Indian Antiquary Vol 16

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

Page 72

60
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
FEBRUARY, 1887.
times, regarded as a prominent actor in the sculpture in bas-relief at the base of a column change of the seasons in Spain, and in the in the South-West corner of the Cathedral East was closely connected with the Moon, cloisters at Tarragona ; vide Plate XXII. fig. 1, a fact which has given rise to the following p. 11 above. This building is said to date from myth of Indian origin very popular among the beginning of the XIIth Century, and it is the modern Burmese :-"All creatures were possible that the original significance of these making offerings to the Buddha, who was symbols was recognized and known by its dethen engaged in preaching the Sacred Law. signers as indicating the Storm, the Sun-snake The hare bethought him that be too must (or perhaps the Principle of Evil), and the Sun give some alms. But what had he to give ? itself; or they may on the other hand be only Man might bring costly gifts; the lion found it forms handed down by tradition, and have no easy to offer the tender flesh of the fawn; birds meaning attached to them. Another capital of of prey brought dainty morsels ; fish could a pillar (see Plate XXII, fig. 3) in the same practice no less dainty signs of devotion; even building has a frog in the centre. The animal the ant was able to drag along grains of sugar is on its back with its limbs extended, while and aromatic leaves : but the hare, what had two serpents, one on each side, appear to be he? He might gather the most tender Buc- attacking it. culent shoots from the forest glades; but they The capital of yet another column (see were useless even to form a couch for the Plate XXII. fig. 2), in these cloisters, possesses Teacher. There was nothing but his own a still more decidedly Eastern character. On body; and that he freely offered. The Supreme the extreme left of fig. 2, is a figure, halfLord declined the sacrifice, but in remembrance man, half-borse, the Centaur of Greek mythoof the pious intention placed the figure of the i logy and the European representative of the hare in the moon and there it remains as a Gandharvas, Naras, Kinnaras, or aerial beings of symbol of the Lord of Night to the present India, who were regarded as demi-gods. The day."
Centaur, armed with a cross-bow, is aiming at The frog, too, has a place in Indian mytho- a dragon, represented as an animal with a wide logy; for at sunrise and at sunset the san mouth, rolling eyes, and two short straight horns near the water is likened to a frog, out of projecting from the forehead. This dragon which notion arose a Sanskrit Story,' which belongs to a type which is most familiar to all of runs as follows:- Bhêki (the frog) was once us on articles from China. Figures of the same a beautiful girl, and one day, when sitting type, called Dvdrapálas, or Door-keepers, are near a well, she was seen by a king, who also sculptured on each side of the entrance to asked her to be his wife. She consented, on the shrine of many Hindu temples in Southern condition that he should never show her a drop India. It has, besides, been adopted by the Låof water. One day, being tired, she asked mas, or monks, of Ladék who are, of course, the king for water, he forgot his promise, Buddhists. At their high festivals they brought water, and Bhêkî disappeared that is perform various religious dances, and on these to say, the sun disappeared when it touched the occasions they wear huge masks made of water"
papier máché which entirely cover the head And lastly it has already been shown, in and shoulders. In one of their dances, two the early part of these papers, that the serpent of their number put on masks, which are is intimately bound up with Indian mythology analogous in character to the dragon of
Now it may only be & coincidence, but the cloisters at Tarragona and the Chinese surely it is a most singular one, that these monster, and their part is to guard the doors three animals,-the hare, the frog, and the of entrance and exit to the court-yard of tho serpent,--should all be found on one piece of house where these dances are performed."
• [cf. ths Skr, toru talin for the moon, so called from farcid risklublance of its spots to those of a bare (tare).-ED.) 1 quoted it the Saturday Review for February 1861.
This ronds very like a version of a tale on which the "comparutiva mythologist" has been at work, dragging
in our old and worn-out friend, the Suo-myth. ED.).
The Chinese empire was in all probability the original home of this monater, for it is still rampant there, it one may judge from the porcelain and Ornaments which come from thence.
10 I saw the performanoon at Leh in Ladik,