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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PART B his left hand a flower-spike and in the right hand, which hangs by his side, a small round object. Barua (Barh. II, p. 117) maintains that the bird in the hand of the woman is a pigeon or a dove and that the man does not hold a flower but a hawk on his breast. He points out that according to the Divy. p. 300 the pigeon is the symbol of rāga and further asks whether the attributes should not mean that the king like a hawk swooped down upon the turtle-heart of the queen given away to another man. The pictures accessible to me do not allow to judge the value of the different interpretations. The hawk in Barua’s explanation may owe its existence more to the wish for an ingenious comment than to the observation of what is really represented. Perhaps the object in the king’s hand, interpreted as hawk is the story. If Barua is right that the queen has only one ear-decoration─it is not to be verified from the pictures─it would show that the artist represents the loss of one ear-ring in exact comformity with the Jātaka text. B 61 (749); PLATES XXI, XLIV INSCRIPTION on the lowest panel of the middle face of the same pillar as No. A 62, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 29). Edited by Cunningham StBh. (1879), p. 134, No. 38, and Pl. XV and LIV; Hoernle, IA. Vol. XI (1882), p. 26 f., No. 21, with an additional remark by Beal, ibid. p. 146; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 66, No. 56, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 231, No. 56; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 89 f., No. 209; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 132 f., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. XXII (123); Lüders, ɀDMG. Vol. XCIII (1939), p. 98 ff.; Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 19 f.
TEXT:
TRANSLATION:
The panel shows the figures of a man and a woman, both well-dressed. The man is
standing and engaged in winding (or unwinding) his turban. The female figure on his
right is seated on a stone and holding some flowers in her raised right hand. The background is filled with rocks, and in the right corner there is a strange object lying before a tree.
It is of oblong shape, placed aslant, with a head-piece in the centre flanked on each side by
a smaller protuberance. It seems to be wrapped up crosswise with cords, just as another
oblong object of smaller size, which is half covered by the larger one. Barua and Sinha
have identified the two persons of the relief with the Vidyādhara and the wife of the Dānava
who are the chief actors in the Samuggajātaka (436)[2]. The Jātaka is the oldest version
of a tale that has found its way into the introductory story of the Arabian Nights. A Dānava
has captured a beautiful girl and has made her his wife. In order to keep her safe, he puts
her in a box which he swallows. One day he wishes to take a bath. He goes to a tank,
throws up the box and lets the girl bathe first. He then bids her to enjoy the open air and
himself walks off to the tank. At this moment a Vidyādhara comes flying through the air.
The woman invites him by signs to descend and places him in the box, into which she slips
[1]This is the reading of Hultzsch. Cunningham read vajapi, Hoernle vijaṭi. The first akshara is
clearly vi, the second almost certainly ja, although the form of the letter differs from the ja of the second
line. The third akshara can be read only pi. The word is engraved by another hand than vijadhara. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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