The Buddha performing the miracles of Shravasti

Eight Scenes of the Buddha’s Life
In the later Buddhist traditions of northern India, eight particular episodes of the Buddha’s life and the eight sites where they took place were singled out for special attention. Occasionally the scenes were represented with several figures and props associated with the story. Often, however, they were abbreviated to a Buddha image with only one other figure, prop, or symbol to identify the specific scene. Presumably the standard eight scenes were so familiar that many Buddhists could recognize them from only one or two clues.
As you will see in the artworks nearby, sometimes scenes from the standard set of eight are depicted singly. Sometimes four, five, or all eight scenes are depicted together in one sculpture or painting.
These standard eight scenes of the Buddha’s life, and the sites in the Buddha’s homeland in northeastern India where they took place, are:
• Birth (Lumbini)
• The victory over the demon Mara (Bodhgaya)
• The first preaching (Sarnath)
• The miracles of Shravasti (Shravasti)
• The descent from Indra’s heaven after the Buddha had preached to his deceased mother (Sankashya)
• The monkey’s offering (Rajgir)
• The taming of the enraged elephant (Vaishali)
• Death (Kushinagara)

In northeastern India eight specific episodes of the Buddha’s life came to have special importance.
Representations of these are displayed here along the low wall to the right., The king at Shravasti heard that a group of opponents of the Buddha’s message was planning to perform miracles. The Buddha promised the king that he too would perform miracles, and would do so under a certain mango tree. When the Buddha found that the heretics had destroyed the mango tree, he made another tree grow to full size instantly from a seed. Then he performed other miracles such as manifesting multiple appearances of himself, all preaching the doctrine simultaneously.
Here we see the Buddha sitting beneath the branches of the mango tree. His hands make the gesture of setting in motion “the wheel of the doctrine”—that is, preaching. Above the Buddha, small apparitions of himself also preach. Below the Buddha’s lotus throne can be seen the king (with a crown) in an attitude of respect and one of the defeated opponents.