Indian Antiquary Vol 09

SR No.: 032501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 398
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 159

MAY, 1880.]
BUDDHIST SYMBOLS, &c.
139
undivided in its glory," and seems to declare itself as the direct crypto-emblem of the more definite embodiment of the god in the associate sculpture.
The fourth prominent symbol in the order of the general combination, of which there are two examples on each foot, consists of a diagram, which may be reduced into the simple alphabetical elements of # (rva) or a possible crypto (uri). I fear that it would be useless at present to speculate on the meaning of the compound.
It may be the counterpart of a more Chinese looking device, of a square pedestal or box, surmounted by a T, which figures on the leading class of Behat coins, and which General Cunningham pronounces-he does not say on what authority-to be "an emblem of the sun,"28 & conclusion which is, to a certain extent, supported by the new evidence now adduced of the real import of the combination of the central sun and four surrounding tridents, which symbol is found occasionally to supply its place above the back of the deer.
In the Assyrian system a nearly similar device constituted the ideograph of "le nom du dieu de l'onction royale," and at other times stood for the royal sign of Nebo,'80 but it would be difficult to establish any direct connexion between the two. My own later impressions were that it was an early conventional type of the Sacred Tree, for which conclusion the appear. ance, in some instances, of a railing on the lower box seemed to give authority."
Of the minor and subordinate devices which contribute to the filling-in of the general pattern, we may notice the insertion of four dots at the corners of the front Swastika near the toes, and the repetition of four flowers similar to those in the centre of the wheel towards the heels of the feet.
There are two examples of these full size
" Genl. Cunningham in Vol. III. of his Archeological Reports (1871-2) pl. xxvii, has given an engraving of the lower portion of this column. He does not however seem to have noticed the important bearing of the details of the upper portion of the pillar, p. 97. See also Kittoe, J. A. . Bengal, vol. XVI. (1847), p. 337. 1 Bhilsa Topes, p. 854.
Journal Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. VII. pl. xxxii. fig. 6; and Bhilsa Topes, pl. xxxi. fig. 10.
30 Menant, Noms propres Assyriens, p. 22. 31 J. R. A. S. (N. 8.) vol. I. p. 481.
* Fergusson, T. and 8. w., pl. lxxviii. fig. 2, India Museum, No. 56.
53 Rajendralála Mitra, Buddha Gayd, p. 126. 3* Transactions R. A.8. vol. III. p. 72. The quotation is from Wilkins's Bhagavat. A Dallastype photograph of a
ornamented patterns in the Amaravati collection in the India Museum. The purely archaic padas seem to have been more simple in outline, and the ornamentation is confined to the central figure of a wheel." Whereas in after times, we find the Vaishnavi Brahmans expanding the number of symbolic signs into nineteen, commencing with the half-moon, but ignoring the more potent sun, except under his typical device of the Swastika. The Skanda Purdna even omits the whool substituting, perhaps, the discus, but the former leading symbol is invariable in the majority of examples. The multiplication of figures on the sacred foot finally reached the extreme Siamese limit of “108, or more" objects of devotion. It is important to observe how these later adaptations of the normal outline invariably recognised the central wheel as denoting the sun, inasmuch as effect is given to the external flames in the revolving manner already noticed, so that we find Captain Low observing "according to some authorities the Hindû chakara was a circular mass of fire, instinct with life, darting forth flames on every side."**
THE HORSE. The coursers of Apollo find equine representatives in the mythology of the Vedas, but their number is, at times, increased to seven, and, at others reduced to a single steed, who is endued with many of the attributes of Sûrya himself.
“The bright red horse” avowedly symbolizes “the Sun," *s as in the Persian system " le soleil, souverain, coursier rapide, ceil d'Ahura Mazda; Mithra, chef des provinces," &c. embodied the same idea. Professor Wilson remarks that "the hymns addressed to Dadhikrâ or Dadhikra van, contemplate the sun under the type of a horse," and Dr. Muir concurs in such an interpretation where U shas (the Dawn) is said to bring the eye of the gods, and lead on the bright and beautiful horse, by which the very elaborate copy of the foot-print of Buddha, near Nopphbary in Siam, was published by Messrs. Trübner some time ago in their Record. This drawing shows the Central San with great distinctaess. The external flames are made to curve, as in Col. Low's example, as if to indicate the rotatory motion of the laminary.
35 Max Möller's "The Sacred Hymns of the Brahmans," London, 1869, p. 9, R-V. i. 6, 1.
36 Barnouf Yacna, p. 851. The Massagetæ "worship the kun only of all the gods, and sacrifice horses to him; and this is the reason of this custom; they think it right to offer the swiftest of all animals to the swiftest of all gods." Herodotas I. 216. Compare Wilson, Rig Veda vol. II. pp. 112, 191, and preface pp. xii. et seq.; Wilson's Collected Works, vol. IV. pp. ii. 353; and Burgess' Arch. Reports, vol. II. (1874-5) p. 37.
3 Rig Veda, vol. III. PP. X. 119.