Jain Journal 1980 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 68

APRIL, 1980
173
Translation : 'Drops of tears do fall plentifully indeed, as big as pearls, on the sprouts of trees (from the eyes) of the local-(tree) deities, who see me with my arms stretched forth towards the sky in order to embrace you vigorously after I had won you with some difficulties in the visions of my dreams.'
How compassionate a tree-goddess can be who resides in an Asokatree is confirmed by another passage in Avadānašatakam I, 238, 3-5 where a tree-goddess cries about the Parinirvana of the Samyaksambuddha Kasyapa : atha ya devata tasminn asoka-vrkse vyusita sa bhagavatah kasyapasya samyaksambuddhasya parinirvanam srutva roditum pravrtta, tasya rudantya 'sru-bindavo 'sokasya kaye nipatitum pravrttah.
Translation : ‘After the goddess who resided in the Asoka-tree had learnt about the Parinirvana of the Lord Kasyapa, the perfectly enlightened one, she commenced crying, and the tear-drops of the weeping one began to fall on the body of Asoka.' (Here the name of a monk staying under this tree is indicated, remark of translator.) E. Waldschmidt has already referred to this passage in his 'Das Mahaparinirvanasutra' III, p. 485, note 6) to his German translation of the Chinese version in which the Asoka-tree is also mentioned in the same context.*
The whole pillar-like door-jamb is conceived as a tree-trunk. Round bunches containing little blossoms, which remind us of the Asoka blossoms already noticed in Bharhut, appear over the whole pillar and in the foliage above the head of the figure. They are symmetrically arranged all over the trunk placed between palmettes. The little round blossoms growing on distinctly marked stalks look indeed like mukta-sthulas ‘as big as pearls' described by Kalidasa. Do they represent the teardrops, as big as pearls, which the tree goddess sheds for us or for herself ? What a conception Kalidasic in its nature, transformed into stone! In which other way could an artist express himself better when he intended to translate the abovementioned Kalidasa verse into stone ? Tears could not have been represented in a more ingenious way. I am inclined to see a tree-goddess performing salabhanjika in this figure, who appears to be in distress shedding tears which are represented by the round blossoms of the Asoka clusters. They can be distinctly recognized in Fig.5a. Here in the front below the supporting male figure blossoms as round and as big like pearls sitting on little stalks, like the Kalidasic tears of the tree-goddess, are visible.
In the frame of this door-jamb the salabhanjika and the figure below her appear as if they were standing in the niche of a grotto. The erect attitude of the upper part of the body of the supporting male who