The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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stone grilles and which again veil them from
view [392]. Finally, at the very zenith, is the
supreme Buddha, completely hid under the
solid stone bell of the terminal stupa.
The reliefs of Barabudur are divided as follows:
On the now concealed basement, the
world of desire and the ceaseless action of karma.
On the chief wall, top row, of the first gallery the
story of Buddha who showed the way of escape
from karma. On the bottom row of the back
wall are illustrated Jatakas and Avaddnas - the
acts of faith by which the Bodhisattva prepared
himself for his task. These continue around the
inner wall of the balustrade and on the second
gallery. The third gallery illustrates a text devoted
to Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future.
Less important Maitreya texts are pictured on
the balustrade of the third and fourth galleries.
The wall of the fourth gallery deals with Samantabhadra,
the last Buddha of the Future, and
is
based on a text evidently connected with the
Dhyani Buddhas and thereby directly related
to the mysterious upper reaches ofthe sanctuary.
In walking around the monument in the rite
of pradaksina - that is, describing a sunwise
turn with the right shoulder to the wall - the
pilgrim dynamically enacted a spiritual experience,
following in the footsteps of him who had
already entered Nirvana. In stupas of the primitive
type, like the famous tope at Sanchi, the
worshipper performed a metaphysical journey
through a mandala of a very simple type; the
psycho-physical pilgrimage there was only on
one plane, just as in Hinayana Buddhism one
life is one step towards release. At Barabudur
the architecture provides for a spiral ascension
to the very summit of the pyramid and to the
very zenith of life. 2 Barabudur was dedicated to
a phase of Buddhism in which all men were
believed to have the quality of Bodhic mind and
could attain Buddhahood in one life. The physical
climb through the architecture magically
symbolizes and effects the escape from the
materialism and change of the world of the flesh
386. Barabudur, first gallery,
Mriga or Ruru Jataka