Queen Maya's Dream
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The imagery of Queen Maya, mother of Lord Buddha asleep on her side having a dream is the second most recurring figure of Queen Maya after, the birth scene of Lord Buddha. Representation of the incident is seen in several buddhist sites, Bahrut, Sarnath, Amravati, Nagarjunakonda, Ajanta, Gandhara sites and sites in Central, South-East and East Asia. It is the first scene in the sequence of images telling the story of the birth of Lord Buddha.[1][2]
Legend
The story of the dream is recorded in several historic texts like Lalitavistara, the Abiniskramana sutra, the Buddhacarita, the Mahavastu and the Mülasarvastivada Vinaya. Most elaborated and detailed version is recorded in --- which also provides background details of the story. The text says, A summer festival (As"laha) was organised in the city of Kapilasvastu for seven days before the full moon, Mahämayä had taken part in the festivities On the seventh day she woke-up early, bathed in scented water, and distributed alms, wore splendid clothes and ate pure food followed by performing the vows of the holy day.After the ritual, she went to her bed chamber, fell asleep and saw the following dream. [3]"The four guardians of the world [gods]lifted her on her couch and carried her to the Himalaya mountains and placed her under a great sala tree .... Then their queens bathed her ... dressed her in heavenly garments, anointed her with perfumes and put garlands of heavenly flowers on her. ... They laid her on a heavenly couch, with its head towards the east. The 13odhisattva, wandering as a superb white elephant ... approached her from the north. Holding a white lotus flower in his trunk, hc circumambulated her three times. Then he gently struck her right side, and entered her womb. (Dakkhillapassam t"lewa kucchim pauitthasadiso.)"[4]
After waking up Maya described her dream to her Husband Shantanu , who sent for learned priest , to interpret the dream. The priest predicted that the queen is impregnated with a son and the sion will either rule the world or will renounce worldly pleasures and live religious life and will become a Buddha.[3]
Iconography
Depiction of the scene of conception of Buddha is an example of auspicious female sexualiity. The scene shows Queen Maya lying on the couch on her side with female attendants, sleeping on the side and four lokapalas or celestial beings are standing in the corner, an elephant is seen entering the womb of Maya. [5][2]
Also See
References
- ^ Kumari, Sabita (2012). "REPRESENTATION OF THE BIRTH OF THE BUDDHA IN BUDDHIST ART OF ANDHRADESA". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 73: 163–168. ISSN 2249-1937.
- ^ a b Young, Serinity (2004). Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography and Ritual. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-91482-6.
- ^ a b Young, Serinity (2001), Bulkeley, Kelly (ed.), "Buddhist Dream Experience", Dreams: A Reader on Religious, Cultural, and Psychological Dimensions of Dreaming, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 9–28, doi:10.1007/978-1-137-08545-0_2, ISBN 978-1-137-08545-0, retrieved 2023-04-26
- ^ Nidäna-Kathä, in TheJätaka together wilh its Commerztary, ed.V. Fausböll (London:Trüb�ner and Co., 1877), l.50 (hereafter NK). This began as an introduetion to the Jätakas, but rapidly became the standard Theravada biography of the Buddha. The dream and its interpretation are translated byT.W Rhys Davids as Buddhist Birth Stories (1880. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1925), pp. 149-151.
- ^ "Maya's Dream". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 2023-04-26.