Panel with devotees honoring the Dharma-wheel and nagas protecting the relics at Ramagrama stupa
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This is a wonderfully direct and unencumbered scene of Buddhist devotion. Two male devotees worship the wheel, a metaphor for the power of the Buddha’s teachings, the Dharma. The panel represents the veneration of the Buddha’s corporeal relics retrieved from his cremation pyre. Divided into eight parts, one portion of the relics was interred in a stupa at Ramagrama, where, following a flood, it came into the possession of the nagas, or serpent deities, who guarded it fiercely. The representation of this legend, with the nagas entwined protectively around the dome of the stupa as here, was a favored visual narrative in the ancient Andhra territories.
Artwork Details
- Title: Panel with devotees honoring the Dharma-wheel and nagas protecting the relics at Ramagrama stupa
- Period: Satavahana
- Date: 1st century BCE
- Culture: India, Dhulikata, Karimnagar District, Telangana
- Medium: Limestone
- Dimensions: Visible overall: H. 45 in. (114.3 cm); W. 31 in. (78.7 cm); D. 5 in. (12.7 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by Amaravati Heritage Centre and Museum, Andhra Pradesh
- Rights and Reproduction: Photo by Theirry Ollivier
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art