North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

a huge crab which used to catch and kill the elephants sporting in the water. When the crab has seized the Bodhisattva’s feet with its claws, the Bodhisattva is unable to pull the monster out of the water. He feels that the crab is drawing him down and roars for help. While the other elephants run off, his mate turns towards the crab and coaxes it with flattering words so that it loosens its grasp. Then the elephant tramples it to death.

   In the medallion the elephant is represented stepping out of the water, while the crab clings to his right hind-foot. Two elephants, one of whom may be intended as the mate of the Bodhisattva, are visible in the background. In the water some aquatic bird is swallowing a fish, while four more fish are swimming about.

    As the elephant is the hero of the story, Nāgajātaka seems to be a more appropriate title of the Jātaka than Kakkaṭajataka.

B 44 (825); PLATES XX, XL

ON a rail-bar of the South-Eastern quadrant, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (C.B.59). Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 112 f.; StBh. (1879), p. 58 f.; 139, No. 11, and Pl. XXVI and LV; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 72, No. 109, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 236, No. 109; Barua-Sinha BI. (1926), p. 88, No. 206; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 123 f., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. LXXXII (117); Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 133.

TEXT:
laṭuvājātaka^[1]

TRANSLATION:
The quail Jataka.

  The subject of the medallion was identified by Cunningham with the Laṭukikajātaka, No. 357 of the Pāli collection,^[2] where the Bodhisattva appears as the leader of a large herd of elephants. A quail, that has her nest with her unfledged brood on the feeding-ground of the elephants, implores him not to trample on the young birds. The Boddhisattva and his herd cautiously pass by without injuring the birds, but a solitary rogue elephant who comes after them crushes the nest in spite of the entreaties of the quail alights on a tree and threatens to take her revenge which she accomplishes with the help of a crow, a blue fly, and a frog. The crow pecks out the eyes of the elephant, the fly drops its eggs into the empty sockets, and when the elephant, blind and maddened by pain, is seeking for water to drink, the frog deludes him by his croaking to a precipice. He tumbles down and is killed. In the medallion the different stages of the story are represented : the elephant trampling down the nest with the young birds; the quail on the tree; the crow pecking out the eyes of the elephant; the fly laying its eggs in the wounds; and, at the top, the frog and the elephant falling headlong down the rocks. The elephant on the right, who is followed by a smaller elephant, seems to be meant for the Bodhisattva and his herd.

B 45 (704); PLATES XX, XL

ON a coping-stone, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (A 108). Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 115; Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 76; 131, No. 15, and
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^[1]The ka which is distinct in Cunningham’s and Hultzsch’s reproductions is nearly effected in the impression before me.
^[2]A similar story is found in the Pañchatantra (ed. Kielhorn), I, 15.