The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c10.7

c10.7

Such is this touching story, reduced to its essential and most generally reported features : for it is known under multiple forms. We know, in particular, that it appears in the Pâli collection of the Jâtaka (nº 514). Since 1895 M. L. Feer has compared with this text, point for point, the Sanskrit account in the Kalpadrumâvadâna and two Chinese editions, taken, the one from the Lieu tu tsi king (Nanjio, nº 143) and the other from the Tsa pao tsang king (Nanjio, nº 1329); but, with perhaps excessive prudence, he was careful not to draw any conclusions from this detailed comparison (¹). More recently the translation of the *Sûtrâlaṅkâra* of Açvaghosha, so excellently rendered by M. Ed. Huber from the Chinese of Kumârajîva, has made accessible to us a new and most important version (¹). Finally, a publication by M. Ed. Chavannes has placed at the disposal of Indianists generally both a complete translation of the two texts quoted by M. L. Feer, and also a translation of the corresponding passage of the *Ta che tu luen* (Nanjio, nº 1169), ascribed to Nâgârjuna (²). So much for the literary sources of our study (³). If we now turn to the works of art, we observe that we have been no less fortunate in having preserved to us at the same time a medallion from Barhut (⁴), another from Amarâvatî (⁵), a lintel from Sânchî (⁶), a fragment of a frieze from Gandhâra (⁷), and finally two frescoes from Ajaṇṭâ, the one