North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

   To the left of the relief there is a tree, on a branch of which a cock is sitting high above the ground. To the right, underneath the tree, a cat of a comparatively big size squats. She looks up to the cock on the tree and is obviously talking to him. The relief has already been identified by Subhūti with the Kukkuṭajātaka (J. 383) of the Pāli collection, giving the fable of the cat which used to catch the cocks by different stratagems in order to devour them. Now the Bodhisattva is born as a cock and the cat realizes that it will be difficult to get hold of that especially intelligent bird. The cat therefore decides to offer herself as his wife. She approaches the cock when he sits on a tree, flatters him, and tries to persuade him to take her as his wife. The cock, however, suspects some treachery, refuses her proposal, and keeps himself away from danger. Just the event of the conversation between the cock and the cat is represented in our relief.

   Biḍala corresponds to sk. biḍāla (cf. Pāṇini, 6. 2.72), whereas Pāli texts use biḷāra or bilāḷa.^[1]

    The relief bears two labels according to the main characters in the story, whereas for the Pāli Jātaka, as mentioned above, only the title kukkuṭajātaka is used.

B 42a; PLATE XLI

ON a coping stone, now in the Allahabad Municipal Museum (Ac/2910). Edited by Kala, BhV. (1951) pp. 32 f., Pl. 7; Sircar, EI., Vol. XXXIII (1959/60), p. 60, No. 7; an illustration of the coping stone is also given by Stella Kramrisch, The Art of India through the Ages, (1954), Pl. 15.

TEXT:
Gajajataka^[2] saso     jatake[3]

TRANSLATION:
The Jataka of the elephant. The hare      in the Jataka (?).

  The wording and distribution of this inscription is very peculiar. The first part is inscribed at the top of a panel showing two people of rank standing in a court-yard formed by three cottages. One of the cottages is placed in the longitudinal direction right in front of the spectator, the two others on either side of the first. Dr. Kala gives the following detailed description of the panel. “In the space between these cottages are two richly attired persons engaged in conversation. The figure on the left side holds an animal (hare) in his right hand while the left one is raised above the breast. The right side figure hears the discourse of the other with rapt attention. One more animal is noticeable in the scene ….The fronts cottage is thatched with grass and reeds and gas a gabled roof. The walls of the house appear to have been made of wood. There is a sliding door and a star shaped window on each of its sides. The two side cottages have vaulted roofs supported by wooden beams. The cottage in the right has three finials. A disc ornament is also carved near these.”

The second part of the label (viz. jātake) is engraved at the top of a different panel,
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^[1]See Lüders, Beobachtungen über die Sprache des buddhistischen Urkanons, Abhandlungen der deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1953, § 35.
^[2]gajāº is probably a mistake for gajaº.
^[3]The reading of Dr. Kala is jātaka. The stroke of the –e is, however, quite clearly written. jātake can only be a loc. sg., or has to be regarded as a mistake for jātakaṁ.