Elements of Buddhist Iconography c8.63

c8.63

According to the Mahāsudassana Sutta (S.B.E., XI, S.B.B., III) and Lakkhaṇa Suttanta (S.B.B., IV) the treasures of a Cakravartin consist of a Wheel (cakra, explained by one commentator as representing the solar disk), an elephant, horse, light-giving jewel, queen, treasurer, and minister. In the present relief the latter is represented by a boy, evidently the Crown Prince; according to Buddhaghosa, the king's eldest son in fact officiated as pariṇāyaka, and the Jaggayyapeṭa relief shows that this was not "a mere putting back into the (Mahāsudassana) Sutta a later idea," as was surmised by Rhys Davids, S.B.E., XI, 259, note 1. That the Emperor's hand is raised to the clouds, from which falls a rain of coins, corresponds to ancient conceptions of Varuṇa and others as givers of wealth; Varuṇa or Agni as mīḷhuṣa; Indra's designation as Maghavat; Ṛg Veda, X, 19, 7, rayyā saṃ sṛjantu naḥ, "pour down wealth upon us"; and later passages in the Mahābhārata where Indra is spoken of as "raining gold" on a favorite king, and where Bhīma addresses Yudhiṣṭhira with the words "Thy hand can rain gold"; and even more striking a passage of the Prabandhacintāmaṇi (Tawney, p. 76), "O king! when the cloud of your hand had begun its auspicious ascent in the ten quarters of the heavens, and was raining the nectar flood of gold, with the splendor of the trembling golden bracelet flickering like lightning"; cf. also Buddhacarita, I, 22, "Like a range of clouds she relieved the people about her from the sufferings of poverty by raining showers of gifts."