North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

No. 65, and Pl. XVI and LIV; Hoernle, IA. Vol. XL (1882), p. 29 ff., No. 25^b; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 69, No. 79, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 233, No. 79; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 54 ff., No. 154; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 19 ff., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. XLII (39).

TEXT:

1 Vejayaṁto pā-
2 Sāde^[1]

TRANSLATION:
The Vejayaṁta (Vaijayanta) palace.

  [B 21 and B 22 refer to one and the same sculpture.]
In the Nidānakathā of the Jātaka (I, 64 f.) it is told that the Bodhisattva, when he had left his native town, cut off with his own sword his hair together with the head-dress and cast it to the sky. Sakka received it in a golden casket and deposited it in the Chūḷamaṇichetīya in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven. As pointed out by Huber^[2], the same story, with slight variations, is found in the Mvu. (II, 165 f.), in the Lalitav. (p. 225), and in the Chinese translation of the Abhinishkramaṇasūtra and the Vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādins. In these latter texts it is added that on the anniversary of the event the Thirty-three gods celebrate the festival of the hair-lock. This festival is represented in the sculpture. In the left upper corner there is a building surrounded by a railing. It has a pinnacled dome roof and an arched gateway which affords a view of the hair-lock and the head-dress in the interior. They are lying in a bowl placed on a throne and surmounted by a parasol decorated with pendants. On each side a god stands. According to the label the edifice is the hall of the gods Sudharmā, which is frequently mentioned in Buddhist texts ^[3] as the hall of the Thirty-three gods presided over by Indra and is well known also in epic and classical Sanskrit literature. A late legend of its origin is told in the Kulāvakajātaka (J., Vol. I, 204).

   The adjoining building in the right upper corner is a three-storied palace, again surrounded by a railing. In each of the arched doors opening on the balconies of the second and third storeys the head of some person is seen, while on the flower floor Indra is standing with four female attendants around him. He is looking down at the scene below, where four Apsaras are dancing to the music of a band of four male and three female musicians. Among the instruments they are playing on a small drum to be beaten with a stick, a large drum played upon with the hand, and two vīṇās can be distinguished. One of the females seems to be clapping her hands, while the two others may be singing. Vaijayanta, the name of the building, is an epithet applied to all sorts of things belonging to Indra. It occurs in the Buddhist texts in Pāli and Sanskrit as the name of his palace, and it is known also in Brahmanical literature^[4]. In M. I, 203 Indra is said to have the Vaijayanta palace built after a victory over the Asuras; according to the later legend referred to in the Kulāvakajātaka (J., Vol. I, 203) it rose spontaneously from the ground.

B 23 (739); PLATES XVIII, XXXVII

ON the uppermost relief of the outer face of the same pillar as No. A 62, now in the
_____________________

^[1]The last akshara, which can be read only de, is a clerical error for do.M
^[2]See reference B 21.
^[3]D., II, 2074; J., 489, 20; 494, 3; 523, 1; Mvu., I, 32, 10; III, 198, 2; Divy., p. 220; etc.
^[4]M., I, 253; J., 545, 78; Mvu., II, 346, 20; Lalitav., 58, 20; 212, 1; 213, 18; etc.

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