North Gate, Exterior
I didn't get good photos of this exterior in either 1989 or in 2005, because on both visits I was there during winter, and the angle of the sun didn't allow it. Here's a segment of the gateway showing a yakshi leaning against a tree, but this figure has none of the grace found in the yakshi sculpture in Sanchi's East Gate. As at the East Gate, the pillars here are supported by elephants.
This image shows the miracle of Shravasti, in which the Buddha (here shown as a stupa) projected multiple images of himself and then flew through the air; both miracles were done as proof of his spiritual attainment. The people of Shravasti were duly impressed, and became his disciples.
One of the interesting things about Sanchi is what it shows about life at the time, and here below the Buddha is a well-documented troupe of musicians playing drums, pipes, horns (a special type known as a nagphani or snake's hood is at the bottom left), and various other instruments.
This scene depicts a story from the Buddha's lifetime in which a monkey offered him a gift of honey as tribute--yet another sign of his dominion over all things. Here the Buddha is depicted as a tree, , before which the three devotees at the lower left are prostrating with folded hands. This is one of eight important events in the Buddha's life (recorded on a sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago); Mitra (1965: 38) reports that this took place at Vaishali.
The local sign board reports that this depicts the Buddha's descent from the Tushita heaven to take birth as Prince Siddhartha. The Buddha is visible as the tree in the lower left, attended above by a legion of celestial beings who are throwing flower garlands upon the earth in celebration. The king and queen are under the royal umbrella, the queen has her hand raised to grip a tree branch (according to tradition the queen delivered the future Buddha while holding onto a tree branch for support, so here the tree serves both purposes).
Mitra (1965: 36) gives a different interpretation; that this shows the Buddha's return to his parents' house at Kapilavastu to preach a sermon there.
