Birth of Siddhartha

The queen Maya standing with slight flexion of the body is shown as holding the branch of a sala tree. The child Buddha appears to be issuing from her waist section. The bejeweled lady is accompanied by three headed Brahma, the creator of the universe and four-armed Vishnu, the preserver. A small figure of the Buddha is shown standing on five lotuses to the right side of the lady symbolizing the seven steps after his birth. As legends say the Buddha, taking seven steps declared, “I am born for enlightenment of the good of the world; this is my last birth in the world of phenomena”. Indra, the lord of the heaven, who received the child after birth, is seen on the right side with a cloth in his hands. A female attendant is seen on the left.Two devotees are seated on the pedestal.. The sculpture is a fine specimen of the late Gandhara art and a superbly graphic representation of the legend.