Indian Antiquary Vol 32

SR No.: 032524
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 550
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 342

828
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1903.
It is scarcely possible without an examination of the fresco itself, to determine what part of the story the picture represented was, to which these verses belong. They glorify rest of spirit which did not forsake the Kshantivadin, even under the fearful tortures inflicted by the king, and from this it might be inferred that the scene of the matilation was represented. Bargesa' description of the people, in whom we have no difficulty in recognising Kshantividin, the king, and one of the wives praying for mercy on the ascetic, - seems, on the other hand, to indicate that the soene preceding the aotaal mutilation was depicted.
The Kshantijataks is not the only story from the Jatakamals which has served the Ajanta artists as a subject. On the right side wall of the same chamber, near the front corner, there is, according to Burgess, the figure of a king seated on a throne, which bears an inscription that BhagWÁnlal Indraji doubtfally read as Chaitripalarkirajá, and explained as King Chaitra of Valorka' The correct reading, however, is certainly Maitribalo ... rájd, and the picture represents the Bodhisattva in his former birth as Maitribala. The history of this king forms the subject of the eighth story of the Jatakamála.10 Maitrábala is there held up as a pattern of human kindness; be goes so far in his goodness that once he satisfied with his own flesh and blood five Yakshas who asked him for food.
The correctness of my explanation is proved by the inscription which, according to Burgess, is found above the representation of the king. It is mach mutilated, but sufficient is left to identity it undoubtedly with Kloka 44 of the Maitribalajataka. The stanza and Bhagwanlal Indraji's tracing of the text run thus :
hriyamanavakasuth tu dânaprity& punaḥ punahi
DA prasebe manas tasya chchhedaduḥkhan vigabitum 11
na pranche manas pand traivaduḥkha vigdhitam I-tsing tells us how widespread and popular was the JAtakamala in India at the end of the seventh century. The inscriptions at Ajanta, in characters that belong to about the sixth century, prove that the work held as high a reputation a hundred years earlier.
Other Jatakas in the Ajanta Frescoes. Dr. Sorgius F. Oldenburg in 1895 published a paper on the representations of the Jatakas on Buddbist monuments. His results are of the utmost value, and the communication was translated from the Russian in the Journal of the American Oriental Society (Vol. XVIII, pp. 188 ff.), 1897. In this Dr. Oldenburg expressed the difficulty of satisfactory identification of the scenes in the almost complete absence of reproductions (ib. pp. 195, 196). Mr. Griffiths' work, The Paintings in the Buddhist Cards of Ajaptá (1896), had not then appeared. But even this great work does not remove all impediments; for, of the 820 pieces, large and small, copied between 1872 and 1886, half were destroyed by fire at South Kensington Museum soon after they were hung up, and the 159 plates in Mr. Griffiths' work represent about eighty-five of his canvases, and of these fully 40 per cent. are decorative details - contained in the second volume. To study the subjects of the very interesting paintings in the Ajanta Caves, more complete series of the sopnes, drawn in outline and lithograpbed, should be in the hands of scholars. Meanwhile the mergre information available bas been carefully studied; and Dr. S. F. Oldenburg, solely on the the basis of the descriptions in Notes on
• Loc. cit. p. 89.
Thorki standing between the two worde, looks more like k in the fronimile. It cannot, of ons, be right, but I cannot propose a satisfactory correction
. (Korn's od. pp. 41-50.-J. B.]
11 I add the following a connected with Dr. Lüder's paper, and of interest to moh may not have soon Dr. Oldenburg's paper.-J. B.]