Both the two consecutive chief incidents of this episode, the attack of Mara's army and the appeal to the Earth for witness, are put into one scene on this relief. The Bodhisattva, on whose throne the grass is plainly visible, sits in the middle of the relief in bhumisparga-mudra and immediately on the left the upper part of a female figure appears out of the ground with a vase in her hand; though not strikingly divine to look at, this can be no other than the earth-godess. The pose of the hand above-mentioned being assumed beforehand, during the attack, is not unusual; but the appearance of the earth-godessisalogicalconclusion that has very seldom been depicted; for instance on a relief at Cambodia l). Behind the Bodhisattva, a round piece is left open; the upper half of which is surrounded by the foliage of the Bodhi-tree, the lower half is outlined by flames as the text describes. The enemies' arrows come on both sides, their points already changed into flowers just like the Cambodia relief—and above hover more loose flowers, the metamorphosed projectiles. The sides of the relief are filled in with the armies of the Evil One. Above we see, on both sides, a many-armed figure, carried on the shoulder of another figure and holding many and various weapons; the many-armed figure is most unusual at Barabudur. The other warriors have a fearful and warlike aspect, although there is hardly any actually monstrous figure (above, right); they mostly wear swords and shields, but also bits of rock and other weapons and even a blowpipe can be seen. Two are seated on mis-shapen horses; and a hog's head is there too. On the left below is Mara, seated on an elephant— this occurs too on the representations elsewhere as we shall see—in the dress of a god, just shooting off an arrow. Probably the Evil One is put in a second time, he may be the figure in god's dress below on the right, sitting with head on his hand in dejection and surrounded by male and female followers, one of whom stands with both hands on his master's headdress, to put it on or tale it off. According to Pleyte (p. 135) this is Mara defeated and though a little previous while the battle still rages, this is not improbable, as there is a corresponding scene at Ajant.-a. Also I may call attention to a remarkable detail that proves how the sculptor in famous scenes like this, follows not only the text but some actual tradition as well. I refer to the three small figures that support the throne as atlantes. The text does not mention them and their presence is only to be accounted for by the imitation of a motif known on the continent. The famous vajrasana of Mahabodhi is supported by these little figures as well as lions 1), and the later Buddhist iconography, as appears from a sadhana, requires their presence. There is no reason here to trace the history of these supports, we can refer to Foucher's explanation 2); its interest for us is in the proof it gives of the dependence of the Barabudur sculptors on the traditions of the art of Hindustan, in conjunction with what the text gave them.

We find elsewhere fewer representations of Mara's onslaught than might be expected, that is to say of the attack by itself. The reason is that the artists who were depicting the defeat of the powers of evil, preferred-to combine the military attack with the defeat of the allurements of Mara's daughters. These combined scenes will be discussed with the following relief. The attack alone, is found in the Gan&araart 3) and in connection therewith in some of the reliefs at Amaravat1 4) as well as in the Serindian arts) and in the Chinese caves of Yun-Kang6).