North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

why the name has been transformed into Vidhura in the Pāli text is not known ^[1]. The spelling Vitura in the label has a parallel in Kupira in No. B 1. The name of the Yaksha occurs also in the Buddhistic Sanskrit literature. In the Mahām., pp. 235 f., Pūrṇaka is mentioned as one of the four mahāyakshasenāpatis who guard the eastern quarter and as one of the four dharmabhrātṛis of the mahārāja Vaiśravaṇa^[2].

B 56 (706); PLATES XXI, XLV

ON a coping-stone, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (A 81). Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 113 ; Beal, Academy Vol. VI (1874), p. 612; Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 95; 131, No. 20, and Pl. XLIV and LIII; Hoernle, IA. Vol. X (1881), p. 119, No. 2; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 62, No. 20, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 228, No. 20; JRAS. 1912, p. 404 f.; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 94, No. 219; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 153 f., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. LXXXIX (135); Lüders, Bharh. (1941), p. 134.

TEXT :
u[su][kāro] Janak[o] rāj[ā] Sivala devi^[3]

TRANSLATION:
The arrow-maker. King Janaka. Queen Sivala (Sivali).

  The labels enabled Cunningham to connect the relief in a general way with the Mahājanakajātaka (No. 539), it was only when text of the Jātaka had become available that the scene could be identified with an episode in the second part of the story. King Janaka has turned ascetic and is wandering through the country followed by his queen. In vain he tries to persuade her to leave him. When they have reached the city of Thūṇā, Janaka comes on his begging tour to the house of an arrow-maker who is engaged in his work. Closing one eye, he is looking with the other to ascertain if the shaft of the arrow is straight. To the king the use of only one eye by the arrow-maker is a new proof for his conviction that a second person is a hindrance for attaining one’s goal and he urges once more upon his wife the necessity of leaving him alone. The sculpture is an exact representation of the story.

  The name of the queen in the Gāthās and in the commentary is Sīvalī, which occurs as a female name also in J. I, 34, 9; 40, 9. It has a parallel in Sivali, the name of a Thera frequently mentioned in Buddhist literature. Sivala in the label is therefore probably a clerical error for Sivalī, thought it may stand for Sīvalā or even Sivalā (Sk. Śivalā), which is the name of an upāsikā in the Amaravati inscription List No. 1268.
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^[1]Perhaps the name has been equalized with the name of another person called Vidhura who, in association with Sañjīva, forms the pair of main disciples of the arhat Kakusandha (See D. 2, 4; M. I, 333; the stanza 1, 337 – Theragāthā 118 ff.; S. XV, 20, 5 (printed Sajiva); Nidānakathā, J. 1, 42, 26 (read Vidhuro instead of Vidhūro, as in C^S C^[V]). The Mahāvaddnasūtra, however, the Sk. text corresponding to D. 2, 4, reads Vidura as the name of one of the main disciples of the Buddha Krakasunda, see Waldschmidt, Mahāvadānasūtra, p. 76. So Vidura seems to be the original form of the names of both the persons. The Vidhūra in Pāli, as it appears in G. 3; 5; 6 of the Jātaka is apparently a metrical lengthening.
^[2]p. 235 pūrvāyām Ānanda diśāyāṁ chatvāro mahāyakshasenāpatayaḥ prativasanti ye pūrvāṁ diśaṁ rakshanti paripālayanti || tadyathā Dīrghaḥ Sunetraḥ Pūrṇakaḥ Kopilaś cha. p. 236 Vaiśravaṇasya mahārājasya dharmabhrātṛiṇāṁ nāmāni ; Sātāgirir Haimavataḥ Pūrṇakaḥ Khadirakovidaḥ. By this Puṇṇaka is proved to be a figure in the local stories of Eastern India. Also the poet of the Gāthās causes in G. 44 Puṇṇaka to call himself a person from Aṅga and so connects him with the East.
^[3]The last akshara is distinctly vi, not vi as read by all previous editors.