50. Stupa of Mandhatar(.?)

It will be better to mention this scene here, though as noticed above on p. 242, I am not able to agree with Foucherts identification. This is entirely founded on the fact that a stupa is to be seen here , which in my opinion is not the case. Trees are spread over the whole scene, so this takes place out of doors. The actual scene is acted on the right within an enclosed space; a palissade runs along the lower edge of the relief from the right nearly up to the middle, where we can suppose it turns at right angles, though the rest is not visible because of the gateway that rises into the centre of the picture; it has a panel with pillars at the side turned towards the spectator, a roof supported by columns, sloping straight up, and a small storey with a ridged roof. On the right, inside the enclosed space, are seated a richly-dressed woman on a elevation, who makes a sembah and a man with a high tiara, certainly of high rank, who touches with his hand some object placed between them. It is an oblong affair, ornamented at the top with a sort of flower and hanging ribbons, laid on an open dish that rests on a pedestal; it is certainly not a stupa any more than a vase or urn, and looks rather like a large j ewel, though of most unusual shape. What it really is I cannot tell. On the left outside the palissade several persons are seated, who evidently belong to the retinue either of the woman sitting inside or of both the chief persons. They are several women with dishes and a fly-whisk, the first of whom wears a kerchief on her shoulders, and behind her, quite to the left, are three guards with sword and shield. Notice just between the women end the soldiers the head of a fourth guard who holds his hand before his face. This curious attitude seems too much in the background to be of any importance to the story.