As identified by the inscription in the lower border, this relief is a representation of the previous birth story of the Buddha, the Hamsa Jataka (The Story of the Golden Gander), which was part of India’s extensive oral tradition and likely written down in the 3rd century BCE-3rd century CE. According to the legend, the Buddha Shakyamuni and his principal disciple Ananda were born in their previous lives as the king and chief minister of a herd of 90,000 golden geese that lived in a lake in the Cittakuta mountain in the Himalayas. They were named Dhritarashtra (or Dhatarattha) and Sumukha, respectively. One day, the Queen of Varanasi, Khema, had a dream in which she saw a golden gander preaching the Buddhist Law of Dharma. She asked her husband, King Brahmadatta (or Bahuputtaka), to procure the golden gander for her. To fulfill her desire, the king had a beautiful lake created and filled with food in order to attract the golden water fowl. When the golden gander landed with his flock, a fowler named Khemaka trapped it. All the other geese flew away, but Sumukha offered to take the place of his king. When they were taken to the court and King Brahmadatta heard about Sumukha's selfless loyalty, he received them with great honor and Dhritarashtra taught the Law of Dharma to the court.
Here, King Brahmadatta is depicted on the left kneeling with his hands held in the gesture of veneration (anjali mudra). In front of him, Dhritarashtra and Sumukha are enthroned on pedestals, with the former gander being the monarch and thus represented larger.