52. The gods visit the Bodhisattva in the women's apartments
Then there came, proclaiming the satisfaction of their hearts with cries of joy, to the Bodhisattva who was in the midst of the women's apartments, Siakra, Brahma and the Guardians of the world, among other gods, naga's, yaksa's, gandharva's, asura's, garuda's, kinnara's, mahoraga's and showed their desire to honor the Bodhisattva.
They greeted the Bodhisattva with respect and devotion, with hands held in sembah, gazing intentionally upon him and with this wish"When shad the time come that we may behold the most perfect Pure Being set forth\and afterwards having placed himself at the feet of the king of the great trees and vanquished Mara with his hosts, attain the highest and most perfect Wisdom?" (159:19; 160: 10).
This scene closes on the right with a gateway. Immediately adjoining comes the interior of the women's apartments. First under an awning, a wide bench; at the end, left, the Bodhisattva on a throne (without his halo) and in the space between a concert being given by women seated on the bench and some in a row, lower down, who are probably women too, but the relief here is rather damaged. The vma, a either with tussles, hand-drum, flute and cymbals are clearly to be seen; the music is quite in accordance with the text that alludes expressly to the concert in the women's appartments in reference to something else (163: 6). In front of the Bodhisattva, two women are standing, one of whom offers him something, then comes a pendapa in which the gods are seated; the front one makes a sembah. Outside the pendapa, left on the relief, we see a row of standing and a row of sitting attendants with the usual accessories, and guards with swords. Most of them surely belong to the Bodhisattva's suite, but one figure in the front, with a sword and his wild yaksa-locks and moustache might be one of those semi-divine creatures whose presence is mentioned in the text. This supposition is not quite probable, as we see on No 53 and 55 a kind of yaksa doing duty as gate-keeper.
This scene of the Bodhisattva in the women's apartments, agrees with representations elsewhere of the same episode; the great difference is that there the aim of the sculptors was a picture of life in the zenana giving not only the Bodhisattva in the midst of his wives but also Gopa; while at Barabudur, the combination of this scene with the visit of the gods required Gopa to be left out and the other ladies pushed a bit to one side. It is not certain whether a relief at Amaravati I) can be accepted as the scene in the women's apartment; we see an eminent personage with a lady on a large throne under a canopy, with womenmusicians and other attendants next to them and in front on the ground. But the identification of a couple of Gandhara-reliefs is certain, where this scene forms a pendant to that of the women asleep before the Great Departure; a couch with the Bodhisattva and his spouse, surrounded by slaves, many with musical instruments: a drum and either are to be seen. On the Chinese relief at Yun-Kang, on the contrary, the Bodhisattva is first alone in a paviliori, then with his arm round a woman, and finally, lying on the ground beside a woman, maybe intended for Gopa, maybe for one of the others.
The text follows with a long passage about the adjuration to the Bodhisattva by the Buddha's of the ten winds, who remind him of his great deeds in former lives, and about a lecture he holds in the women's apartment.