Without being touched, hundreds of thousands of miUions koti's of divine and human music-instruments offered sweet sounds. A hundred thousand ten thousands of koti's of gods bore the great pavilion on their hands, their shoulders and heads. And the hundred thousands of apsaras, everyone making her own music, placed themselves in front, behind, left and right of the Bodhisattva, praising him with the melody of their harmonious songs. (51: 4; 52: 16).

In the middle of the relief in dhyana-mudra in a double pavilion (the one he is sitting in being surrounded by a second one) sits the Bodhisattva and is carried down to the earth. This is shown by the clouds that are seen beneath the building which hovers in the air, as well as by the figures of gods holding it on either side; this they do only with their hands, not head and shoulders. On both sides of the pavilion also on clouds that appear here and there' are the escorting gods with umbrellas, banners, fans, incense-burners and flowers in the hand. The naga's and yak$a's the text speaks of are not there; but on the left we can see the apsaras are present. Whether these are singing we cannot tell, but there are no music instruments. The sculptor has succeeded by the hovering attitude of the gods and the flutter of the banners and fans in giving an impression of the swift motion through the air.

Javanese art is considered to have been greatly influenced by that of Amaravati, but we can here see that as regards the descent of the Bodhisattva, an essential difference exists between the two schools. It will be seen that at Amaravati i) the Bodhisattva has already assumed the form of a white elephant on leaving heaven, while at Barabudur according to the Lalitavistara text he still retains his divine shape. I shall refer later to this fact. At Amaravati too the Bodhisattva is carried in a pavilion; it is borne by yak$a's and surrounded by the gods in attitudes of flying, dancing, and making music.