The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c10.31

c10.31

(¹) See above, p. 39. Perhaps it is worth while to remark that, in the Barhut version, the cause of the drama is evidently the same as in the *Lieu tu tsi king*, that is, the gift of a lotus to the first wife, if at least, as is said in the *Kalpadrumâvadâna*, she did not receive two, one to decorate each of her temples. This reason is cited by the prose commentary of the Jâtaka down to further the wishes of his enemy and to render his task less difficult (pl. XXIX, 1). The case is the same in Gandhâra and at Amarâvatî, where in addition we see represented the episode of the hunter hiding in a ditch, in order to wound the elephant in the stomach with an arrow (pll. XXIX, 2 and XXX, 1). The fresco of Cave X of Ajaṇṭâ shows us likewise, in the words of Mr. Griffiths (loc. cit., p. 32), « the huge six-tusked elephant lying down and a hunter engaged in cutting off the six tusks ». It is, as a matter of fact, six tusks — more or less distinctly separated, but always carefully noted — that the elephant has in all these representations, except that from Gandhâra. But, when we pass on to the painting of Cave XVII, the picture is changed : « the huge white Elephant King », says Mr. Griffiths (ibid., p. 37), is standing, « with only one tusk, upon which he rests his trunk, while a man kneels and makes profound obeisance before him ». In reality (cf. pl. XXX, 2), the elephant, to whom the artist no longer lends more than his two normal teeth, has already torn out one, and is about, as it is written in the Sûtrâlaṅkâra, to twist his trunk round the second, in order to pull that out in its turn. And during this time the hunter, in adoration before him, awaits the accomplishment of the magnanimous sacrifice. There is, as we see, a striking parallelism of development between our two kinds of documents; and it is continued from one end to the other of the two series.