Gaṇḍavyūha and Borobudur
The Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra, and in particular its Maitreya chapter, was an inspiration for what is arguably the greatest Buddhist monument ever built: Borobudur in Indonesia. This was built in the ninth century by the Buddhist kings of the Śailendra dynasty in Java. The massive structure has a series of encircling terraces that hold 504 statues and 2672 carved panels. The upper terraces, the third and fourth galleries, are entirely dedicated to the Gaṇḍavyūha, with 460 panels illustrating the sūtra.29 Of these, it appears that 218 panels are dedicated to the Maitreya chapter, and from among those twenty are dedicated to the description of Maitreya’s kūṭāgāra and thirty-five to the various manifestations of Maitreya.30 In fact, 334 panels are dedicated to the conclusion of the Gaṇḍavyūha: Maitreya, the brief return to Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and the “Prayer of Good Conduct.” This reflects the importance of the Gaṇḍavyūha and particularly of Maitreya’s kūṭāgāra—an edifice that embodied enlightenment—for the constructors of Borobudur, who were also trying to create an edifice that embodied enlightenment.
Although the number of accounts of Sudhana meeting kalyāṇamitras grew in succeeding recensions, they did not reach the number given in the sūtra itself in chapter 54, where Maitreya states that Sudhana, following his initial meeting with Mañjuśrī, has visited 110 kalyāṇamitras. Borobudur, possibly to accord with that statement, does have that number of panels dedicated to the illustration of that part of the Gaṇḍavyūha, but even so it does not represent 110 kalyāṇamitras but instead repeats the illustration of certain visits, in addition to portraying Sudhana traveling and depicting incidents in past lives of the kalyāṇamitras.31