North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

of this time. But the means by which Māra tried to inspire him with fear, stupefaction and horripilation and to disturb him in his concentration^[1], as it is often said in the Suttas, appear to be indicated by the lions, the demons and probably also by the burning fagot, the snake and the lizard. Similar phantoms are mentioned in the accounts of Māra’s combat against the Buddha in the Nidānakathā, the ?Mvu., the Lalitav and Aśvaghosha’s Buddhach. Here also we read of monsters with tongues drawn out or with spike-like ears, of lions and lion-faced demons, of poisonous snakes and demons spitting out serpents, of showers of live embers and blazing straw. And just as the gods came to praise the Buddha, when Māra was vanquished, so here five gods, probably Sakka and the four Lokapālas, have come to offer their congratulations. We do not know the name of the saint whose victory over Māra is commemorated in the sculpture, but it may be easily imagined that the chaṅkama where he had gained the upper hand was called after the strong exertion he had displayed on that occasion. We know from the Chinese pilgrims that many chaṅkamas of Buddhas and Arhats of the past were shown in their time in India. Evidently the Daḍhanikkama chaṅkama as well as the Tikoṭika chaṅkama (B 78) belonged to this class of time-honoured monuments.

   Chaṅkama probably has been at first the designation of a levelled and cleaned spot on which the monks walked up and down in meditation. The word is taken thus, for instance, by Rhys Davids and Oldenberg in the translation of Mahāv. 5, I, 13 ff. (SBE. XVII, p. 7). But certainly already in the canonical texts the chaṅkama is also a place for walking built with great care. In the Mvu. 3, 5, 6 f. chaṅkama is mentioned in the list of constructions which a layman erects on behalf of the order, and from the statements in the Chullav. 5, 14, 2 it appears that the chaṅkama was a raised promenade place, lined with bricks, stones, or wood and furnished with staircases and railings. Chaṅkamas of this kind are mentioned apparently also in the Suttas, as here we read often about stepping on the chaṅkama and of descending from the chaṅkama: vihārā nikkhamma chaṅkamaṁ abbhutthāsi D. I, 105; chaṅkamā orohitvā paññatte āsane nisīdi Sn. I, 212. Also the huts of leaves for ascetics were furnished with raised promenade places. In J. II, 273 we are told that the king allows an ascetic to live in his park ‘paṇṇasālaṁ kāretvā chaṅkamaṁ māpetvā’. In J. V, 132 is described how Jotipāla steps forth from the hut in his hermitage built by Sakka, how he mounts on the place for promenade and enters into meditation while walking up and down: paṇṇasālato nikkhamitvā chaṅkamaṁ āruyha katīpayavāre aparāparaṁ chaṅkami. The erection of such chaṅkamas for the use of monks is also testified by the inscriptions. The Kaṇheri inscription No. 998 of my List mentions the donation of a cave, a water cistern, a number of benches to sit on, a chair (pidha) and a walk (chaṅkama).

   Such chaṅkamas, however have also been erected as memorials on such places where the Buddha or his predecessors were supposed to have walked up and down. Hüan-tsang (Beal II, p. 48; Watters II, p. 52) reports that on the site of Ṛishipatana a chaṅkama of four Buddhas of former times was shown. It was about 50 steps long and seven feet high and consisted of dark blue stones. On it a statue of the Tathāgata was standing ^[2]. In I-tsing’s Kiu-fakao-sȇngchuan (Chavannes, Religieux Éminents, p. 96) it is mentioned that in Nālandā a chaṅkama of the Buddha existed. It was about 2 ells broad, 14 or 15 ells long and more than 2 ells high. It was decorated with lotus flowers made out of white lime in order to mark the steps of the Buddha. According to the inscriptions Nos. 918, 919 and 925 of my List there was in Bārāṇasī and in Śrāvastī as well a chaṅkama of the Buddha on which the monk Bala
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^[1]S. I, 129: bhayaṁ chhambhittaṁ lomahaṁsaṁ uppādetukāmo samādhimhā chāvetukāme.
^[2]As Hüan-tsang mentions (Beal I, p. 183; Watters I, p. 311), steps of the former four Buddhas were also shown in the neighbourhood of Mathurā. Probably also in this case ‘ the steps’ are to be regarded as chaṅkamas.