Part Of The Great Shrine at Amaravati

This stone relief was part of a larger shrine at Amaravati. The shrine was a stypa, a solid dome contained relics of a renowned religious teacher. At Amaravati there was a particularly large stupa that was built upon and added to over many centuries, with the additions reflecting changes in doctrine over time. People would walk around a stupa clockwise, walked over the cremated ashes of important people (the clockwise motion being considered honourable and auspicious). This sculpture would have been on the stone railing around the walls of the stupa, that would have been seen as people walked around it.