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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PART B present form consists of the first words of the first Gāthā of the second part of the Jātaka (l.c. p.396). It shows that the first part of the story having the words ‘maṁsaṁ goṇo’ as its pratīka originally formed an independent Jātaka, which in later times, after the redaction of the Jātaka collection, was combined with the Ummaggajātaka having the pratika ‘pañchālo sabbasenāya’. It is apparently the story of Mahosadha’s cleverness, now forming the first part of the Jātaka, which is called yavamajhakiyaṁ jātakaṁ in the inscription, the name referring to the four market-towns at the four gates of Mithilā[1], the scene of Mahosadha’s various adventures, cf. Gāthā 41 ‘esa maggo yavamajjhakassa’ (l.c.p. 365, 25). B 53 (802); PLATES XX, XLII ON a pillar, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 7). Edited by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 64 f., and Pl. XXVI; Hultzsch, IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 239, No. 156; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 93 f., No. 218; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 145 ff., and Vol. III (1937), Pl., LXXXVIII (131); Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 133.
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TRANSLATION: Cunningham assisted by Minayeff and Subhūti identified the scene to which the label belongs as the introductory story of the Alambusajātaka, No. 523 of the Pāli collection, which is briefly referred to also in the Naḷinikājātaka, No. 526. The Bodhisattva is born as a Brahmin, who, when he has reached the proper age, retires to the forest. A doe in the brahmin’s privy place eats the grass and drinks the water mingled with his semen and becomes pregnant. When she has given birth to a boy, the brahmin brings him up and instructs him in the practice of meditation. This boy is Isisiṁga, whose love-affairs are the subject of the Jataka. In the upper part of the medallion the hermit is seen squatting and attending to the sacred fire. The scene seems to be intended to represent the life of the Brahmin in the hermitage which is further indicated by a hut, a vessel with a lid and two vessels filled with food and suspended in nets from a piece of wood. In the lower right corner the conception is represented in a most naturalistic manner. In the centre the hermit is taking up the boy who has just been brought forth by the doe. The dress of the hermit is quite different from that of the ordinary ascetics appearing in the sculptures. He wears his hair coiled up in braids, has a long beard, a girdle and a kind of kilt apparently made of bark or kuśa grass around his loins and the sacred thread over his left shoulder. He is thus clearly characterized as a brahmanical vanaprastha, which is in keeping with the Jataka tale. B 54 (701); PLATES XX, XLIII
ON a coping-stone, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (A 112). Edited by Cunningham,
PASB. 1874, p. 111; Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 69 f.; 131, No. 12, and Pl. XXVII
and LIII; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 61, No. 12, and Pl.; Warren, Two Bas-Reliefs
[1]Cf. Oldenberg, ɀDMG. Vol. LII (1898), p. 643. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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