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Secondary sourcePaintingbetween 1800 and 1899

The Birth of the Buddha, Queen Maya and Indra

Unknown Sri Lankan artist · between 1800 and 1899

A Sri Lankan gouache painting depicting the traditional legend of Queen Maya giving birth to the Buddha, received by the god Indra.

Illustrates the traditional legend of the Buddha's miraculous birth to Queen Maya.

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Painting of a crowned woman in a red robe holding a tree branch with one hand and raising the other hand, while a small infant is held by a bearded man in yellow robes kneeling below. Gods in clouds and a figure with a halo kneel nearby, and women in teal and red kneel with hands raised at the right, beside a red cloth held by a figure. Flowers and grass fill the foreground.
The birth of the Buddha: Queen Maya and the god Indra. Gouache painting by a Sri Lankan artist, 19th century. Wellcome Collection, London.

About this source

What it is

This gouache painting, made by a Sri Lankan artist between 1800 and 1899, is held by the Wellcome Collection. It shows Queen Maya holding the branch of a tree while giving birth to the Buddha, who is received by the god Indra as other gods look on.

Why it matters

This scene is a central part of traditional Buddhist legend about the Buddha's birth, passed down and retold across many Asian cultures. The painting shows how artists in nineteenth-century Sri Lanka continued this storytelling tradition, blending religious devotion with vivid visual narrative.

Look closer

  • What details in the painting mark this as a miraculous or sacred birth rather than an ordinary one?
  • Why might the artist have included multiple gods and attendant figures around the central scene?
  • What does this image leave out compared to how a birth might actually happen?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Buddha on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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