English: The Lotus: Theme and Variations. Balustrade post, Stupa 2, Sanchi.

A yaksha is shown among elaborate lotiform decoration which pictures the lotus flower in many of its different aspects. The carving seems special because its closely observed and lovingly depicted plant forms are presented in a varied and well-developed design. This is so close to a textbook on how to render the lotus, that I suspect it may have actually been derived from a copybook on that theme. In a purely formal sense, the handling of multiple symmetries - full, partial, and broken, some circular and others reflective about the horizontal or vertical axis - will repay the viewer's close attention.

According to Ciro Lo Muzio, this is "a relief showing a male figure of north-western or Central Asian origins, as revealed by his attire: a tight sleeved tunic with folds rendered with parallel lines forming a chevron-like motif along the arms. But for a few details, the figure, possibly depicting a Saka, strongly recalls the members of a drinking couple in a toilet-tray in the British Museum: same tunic, same chevron pattern on the sleeves (and, in the toilet tray, also on the "solar" motif framing the couple), a very similar hair treatment, and eyelids in strong relief, a detail which is not found on other human figures on the same vedika." in Problems of Chronology in Gandhāran Art: Proceedings of the First International Workshop of the Gandhāra Connections Project, University of Oxford, 23rd-24th March, 2017, p.130