Indian Antiquary Vol 16

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 66

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of the flowers. They had also groves, ,205 and plantations, and parks." Their women spun thread" and they wove linen and cotton fabrics, which were sometimes of exquisite fineness"13 and softness 13 and richness. They had skilled mechanics, shipwrights and cartwrights, carriage builders and harness-makers, carpenters and masons, house-builders and house-decorators, gold and silver-smiths and jewellers," artists, musical-instrument-makers," and bell-founders, lamp-makers and umbrellamakers, builders of palanquins and sedan-chairs, and hirers of carts, 1 the recognized "five sorts of tradesmen," ploughmen and herdsmen and shepherds, gardeners and garland-makers, incense-compounders and perfumers, barbers, horsekeepers """ elephant-mahouts," and charioteers.225
213
230
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
There are also some traces of the higher arts of the Dakhan in these times. Its architecture has already been noticed. The contemporaries of Buddha employed music, both vocal and instrumental, in their festivities: and they were also familiar with dancing." The portrait of Buddha painted on semi-transparent cottoncloth for the princess Ratnávali, shows that they had some dexterity in the arts of drawing and painting.""" The art of writing was also known to them; for Buddha himself wrote two texts of his doctrine upon the cotton-cloth just mentioned above his portrait, and a summary of his precepts below it," he also wrote a letter to the king of Ceylon, prescribing the solemnity with which his portrait was to be received on its arrival. The princess Ratnâvali wrote a letter to Buddha begging for the spiritual ambrosia
208 Uph. I. 7: Turn. 3: Man. Bud. 209.
20 Rom. Hist. Bud. 39, 370.
210 Turn. 8: Uph. II. 16, 25: ante, XIII. 46. 211 Uph. II. 173: Turn. 48.
213 See above: and Sacr. Bks. XXI. 116.
13 Rom. Hist. Bud. 43: Lal. Vist. 115, 116.
1 ante, XIII. 387. 15 ante, XIII. 35: Rock. 92. 16 Dath. 40: and references to 'gold' above. 17 Turn. 81.
318 Rock. 59.
10 Turn. 49.
130 Dáth, 39.
[FEBRUARY, 1887.
from him. 30 And again, in the generation after Buddha's death, Vijaya wrote a letter on his death-bed to his brother inviting him to come to take possession of his throne. Two or three, if not more, forms of written characters, were in use in different parts of the Dakhan in Buddha's school-days, namely, the Dravidian, the Maratha ('Dakshinâvatas'), and apparently the Paisâchaka. The catapult built by the South-Indian artificer for Devadatta for the
destruction of Buddha,233 is an instance of the progress of the mechanical arts: and the condition of the decorative arts is illustrated by the use of triumphal arches, flags, banners, festoons, gold and silver filigree-work and inlaid work, plantain-tree standards, curtains, and lamps. They inlaid or covered their temples and palaces" with gold; and they gilded their palanquins. 287
Bigandet, 101.
Uph. I. 70; II. 175.
23 Turn. 51. See ante, XIII. 87.
33 Turn. 51.
25 Turn. 51: Si-yu-ki, II. 236.
Turn. 49: Rom. Hist. Bud. 334: Si-yu-ki, II. 240, 241.
7 Tib. Gram. 164: Rock. 59.
328 Tib. Gram. 164: Rock. 59. It is on record that writing formed part of his education in his boyhood (Rom. Hist Bud. 68. See also Lal. vist. 205, 213.)
239 Tib. Gram. 164.
330 Rock. 59. It was not an unusual accomplishment for girls to be able to write at this time; for in sketching the qualifications of the maiden suitable to be
234
Regarding their chronology, we learn that their years were divided into months, and that these months were lunar, months; " that their year was further distributed into seasons;20 and that seven-day periods formed part of their calendar.
In addition to the prevalence of the art of writing and of epistolary correspondence noticed above, the advancement of the Dakhan in education and literature at this time is marked by the existence of large colleges and schools of theology and philosophy, *** in which accomplished popular teachers taught the Vêdas, the Sâstras," the doctrines of the different schools of philosophy," and all the known sciences,*** to numerous pupils. **7 Some of these pupils were the sons of ministers
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his wife, Buddha says, "I shall need the maiden who is accomplished in writing and in composing poetry." Lal. vist. (199, 215.)
231 Turn. 58: ante, XIII. 36.
333 Rom. Hist. Bud. 68: Lal. vist. 183.
323 Rock. 92.
23 Turn. 49: Dath. 89: Man. Bud. 212. 235 Dath. 38. 336 Turn. 7. 137 Man. Bud. 209. 235 Uph.I. 5: II. 15, 169; 170: Turn. 2, 6, 7: Man. Bud. 18: See Bigandet, 160.
330 Uph. I. 5: II. 19, 22, 170: Turn. 2, 4, 108: Rom. Hist. Bud. 886, 888. See also Uph. III. 161: Man. Bud. 24, note: Bigandet, 160, 205..
340 See Bigandet, 160, 195, &c.
241 Uph. II. 168: Turn. 2, 4, 9, 54, 108: ante, XIII. 88: Sacr. Bks. X. (pt. 2), 85. See also Uph. III. 161: Bigandet, 160.
Man. Bud. 884: Rom. Hist. Bud. 275, 282: Rock. 44: Sacr. Bks. X. (pt. 2), 184. See Bühler in Archæol. Surv. W. Ind. V. 74.
343 Man. Bud. 935: Rom. Hist. Bud. 275, 276.
Rom. Hist. Bud. 275, 276: Rock. 44. 314 Rock. 44. 360 Rock. 44. 31 Man. Bud. 335: Rom. Hist. Bud. 39, 40: Rock. 4.