This is a moonstone or sandakadapahana--a semi-circular stone slab (originally rectangular in shape), which may be highly decorated or left undecorated. It is found at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to a stupa or shrine or other edifice. Here it is at the entrance to the central monastic unit within a pañchāyatana (site with a central oblong structure and four other smaller, square, secondary monastic residential structures placed around it). This famous moonstone at the entrance to the central monastic structure at a site designed as a Pañchāyatana (and earlier was known as Mahasen's pavilion). It is considered the most beautiful extant example of a moonstone. Length: 9.5 feet; breadth: 4 feet 9 inches. This may have been the entrance step to the centrally placed image house of this Pañchāyatana. An early example is also found at the Buddhist Caitya, in Nāgārjunakonda, India, among other sites on the sub-continent. The moonstones were used as a paving on which to wash feet. In the semi-circle below that of the flame motif there are thirteen animal figures in three sequences of an elephant, horse, lion, and bull, with the elephant repeated a fourth time. Next to the semicircle of the foliage there are thirteen sacred geese, each holding a bud with two leaves. Length: 9.5 feet. Width: 4 feet 9 inches. Diameter. 2.920 meters. Sculptured on gneiss.
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