Buddha Shakyamuni Meditating in the Indrashala Cave [top] and Buddha Dipankara [bottom]

This Gandharan schist relief from the 1st-3rd century CE tells two stories stacked in registers. The top panel shows Buddha Shakyamuni meditating in the Indrashala Cave, where Indra (king of the gods) visited and the Buddha delivered a sermon answering forty-two questions, converting Indra to Buddhism. The bottom panel shows an earlier story: a wealthy Brahmin named Sumati laid his matted hair across a puddle so that Buddha Dipankara wouldn't soil his feet. Dipankara then prophesied Sumati would be reborn as the future Buddha Shakyamuni.

The two-register format connects the prophecy (bottom) with its fulfillment (top). Gandharan sculptors carved these narrative panels in gray-blue schist from the Swat valley, blending Greco-Roman artistic elements with Buddhist stories. The naturalistic drapery, vine scrolls, and realistic anatomy show Hellenistic influence. The piece is at the Art Institute of Chicago, measuring about 24 by 15 inches.