Buddha Holding the Grass

Wall Niche, Ananda Temple

In this rare scene, Buddha is holding a bunch of cut grass that was given him by a devotee. The story goes that when he cast the grass down at his feet, it magically assembled itself into a proper meditation mat. (The bunch of grass in this statue is represented proleptically as a rolled-up mat, whose ends appear in front of the Buddha's two forearms.) An interesting architectural element, which does not seem to have much to do with the episode depicted, is incised behind the figure of the Buddha.