Indian Antiquary Vol 52

SR No.: 032544
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 403

DECEMBER, 1923]
BOOK NOTICES
L' iconographie Bouddhique de l'Inde, 1905, page 48. For, if we read the sadhana with care we find that the form of Maitreya, enjoined in the text for meditation, is a three-faced, three-eyed and four-armed deity who makes the gesture of teaching (vyakhydna) with one pair of his hands, while the right hand of the remaining pair has the gift bestowing attitude, and the left hand holds & sprout of the Nagakesara flower. Mr. Bhattacharya overlooks the vara-mudra, and makes its absence in the sculpture under discussion a ground against its being an image of Maitreya. The statues of Maitreya noticed in the Gangetic plains, including, Magadha have only two arms, and the sculptors who made them preferred the vara-mudra which could be made with a single hand and left the other hand free to hold the prescribed flower. An image of this type from Magadha is illustrated in M. A. Foucher's Iconographie Bouddhique, 1900, page 112, fig. 14. In Gandhara, too, Maitreya images have only two arms, but the right hand is raised in the abhaya-mudrâ, presumably because the postures of the various Bodhisattvas had not yet become definitely fixed in that period.
There is, however, further evidence in support of the identification proposed in my catalogue. A useful criterion for determining the identity of the Bodhisattvas at Sarnath is the effigy of the Dhyani-Buddha, which is almost invariably depicted in the crown or the hair of the Bodhi. sattva images. The Dhyâni-Buddha of Maitreya is Amoghasiddhi, whose characteristic attitude is the abhaya-mudri, and a miniature figure of this deity is clearly exhibited in the hair of the image in question (vide Archaeological Survey of India Annual Report, for 1904-05, part II, Pl. XXVIII, Fig. d). It is true that the right forearm of the Dhyani-Buddha is damaged, but what remains Icaves no doubt as to the right hand having been raised to the shoulder in the posture of granting security. Mr. Bhattacharya does not appear to be ignorant of the importance of this feature, for he himself describes, ten lines higher up in his book, the effigy of the Dhyani-Buddha Amitabha as the principal cognizance (pradhana chihna) of the BodhiBattva Avalokitesvara (Bd 1). It will thus Be seen that the identification of this image (Bd 2) as one of Maitreya rests on good reasons, and that it certainly cannot be a representation of Avalokitesvara as proposed by Mr. Bhattacharya.
P. 105. B (c) 1.-This is the pedestal of a statue of the Buddha preaching his first sermon, with the well-known Sanskrit inscription recording the restoration of some of the monuments of Sarnath in the reign of the king Mahipala of Bengal in the year Samvat 1083. The relief on the base shows the Wheel of the Law with a deer, a lion and an Atlante on either side. Between the two deer and the wheel we further notice two
373
ymbols which in the Catalogue of the Museum of Archaology at Sarnath have been correctly described as thunderbolts (vajra), possibly to symbolize the Adamantine throne, seated on which Gautama-Buddha attained supreme wis dom. Mr. Bhattacharya, however, considers these symbols to be two dwarfish men and identifies the m as Mâra and one of his daughters.
P. 107, 11. 1 and 2.-In his description of the image of Avalokitesvara, B (d) 8, Mr. Bhattacharya informs us that on the forehead of the figure in front of the headdress conformably with the Buddhist canon, "there is an effigy of Amitabha together with Dhyani-Buddhas." The meaning of this remark is not clear, for what we really find is a miniature figure of Amitabha in the headdress and a separate single Bodhisattva figure seated in vara-mudrd on the proper right side of the halo of the central image.
P. 107. For B (b) 17, read B (d) 17.
P. 107, footnote 28.-In this footnote Mr. Bhattacharya represents me as having stated in a footnote at p. 126 of my Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath that image No. 19 from Magadha now deposited in the Calcutta Museum is similar to the image of the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva -B (d) 20 in the Sârnath Museum. Mr. Bhattacharya adds that he is unable to trace the Magadha image in question in the Catalogue of the Calcutta Museum. The footnote in my Catalogue referred to runs as follows: 2 Cf. Foucher Iconographie Bouddhique, edition of 1900, Pl. VI, 6; also image from Magadha now in Calcutta Museum in fig. 19 on p. 122." The image in question is indeed illustrated in M. Foucher's book named in the footnote "in fig. 19 on p. 122" as stated in the Surnath Catalogue.
Pp. 114-117.-These pages are devoted to a criticism of Dr. Vogel's view expressed at p. 24 of his introduction to my Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath, which of course is shared by other archaeologists, that " It is very curious how in this manner the Indian sculptors, after having adopted from their Græco-Bactrian brethren a division of various scenes in clearly partitioned panels, gradually reverted to the primitive method of the earliest school, namely, that of crowding a number of consecutive scenee in one panel." Dr. Vogel illustrates his remark by a reference to the fragmentary stele No. 0 (a) 2 (Pl. XX of Sarnath Calaloguc) where the lowermost panel, for instance, shows, besides the nativity of the Buddha, the conception (Maya's dream) with the Bodhisattva descending in the form of an elephant and the first bath ministered by the two Nagas. Mr.Bhattacharya rejects this view and informs us that Dr. Vogel failed to understand the chronology of the reliefs delineating the life of the Buddha. He himself considers the Sarnath steles, which in some