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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PART B (B5, B 6 respy.); an armlet in the shape of a triratna encircles the common arm. The Yaksha is standing on rocks with caves tenanted by wild beasts and birds of prey. Attitude and dress are represented in the usual type of the Yaksha images. Virūḍhaka, P. Virūḷha or Virūḷhaka, the chief of the Kumbhāṇḍas, is with the Buddhists always the guardian of the Southern quarter; cf. e.g. D. II, 257 f.; III, 198; Mvu. III, 307, 13; Lalitav. 217, 20; 389, 1; Mahām. 228 (cf. 752). Accordingly, as recognized already by Cunningham, his image is sculptured on the corner pillar of the South gate of the Stūpa. In the inscription he is still called a Yaksha, while in later times he has become a Nāga king. In the Mahām. p. 247 the four Lokapālas are inserted in the list of the Nagarajas. B 5 (737); PLATES XVI, XXX ON the same pillar as Nos. A 95, B 4, and B 6, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 1). Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 111; StBh. (1879), p. 20; 134, No. 26, and Pl. XXI and LIII; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 65, No. 44, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 230, No. 44; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 68, No. 176; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 61, and Vol. III (1937), Pl. LVII (62), Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), 9. 10 f.
TEXT:
TRANSLATION: The figure, which according to the label represents the Yaksha Gaṁgita, is on the left side of the figure of Virūḍhaka and opposite to the figure of the Nāga Chakravāka. The Yaksha is standing in the typical attitude of the Yaksha images with one foot on elephant and the other on a tree. This is sufficient to show that he is not a water spirit, and that the attempt of Barua-Sinha[1] to connect his name, which is otherwise unknown, with the river Ganges is futile. B 6 (735); PLATES XVI, XXX
ON the inner face of the same pillar as Nos. A 95, B 4 and B 5, now in the Indian
Museum, Calcutta (P 1). Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 111; StBh. (1879), p. 26;
133, No. 24, and Pl. XXI and LIII; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 65, No. 42, and [1]The phonetic identification of Gaṁgita with Sk. Gāṅgeya proposed by them is obviously impossible, and their other observations on Gāṅgeya are also incorrect. According to them the Mvp. mentions a snake-king Gāṅgeya, ‘one belonging to the Ganges or Gangetic region’, but in the said text nothing of that kind occurs. In the lists of Nāgarājas therein (167, 77-80) Gaṅgā Nāgar., Sindhur Nāgar., Sitā Nāgar., Pakshur Nāgar., are mentioned where Pakshur obviously is a mistake for Vakshur (Oxus). The same line, only with the reversing of the last two names, is also found in the Mahām, p. 247. The water deities naturally represent the four wellknown worldstreams flowing in different directions, and when they are called here Nāgarājas, that corresponds to the later view seeing Nāgas in all water deities and even in Varuṇa. Barua further deduces from the representation of Gaṁgita: ‘There must have been a distinct Buddhist Discourse, the Gaṅgeya-Sutta, giving an account of the demigod, as well as of the circumstances that led to his conversion to Buddhism. This Sutta must have contained a description of the terrors caused by him before he was tamed by the Buddha’. Such out-bursts of imagination, unrestricted by any critical outlook, unfortunately occur frequently in Barua’s work. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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