The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.s1.84

c11.s1.84

17. (L., 160). There remains the task of exonerating him from the not less inexpiable murder of an *arhat*, or Buddhist saint. Is it worth while to recall the ingenious stratagem conceived by the evil ministers in order to prove that there is no *arhat*, or, at least, those who pretend to be such are only charlatans? On the left we perceive, each hidden under his *stūpa* (which Leemans wrongly took for « vases in the form of globes »), the two cats which have been trained to answer to the name of the two first saints formerly converted by Mahākātyāyana. On the right the Queen Mother and Çikaṇḍin take part in the demonstration, which to them appears convincing.