The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c10.28

c10.28

(1) M. L. FEER (loc. cit. p. 50 and p. 77, note 1) has observed the same thing in the Kalpadrumâvadâna, in spite of the persistence in the title of the traditional name of « six-toothed »; but it is to be noticed that the word plantain! In the *Kalpadrumâvadâna*, the *Ta che tu luen* (which besides is simply a very summary résumé) and the *Tsa pao tsang king*, the hero does not even trouble himself to borrow from his murderer any instrument whatever: he himself breaks off his tusks, according to the first two accounts against a rock, according to the third against a big tree. But to the *Sûtrâlaṅkâra* belongs the palm for spontaneity in the action of the martyr : it is simply « by slipping his trunk round his teeth » that this time the elephant pulls them out, not without pain or grief, while the hunter respectfully waits for him to present them expressly to him. Further than this it is impossible to go.