North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

Vessabhu, the Śirīsha (Acacia sirissa) to Kakusandha, the Udumbara (Ficus glomerata) to Konāgamana, the Nyagrodha (Ficus indica) to Kassapa. These texts however mention that the Bodhi tree of Vipassi is the Pāṭali tree (Bignonia suaveolens), and, as pointed out by Anderson,^[1] it is a special feature of our medallion that the tree represented is not the Pāṭali, as assumed by Cunningham, but undoubtedly the Aśoka tree (Saraca Indica). A comparison of our tree with the unmistakable representation of the Aśoka tree embraced by a female deity with a leg (as in B 11) does not leave any doubt regarding the identity of the tree.

   The divergence is surprising, but it would be wrong to attribute it to a mere mistake of the sculptor. He evidently followed another tradition, for the same tree reappears in Sāñchī. There on six architraves of the four gates of Stūpa I the seven last Buddhas are symbolized by their Bodhi trees or their stūpas. In two cases, on the reverse of the uppermost architrave of the eastern gate (I) and on the obverse of the middle architrave of the northern gate (II), the seven Bodhi trees are represented one beside the other. On the four other architraves, trees and stūpas alternate. In two cases, on the reverse of the uppermost architrave of the southern gate (III) and on the obverse of the uppermost architrave of the western gate (IV) the arrangement is tree, stūpa, tree, stūpa, tree, stūpa, tree. In the remaining two cases, on the obverse of the uppermost architrave of the eastern gate (V) as well as on that of the northern gate (VI), the succession from the left to the right^[2] is: stūpa, stūpa, tree, stūpa, tree, stūpa, stūpa. As far as I can judge from the photographs of the architraves the first tree to the left in (I) is an Aśvattha, the last to the right an Aśoka, in (II) the first tree on the left is an Aśoka, the last to the right, which seems to be much weather-beaten, can be an Aśvattha. Now probably as the traditional succession of the Buddhas is followed in the arrangement, running once from the left to the right and at another time from the right to the left, and, as the Aśvattha or the Pippala (Ficus religiosa) is assigned in the whole Buddhist literature of all times to Śākyamuni,^[3] we may assume with certainty that the Aśoka tree is the tree of Buddha Vipaśyin as far as these sculptures are concerned. Of the rest of the architraves, I have only photographs of (IV) and (V) at my disposal which are sufficiently clear to confirm the above result. In (IV), the first tree to the left is probably an Aśoka, the last to the right is certainly an Aśvattha. In (V) the tree to the left is an Aśvattha, the tree to the right an Aśoka. In (IV) and (V) therefore apparently the first and the seventh Buddha are represented by their Bodhi trees, the other Buddhas by stūpas. The assignment of the Aśoka tree to Vipassin can also be confirmed by literary evidence. In the Mahām. it is said of Vipaśyin: aśokam āśritya jino Vipaśyī (l.c. p. 227).

B 14 (714); PLATES XVII, XXXIII

INSCRIPTION on the same pillar as No. A 38, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 12). The inscription is engraved below a medallion. Edited by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 132, No. 3, and Pl. XXIX and LIII; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 63, No. 24, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 229, No. 24; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 40, No. 137;
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^[1]Cat., I, p. 30.
^[2]Left or right has to be understood from the spectator’s point of view.
^[3]Bloch’s statement (ASIAR., 1908-9, p. 139, f. n. 2) that the Nidānakathā and other Pāli sources call the tree a nigrodha rests on a misunderstanding of the passage in the Nidānakathā¸J., I, 68 f. The Nyagrodha under which the Bodhisattva was sitting, when Sujātā was bringing the milk-rice to him, does not have anything to do with the Bodhi tree. In the Nidānakathā, the Aśvattha is expressly mentioned as the Bodhi tree of Śākyamuni, see J., I, 34 ff. and J., I, 15 assattharukkhamüle abhisambujjhissati.