Amaravati Art in the Context of Andhra Archaeology
by Sreyashi Ray chowdhuri | 2018 | 90,477 words
This page relates ‘Representation of Mahabhinishkramana art’ of the study on Amaravati Art in the Context of Andhra Archaeology, including museum exhibitions of the major archeological antiquities. These pages show how the Buddhist establishment of Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) survived from 4th century BCE to 14th century CE. It includes references and translations of episodes of Buddha’s life drawn from the Avadanas and Jatakas which are illustrated in Amaravati art.
Representation of Mahābhiniṣkramaṇa art
Mahābhiniṣkramaṇa is an important event in the life of Buddha and is beautifully represented in several reliefs of the Amarāvatī repertoire. In case of the representation of Mahābhiniṣkramaṇa, some similarity is visible in a relief from Amarāvatī and that of Piṭalkhorā. In this regard it may be added that in the Buddhist biographical literature the Great Departure of Buddha from Kapilāvastu at the night of Rahula’s birth in search of truth is termed as Mahābhiniṣkramaṇa. Coming to the depiction it may be stated that both the reliefs at Amarāvatī (Pl 40a) and Piṭalkhorā (Pl 40b) display summarization of the episode. In addition to this technical similarity both Amarāvatī and Piṭalkhorā reliefs show an ungainly figure of a groom. Resemblance is also visible in the inclusion of some architectural components in the reliefs. In this context the presence of gate with three lintels are chiseled in both the Mahābhiniṣkramaṇa depiction in Piṭalkhorā and Amarāvatī.