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Railing pillar with naga Mucalinda protecting the Buddha
India, Pauni, Bhandara district, Maharashtra
Not on view
This enclosure railing pillar, from a monumental stupa some 135 feet in diameter, dates to the very beginning of the Buddhist figurative sculptural tradition in the Deccan. Its decoration is an inventory of early Buddhist imagery—the lotus, snake, tree, empty throne, and worshippers—and bears stylistic links to the early rock-cut caves of the Western Ghats mountain range. The monastery to which it belongs was likely founded in the third century BCE, at the site of the ancient kingdom of Vidarbha (modern Nagpur). Its capital, Kundina, is described in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata as a great and beautiful city, and is also referred to by the Greek scholar Ptolemy in Geography (mid-second century CE).
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