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DECEMBER, 1893.)
NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA.
339
variety. When dressed as Zabubade, the ear lobes, though much enlarged, do not touch the shoulder, and the large holes in them are filled up with a roll much in the modern Burmese fashion, and from this roll there is occasionally something that hangs down to the shoulders (? a flower). The head-dress is in such cases a multiple crown, with, sometimes, appendages or wings hanging down behind the shoulders. On both arms are large jewels, or perhaps short embroidered sleeves, and the trunk is clothed in an elaborate winged garment reaching apparently to the feet and richly embroidered. All this is much in the modern style. In many of the older figures of the Buddha as a monk, the top-knot, there being, of course, no crown, is much elongated so as to form a sort of crown. In others again the body appears to be bare to the waist. In several the sole of the right foot is not exposed, as in most, but not all, modern figures ; vide those in the Shân Tazaung at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda ; also round the Nyaungdauk and Padank trees on the platform there. A good many thrones lie about the Kogun Cave with two images on them seated side by side, of which one is frequently inuch larger than the other and much more elaborately clad. Here the Buddha seems to be represented both as Zabobade and as a monk. Often, however, the two images are identical in every respect, making the explanation more difficult.
Zababade requires explanation. There is a story current and very popular in Burma, but not, so far as I know, yet traced to any Játak ., according to which Jambupati (= Bur. pron. Zabûbadê), Lord of the Earth, was a king exceedingly proud of dress and power. The Buddha, however, one day, to convince him of the valueless nature of his riches, assumed his form and clothing without effort. Thereupon Jambupati became a devoted follower. The figures of the Buddha dressed as Jambupati, and of Jambapati himself kneeling to the Buddha in acknowledgment of his superiority, have for centuries been popular iu Burma.
The serpent throne and canopy of Gautama Buddha is to be seen in Plate la in two instances, conventionally grotesqued in the style dear to the Borman. The material of most of the figures in the Plate is wood, but the present writer has in his possession a fine plaster bead with conventional serpent canopy of much finer workmanship than the specimens in the Plate, and in the Kalyani Deng at Pega3 are stored several specimens in plaster of Gautama lying upon a serpent throne with canopy. Modern figures of the Buddha and serpent combined seem to be rare, but a new one in alabaster was bought lately in Mandalay, which was explained to be a “Siamese Buddha (Yód'ayà Paya)." Also, among the treasures found at the palace at Mandalay, after the war in 1885, was a fine and well executed copper image of Buddha seated on a serpent of many coils, which was said to hare been sent from Ceylon as a present to one of the kings of the Alompra Dynasty.
Images of yahans also abound in the caves, always in an attitude of reverence. Those in Plate Ia (see also Plates I., IV., VI. and VII.) are of a type quite unknown in tho present day. Female figures seem to be very rarely met with, but there is one of characteristic Burmese type in Plate Ia. It belongs to a fallen impressed terra-cotta tablet and represents a favorite character of the Burmese sculptor: Mabonday. (Vasundhara), Protectress of the Earth during the present dispensation,
It is obviously impossible with the materials at present at hand to do more than draw attention to this remarkable field for enquiry, but enough has already been said to show how rich it is and how well worth study.
7. Bas-reliefs on glazed terra-cotta tablets, The importance of Thaton36 as an ancient home of the Talaing race is, of course, wellknown, and as it is now to be reached with ease from Maulmain by ferry-launch to Duyin
Spelt Pagal, and pron. Pago = PAli Hamsavati. Sangermano calls the country Pogů and the town Bago :. Reprint, 1885, p. 159 bas "Bagd in Pegà" and p. 172" Pegà or Bagò."
* Spelt bat'un, pron. baton, - PAļi Savanna-nagara and Savappa-bhumi: sloo Saddhammanagara, Saddhammåvatt, eto. It is like Basseio, a cause of wild etymological guesses, of which one is to be found in the delightfully Naive introduction to Gray's Buddhaghosuppitti, p. 14.
