Indian Antiquary Vol 11

SR No.: 032503
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 396
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 40

26
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(FEBRUARY, 1882.
wild elephants collected in a herd, gathered instance of a new form or new word with which flowers and strewed them at the stúpa)." But the inscriptions of the Bharhut Stūpa make us later on Hwen Theang refers to the phenomenon acquainted; nadoda also is a new word; and again, on p. 328, where he relates everything said a still more striking example is the verb vand by Fa-Hian: "In old times there were some with the genitive in No. 22 and dhokanto in bhikshos who, on the invitation of their fellow- No. 23 (below). From venta comes the adjective anonks, came from a remote country and went of relation ventika," full of egg-plants." One of to pay homage to the Stúpa. They saw a herd these egg-plants from which the garden took its of elephants that was going to and fro. Some name, is represented in the upper left-hand plucked off the grass with their tusks, others corner of the sculpture. Accordingly written sprinkled water with their trunks. Each of them in full, with the addition of the double consobrought rare flowers, and the whole of them nants, anusváras and long vowels, the two did homage (to the Stúpa)." This last inci- inscriptions would run as follows: dert of the foreign pilgrims witnessing the wor- | (a). Bahuhatthiko niggodho' nadode (pavatte). ship of the elephants is, as General Cunningham And the otherhas already noted, evidently intended to be repre- (b). Susupálo Kondâyo Ventiko árámako, sented by the two men standing in the back or in Sanskrit, Bakuhastiko nyagrodho nadode ground to the right of the bodhi-tree. However, (pravsitte); and Sidupdlah Kauhdinyah (1); it is not at all improbable that similar stories Várntika drámakaḥ. In English, “the Nyagrodha were believed and told about a number of sacred tree (called that) of the many elephants, under places of the Buddhists. In any case, the curious irrigation;" and Susupåla (and) Koņdâya ; the coincidence (if it be nothing more) of the scene Ventika (egg-plant) garden. related by the Chinese pilgrims, strongly con- (20.) An inscription, in the intermediate firms the correctness of my interpretation of the space, below the last-mentioned scene (No. 19), first inscription. The second inscription on is transcribed on Plate liv, No. 43, and referred the sculpture merely contains three detached to on pp. 115 and 185, where it is read and exuames; viz., those of the two spectators and of plained correctlythe garden in which the whole occurrence re
Bahrhathiko, presented in the sculpture took place. The or in full, Bahuhatthiko (sol, niggodho), Sanskrit names of the two former are Susuphila and Bahuhastiko (nyagrodhah), i. e. (the NyagrodhaKodáya. The Sanskrit equivalent of Susupala tree, called that) "of the many elephants." It is Sisupala; that of Kodaya I do not know; refers, of course, to the scene (No. 19) under probably the word is Kondáya, and may possibly which it stands. be connected with the Sanskrit Kaundinya, the (21.) An inscription, on the side-face of the ordinary Páli equivalent of which, however, is lower bas-relief of the South Gate Pillar, on Kondanño. The locality of the scene is called Plate xv, middle, is transcribed on Plate liv, Vetiko arámako, or in full, Veniţiko drámako, No. 38, and referred to on p. 134, where, howi.e., “the egg-plant garden." The egg-plant' ever, it is not explained. It is there read Vajapi is in Sanskrit vinta. In Pali it usually be- Vijadharo; but letter for letter it runscomes vanta, but in Prakrit it appears in the
Vijati vijadharo. form venta ;'and from the close connection of the At first sight the word looks as if it were two languages it cannot be surprising to meet with vinjapi; for there is a shallow indentation the later form also in PAli. This is not the only between vi and ja which looks like the anus
A soene very closely resembling the present one, occurs twice among the sculptures of the great stapa at Sanchi; vis., on the back of the uppermost beams of the Northern and Western Gateways. See J. Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 113, 120, Plates and xix ; also A. Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, p. 229. In both cases & berd of elephants is seen approaching and bringing offerings of flowers and garlands to a sacred tree, which from its outward form (especially the pendant roots, on Pl. x), I take, with Gen. Cunningham, to be Nyagrodha rather than (as Mr. Fergusson thinks) a Pipal. On the left of the scene on Plate xix, two elephants are apparent. ly represented as fetching water from a stream, to sprinkle
the tree. The same scene, but much more nearly agreeing with Hwen Thaang's account, inasmuch as here the elephants are worshipping the Staps itself, occurs on the back of the lowest beam of tho Kastern Gateway. See Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 118, Plato xv, 4; also Bhilsa Topes, p. 212.
• In Hardy's Manual of Budhism it is Kondanya; see p. 152 et passim.
See Childers' Dictionary, sub voce; and Kuhn's Bei. träge sur Pali Grammatik, pp. 16, 87.
See Hemachandra (ed. Piscbel), J, 189. . The commoner Pali form is nigrodho-see Childers' Dictionary.