Image title: Figure 21. The Great Departure

Figure 21:—Pillar relief depicting depicting the Great Departure with the recurring representation of the regal parasol and Siddharthaʼs horse Kanthaka, Bharhut, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, United States. (Courtesy: Vidya Dehejia, Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India, Fig. 66).

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The art of Bharhut, dominated by sculptural reliefs narrating a popular facet of Buddhism in the form of the immense Jataka literature, represent the emergence of visual narrative art in India.—Bharhut represents the earliest evidence of narrative art which display many story telling techniques.