Tinted plaster-cast from a series of sculptured stone panels illustrating the Gandavyuha along the chief wall of the second gallery in the great Buddhist stupa of Borobudur in the Kedu District of Central Java.

The subject represents a scene from the Ganavyuha, a treatise on (Buddhist) transcendentalism by Asang (Arya Sang) the great teacher of the Yogacharya who composed it probably in the first half of the 6th century.

In the centre Prince Sudhana Kumara is seated with hands in the reverential pose, accompanied by five seated male followers. On the left, within an elaborate pavilion, is seated the first Dhyani Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra, giving to Sudhana the final instructions in the Bodhijnana which produced in him the complete enlightenment. Two standing female chauri-bearers attend the Bodhisattva on either side: beneath his throne is his distinctive vahan, the elephant, and in a tree behind the prince is the Cintamani or jewel, the symbol of the God.

Java, Indonesia
8th century
Plaster cast

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