And when the Bodhisattva had dwelt at Gaya upon the Gaya,cirsa mountain as long as he thought fit, he went forth walking in the direction of Uruvilva, a village where a captain of soldiers had his post, and arrived there. There he saw the river of Nairanjana1 with clear water, goad landing-places, beautified with fine trees and thickets and set on all sides with meadows and villages. Then the mind of the Bodhisattva was greatly pleased: "Behold, fair is this land, pleasant and suitable to dwell in; it is most fitting for a man of good family, who desires to meditate; and as I do so, here will I remain"....

And when the Bodhisattva had considered this, he undertook for six years a heavy penance most difficult of the difficult and hard to exercise. (248: 6; 250: 9).

We shall not dilate on the account of the Bodhisattva's penance here and later on, for the sculptor, mindful of the fundamental rule to avoid all painful scenes, sees fit to omit strewing us the Bodhisattva with the emaciation of his superhuman privations upon him. He does look slightly thinner on the next relief but not much, and only by chance, for on No. 79 and 80, also in the years of privation, he has recovered his usual contour. We have therefore no chance of comparison with the remarkable images of the emaciated Gautama during those six years that are found in the Gandhara art 1).

This relief somewhat resembles the last one; the Bodhisattva on the left, a river on the right, the five in the middle. The scene is no longer a rocky landscape; but the peaceful region of the river banks shaded by trees. Rocks come into sight only here and there, especially on the left where the Bodhisattva is sitting, not now on a lotus cushion, only an ordinary mat. He is talking to the front one of the five towards whom he makes a gesture with the right hand. The two front ones of the five wear their hair on this relief done up very high with a flower at the top. Beside the one most to the right, stands a peculiar jug, much more like a Greek lekuthos than a Javan gendi. The river is wellsupplied with fish; on the opposite bank we see trees and birds.