North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

2. B 13-17 INSCRIPTIONS ATTACHED TO BODHI-TREES OF THE
FORMER BUDDHAS.

B 13 (779); PLATES V, XXXIII

ON the same pillar as No. A 29, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 8). The inscription is engraved over a medallion, directly below the donative inscription No. A 29, but in a different hand. Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 115; StBh. (1879), p. 46; 113; 137, No. 68, and Pl. XXIX and LIV; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 69, No. 81 (second part), IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 234, No. 81 (second part); Ramaprasad Chanda, MASI. No. I (1919), p. 19, and Pl. V, No.4; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 39 No. 135; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 1 f., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. XXXV (26); Lüders, Bhārh.(1941), p. 26 ff.

TEXT:
bhagavato Vipasino bodhi

TRANSLATION:
The Bodhi tree of the holy Vipasi (Vipasyin).

   On different pillars of the railing the Bodhi trees of five predecessors of the historical Buddha are depicted (Cunningham, Pl. XXIX and XXX). The Bodhi tree of Sikhin who is the second in the well-known row of the seven Buddhas is missing. But we may almost certainly assume that the relief which represented the tree of Sikhin has been destroyed or deported. All the five available reliefs have labels which do not leave any doubt about their identification. The addition of sālo after bodhi in the inscription B 14 makes it certain that bodhi is used in all the reliefs in the sense of Bodhi tree as it is frequently done in Pāli and Sanskrit literature.^[1]

   The representation in all the five sculptures is stereotyped. On both sides of the stone seat, which rises above the Bodhi tree, a person is shown kneeling. These kneeling figures are sometimes two women (B 16, B 17), sometimes two men (B 13), sometimes a man and a woman (B 14, B 15). Some other people stand behind them, normally two as in B 14-17. In all these four reliefs, one person is depicted on both sides of the tree, offering garlands or strewing flowers, and the arrangement is always such that a man stands behind a kneeling woman, and a woman behind a kneeling man. In our relief (B 13), however, nine men, five on the left and four on the right side of the tree─the trunk of which is decorated with a broad band─are represented offering garlands or bouquets, or showing their veneration. These persons are meant as human worshippers which suggests that the sculpture illustrates, not the enlightenment of the Buddha, but the worship of the Bodhi tree (see B 14).

   The names of the five Buddhas occurring in the different labels are the same as in Pāli. But of the Bodhi trees only the four of the last Buddhas depicted in the reliefs correspond exactly to the statements in the Mahāpadānasutta (D. II. 4), in the Bv. and in the Nidānakathā (J. I. 41 ff.), according to which the Sāla (shorea robusta) belongs to
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^[1]Cf. B 14, f. n. 2, p. 84.