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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PART B ham, StBh. (1879), p. 135, No. 45, and Pl. XV, XXX and LIV; Hoernle, IA. Vol. XI (1882), p. 25 f., No. 19b; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 67, No. 63, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 232, No. 63; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 92 f., No. 216; Barua, Barh, Vol. II (1934), p. 165 ff., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. XCIV (142); Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 84 ff.
TEXT:
TRANSLATION: [B 72, B 70 and B 71 refer to one and the same sculpture.] This relief, which according to the inscription B 70 represents some story connected with a nyagrodha tree on mountain Naḍoda, is in its centre filled by a big banyan tree, with a seat in front of it, decorated with an ornamental band and strewn with flowers. On either side three elephants, one of which is a very young animal, are bowing down or offering garlands. On the right are the figures of two men, both badly damaged. One who is standing with his hands joined in devotion has lost his head; of the other almost nothing but the turban is preserved. The background is formed on the right by rocks, on the left by a slab or bench covered with flowers above which there appears a strange conglomeration which Hoernle, misled by his erroneous reading Veṭiko instead of Veḍuko, took to be an eggplant. It indeed seems to be a tree or plant, but I do not dare to determine its exact nature.
The relief bears no less than three inscriptions viz. B 70, B 71 and B 72. Underneath the stone seat, on the decorative rail forming the basis of the relief, we find B 71 and on the stone-seat itself B 70 which gives a fuller version of B 71. The third inscription (B 72) is in the right upper corner above and at the side of the damaged head of one of the two human worshippers near the tree. According to these inscriptions the nyagrodha tree represented in the sculpture is found on the mountain Naḍoda and carries the name Bahuhatthika “ by the side of which are many elephants ”, which corresponds to the scene depicted. The worship of Chaityas by elephants was apparently a favourite theme associated with different localities. Both Fa-hien[1] and Hüan-tsang[2] tell us that a herd of wild elephants offered worship to the Stūpa of Rāmagrāma[3] by presenting flowers and sprinkling water on the ground. This legend is perhaps represented on the lower architrave of the eastern gate of Sāñchī where elephants offer flowers and fruits to a Stūpa. In the treatment of B 69 we have come across the worship of a tree with a stone seat underneath on mountain Aṁboda. What kind of tree is meant there cannot be fixed with certainty. In the relief on the coping stone shown on Cunningham’s Pl. XLVI 6 it is again a nyagrodha tree worshipped by three elephants which lay down branches of trees in a bowl placed on a stone seat.
As regards the two persons who appear as lookers on of the scene, Veḍuka is certainly
the same person who in the relief B 73 is represented as milking a tattered cloth on mountain
Naḍoda. In our inscription (B 72) he is called arāmaka, apparently an imperfect spelling
for ārāmako, while in Pāli and Buddhist Sanskrit, the usual form isārāmika. As it appears from
[1]Transl. by Legge, p. 69. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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