Title: Ayaka cornice with three narrative scenes

Period: Ikshvaku

Date: 3rd century CE

Culture: India, Nagarjunakonda, Gunter District, Andhra Pradesh

Medium: Limestone

Dimensions: Overall: H. 16 1/8 (41 cm); W. 58 1/4 in. (148 cm); D. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Lent by Archaeological Museum ASI, Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh

Object Number: TS.149

By the third century CE, offering platforms (ayakas) had become major locations for narrative and decorative sculpture at Andhra stupas. Cornices—the uppermost horizontal element crowning the ayaka—were sculpted from single slabs up to twelve feet in length and divided into narratives separated by pairs of garlanded pilasters between which amorous couples (mithunas) often appear. Three such scenes are preserved here, two relating to the lives of past bodhisattvas (enlightened beings that refrain from entering nirvana in order to help others) and one to the Buddha, at center. The latter is a battle scene, likely representing the War of the Relics, in which contending rulers laid claim to the Buddha’s corporeal remains, the first and highest relics of Buddhism.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/761978