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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PART B corner issues a man mounted on an elephant. On the right four well-dressed men are standing in a line. The foremost figure of the four holds a small object in his left hand, while his right hand is uplifted. As the man on the elephant also has his right hand raised, they are apparently talking together. The three men on the left of the speaker seem to bring presents, each holding a tray, the first filled with small round objects, perhaps pearls, the second with square coins, and the third with necklaces. In the middle compartment the four men appear again in a line, but this time mounted on elephants decorated with bells hanging down before their foreheads. The first in the row from the right is holding up a tray with coins, while the third, who seems to be the most prominent person, is distinguished by a parasol and a chaurī carried by an attendant whose head is visible in the background. Before the line of elephants another elephant is kneeling. He is held down with the aṅkuśa by a man of whom only the head is seen, the body being hidden behind a tree which belongs to the lower scene. This is evidently the same man who in the first scene is riding on the elephant, and from the label it appears that he is the young Brahmin Bramhadeva.
In the lower compartment, of which only the upper portion is preserved, Bramhadeva is seen once more kneeling before a throne placed under a tree and surmounted by a parasol with pendants hanging down on both sides, while behind him the four men are standing again in a line with their hands joined in devotion. Anderson[1] states that the tree is the Bodhi tree of the historical Buddha, but I doubt very much that this is correct, as it does not show distinctly the characteristically pointed leaves of the Ficus religiosa. Of the rest of the sculpture only the head of a person is still visible below the throne. Whether it belongs to the scene above or to another scene in continuation of the story in the lost portion of the sculpture cannot be made out. Barua and Sinha translated the label ‘the young [Rūpa-]Brahma deity Subrahmā’, for which later on Barua substituted ‘ the youthful Rūpa-brahma deity’. Barua is of opinion that the relief illustrates the concluding part of Siddhārtha’s battle with Māra, the congratulations of the Brahmakāyika deities, with Subrahmā at the head[2]. This interpretation would hardly convince anybody, even if it were not based on the palpably wrong translation of the inscription. B 67 (710); PLATES XXII, XLV ON a coping-stone, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (A 98). Edited by Beal, Academy Vol. VI (1874), p. 612 (comp. Fergusson, ibid. p. 637, note); Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 94 f.; 131, No. 21, and Pl. XLV and LIII; Hoernle, IA. Vol. X (1881), p. 119, No. 3; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 63, No. 21, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 229, No. 21; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 82 f., No. 194; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 95 ff.; and Vol. III (1937), pl. LXXIII (96); Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 88 f.
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