Indian Antiquary Vol 11

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 44

30
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1882.
separate and independent phrases; it cannot be translated (as General Cunningham does on p. 109). «Head ornament of Buddha in the holy assembly of the Devas;" for sabhd is the nomi- native case. I suspect, however, that there is an error in maho, and that the mason meant to engrave mahe. We should then have only one consecutive sentence: "The Sudhamma or Assembly of the gods at the time of the festival of the head-dress of the Blessed-one." This sounds much better; the omission of the horizontal top stroke to the right of the perpendicular of h would make all the difference; and its addition is most probably a mere slip of the mason's chisel or of his attention. Sudhamma is the name of the Hall of the Assembly of the gods, and hence of the Assembly itself. Here it appears to be used in the latter sense ; for the building over which it is inscribed stands apart from the palace of the gods, and seems to be the shrine of the Head-dress which was built for it on purpose by the gods, and which was called Salumini sáeya." The last word maho (or mahe?) is read maha (or maha) by General Cunningham, meaning "great" or "grand." Grammatically this is hardly admissible; it is true mahá does occur as an inflected form, e. g., abadho mahd "great illness";" but probably only in connexion with masculine nouns, while chúďá is feminine; at all events the usual construction would be & compound, maháchúdd. But the word is not mahá, but maho; the final o is quite distinet in the sculpture." And this
reading is borne out by the scene represented on the stone. The word maho means " festival," and the scene evidently represents a festival held in honour of Buddha's head-dress; a "nach," performed by Apsaras in the presence of the head-dress and witnessed by the assembled gods, being, as usual in native festivities, the principal item." It may be worth noting that the inscription has the form chúdd, instead of the usual Páli form chúla. In the second inscription the second word is pásádo, not pásúde; the latter would be the locative singular, which would not agree with the nominative Vejayanto. The mason was obliged to cram the two letters eddo into the narrow space below the rest of the inscription; hence they are very small and badly executed. The right-hand stroke of the vowel o is turned upwards, instead of being, as usual, drawn horizontal. Rhys Davids in his translation of the Játakas, vol. I, p. ciii, gives the correct rending pásádo. The scene is fully and correctly explained by General Cunningham on pp. 109, 136. The story of the assumption of Buddha's Head-dress into heaven is thus related in the Nidánakathd or the Introduction to the Jatakabook. When the prince Siddhartha left Kapilavastu in order to become a Buddha, he first came to the river Anoma, after crossing whick he dismissed his attendant Chands with his horse Kanthaka." Then he thought, These locks of mine are not suited for a mendicant. Now it is not right for any one else to eat the hair of a future Buddha, so I will cut them off
head, can be distingman, whose bebe trusted, the ances,
# So Hardy in his Manual of Budhism, p. 165: "Sekrs brought a golden basket sixteen miles in size, and having placed the hair in it, he deposited it in the Devaloka Tawatis, in a dagobs called Salumini-sleya, where it is worshipped by the devas until this day," Childers in the Academy of the 1st May 1875 appears to take sudhamma to be here the name of the Hall, so also Gen. Cunningham in his translation on p. 136" the grand head-dress of Buddha in the Assembly Hall of the Devas." But this bardly agrees with the Buddhist tradition, according to whish the chudd was deposited, not in the Assembly Hall, but in a separate shrine. I prefer, therefore, to take Sudhanmd here to be the name of the assemby itself; or else the word may be taken as an appellative "pious" (or "holy" as General Cunningham renders it on p. 109). In fact, it is manifest from the meaning of the term Sudhamim, that it originally was the name of the sabha or "Assembly," and was only given secondarily to the locality or Hall of the assembly.
* See Childers' Dictionary sub voce maha, where other examples are also given.
* On p. 109 Gen. Cunningham himself reads maho, though on the same page it is also read maha.
" May not this be also the subject of the sculpture in the lowest compartment of one of the pillars of the Southern Gateway of the great Sanchi Stúpa P See Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, Plate xxx, fig. 1, and A. Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, Plate xii. General Cunninghaun takes the object of adoration on the tray to
be a relio casket. Mr. Ferguson, while admitting it to be a relic, ventures on no further explanation. It seems to me that the object may be intended to represent Buddha's head-dress, as seen from above (not side-ways); and the scene seems to be a festival held in honour of it by the as. sembled devis; the nlchh of the Apearas being on the left. The object immediately below the tray can hardly be, Mr. Fergussou thinks, a man's bead (possibly of a murdered
king,) lying on the ground, severed from its body. This I would be singularly incongruous under the circumstances.
If Gen. Cunningham's sketch can be trusted, the bead belongs to a living man, whose shoulders, supporting his head, can be distinctly seen. It ie, in fact, the head of one of the spectators who, owing to his unfortunate position almost directly under the tray, is obliged to turn up his face in s most awkward way in order to see the relic. The drawing is ludicrously exact.-The inscription over this sculpture which he puzzled both Gen. Cunningham and Mr. Fergussop, is simple enough. It is Vedisalehi dathtakarehi ripakavimash katal, i.ey. "the sculpture made by the ivory-workers of Vedina." It merely records the makers and donors, but throws no light on the subject of the sculpture.
45 Childers' Dictionary gives only chala.
18 At first siglt the upward stroke looks like a mere proJuction of the vertical stroke of d and hence the syllable may be mistaken for le. But if this be really what the mason wrote, it is clearly an error for do.