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Jaina Art of Orissa
165
animal. The panel opens with three male attendants, one holding an umbrella and fan (chauri ?), the second a staff like object (or sword), and the third, a water-pot suspended from a stick carried over his shoulder. The led horse is richly caparisoned with a thick pad, a many strapped bridle and a richly-plumed crest. A boy stands in front of the horse. The royal person, as evident from the state umbrella and richly clad costumes and decorative ornaments like bejewelled head dress, necklace, bangles, earrings, etc. has a sword in scabbard hanging by his left and aiming arrow at an antelope and two fawns. He holds the bow in the true ancient Indian fashion. The scene ends with his bow at rest on the left shoulder and right hand in abhaya in front of a woman, seated on a tree. The lady points through her finger the wounded antelope. Near the crest of the arch is an animal with a long bushy tail trailing on the ground. The lady seated on the tree appears naked and her pundeda prominently emphasised. Her arms and legs are so entwined with the branches and the trunk of the tree that she seems to be truly part of the tree herself, her enormous hair in a vast coil apparently forming shapes almost like the fruits of the tree.
The subject matter of the panel has been variously identified by eminent scholars such as Fergusson with Mrga Jātaka or Deer Jātaka, Moti Chandra? with Sarabhamrga
Tataka (No. 483), T.N. Ramachandran with the abduction of Sita and V.S. Agrawala with Dushyanta-Sakuntala episode. But the identification of V.S. Agrawala appears to be nearer the truth. He is of the opinion that “The whole make up, this very interesting scene unmistakably points to the story of kind Duşyanta visiting the hermitage of sage Kanva and falling in love at first sight with Sakuntalā. The stages in the relief are definite and clear. In the beginning, the king arrives with his soldiers, his own presence indicated by a horse with an empty back followed by an attendant holding fly-whisk and an umbrella, the true signs of royalty. In the next scene the kind is hunting and shoots his arrows at a herd of frightened antelopes. In the third scene the leader of the herd is ushered the king into the presence of a beautiful woman. The king has withdrawn his bow and is in the act of looking at her or conversing with her. The female figure rests on the lower branch of a tree and the antelope crouches at the foot of the tree."
In this scene there is no place for the female friends of Sakuntalā viz. Priyambadā and Anasuyā whom Kalidasa introduces in his drama for the first time and also none of the sophisticate overtures of lover from either side. In pictorial detail all the circumstances which an historian finds it his duty to record, the artist is obliged, from the nature of his art, to seize only the most salient and striking points of history those which are likely to produce the most effective representations and the omission of the attempt at resecure in one version and its insertion in the other according to the taste or fancy of the artist therefore cannot alter the subject. The romantic love story formed part of the common literary and art heritage of ancient India and its reproduction in the
6. James Fergusson, The Cave Temple of India, p. 83. 7. V.S. Agrawala, JISOA, Vol XIV, p. 109, foot note No. 1. 8. T.N. Ramchandran, Jaina Monuments of India, p. II. 9. V.S. Agrawala, Indian Art, pp. 181-82.
