he spent a week.
Muchalinda, the snake-king, when a storm arose, shielding him with
seven folds of his hood, so that the Blessed One enjoying the Bliss
of deliverance as if he had been resting unharassed in a fragrant
chamber”36 (see the chart).
Seventh Week
The Mahāvastu thus records the activities of the Buddha: “When this
sixth week at the foot of the Goatherd’s Banyan-tree was over, he
spent the seventh week fasting in joy and ease at a shrine of many
devas in a thicket of kṣīrika tees. Thus the Exalted One fasted for
seven weeks or forty-nine days.”37 The story narrated in the
Laitavistara38 (p. 317) is quite similar to the one given in the
Mahāvastu. The Nidānakathā is not in contradiction either with the
two Sanskrit texts: “Thence he went away to the Kingstead-tree
(Rajāyātana tree) and there also sat down enjoying the bliss of
deliverance. And so seven weeks passed away, during which he
35
Buddhist Birth Stories, pp. 202-4.
36
Ibid., p. 204.
37
Mahāvastu, p. 290.
38
Lalitavistara, 317: “La sixième semaine, le Tathāgata, de la demeure de
Moutchilinda alla au pied du figuier du berger des chèvres.”
introduction 25
experienced no bodily wants, but fed on Jhāna-joy, Path-joy and

Fruition-joy.39
It was at the end of the seventh week that the two merchants from
Orissa, Trapuṣa (Tapassu in Pāli) and Bhallika (Bhalluka in Pāli)
offered the Buddha rice cakes and honey to break his fast. According
to the story narrated in the Mahāvastu, two merchants from the town
of Ukkala (Kalinga = Orissa), by the name Trapuṣa and Bhallika were
passing with five hundred chariots loaded with merchandises, and in
the thicket of kṣīrika trees they were stopped by the magic power of
the dead relatives of the traders Trapuṣa and Bhallika who had become
devas. Having learnt from the devas, that the Exalted One had been
fasting for forty-nine days, the two merchants accepted to offer the
refreshment of honey.”40 The account in the Laitavistara is quite alike
to the one given in the Mahāvastu.41 In the Nidānakathā, this story is
narrated slightly differently: “At that time two merchants, Trapuṣa
and Bhallika by name, were travelling from Orissa to Central India
with five hundred carts. And a deva, a blood relation of theirs, stopped
their carts, and moved their hearts to offer food to the Master. And
they took a rice cake and a honey cake, and went up to the Master
and said: “O sir, Blessed One! Out of compassion for us accept this
food.”42 The version in the Chinese translation of the Buddhacarita
is even more concise compared to the long development in the
Mahāvastu: “At that time some merchants were travelling. A celestial
spirit, a good friend, told them, ‘The great seer, the worthy muni, is
in that mountain forest. As he is a fine field of merit in the world, you
should go and worship him!’ When [the merchants] heard this
command they greatly rejoiced, and offered [the Buddha] his first
meal.”43
Although, there are contradictions in the chronological order and
39
40
Mahāvastu, pp. 290-1.
41
Lalitavistara, pp. 317-18.
42
Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 205. This episode is discussed at length by André
Bareau (1963, pp. 106-23) in the light of Pāli sūtras. Phyllis Granoff (2005,
pp. 129-38), places this story in a Jain context in which fasting and breaking fast
are major themes. Likewise, she rectifies some of Bareau’s hesitations in accepting
supernatural interventions in this story.
43
Buddhacarita, pp. 73-4.
confusions in the exact activities of the Buddha in each seven days

of the forty-nine day period he spent in the vicinity of the bodhimaṇḍa,
there is a general agreement among both Sanskrit and Pāli texts that
we have seen so far to acknowledge that the Buddha spent seven
weeks between his Supreme Enlightenment and his first meal offered
by the two merchants. However, as we mentioned earlier, according
to the Mahāvagga (Vinaya-Piṭaka), the Blessed One spent only four
weeks, before he had his first meal offered by Trapuṣa and Bhallika.44
Iconography
Gandhāran Art
The confusion created in the Lalitavistara concerning the first two

weeks has presumably led to a hesitation among the Gandhāran artists
to depict the complete seven weeks. Only few sculptures depicting
the events that took place during the seven weeks following the
Enlightenment of Gautama Buddha are attested in the Gandhāran art.
Even the few known pieces are mainly limited to the depictions of
Mucilinda the Nāga king and Trapuṣa and Bhallika. It is noteworthy
that the second, third and fourth weeks described in the Mahāvastu
and the Nidānakathā, that is, observing the Bodhi tree, gazing without
blinking, the promenade up and down a long way in joy and ease and
the sojourn in the abode of the Nāga king Kāla or in the jewelled-
house are so far not attested in the Gandhāran art.
Few sculptures depicting the Mucilinda the Nāga king protecting
the Buddha from the heavy downpour and Trapuṣa and Bhallika giving
alms to the Exalted One are known in Gandhāra. Nevertheless, it
appears that the popularity of the Mucilinda episode is quite meagre
in Gandhāra compared to the depictions in Sāñcī and Nāgārjunakoṇḍa
Stūpas and the paintings from Sri Lanka and South-East Asia. The
sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is less
spectacular to its counterparts of Andhra art.45 Though the body of
the Nāga coiled around the body of the Blessed One is faithfully
depicted following the description of the sacred texts, very particularly
44
For the events quoted here, see Mahāvagga, pp. 1-6.
45
Kurita, 2003, Fig. 236, p. 121.
introduction 27
Figure 2: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Private collection, New York. Grey

Schist, 25 x 37 cm. Indian Works of Art, March 2006, Fig. 3. Trapuṣa and
Bhallika offering rice cake and honey to the Buddha. Photograph O.B.
the Mahāvastu,46 the rest of his body is considerably stylized. The

stylized jagged acanthus leaves are set up in a three-dimensional mode
resembling cobra hoods. Although they are not as rare as the ones
representing the Mucilinda episode, less than a dozen sculptures
representing the encounter of Trapuṣa and Bhallika with the Exalted
One are known. In a relief now in a private collection in New York,
the Buddha is shown seated on a lower seat, wrapped in the saṃghāṭi
(over-robe), making the abhaya mudrā with the right hand; on his
either side, two merchants, clad in long trousers, sleeved short tunics,
and a mantle thrown over their back, each holding a pouch presumably
containing food for the Blessed One (Fig. 2). Another Gandhāran
sculpture, with two registers, which may have originally belonged to
the topmost part of a stūpa, carries in its lower register three major
events of the life of the historical Buddha (Fig. 3)47 On the right, the

46
The upper register depicts the veneration of the Buddha and his turban most
47
probably by the gods, each of them being shown inside a voluted raised arch.
This piece is now conserved in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
Figure 3: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

Three major events of the life of the historical Buddha:
from right to left: the Māra’s attack and the Enlightenment of the
Buddha, Trapuṣa and Bhallika offering rice cake and honey and the
first sermon delivered to the five monks. Photograph with the
curtsy of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
Māra’s attack and the Enlightenment of the Blessed One and on the
left, the first sermon delivered to the five monks (only four are shown
here) at the Deer Park are sculpted. In the middle panel, the Awakened
One, wrapped in a saṃghāṭi with both shoulders, feet and hands in
dhyāna mudrā covered, sits in the middle under a tree, while Trapuṣa
and Bhallika offer him rice cakes and honey. The merchant to the
right may hold the pouch with the rice cake and the one to the left a
container with a long spout with honey or water. Contrary to their
Sāñcī and Andhra counterparts, these Gandhāran sculptures do not
depict in a theatrical manner the episode which is vividly narrated in
the Mahāvastu,48 the Laitavistara49 or in the Nidānakathā.50 If there
is one which does justice to these narrations it is the depiction on the
base of the ‘Fasting Siddhārtha’ from Takht-i-Bāhī now in the Peshawar
Museum (Fig. 4).51 The scenes portrayed on this base closely follow
the narration in the Laitavistara.52 To the extreme right, it is shown
how a cart driven by two humped bulls got stuck under the divine
intervention. It is reported that the wheels of the carts sunk into the
48
49
50
51
Foucher, 1918, p. 273, Fig. 440; Ingholt, 1957, p. 62, no. 53, and pl. 53.
52
introduction 29
Figure 4: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Peshawar Museum.

Depiction on the base of the ‘Fasting Siddhārtha’ from Takht-i-Bāhī.
Drawing by May Lim after Ingholt, 1957, pl. 53.
ground to the hub. 53 Although this detail is not explicitly shown, we

see two assistants of Trapuṣa and Bhallika desperately endeavouring
to push it back. While one pushes the bull, the right hand of the other
strains against the wheel. They thus attempt to push the cart out of
the hole into which it has sunk. Immediately to left, an aged Vajrapāṇi
seated three-quarters to right on a rock holding a vajra in his left hand
looks to the left at the Buddha. The Blessed One sits frontally, under
a tree, in the middle of the base, in abhaya mudrā; both shoulders are
covered with the saṃghāṭi. Trapuṣa and Bhallika walk, one behind
the other, towards the Buddha from the left, each holding a pouch
containing refreshments. Behind the two merchants, a third person,
most probably, a woman, also holding a bowl-like object, is added to
the scene. To the extreme left, there are two humped bulls looking
right, the one in the front carrying goods on its back. A sculpture,
unfortunately badly damaged, yet clearly depicting a bullock-cart in
profile, driven by two humped-bulls to left, now in a private collection
in San Francisco, deserves some attention (Fig. 5). Although it is not
at all certain whether this sculpture portrays the episode of Trapuṣa
and Bhallika or not, we cannot completely exclude this possibility
either. The type of carts, equipped with awnings for protection against
sun and rain, are still in use in South Asia, and especially in India and
Sri Lanka. They are used for carrying passengers as well as the goods.
There are four humped-bulls, two in profile and the other two shown
frontally. The latter pair may be pulling another cart, but the cart is
not clearly visible. A nobleman or most probably a god or a tree spirit
53
Lalitavistara, p. 317.
Figure 5: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Private collection, San Francisco.

Bullock-cart in profile. Photograph O.B.
stands behind the bulls, next to a tree, throwing flowers from the curve
of the uttarīya, hung across the body. The realistic depiction of the
four humped bulls or zebu, also known as Brahman (Bos taurus
indicus) is noteworthy. This Indian species has a fatty hump on their
shoulders, drooping ears and a large dewlap, and these characteristics
are all skilfully portrayed in this sculpture.
Although I have no intention to examine this aspect in detail in the
present study, it could be argued, based on the chronological sequence
depicted in some reliefs with several well-preserved scenes, that the
Gandhāran artists followed the sequence starting with the descent of
the Bodhisattva from the Tuṣita heaven up to his Great Awakening as
narrated in the Lalitavistara rather than the alternatives given in the
Mahāvastu or in the Buddhacarita.54 Let us, however, rapidly examine
the false-niche of the Greater-Gandhāran style related to our discussion
that I have briefly published elsewhere (Figs. 6 A & B).55 On this
54
This will be discussed in detail in my forthcoming book: When East met
West: Gandhāran Art Revisted.
55
Bopearachchi, 2008c, see the Fig. 16 in p. 37, for the commentary, see
pp. 35-7.
Figures 6 A & B: False-niche of the Greater-Gandhāran style. Private collection, London. The Buddha looking at the
Bodhi tree with unblinking eyes, and six events related to the great Awakening. Photograph O.B.
relief, the figured representations take place in an architectural

framework, namely a niche covered by a pointed arch sheltering the
pensive Buddha, looking without blinking at the Bodhi tree under
which he attained the Enlightenment to which we shall come later.
Around the pensive Buddha are spread out, on a smaller scale, various
other scenes. To the left of the central niche, the Dīpaṃkara Jākata is
represented, and to the right the offering of dust to the Buddha
Shakyamuni by Jaya and Vijaya. Two sculpted figures appear on each
side of the central arch, above the pilasters crowned with busts of
winged griffins supporting the vault: to the left is Brāhma holding the
water pot (kamaṇḍalu) in his left hand and making a gesture of
salutation with his right; on the other side, facing him, the haloed god
Indra, identifiable by the thunderbolt (vajra) that he holds in his left
hand, making with his other hand the same gesture of salutation; his
high headdress and his ornaments are characteristic of the Gandhāran
art.
The six events taking place in the lower register, starting from the
mortification to the Great Awakening follow to the letter the events
described in the Lalitavistara chronologically. At the very right hand
corner, we see how Siddhārtha Gautama adopted a life of severe
physical austerities for six years after leaving his father’s palace in
Kapilavastu, where he enjoyed a lavish life. Having been reduced to
a skeletal form as a result of six years of fierce austerities, penances
and hardships, the future Buddha realized that these severe corporal
chastisements and sufferings would not lead to the ultimate freedom
(Nirvāṇa) which would enable him to be released from the endless
circle of rebirths (Saṃsāra) by putting an end to birth, old age, and
death. Shakyamuni chose instead Madhyamaka or the Middle Way,
meaning that of neither the severe asceticism nor the sensual indulgence
and thus achieved the supreme Perfect Enlightenment (sambodhi)
and became the Buddha (Pāli sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit sam
yaksaṃbuddha). The following carvings narrate the events which led
to the Enlightenment: (from right to left): washing the shroud of a
corpse in a pond, Siddhārtha comes out of the water with the help of
a branch held out by a dryad who lived in a tree on the edge of the
pond; Sujata (the “nobly born”) offering Siddhārtha a bowl of rice
with milk and honey; Kalika, the king of the Naga, hooded by cobra
heads, predicting to the Boddhisatva his Awakening; Swastika, the
humble grass cutter, giving him handful of grass to prepare the
introduction 33
meditation seat; finally prince Siddhārtha seated on a carpet of grass

under the Bodhi tree and the assault of Māra’s army.56 Seated under
the Bodhi tree Bodhisattva Siddhārtha becomes the Buddha, calling
the Pṛthvī (Earth) to be his witness, by touching the earth with his
right hand. The monk to the left in Añjali Mudrā also witnesses the
happy event. Since, in Gadhāran art, Māra and his demonic horde are
shown assaulting and retreating at the same time, it is difficult to say
for sure whether the Māra standing to the left of the Buddha is
unsheathing his sword with the intention of stabbing the Lord or
returning it to the scabbard accepting his humiliating defeat. The
demon with spiky hair, shown falling upside down, while the other
looks at him in astonishment, are also signs of their defeat. Two
soldiers in the upper portion, on either side of the Māra depicted
blowing into horns and the one standing to the right of the Buddha,
holding a spear, and wearing heavy armour over a dhotī, whose left
arm is transformed into an animal head, are those still actively engaged
in the assault. Let us now examine the meaning of the central scene.
The Buddha is shown seated in a relaxed position or at royal ease
next to the Bodhi tree.57 He holds the hem of the saṃghāṭi with the
left hand resting on the left thigh. The right hand points towards his
face and the index finger touches the right cheek softly. The ankle of
the right hand rests on the knee of his right leg. His head is turned
towards the Bodhi tree which is easily recognizable by its heart-shaped
leaves. The tree is decorated with a wreath whose ribbons float in
the air. In this sculpture, vriksha-devata (tree goddess), wearing an
elaborate headdress and long earrings, holds a bowl, probably with
flowers, with both hands, and looks at the viewer while emerging
56
These events are depicted following the chronological sequence given in
the Lalitavistara, see chapters 17 to 19.
57
This position, with the left leg horizontal, the right leg vertical, but turned
outwards, is quite rare in Gandhāran sculptures. The closest resemblance is the
sculpture in the Lahore Museum (Ingholt, 1957, no. 177) where the Buddha is
seated in the middle of the scene. The sculpture from Butkara I, now in the Swat
Museum, Siadu Sharif, where the Buddha is seated under a tree, in a pensive
mood, surrounded by gods and monks pleading him to teach, Buddhist Heritage
of Pakistan, cat. no. 165, p. 226; in the sculpture in the Freer Gallery of Art
visualizing the first sermon, the monk seated to the left hand side of the Buddha,
Kurita, 2003, no. 280, p. 149 and the Buddha or a monk, from Fondukistan seated
in a similar position, Hackin, and al.1959, fig. 150; Tissot, 2006, p. 125, a. & b.
from the middle of the tree. A luxuriantly dressed god or a tree spirit,
holding a bag or the curve of the uttarīya across his body, full of
flowers and raising a hand to throw them. The young Vajrapāṇi looks
to the right holding the vajra vertically at the right hand side of the
seated Buddha. The Blessed One is not definitely seated on the
bodhimaṇḍa, but looking at the tree from a distance. Following the
description in the Lalitavistara, the sculptor depicts the Buddha in
the centre, seated at royal ease next to the Bodhi tree inhabited by a
vriksha-devata, spending the second week during which he looked at
the Bodhi tree with unblinking eyes, gratifying the tree.58 He is not
standing as stated in the Mahavastu, but as described in the Lalitavistara,
he is shown seated gazing steadily at the king of the trees. This is
indeed the result of the confusion made in the Lalitavistara, combining
the first week with the second.
Great Sāñcī Stūpa
However, the pillars of the southern gateway (toraṇa) of the Great

Sāñcī Stūpa offer panels related to Gautama Buddha’s Sambodhi and
some events that took place during the seven weeks that followed
(Fig. 7). It seems that, the panels of east pillar were in situ when John
Marshall and Alfred Foucher studied the monument, however, they
were removed later and apparently kept in the basement of the Sāñcī
site museum (Fig. 8).59 The line drawings that we illustrate here (Figs.
9, 10, 12 and 13) are based on the photographs published by Marshall
and Foucher.60 The panels on the east pillar of the southern gateway
depict several events which took place immediately before and after
the Enlightenment of the Blessed One. It should be emphasized here
that the sculptors of the Sāñcī Stūpa do not seek to respect the
chronological order, but a coherence of an aesthetic order. On the top
of the front face of the east pillar, we see Mucilinda, the Nāga king,
with five hoods, seated on his own coiled-body, in front of the throne
of the Buddha (Figs 8, 9 and 10).61 Unfortunately, the top part of the
panel is mutilated, so the tree is unrecognisable. Fortunately, another
58
Lalitavistara Sūtra, p. 559; Le Lalitavistara, p. 308.
59
This information is provided by Mitra, 2003, pp. 49-51.
60
Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19.
61
Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. c1.
Figure 7: Southern gateway (toraṇa) of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa.
With courtesy of the Archaeological Survey of India. Photograph O.B.
Figure 8: Reliefs on the east Figure 9: Reliefs on the front face of

pillar of the southern gateway east pillar of the southern gateway of
of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. Drawing over
With the courtesy of the the photograph by François Ory,
American Institute of hereafter F.O. (CNRS-ENS UMR
Indian Studies. 8546). With the courtesy of the
American Institute of Indian Studies.
panel showing the same event is well-conserved in the inner face of

the north pillar of the west gateway (Fig. 11).62 The tree behind the
seated Nāga king is certainly not a Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa). It
looks, as it should be, more like an Indian banyan tree (Ficus
benghalensis). This panel of the west gateway and the one on the east
pillar of the south gateway, thus depict the fifth week, as described in
62
See the middle panel, Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 65. a2.
introduction 37
Figure 10: ‘Mucilinda, the Nāga king’ panel on the front face of east
pillar of the southern gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa, drawing by F.O.
after Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. c1.
the Mahāvastu and the sixth week according to the Nidānakathā. In

both panels, Mucilinda is shown either before the rain, inviting the
Buddha to lodge in his abode or most probably after the rain when
the Nāga king gave up his own form and assumed a youth’s form.63
According to the Mahāvagga (4): “The Mucalinda, the serpent king,
at the end of those seven days, having known that the sky was clear
and without a cloud, having unwound his coils from the Lord’s body,
having given up his own form and assumed a youth’s form stood in
Mahāvagga, 4: “The Mucalinda, the serpent king, at the end of those seven
63
days, having known that the sky was clear and without a cloud, having unwound
his coils from the Lord’s body, having given up his own form and assumed a
youth’s form stood in front of the Lord honouring the Lord with joined palms.”
Figure 11: ‘Mucilinda, the Nāga king’, panel on the inner face of the
north pillar of the west gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa. With the
courtesy of the Archaeological Survey of India, Photograph O.B.
front of the Lord honouring the Lord with joined palms.” The panel
on the inner face of the north pillar of the west gateway (Fig. 11),64
Nāga Rājā is accompanied by his two queens, seated on stools with
lattice-work made of rattan, and an escort of nine nāgiṇīs, each with
a single cobra-hood behind the head, drinking, dancing and playing
music. On the top of the front face of the east pillar of the southern
gateway, we see Mucilinda, accompanied by his two queens, but each
64
See the middle panel, Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 65. a2.
introduction 39
of them is shown seated on either side of the Nāga king (Figs. 8, 9

and 10).65 The four accompanying nāgiṇīs are shown in a more sober
attitude than the ones in the previous panel which is identical as far
the theme is concerned. Immediately below the Mucilinda panel, we
see three out of four Lokapālas, the fourth one being mutilated, each
holding a bowl (Figs. 8 and 9). This scene is followed, in the lower
panel, by the depiction of Trapuṣa and Bhallika going towards the
Rajāyâtana tree where Buddha was mediating (Figs. 9 and 12).66 The
focal point of the caravan is the chariot driven by two zebus or humped
bulls escorted by two horsemen. Two incidents take palace: three
merchants are first shown seated inside the chariot, and then they are
depicted standing behind the chariot with the offerings in their hands.
One of the two servants, at the left hand corner of the panel, carries
a water pot.
Figure 12: ‘Trapuṣa and Bhallika’ panel on the front face of

east pillar of the southern gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa,
drawing by F.O. after Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. c3.
65
On the panel on the inner face of the north pillar of the west gateway, both
queens are seated to the right of their husband.
66
Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. c3.
Figure 13: ‘Jewelled House’ panel on west face of the east pillar,
drawing by F.O. after Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. D1.
The remaining events associated with the Perfect Enlightenment

of the Buddha are illustrated on the west face of the east pillar of the
same south gateway (Fig. 8). The top panel is identified by Marshall
and Foucher followed by Debala Mitra as the Enlightenment of the
Buddha Vipaśin.67 The panel below, according to Marshall and Foucher,
is a temple without any exceptional architecture (Fig. 13). Debala
Mitra correctly identifies it as the ‘Jewelled House’.68 This scene
narrates the fourth week when the Blessed One was in the abode of
Nāga king Kāla according to the Mahāvastu69 or the jewelled house
67
Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. d1; Mitra, 2003, p. 40.
68
Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. d1; Mitra, 2003, p. 40.
69
Mahāvastu, p. 287.
introduction 41
created by gods according to the Nidānakathā.70 The Buddha’s

presence is indicated by the throne inside the house. The next scene
depicts Swastika or Sotthiya the grass-cutter cutting grass with his
sickle (Fig. 8).71 Immediately below, the grass-cutter, as correctly seen
by Debala Mitra, is the depiction of Sujātā, in añjali mudrā, offering
milk-rice to Bodhisattva Siddhārtha (Fig. 8).72 As far as the seven
weeks are concerned the next scene below has a great significance,
because it clearly depicts the Buddha’s walk or caṅkrama, the event
took place during the third week according to the Mahāvastu73 and
the Nidānakathā which describes it as a treasure-cloister.74 The most
evocative cloistered walk is depicted in the panel on the front face of
the east pillar of the north gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa (Fig. 14).75
Six richly dressed and bejewelled nobles and a child, in añjali mudrā,
standing in front of three trees, venerate the Buddha’s caṅkrama. The
walking path is shown as an open maṇḍapa of an oblong shape,
decorated with garlands. The roof above has four horseshoe-arched
or dormer windows. The narration in the Nidānakathā is respected
here, because the Buddha walked in the cloistered walk created which
he created between the seat and the spot where he stood.76 When we
examine closely the iconography of these sculptures it becomes evident
that the Sāñcī sculptors as well as their sponsors followed an account
consistent with what is preserved in the Pāli sources.
If we accept the Enlightenment scene, symbolized by the throne
under the Bodhi tree, as also being the first seven days during which
the Buddha mediated on the bed of straw,77 apart from the second
week, all the other weeks after the Sambodhi of the Buddha Gautama
70
71
Marshall and Foucher, 1949, vol. II, pl. 19. d3. The woman to the left,
according to these two authors, is Sujātā offering milk-rice to Bodhisattva
Siddhārtha who is represented by the throne placed under the Bodhi tree.
72
Mitra, 2003, p. 40. Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 19. d4) consider
this scene as an “ordinary stereotype of the Sambodhi”.
73
Mahāvastu, p. 269.
74
75
Marshall and Foucher, 1940, vol. II, pl. 34. a3) identify this as ‘the Great
Prodigy at Śrāvastī”. Mitra (2003, p. 40) as the ‘Arial promenade’.
76
77
This scene is identified by Marshall and Foucher (1940, vol. II, pl. 19. d1);
Mitra (2003, p. 40) as the Enlightenment of the Buddha Vipaśin.
Figure 14: ‘Cloistered walk’, panel on the front face of the east pillar
of the north gateway of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa, with the courtesy
of the Archaeological Survey of India, Photograph by O.B.
are depicted in the panels of the Great Sāñcī Stūpa (Figs. 8-14). It
goes without saying, that when the Blessed One is not shown
anthropomorphically, it is especially difficult to depict in a theatrical
manner the first and the second weeks during which the Exalted One
regarded the Bodhi tree with an unblinking gaze. This obstacle was
easily overcome by the sculptors of the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Stūpa by the
anthropomorphic image of the Buddha.
Nāgārjunako]n]da Stūpa
Among the sculptures of the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Stūpa, the most

remarkable one is the slab found in the site 3 (Fig. 15).78 The top panel
78
Longhurst, 1938, p. 65, pl. L; Stone, 1994, no. 229.
introduction 43
Figure 15: Slab found in the site 3 of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa,

Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Site Museum, with the courtesy of the
Archaeological Survey of India, Photograph by O.B.
was correctly identified by Longhurst as the first sermon in the ‘deer

park’. There are two scenes in each of the two lower registers, showing
four events which took place immediately after Buddha’s Enlightenment.
Chronologically, the left scene at the bottom register depicts the earliest
event. Here under the Bodhi tree we see the highly sophisticated, yet
empty throne decorated with garlands and streamers. The Blessed
One stands, holding the saṃghāṭi from his left hand and making a
mudrā commonly considered as the abhaya mudrā. Quoting from the

Nidānakathā, Longhurst identified this scene as the third week during
which the Buddha walked up and down, in the treasure-cloister.79
However, the feet of Buddha we see here are not in movement, but
motionless. We believe this representation corresponds to the second
week during which the Blessed One kept on staring at the Bodhi tree
with unblinking eyes. The scene to the right of the lower register
matches the fifth week during which Mucilinda protected the Buddha
from the heavy rain. The sacred text says that Mucilinda threw his
coils seven fold around the Exalted One to form an envelope, but here
the Buddha is seated on the wound up coils of the Nāga king. Although
the sacred texts, neither Pāli nor Sanskrit, mention the presence of
nāgiṇīs at the scene, both Sāñcī (Figs. 10 and 11) and Nāgārjunakoṇḍa
artists take the liberty to show them (Fig. 15). Five nāgiṇīs in human
form, yet symbolized by one nāga-hood behind their respective heads,
venerate the Buddha in añjali mudrā. Two scenes in the middle register
were correctly identified by Longhurst. To the left, four Lokapālas,
clad in princely clothes, each holding in his hand a bowl, stand
respectfully to the left of the Buddha who is seated on a lion throne
under a tree. To the right, the Buddha is depicted seated on the same
simhāsana, being served by the two merchants Trapuṣa and Bhallika,
accompanied by two of their attendants. The garments they wear are
less lavish than ones of the four Lokapālas. The Blessed One holds a
bowl already filled with food offered by the two laymen. One merchant
pours water from a water pot to the right hand of the Lord. If the
sequence is from left to right, as seen in the lower register, first we
have on the left, four Lokapālas and to the right the two merchants.
According to the Mahāvastu, the Lalitavistara, the Nidānakathā and
Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa, the four Lokapālas offered the four bowls, see
ing that the Buddha did not have a bowl to use for the food offered
by the two merchants. The Chinese translation of Aśvaghoṣa’s
Buddhacarita alone switches the events saying that the four kings
offered their alms bowls, before the arrival of the merchants, thinking
that the Buddha would go begging for alms.80 Apart from this con
fusion, we have on this slab four different events, each corresponding
to one week after the Great Awakening of the Buddha.
79
Longhurst, 1938, p. 65. Stone (1994, p. 75) who simply follows Longhurst
says: “The first scene represents the Buddha’s Walk”.
80
Buddhacarita, p. 105. 72.
introduction 45
Frieze from Kumbukwewa (Sri Lanka)
As mentioned earlier, the most ancient document, so far attested,

depicting in a single document all the seven weeks that follow
immediately after the Sambodhi of the Buddha, is the frieze found in
Kumbukwewa (Fig. 1). Right in the middle of the panel, the Buddha
is seated in samādhi.81 The standing figure to the left of the Buddha
may be a god. The small figure, to his left, in añjali mudrā is no doubt
a defeated soldier of Māra. In the middle register of the right frame,
Māra is shown fleeing seated on the neck of his elephant, Girimekhala.
He looks back, with his head turned towards the victor.82 The small
figure seated behind him, on the back of the elephant, pays homage
to the Buddha in añjali mudrā. This attitude of Māra and his attendant,
remind us of a similar depiction in some āyaka and dome panels from
the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Site.83 Let us examine, as an example, a relief
from Amarāvatī School (Fig. 16)84 now exhibited in the Musée national
des arts asiatiques – Guimet, depicting the assault of Māra. There is
no doubt, as C. Sivaramamurti has pointed out, the assault of Māra
and the triumph of the Bodhisattva, are effectively narrated on this
relief. On the left, Māra, seated on his elephant, Girimekhala, ap
proaches Bodhisattva represented by the symbol of the empty throne
and feet on the pādapīṭha and leaves the scene from the right, seated
on the same elephant, but looking back at the Buddha, with the hands
joined together in añjali mudrā. On the relief from Kumbukwewa, it
is not Māra, but his assistant sitting on the tail of the pachyderm who
venerates the Blessed One. The bas-relief which originally formed
the outer stone covering found in a brick stūpa at Nāgārjunakoṇḍa
depicting the main events of Gautama Buddha’s life, we come across
the same type of visualization: Māra enters triumphantly from the
left, seated on his elephant with an aṅkuśa in his hand escorted by
two followers and leaves the scene in confusion with his escort from
81
The Bodhi tree under which the Buddha is usually depicted seated is
mutilated.
82
The bad state of preservation makes it difficult to identify the arms or
symbols Māra holds in both hands.
83
See for example, Stone, 1994, nos. 193 and 203. As in Ganhāran art, both
the attack and the defeat of the Māra are often shown in the same panel in Andhra
School of Art.
84
O. Monod, 1966, p. 57, no. 7; and also C. Sivaramamurti, 1942, pl. 1X.
Figure 16: ‘Assault of Māra’, relief from Amarāvati School,

Musée National des Arts Asiatiques – Guimet, Paris,
drawing by Yin Ker after Monod, 1966, p. 57, no. 7.
the right in añjali mudrā.85 Compared to the Amarāvatī sculpture

(Fig. 16) the significant difference, apart from stylistic features, is the
presence of the Bodhisattva in human form in the middle of the scene.
It should be underlined here that in the Padhānasutta of the Mahāvagga,
it is said that “Seeing on all sides an army arrayed, and Māra on his
elephant, I am going out to do battle, that he may not drive me away
85
A.H. Longhurst, 1938, pl. XXII, b.
introduction 47
from my place”.86 Furthermore, the Nidānakathā confirms the same

point: “The Māra devo, mounted his elephant, two hundred and fifty
leagues high, named ‘Girded with mountains (Girimekhala)’. And he
created for himself a thousand arms, and seized all kinds of weapons”.87
In Gandhāran art, Māra is never depicted on his elephant, instead, we
see him sitting or, more frequently, standing (Figs. 3 and 6). According
to the Mahāvastu, Māra launched his attack in a chariot drawn through
the air by oxen and horses.88
Let us come back to the relief from Kumbukwewa. The attack of
the demonic horde appears in the lower register immediately below
the samādhi Buddha. One of Māra soldiers, or he himself, to the left,
aims an arrow at the Buddha and another soldier, just below the former,
unsheathes a sword. To the right, one of the three daughters of Māra
is engaged in a frenzy dance. Likewise, the central panel announces
the attack and defeat of Māra, and the Enlightenment of the Buddha.
The rest of the scenes corresponding to each week, are arranged
counter-clockwise, starting from the register at the lower left hand
corner of the panel. This panel depicts the first week during which
the Exalted One, having subdued the enemy, sat at the foot of the
Bodhi tree, enjoying the bliss of detachment. Next to the Māra’s attack,
to the right, the lower panel of the right frame, depicts the second
week, the Buddha is seen standing and paying homage to the Bodhi
tree with unblinking eyes. Given the limited space available, the Bodhi
tree is not shown here, but the gesture that the Buddha makes with
his right hand is close to the one that he makes in the slab from the
Nāgārjunakoṇḍa site that we have discussed earlier (Fig. 15). A god,
perhaps Indra, as on the central panel, stands holding a chattra to the
left of the Buddha. During the third week, as we have learned from
the authors of the Mahāvastu and the Nidānakathā, Siddhārtha
Gautama kept walking up and down, in the treasure-cloister. This
scene is depicted vertically to the left of the right frame where the
defeated Māra flees on the back of his elephant. Just above the small
figure in añjali mudrā at the lower right corner of the central panel,
we see a flight of steps leading to a caṅkram, and at the very end the
Buddha is depicted walking along the pathway. The top panel in the
86
Dhammapada, p. 70.
87
88
Mahāvastu, vol. II, p. 365. No sculpture, neither from Gandhāra, nor from
Sāñcī, nor from Andhra, depicting such a chariot has so far been found.
right hand corner, shows the Blessed One seated in samādhi, inside
the jewelled house, created by the devas, thus the fourth week.89 In
the top panel of the left frame, Mucilinda, the Nāga king with his
seven hoods protects the Exalted One, thus the fifth week according
to the Mahāvastu or in this context the sixth week according to the
Nidānakathā.90 As discussed earlier, the Nidānakathā states very
clearly, that the Buddha went in the fifth week, to the Shepherd’s
Nigrodha-tree: and sat there meditating on Doctrine, and experiencing
the happiness of deliverance.91 It is also at this moment that the three
daughters of Māra made another attempt to dissuade the Enlightened
One. However, as we shall see later, when depicting the seven weeks
after the Buddha’s sambodhi, Kandyian period painters follow the
order given in the Nidānakathā. If the relief from Kumbukwewa also
follows this sequence, the missing frame at the top of the panel, may
have represented the fifth week. Likewise, the scene at the top left
hand corner, represents the sixth week during which the Nāgarāja
protected the Blessed One from the heavy rain. Like the slab from
the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Site that we have examined earlier (Fig. 15), the
Nāga is not coiled around the Blessed One, instead, the latter sits on
the coils of the former. Two Gods, probably Indra and Brahmā stand
on either side venerating the Buddha. As one would expect, the middle
panel of the left vertical frame, shows Trapuṣa and Bhallika offering
the refreshment of honey to the Exalted One, in consequence this is
the seventh week. The Buddha holds a bowl already offered by the
four Lokapālas standing behind the two merchants. With this panel
we have the complete set of seven weeks, making this sculpture the
most ancient document ever attested where the artist has favoured the
narration of seven weeks in Nidānakathā and the Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa.
Mural Paintings from Sri Lanka

As mentioned earlier, when depicting the seven weeks after the
Buddha’s Enlightenment, artists of the Kandyan period follow the
89
90
Mahāvastu, pp. 287-8. The Nidānakathā very explicitly records that
Mucilinda, when a storm arose, shielded, the Buddha with seven folds of his
hood; the relief thus follows this detail as well to the letter, Buddhist Birth Stories,
p. 204.
91
Buddhist Birth Stories, 202.
introduction 49
Figure 17: Medawala Tampita Vihāra commissioned by

Kirti Sri Rajasinha (between 1755 and 1760). With the courtesy
of the Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka.
Photograph Rajiv Boperachchi (hereafter R.B.).
order given in the Nidānakathā and the Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa.92 In order

to illustrate this fact I have selected among many examples, the
paintings of the following temples: Medawala Tampita Vihāra near
Kandy commissioned by Kirti Sri Rajasinha between 1755-60 (Figs.
17-24);93 Uḍa Vihāra in the Ridi Vihāra complex near Kurunagala
dated to the eighteenth century (Figs. 25-9);94 Hiṅdagala Vihāra, near
Peradeniya probably built in 1775 by Rajadi Rajasimha (Figs. 30-33);95
92
Marie Gatellier (1991, vol. 1, pp. 182-4) has discussed some of these paint
ings in her book dedicated to Kandyan period mural paintings, but without analys
ing the relationship between the texts and visual art.
93
Bandaranayake, 1986, p. 117 and Gatellier, 1991, vol. 1, p. 68. All the seven
weeks are depicted from left to right in the same register, the last week continues
to the next wall.
94
Gatellier, 1991, vol. 1, pp. 77-8, vol. 2, Figs. 157, 159 & 160. The seven
weeks run from right to left in the same row, but first five weeks are in one wall
and the rest in the next.
95
Gatellier, 1991, vol. 1, pp. 82-6. The seven weeks are shown in two registers,
the above with first three weeks continue from left to right and the remaining
four weeks in the lower register from right to left.
Kelaniya Vihāra, near Colombo with mural paintings belonging to

the nineteenth century following the Kandyan style of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries (Fig. 34);96 and of the Mugirigala Vihāra,
near Tangalla with early twentieth century paintings (Fig. 35).97
The first week after the Perfect Enlightenment, in all these paintings,
clearly follows the narration of the Pāli texts according to which the
Blessed One sat motionless for seven days, under the Bodhi tree
realizing the bliss of Nirvāna (Figs. 18, 26, 32, 34 and 35). The fully
awakened Buddha is shown in dhyāna mudra in all these paintings,
apart from the one from the Mugirigala Vihāra where he is in
bhūmisparśa mudra (Fig. 35).98
The depictions of the second week do not lead to any confusion
either. The Buddha is shown standing in front of the Bodhi tree under
which he attained the Supreme Enlightenment (Figs. 19, 26, 32, 34
and 35). The noticeable variation is the way in which the hands are
held, in some paintings, his arms folded across its chest (Figs. 19, 26
and 32)99 and in the others, his hands left loose along the sides of the
body (Figs. 34 and 35).100
Following the account of the Nidānakathā, the third seven days
are depicted in these paintings, the Buddha walking in the treasure-
cloister which stretched from east to west (Figs. 20, 26, 32, 34 and
35).101 The painting of the Mugirigala Vihāra alone is characterized
by the depiction of the Buddha twice at each extremity of the treasure-
cloister (Fig. 35).
96
Gatellier, 1983, for an exhaustive study of the paintings of Kelaniya Vihāra;
also see Gatellier, 1991, vol. 1, pp. 75-7, vol. 2, Fig. 156 and Jayasinghe, 2006,
p. 31. All the seven weeks are depicted in a single row from right to left.
97
Gatellier, 1991, vol. 1, pp. 82-6. The seven weeks are shown in two registers,
all the scenes run from left to right, the upper register depicting the first three
weeks. Every week is labelled in Sinhalese. The first scene on the far left corner
of the upper register has no relationship with the seven weeks.
98
The Blessed One is shown greeted by four gods whose divine nature is
indicated by a hallo.
99
See the paintings of the Medawala Tampita Vihāra, Hiṅdagala Vihāra and
Ridi Vihāra. Curiously, the artist of the Medawala Tampita Vihāra has taken the
liberty to show the Bodhi tree in a pot (Fig. 19).
100
See the paintings of the Kelaniya Vihāra and Mugirigala Vihāra.
101
Figure 18: ‘First Week’, Medawala Tampita Vihāra.With the courtesy
of the Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 19: ‘Second Week’, Medawala Tampita Vihāra.With the

courtesy of the Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 20: ‘Third Week’, Medawala Tampita Vihāra.With the courtesy
of the Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 21: ‘Fourth Week with three-headed Brahmā’, Medawala

Tampita Vihāra.With the courtesy of the Department of Archaeology,
Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 22: ‘Fifth Week: three daughters of Māra’, Medawala
Figure 23: ‘Sixth Week: Mucilinda, the Nāga king’, Medawala

Figure 24: ‘Seventh Week: Trapuṣa and Bhallika’, Medawala
Tampita Vihāra.With the courtesy of the Department of
Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 25: Uḍa Vihāra in the Ridi Vihāra complex dated to the
eighteenth century. With the courtesy of the Department of
Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 26: ‘First five weeks’ Uḍa Vihāra in the Ridi Vihāra complex. With the courtesy of the
Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 27: ‘Sixth and Seventh weeks’ Uḍa Vihāra in the Ridi Vihāra complex. With the courtesy of the
Figure 28: ‘Fifth Week: three daughters of Māra’, Uḍa Vihāra
in the Ridi Vihāra complex. With the courtesy of the
Figure 29: ‘Seventh Week: Trapuṣa and Bhallika’, Uḍa Vihāra

in the Ridi Vihāra complex. With the courtesy of the
introduction 57
As we have seen in the analysis of the literary sources, the des

cription given in the Nidānakathā, concerning fourth week, differs
from the Mahāvastu, because according to the former, it was gods
who created the jewelled house.102 In all Kandyan period paintings it
is this Pāli tradition which is respected faithfully. Nowhere, to my
knowledge, the abode of Nāga king Kāla as narrated in the Mahāvastu103
is taken into account by the Sri Lankan artists. The Kandyan period
painter of the Kelaniya Vihāra goes against the Pāli account by showing
the Buddha standing inside the Treasure-house (Fig. 34). The
Nidānakathā, explicitly says that the Blessed One spent the fourth
week, in the Treasure-house seated cross-legged thinking out the
Abhidamma Piṭaka and here especially the entire Paṭṭhāna with its
infinite methods.104 The artist of the Medawala Tampita Vihāra has
added a three-headed Brahmā next to the seated Buddha (Fig. 21).
No narration is found in any of the Buddhist text to justify Brahmā’s
presence in the fourth week, and we shall develop this point later.
If we follow the narration of the Nidānakathā, the Buddha sat under
the Shepherd’s Nigrodha-tree during fifth week.105 It further says that
at that time, Taṇhā, Arāti and Rāgā, the three daughters of Māra, made
the final attempt to captivate the already enlightened Budddha. Apart
from the Hiṅdagala and Kelaniya Vihāras (Figs. 32 and 34), all the
mural paintings discussed here depict the three daughters performing
a seductive dance (Figs. 22, 26, 28 and 35). As we know in the Sanskrit
tradition, once defeated under the Bodhi tree, the Māra’s daughters
are not heard of again.
Contrary to the narration in the Sanskrit Mahāvastu, the Pāli
Nidānakathā records that the encounter with the Nāga king, Mucilinda,
took place in the sixth week.106 This is exactly what we see in all the
Kandyan paintings visualising activities of the Buddha in the sixth
week (Figs. 23, 27, 33, 34 and 35). Although, the Nidānakathā very
explicitly records that Mucilinda, when a storm arose, shielded the
Buddha with seven folds of his hood, in these paintings the number
hoods varies, from one to five. For example, in the Ridi Vihāra, the
102
103
Mahāvastu, p. 287.
104
105
Ibid., p. 202.
106
Ibid., p. 204.
Figure 30: Hiṅdagala Vihāra probably built in 1775 by
Rajadi Rajasimha. With the courtesy of the
Figure 31: Shrine with the paintings of the seven weeks,

Hiṅdagala Vihāra. With the courtesy of the
Figure 32: Seven weeks, Hiṅdagala Vihāra. With the courtesy of the
Figure 33: ‘Sixth and seventh weeks’, Hiṅdagala Vihāra. With the
courtesy of the Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 34: Kelaniya Vihāra, mural paintings following the Kandyan style of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
With the courtesy of the Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph R.B.
Figure 35: Mugirigala Vihāra, near Tangalla with early twentieth century paintings. With the courtesy of the
snake-king is shown with a single huge head, over the house where
the Blessed One is seated in mediation (Fig. 27).107
As discussed earlier, according to the Nidānakathā, the two
merchants, Trapuṣa and Bhallika reached the Rajāyātana tree at the
end of the seventh week. The artist of the Kelaniya Vihāra alone is
content to show the Buddha seated in dhyāna mudra under the
Rajāyātana tree without the presence of the merchants (Fig. 34). The
artist of the Ridi Vihāra, on the contrary, gives a vivid picture of the
events taking place at the end of the seventh week (Fig. 29). Here, as
the two merchants approach the Blessed One with refreshments from
the left, four Lokapālas shown above emerging from the clouds each
holding an alms bowl. The four-armed Viṣṇu holding the śaṅkha and
a water pot, is a pure invention of the painter. In Mugirigala Vihāra,
the Blessed one is shown already holding a bowl, while three out of
the four Lokapālas appear on the top right hand corner of the image
(Fig. 35). The two merchants enter the scene from the right holding
rice cakes and honey to offer to the Buddha to break his fast. This
depiction follows the narration in the Chinese translation of Aśvaghoṣa’s
Buddhacarita according to which four kings offered their alms bowls,
before the arrival of the merchants.108 The seventh week in the
Medawala Tampita Vihāra depicts the Buddha seated under the
Rajāyātana tree in abhaya mudrā being approached by the two brothers
with refreshments (Fig. 24). In the Hiṅdagala Vihāra painting, Trapuṣa
and Bhallika are shown to the left and three out of four Lokapālas to
the right: two emerging from the clouds while the third in añjali
mudrā kneeling in front of the Buddha with an alms bowl already
placed on a stand (Fig. 33). Perhaps the most striking and vivid painting
of the seventh week is to be found in the Mahāraja Vihāra of the
Dambulla Raja Mahāvihāra in Dambulla (Fig. 36).109 The Buddha, in
dhyāna mudra is seated on a higher seat under the Rajāyātana tree,
while four Lokapālas, each holding a bowl, appear to the right and
the two merchants from Orissa are shown to the left. One holds a
bowl filled with refreshments while the other holds a reliquary stūpa
107
The absence of the Mucilinda-tree is noteworthy.
108
Buddhacarita, p. 105. 72.
109
Gatellier, 1991, vol. 2, p. 97, Fig. 162. The paintings of this cave were
ancient, but their present state goes back to the eighteenth century when they
were completely restored and repainted, see Bandaranayake, 1986, p. 154.
introduction 63
Figure 36: ‘Seventh week’, Mahāraja Vihāra of the Dambulla Raja

Mahāvihāra in Dambulla. With the courtesy of the Department of
Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph O.B.
reminding us of the handful of hair the Blessed One offered to them

by stroking his head.110 The man seated on a branch of a tree watching
the scene arouses our curiosity. Could he be the deva, a blood relation
of the two merchants, who stopped their carts, and moved their hearts
to offer food to the Master? If this hypothesis is correct here we have
once again another depiction of the account which is only narrated in
the Nidānakathā.111 A similar depiction can also be seen in the painting
of the seventh week from the Hiṅdagala Vihāra; here the figure
interpreted as the blood relative points his finger towards the Blessed
One (Fig. 33).
Mural Paintings from Myanmar
Several art historians have discussed paintings, terracotta plaques and

palm-leaf manuscripts depicting the seven weeks after the great
110
The presence of four-armed Brahmā holding a water pot, emerging from
the clouds above the two merchants is also to be noted.
111
awaking of the Buddha attested in Myanmar.112 Contrary to the North

Indian art schools, Rāmañña (Myanmar) artists follow the narrations
of the Pāli Nidānakathā. Donald Stadtner argued that the Pāli canon
became the basis of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia and
the Pāli may have served as a lingua franca for the communication
between Sri Lanka and Burma.113 The political affiliation between
Sri Lanka and Myanmar reached its apogee when Vijayabāhau (1055-
1110 ce), then fighting against Colas, received help from the king of
Myanmar. The decline of Buddhism caused by the Cola occupation
of Sri Lanka prompted King Vijayabāhau to invite monks from
Rāmañña to purify the saṅgha of the three nikāyas.114 This episode
apparently took place during the reign of King Anurudha (1044-77)
who was then ruling in Burma. As noted by R.A.L.H. Gunawardana,
Pāli Buddhism was known in Upper Burma, as evidenced by the
Hmawaza inscription, as early as the fifth century ce.115 These close
links between the two countries has certainly paved the way to
iconographies based on Pāli literature.
This is the reason why the depictions of the seven weeks after the
Great Awakening of the Buddha also known as the seven stations were
very popular themes of the Bagan paintings and these depictions
follow the Pāli works.116 The terracotta plaque from Pagan now in the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, published by Donald Stadtner bears
a close resemblance, as far as the iconography of the seven weeks is
concerned, to the relief from Kumbukwewa.117 The events are not
presented in a chronological order, although all the seven weeks, as
well as the Great Awakening, can easily be identified. Following the
112
See the studies of Stadtner (1991); Bautze-Picron (2003), Raymond (2010).
113
Stadtner, 2005, p. 12.
114
Gunawardana, 1979, pp. 271-7.
115
Gunawardana (1979, p. 272) here refers to the article by Duroiselle in the
Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India, 1928-9, pp. 105-7).
116
For a depiction of the Buddha gazing at the Bodhi tree with unblinking
eyes during the second week from the Hapya-thon-zu (Bagan), see Bautze-Picron,
2003, pl. 36, p. 41; for an image of the Buddha walking up and down, in the
treasure-cloister during the third week from Tayok-pyi-hpaya-gyi (Bagan), see
see Bautze-Picron, 2003, pl. 37, p. 42; for a depiction of the Buddha seated in
the jewelled-house during the fourth week from Kubyauk-gyi, see Bautze-Picron,
2003, pl. 38, p. 42 and for an image of the Buddha protected by the Mucilinda
the Nāga king during the sixth week, see Bautze-Picron, 2003, pl. 40, p. 44.
117
Stadtner, 1991, pp. 39-52 and also in Buddhist Art of Myanmar, Fig. 26.
introduction 65
sequence from left to right, we see: Mucilinda the Nāga king (6th
week); the Buddha paying homage to the Bodhi-tree with unblinking
eyes (2nd week); the Buddha under the Ajapala Nigrodha tree (5th
week); the Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree (1st week); The Buddha
in the Jewelled house (4th week); the Buddha walking up and down
a long way or caṅkram (3rd week) and the Buddha under the
Rājāyatana tree (7th week). This plaque is dated to the eleventh and
twelfth centuries and this was precicely the period when Myanmar
was in close relationship with Sri Lanka.
Among many paintings in Bagan, we may draw the attention of
the reader to the paintings of the deep chamber in the East corridor
of the Sulamani Temple which was built in 1183, and it is considered
as an important landmark in Bagan’s architecture (Fig. 37). However,
the paintings depicting the seven weeks are dated the eighteenth
century based on the inscription in the north entrance hall dated to
1779. It is also important to underline here that the deep chamber
with the paintings originally faced the main entrance of the shrine.118
The seated Buddha in the bhūmisparśa mudrā symbolizes the
Figure 37: Sulamani Temple in Bagan, Myanmar built 1183. With the
courtesy of the Department of Archaeology, Myanmar. Photograph O.B.
118
Stadtner, 2005, p. 256.
Enlightenment and the first week the Blessed One spent under the
Bodhi tree (Fig. 38). On either side of the main image, the right and
left walls bear the images of the six other weeks. The narration begins
on the right wall; reading from right to left, the second week is
illustrated by the Buddha in front of the bodhimaṇḍa (Fig. 39). The
Buddha then walks in the cloistered path, thus evoking the third week
(Fig. 39). Following the narration of the Nidānakathā, the Tathāgata
is shown seated inside the jewelled house created by the gods (Fig.
39). As the Pāli text tells us the Blessed One went, in the fifth week,
to the Shepherd’s Nigrodha tree: and sat there meditating on Doctrine.
This week is clearly depicted on the left wall (Figs. 40 and 41). Under
the seated Buddha, goats are shown playing, indicating it is indeed
the Goatherd’s Banyan tree (Fig. 41). The three daughters of Māra
are not depicted, however, in this scene in Burma. They begin to
appear in some Bagan paintings as early as the eleventh century.119
Brahmā, identified in the Burmese inscription below the divinity, as
‘Thahanpati’ in another words ‘Brahmā Sahampathi’ is quite
exceptional.120 While examining the paintings of the Medawala
Tampita Vihāra, we have observed that Brahmā makes a sudden
appearance during the fourth week (Fig. 21). We know it was only
quite a long time after the events related to Trapuṣa and Bhallika,
when the Buddha had decided not to preach to the humans that Indra
and Brahmā intervened begging the Blessed One to reconsider his
decision. The Chinese version of the Buddhacarita reduces the seven
weeks to one: “The Buddha meditated seven days, and his mind was
pure. He observed the bodhi tree, gazing without blinking.” Then
Brahmā intervened to persuade the Buddha to teach so as to rescue
the suffering beings. The Buddha was pleased in his heart at Brahmā’s
invitation and expresses his intention to expound the Law. The presence
of Brahmā during the fourth week in the Medawala Tampita Vihāra
painting (Fig. 21) or in the fifth week at the East corridor of the
Sulamani shrine painting (Fig. 41) has no relevance with any of the
Buddhist texts. In both occasions, we believe, Brahmā appears out of
119
For an interesting survey on over all depictions of the three daughters, see
Stadtner, 2015.
120
Stadtner, 2005, pp. 256 and 259. It is difficult to accept the hypothesis put
forward by Stadtner (2005, p. 256) according to which Brahmā is depicted here
appealing to the Buddha to preach.
Figure 38: Deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani Temple in
Bagan, Myanmar. Photograph O.B.
Figure 39: Right wall with the paintings of the second, third and fourth weeks,
deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani Temple in Bagan,
Myanmar. Photograph O.B.
Figure 40: Left wall with the paintings of the fifth, sixth and
seventh weeks, deep chamber at the East corridor,
Sulamani Temple in Bagan, Myanmar. Photograph O.B.
Figure 41: Left wall with the paintings of the fifth and sixth weeks,
deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani Temple in
Bagan, Myanmar. Photograph O.B.
introduction 69
Figure 42: Left wall with the painting of the seventh week,
deep chamber at the East corridor, Sulamani Temple in Bagan,
Myanmar. Photograph O.B.
context. Mucilinda who protects the Buddha from the heavy rain was
very popular in Southeast Asia, and the depiction of the snake-king
in the next painting is quite exquisite (Fig. 41). It is not necessary to
emphasize that in this series of paintings, the episode of Mucilinda
corresponds to the sixth week narrated in the Pāli tradition, but certainly
not the fifth week of the Sanskrit accounts. Finally, as in the Kandyan
paitings, the seventh week is characterized by the presence of the two
merchant brothers offering refreshments and four World Guardians
proposing alms bowls to the Blessed One (Fig. 42). The continuation
of the story is then depicted by the seated Buddha eating the food
offered by Trapuṣa and Bhallika. We thus have a complete set of
episodes related to the narration of the Nidānakathā revealing it was
the Pāli tradition which was in vogue in Burma.121
Apart from Bagan, seven weeks following the enlightenment of the Buddha
121
were amply depicted on the murals of Powin Taung caves of the Nyaungyan
(1599-1752) and early Konbaung (eighteenth century) periods. See Munier and
Aung, 2007, pp. 15, 77-8. See the illustrations in the book: cave 111, pl. 40 from
the fifth to the seventh weeks; cave 473, pl. 79, all the seven weeks; cave 585,
pl. 85, from the second to the seventh weeks; temple A, pl. 152, pp. 77-8, all the
Conclusions
The relief from Kumbukwewa from Sri Lanka, as we mentioned at

the very beginning of this study, was no doubt the most ancient
document so far attested where a complete set of the seven weeks is
depicted in a single document. We do not exclude the possibility that
it was sculpted in Andhra and was taken to Sri Lanka by a monk or
trader as an offering to the Buddhist shrine at Kumbukwewa. It is
most probable, however, that it was executed by an Andhra artist
inspired by the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa School of art and who followed the
Pāḷi Nidānakathā very closely. We have observed that stylistically
most of the depictions in the relief from Kumbukwewa have their
prototypes in the Andhra school. The hard-lime stone slab was imported
to the island from Andhra, because this type of stone deposits are not
attested in Sri Lanka. Taking into account all these aspects discussed
so far we can date the relief from Kumbukwewa, without much risk
of error, to the fourth century ce.
Although the Nidānakathā was composed in the fifth century ce
by Buddhaghoṣa, it is quite possible that the oral as well as the written
traditions were in existence both in Sri Lanka and Andhra prior to the
time of Buddhaghoṣa. It is also noteworthy, that the first mention of
the seven weeks occurs in the Mahāvaṃsa, the great Pāḷi Chronicle
of the island dated to the fifth century ce.122 It is said that when king
Dutugamunu who reigned in the second century bce, built the
Mahāthūpa in his capital city of Anuradhapura one of his main concerns
was to depict the seven weeks in the relic chamber along with the
golden statues of the Buddha. As we know, it is impossible to imagine
that the anthropomorphic images of the Buddha were in vogue in the
second century bce right in the middle of the aniconic period. However,
we can at least deduce from this account that during the period in
which this chronicle was written, meaning the fifth century ce, the
depictions of the seven weeks after the Perfect Enlightenment of the
Buddha were known to the Buddhist monk who wrote it. Let us
seven weeks; cave 93, pls. 234, 236, p. 151, all the seven weeks; cave 462, pls.
334-6, pp. 269-71, all the seven weeks; cave 472, pl. 347, p. 472, from the third
to the seventh weeks; cave 568, pls. 385-6, p. 568, all the seven weeks. Needless
to say all these paintings follow the narration of the Nidānakathā.
122
Mahāvaṃsa, p. 208, XXX, 78: “The events during the seven weeks he
commanded them to depict duly here and there in the relic chamber.…”
introduction 71
Figure 43: ‘The Buddha under the Bodhi tree’, painting from the relic
chamber, Mahiyangana Stūpa. With the courtesy of the Department of
Archaeology, Sri Lanka. Photograph O.B.
underline once again that in almost all the paintings of the Kandyan
period in Sri Lanka that we have examined, and many others which
were not discussed in the present study, the seven weeks are depicted
according to the chronological order given in the Nidānakathā.
The relief from Kumbukwewa that we date to the fourth century
ce, because of its closeness to the later Nāgārjunakoṇḍa style, was no
doubt one of the earliest documents which existed at least thirteen
centuries prior to the Kandyan paintings. This means that the tradition
of painting the seven weeks inside relic chambers was in vogue around
the fourth and fifth centuries as mentioned in the Pāli chronicles.
Unfortunately, only two painted relic chambers have been found so
far in Sri Lanka: one in the Mahā Seya at Mihintale and the other in
the Mahiyangana Stūpa at Mahiyangana. The paintings of the Mahā
Seya at Mihintale which could be dated to the fifth or sixth century ce
depict gods and apsararas venerating the relics.123 Many fragmentary
paintings of the Mahiyangana Stūpa relic chamber are usually dated
123
Paranavitana, 1971, no 105.
to the twelfth century, in other words the Polonnruwa period.124 The

depiction of the Buddha under the Bodhi tree which may correspond
to the first of the seven weeks after his Perfect Enlightenment
(Fig. 43),125 may indicate that this relic chamber may have had more
paintings of the other six weeks as well as other episodes of his life.
If our hypothesis is correct, commencing from the relief from
Kumbukwewa, continued through the paintings of the relic chambers
of the Mahāthūpa in Anuradhapura and Mahiyangana Stūpa, the
tradition of depicting the seven weeks may have reached its apogee
during the Kandyan period. The pillage of the stūpas by the invaders
of the past and the illicit diggers of the present have left little hope
that one day we will discover such marvels of the Anuradhapura and
Polonnaruva periods. Until such a time, the present relief will serve
to bridge the gap of a forgotten past.
124
Paranavitana, 1971, nos 108-10. The Buddha seated venerated by gods,
among which, the presence of Brahmā holding the kamaṇḍalu, Viṣṇu, the śaṅkha
and Śiva, the triśūla is to be noted, since the Polonnaruwa period is characterized
by the impact of Hinduism over Buddhism.
125
This is also the opinion of Bandaranayake, 1986, p. 62.
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Seven Weeks After The Enlightenment of T

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Seven Weeks

Contradictions in Text, Confusions in Art

1. Hard limestone plaque found in the premises of the

16. ‘Assault of Māra’, relief from Amarāvati School, Musée

36. ‘Seventh week’, Mahāraja Vihāra of the Dambulla Raja

The present study is based on a hitherto unpublished relief most

many Buddhist temples. I am also much indebted to Dr. Gautam

monastery in Anuradhapura are unfinished, and it is almost certain

Figure 1: Hard limestone plaque found in the premises of the

archaeological discoveries in Sri Lanka and South India have added

Pāli, Sanskrit and Chinese sources

There is some confusion and a number of contradictions in the texts

Lalitavistara, the Fāngguǎng dà zhuāngyán jīng, it is said: “At that

contemplation, goûtant en lui-même le bonheur, il passe une semaine au pied de

It is stated very clearly in the Mahāvastu that “Then having arisen

Fifth and Sixth Weeks

tenupasaṅkami, tatrāpi dhammaṃ vicinantoyeva vimuttisukhaṃ paṭisaṃvedento

Craving (Taṇhā), Discontent (Arāti) and Lust (Rāgā), the three

experienced no bodily wants, but fed on Jhāna-joy, Path-joy and

confusions in the exact activities of the Buddha in each seven days

The confusion created in the Lalitavistara concerning the first two

Figure 2: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Private collection, New York. Grey

the Mahāvastu,46 the rest of his body is considerably stylized. The

Mahāvastu, pp. 287-8.

Figure 3: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

Figure 4: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Peshawar Museum.

ground to the hub. 53 Although this detail is not explicitly shown, we

Figure 5: Reliefs from Gandhāra. Private collection, San Francisco.

relief, the figured representations take place in an architectural

meditation seat; finally prince Siddhārtha seated on a carpet of grass

Great Sāñcī Stūpa

However, the pillars of the southern gateway (toraṇa) of the Great

Figure 8: Reliefs on the east Figure 9: Reliefs on the front face of

panel showing the same event is well-conserved in the inner face of

the Mahāvastu and the sixth week according to the Nidānakathā. In

of them is shown seated on either side of the Nāga king (Figs. 8, 9

Figure 12: ‘Trapuṣa and Bhallika’ panel on the front face of

The remaining events associated with the Perfect Enlightenment

created by gods according to the Nidānakathā.70 The Buddha’s

Among the sculptures of the Nāgārjunakoṇḍa Stūpa, the most

Figure 15: Slab found in the site 3 of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa,

was correctly identified by Longhurst as the first sermon in the ‘deer

mudrā commonly considered as the abhaya mudrā. Quoting from the

Frieze from Kumbukwewa (Sri Lanka)

As mentioned earlier, the most ancient document, so far attested,

Figure 16: ‘Assault of Māra’, relief from Amarāvati School,

the right in añjali mudrā.85 Compared to the Amarāvatī sculpture

from my place”.86 Furthermore, the Nidānakathā confirms the same

Mural Paintings from Sri Lanka

Figure 17: Medawala Tampita Vihāra commissioned by

order given in the Nidānakathā and the Mahābodhi-Vaṁsa.92 In order

Kelaniya Vihāra, near Colombo with mural paintings belonging to

Figure 19: ‘Second Week’, Medawala Tampita Vihāra.With the

Figure 21: ‘Fourth Week with three-headed Brahmā’, Medawala

Figure 23: ‘Sixth Week: Mucilinda, the Nāga king’, Medawala

Figure 29: ‘Seventh Week: Trapuṣa and Bhallika’, Uḍa Vihāra

As we have seen in the analysis of the literary sources, the des­

Figure 31: Shrine with the paintings of the seven weeks,

Figure 36: ‘Seventh week’, Mahāraja Vihāra of the Dambulla Raja

reminding us of the handful of hair the Blessed One offered to them

Mural Paintings from Myanmar

Several art historians have discussed paintings, terracotta plaques and

awaking of the Buddha attested in Myanmar.112 Contrary to the North

As we have seen in the analysis of the literary sources, the des