South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

Fellow^[1]of Friar Pushyavuddhi, (namely an image of) the Bôdhisattva and an umbrella with a post, erected at Benares, at the place where the Lord^[2] used to walk,─ together with (his) parents, with (his) masters and teachers, (his) fellows and pupils,^[3] and with (the nun) Buddhamitrâ versed in the Tripiṭaka, together with the satrap Vanaspara and Kharapallâna, and together with the four classes,^[4] for the welfare and happiness of all creatures.^[5]

The image referred to in the inscription is 10′ high and 3′ wide across the shoulders. It was found in three pieces, the head and feet being broken off. The right arm is lost ; presumably it was raised in the attitude of protection (abhaya-mudrâ). The left hand rests on the hip and holds the upper garment, which leaves the right shoulder bare. A double flat girdle fastened round the loins keeps in the plain lower garment, which reaches beneath the knees. The head, which measures 3′ in circumference, is unfortunately much mutilated. The top is broken, so that it is impossible to decide whether it had the protuberance of the skull (ushṇîsha). Nor is there any trace of the mark between the brows (ûrṇâ), another characteristic of the Buddha. We can, however, be certain that the hair was neither arranged in the wavy locks peculiar to the Graeco-Buddhist school of Gandhâra, nor in the schematic curls of mediæval images. It is treated in such a way as to present the aspect of a plain, close-fitting cap, which was probably meant to render the shaven head of the Buddhist monk. It is interesting to note that this treatment of the hair is very common in the Mathurâ images which can be assigned to the Kushaṇa period. Another point of similarity is the treatment of the halo. In the case of the Sârnâth image only the lower part of it remains on the back of the torso. Along its border runs a repeat of semicircles. In Gandhâra the haloes are plain, except in a few instances where we find a border showing a conventional development of the radiate nimbus.^[6] Of this the Mathurâ halo seems to be a later development, which thus forms a transition from the plain Gandhâra one to the highly ornamental halo of the Gupta period, of which Mr. Oertel’s excavations have revealed some very fine specimens.^[7]

Between the feet of the Sârnâth image is a figure in relief of a lion facing, and on the side of the left foot a naturalistic representation of leaves, buds, flowers and fruits in bas-relief. Whether these are merely decorative or have some symbolical meaning, I cannot decide.^[8] In later Buddhist art the lion, if meant as vâhana and not merely as an indication of the siṁhâsana, is peculiar to the Bôdhisattvas Mañjuśrî and Siṁhanâda-Lôkêśvara.^[9] But it is questionable, whether at the period to which the Sârnâth image belongs it can have borne that signification. More probably it indicates that the statue represents Śâkyasiṁha, ‘ the lion among the Śâkyas.’
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^[1] On the meaning of saddhyevihâri see Kern, Manual, p. 84 ; Bühler, Ep. Ind. Vol. II. p. 379 ; Bloch, l. c. p. 279 ; I-tsing (Takakusu), p. 116 ; and Childers, Pâli Dictionary, s. v. saddhivihârî.
^[2] On the use and meaning of Bhagavat see Kern, Manual, p. 63.
^[3] The word antevâsin occurs also in the 2nd Śiddhâpura edict (Bühler, above, Vol. III. p. 138) : Hemeva aṁtevâsinâ âchâriye apachâ[yi]taviye (“ moreover the pupil should honour his teacher”), and in a Mathurâ inscription, 2nd series, No. I. (Bühler, Ep. Ind. Vol. II. p. 198). The feminine form antevâsinî occurs in the Mathurâ Bôdhisattva inscription (p. 182 below), where the bhikshuṇî Buddhamitrâ is called the antevâsinî of Friar Bala. In another Mathurâ inscription, 2nd series, No. XXI. (Bühler, l. c. p. 205), we find the form antevâsikinî.
^[4] The four parishads are bhikshus, bhikshuṇîs, upâsakas and upâsikâs. Sometimes five or eight parishads are spoken of. Compare I-tsing (Takakusu) and Childers, Pâli Dictionary, s.v. parisâ.
^[5] The same expression is also found in the Anyor Buddha inscription ; Cunningham, A. S. R. Vol. XX. p. 49 and Plate V. No. 5.
^[6] Compare Grünwedel-Burgess, Buddhist Art, fig. 143.
^[7] That these are to be assigned to the Gupta period, may be inferred from the inscribed Buddha image in the Mathurâ Municipal Museum. Compare Growse, Mathurâ, a District Memoir, p. 115.
^[8] Mr. Griessen, Superintendent of the Tâj Garden at Agra, to whom I sent a photograph of the sculpture, is of opinion that the bas-relief possibly represents the flower, bud, leaves and seed-pods of “ Rhododendron arboretum ” (Flora Br. Ind. Vol. III. p. 465), a plant that is used in Nepal as an offering at Buddhist temples.
^[9] Foucher, Iconographie Bouddhique (Paris, 1900), p. 116, and Vol. II. (Paris, 1905), p. 31.