The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c5.s4.10

c5.s4.10

vity », where we see only the mother, to the exclusion of the new-born child (¹). Which of these three compositions (see pl. III) is the most archaic and best preserves for us the aspect of the « souvenirs » which the pilgrims of the fifth century were already able to purchase at Kapilavastu? This is a question which we at present find very difficult to answer. If, again, on this point we confide our-selve to the numismatic documents, they will persuade us that from the beginning a certain wavering manifested itself in the choice of the artists and the faithful. Most of the Buddhist coins devote two abbreviations, instead of one, to the Nativity alone; at least, of the five usually associated symbols, the lotus, the bull, the tree, the wheel and the tumulus, the two first must correspond simultaneously to the first of the four great miracles. Apparently, the lotus recalled those which had sprung up spontaneously under the seven first steps of the Master, whilst the bull, almost always flanked by his zodiacal emblem, incarnated the traditional date of the birth, the day of the full moon of the month Vaiçâkha (see pl. I, A). On other occasions, but more rarely, the bull is replaced by an elephant, a plastic reminder of the Conception (²). It may be