109. Arrival at Sadamatta

A city or a gateway is not to be seen any more than on the last or the two following reliefs; Maitrakanyaka meets the nymphs out-of-doors in the forest. There are trees all about the scene, on the right with a couple of deer, while on the left a wide piece of the relief is entirelyfilledupwith forest scenery, birds in and above the trees, among them a parrot and a pigeon, and some wild pigs on the ground with a snake just appearing out of his hole in the rock. Maitrakanyaka is coming from the right, he has a red lotus with a long stalk in his left hand and his right stretched out towards the nymphs; a halo is round his head. This is of course quite natural, for Maitrakanyaka is no other than the I3odhisattva, but it is strange that he wears an aureole on this scene only, nowhere else. The apsaras, eight in number, as they should be, are all depicted sitting; we see most of them in profile as they turn towards the approaching Eodhisattva. Nothing can be distinguished of the objects they hold, because the group is so damaged.