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118
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1881.
READINGS FROM THE BHARHUT STÚPA.
By Dr. A. F. RUDOLF HOERNLE. PART I.
which the inscriptions are intended to explain, are The Bharhut Stúpa affords special facilities BO well executed that they, on their part, serve to for study to the philologist and archæologist; explain, or at least confirm, the meaning of the thanks chiefly to General Cunningham's splendid
inscription. Even so, the story, a portion or the work on that ancient monument, with its beauti. substance of which is represented by the sculpture ful photographic illustrations, and his happy
and expressed by the inscription, must in some thought of purchasing and dispatching the best
cases remain but very imperfectly known or and most valuable of the sculptured remains to understood. In making this remark, I have the Indian Museurn in Calcutta, where, under specially in view those scenes which refer to the direction of Dr. Anderson, the indefatig
"Játakas" or " Chaityas," about which our knowable Superintendent of the Museum, they have
ledge at present is exceedingly small and inaccu. been carefully set up in close imitation of their rate. The publication, however, of the Jatakas, original position in the Stapa. Thus, with General
which has been commenced by Fauxböll and Rhys Cunningham's unerring photographs to read from, Davids in Trübner's Oriental Series, may be ex. and the original stones close at hand to refer to, in pected to remedy this defect. The legends which cuse of need, the first great desideratum of the occur on the coping-stones, and which I shall philologist is at once supplied,-a trustworthy discuss in this paper, will afford illustrations of text. This is a great point gained in reading the each of the above-mentioned difficulties. ancient inscriptions on the Bharhut sculptures. (1.) The first inscription which I take up, is the
But a not inconsiderable difficulty yet remains. second in General Cunningham's arrangement There can be no doubt that we have the exact text of photographs; it is on No. 4 of Plate XLIII, as the masons wrote it on the stone; but that does and No. 10 in the transcriptions on Plate LIII. not necessarily mean that we have got the On p. 94 it is given as-migasamadika chetiya and text exactly as they meant to write it. Masons explained to mean: "Chaitya under which lions were illiterate men in those days no less than and deer ate together." This is hardly correct. they are now; and there is no reason to place The inscription, letter for letter, reads absolute faith in the correctness either of their
migasamadakar chelaya. spelling or their grammar. No doubt, in the case Neither consonant d nor t carry any vowel. of most of these inscriptions, especially the longer sign ((); they must accordingly be read da and ones, the mason's work consisted merely in ta. After ka there is a distinct anusvdra ; though copying from manuscripts supplied to them by there is none after ya. The words, I think, others better educated than themselves. But even should be translated : "The deer-crushing chaitya." supposing the original manuscript to have been This is contirmed by the sculptured scene, which correct, where is the security for the accuracy of shows a deer crushed under the platform of the the mason's copy? Where, moreover, is the secu. chaitya, while five other deer and two lions are rity for the accuracy of the original writing? The looking on. The latter may be mere "staffage"; inaccuracy of the natives of India, even among they certainly are not represented in the act of the literate classes, is almost proverbial. It is eating Chetaya is an incorrect spelling for cheti80 now; and there is no reason to assume that it yam. The anusvára is not uncommonly omitted ; was different formerly.
though properly this is only allowable when it is But further, supposing this initial difficulty conjoined with a consonant, as in dada, for darila, overcome, and an accurate text supplied or re- chakamd for chavikamd (see No. 7, plate XLVII). stored, there comes, in many cases, the second But the omission of the vowel-sign i on t, is simply great difficulty-to determine what the text of the an error of the mason's. Double consonants, as is inscription means and what the fact or event is well known, are always represented single on which it chronicles or describes. Fortunately, in these ancient inscriptions. Hence the legend, not a few cases, the sculptured figures or scenes written in full and correctly, would run: migasan
Two volumes have since been published of the Text, (1877-79), and one of the Eoglish Translation (1880).
• Possibly (as suggested to me by the Editor I. 4.) the preceding scene, entitled Isi-migo Jataka, may be connected with this one. It appears to represent a deer being warned by a man against impending danger; in the background is seen a tree, which may be the tree belonging to the chaitys under which the deer was eventually crushed.
Whether or not this is so, it is impossible to say, so long as the Jataka has not been identified. The identification suggested by Gen. Cunningham, on p. 75, can hardly be considered quite satisfactory. In passing, it may be noted that this is the only inscription on the copings) in which the word jataka is correctly. spelt; it being jataka in all others.
