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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1874.
snakes' heads, and each labelled Naga Raja. These have their arms crossed upon their breasts in an attitude of devotion, appropriate to their appearance on a Buddhist building. On two middie pillars there are two female statues respectively labelled Chukaloka Devata and Sirima Devata, whom I take to be goddesses.
Amongst the scenes represented there are upwards of a dozen of the Buddhist legends called Jalakas, all of which relate to the former births of Buddha. Luckily these also have their appropriate inscriptions, or descriptive labels, without which I am afraid that their identification would hardly have been possible. Amongst these JAtakas are the following:
(1). Hansa Jataka, or "Goose-birth," of which the only portion now remaining below the inscription is the expanded tail of a peacock, which must therefore have played some part in the story.
(2). Kinara Jitaka. The Kinaras were a kind of demigods. Here two of them, male and female, are represented, with human heads and clad in leaves, standing before some human per- sonage who is seated. The assignment of horses' heads to the Kinaras must therefore belong to a later date.
(3). Mriga Jdtaka, or the well-known legend of the "Deer," in Sanskrit Mriga. I call it a deer, and not an antelope as is generally understood, because all the animals in the bas-relief are represented with antlers. The King of Kasi is seen aiming an arrow at the King of the Deer (Buddha).
(4). Maghd Deviya Jatakam, o “Magha-Devibirth." I know nothing of this story.
(5). Yava Majhakiyam Jatakam. This title means literally the "mean or average amount of food" which was attained by daily increasing the quantity with the waxing moon and decreasing it with the waning moon. I know nothing of the story, but the bas-relief shows a king seated with baskets of grain (?) before him, each bearing a stamp or medallion of a human head. To the left some men are bringing other baskets. Barley (yava) would appear to have been the principal food in those days.
(6.) Bhisaharaniya Jataka. A pishi (or sage) is seated in front of his hut, with a man and woman standing before him, and a monkey seated on the ground, who is energetically addressing the sage.
(7.) Latuwa Jatakam. The "Latwa-bird-birth." This legend apparently refers to some story of a bird and an elephant of which I heard a curious
version in Kasmir in 1839. In the bas-relief there is a bee stinging the eye and a bird picking the head of an elephant, with a frog crooking close by, while the elephant is treading on a nest of young birds. To the right the same (or a similar) bird is sitting on the branch of a tree, over an elephant who is running away with his tail between his legs. Near the top the hind half of an elephant is seen rushing down some rocks. In my Kasmiri version an elephant while feeding throws down a nest of young birds into a stream, where they are all drowned. The parent bird seeks the aid of the bees and anosquitoes, who attack the elephant with their stings, and having halfblinded him he rushes off towards the stream, and plunging headlong down the rocks is drowned. The fable seems intended to show the power of combination. There can be no doubt that the two legends are substantially the same; and it seems probable that we may find other Buddhist Jatakas still preserved in modern legends after the lapse of more than 2000 years. Perhaps this particular legend may be found in the Panchatantru.
(8.) Vitura punakaya Játakam. I know nothing of this story. Vitura perhaps may be a mistake for Vithurd, "a thief."
Or illustrations of the life of Buddba during his last appearance there are some good examples. The earliest of these is a medallion containing Maya's dream of the white elephant, which is superscribed Bhagavato Uledanti. A second scene belongs to the reign of Ajata Satru, king of Magadha, in the eighth year of whose reign Buddha attained Nirvana. This is labelled Ajátasata Bhagavato vandate. Some of the well-known assemblies of the Buddhists would also appear to be represented, of which one is called the Jatila Sabha, of which I know nothing. A second belongs, I think, to a later period of Buddhist history, about midway between the death of Buddha and the reign of Asoka. This sculpture represents a large assembly, and is duly labelled Sudhammg Rera Sabha Bhagavato Chudd Mahu. The words Reva Sabha I take to mean the assembly or synod which was presided over by the famous Buddhist priest Revato just 100 years after the death of Buddha, or in B.c. 378.
But the Bhara hut sculptures are not confined to the legends and events connected with the career of Buddha, as there is at least one bas. relief which illustrates a famous scene in the life of Råma. In this sculpture there are only three figures, of which one seated to the left is holding
• That is, if we accept Max Müller's conjectural date for the Nirvana (Hist. Sansk. Lit. p. 298); if with Kern (vide ante, pp. 79, 80) we assume the Nirvana to have taken place about 370 B.C., then this council was that in the 17th year of Asoka, or 253 B.C.-ED. L.A.
