34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



I. The miraculous birth of the Bodhisattva Siddhartha/ as is well- 

 known, took place in the Lumbini garden near Kapilavastu and on 

 the road between that city and Devadaha. The tree of which the 

 branch, " bending down in response to her need," served Mahamaya 

 as support, is variously called a sal-tree (Niddnakatha) , mango 

 (Asokdvaddna) , plaksa {Lalita VistaraY and asoka-tree {Divyd- 

 vaddna, and here plate 20) . In the Divydvaddna Asoka himself is repre- 

 sented as visiting the site and conversing with the genius of the tree, 

 who had been a witness to the Nativity ; so that the tree had originally 

 been, or at least had come to be regarded as having been the abode of 

 a tree-spirit when Mahamaya halted beneath it. It is, no doubt, the 

 spirit of the tree that bent down the branch to meet Mahamaya's 

 hand ; indeed, in the drawing of a relief almost identical with our 

 plate 20, reproduced in Burgess, Buddhist stupas of Amaravati and 

 Jaggayyapcta, plate XXXII, a hand appears visibly from amongst the 

 branches of the Nativity tree. The Buddha himself is sometimes aided 

 in just this way, by a hand put forth from a tree, for example, when 

 he emerges from the waters of Lake Panihata {Lalita I'istara, 

 Ch. XVIII), and after crossing the River Nairanjana (Amaravati 

 relief, Vogel, Indian serpent lore, pi. VII, a). 



We certainly need not and should not regard Mahamaya, consid- 

 ered from the point of view of the literature, as having been herself 

 a Vrksaka; but iconographically, as she is represented in Gandharan 



^ The Nativity is a stock subject in Buddhist art, Gandharan, Amaravati, and 

 later. Cf. Foucher, Beginnings of Buddhist Art, pis. Ill, IV; L'Art greco- 

 bouddhique du Gandhara, I, pp. 300 ff. and II, pp. 64-72 ; L' I cono graphic houd- 

 dhique de I'Inde, I, p. 163 and fig. 28: HIIA, fig. 104, upper right hand corner: 

 Krom, Life of the Buddha, p. 74 (with complete list of representations). 



The Amaravati reliefs not only come nearest to the Vrksaka type, but also 

 suggests that the Nativity had been represented in Indian art (without the 

 child) previous to its occurrence in Gandhara (with the child). 



Another version of much interest appears at the back of a Chinese Buddha 

 image of date 457 A. D. (Northern Wei) (Burlington Magazine Monograph 

 on Chinese art. Sculpture, PI. 4, D). There are two ranges; above we 

 have the tree, female attendant, Maya standing, the child emerging from her 

 side, and three Devas, one with a cloth, ready to receive it ; below, the First Bath 

 and the Seven Steps. As the First Bath is here performed by polycephalous 

 Nagas, which are rarely met with in Gandhara, but are highly characteristic for 

 Mathura, there is a probability of direct dependence on an Indian original. 



' In the Lalita Vistara version, the tree is evidently regarded as a caitya-tree, 

 for it is adorned with coloured cloths and other offerings. 



