The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c6.34

c6.34

VIII. Another medallion (pl. V, 3) contains no less than three episodes. At the bottom the tender-hearted stag, *ruru*, saves the son of the merchant, who was going to drown himself in the Ganges, and brings him on his back to the bank, where one of his roes is stooping to drink at the river. At the top, on the right, the king of Benares, guided by the young merchant, who is evidently acting as his informant, is preparing with bent bow to kill the great rare stag, the object of his desires as a hunter. But the words addressed to him by the latter quickly cause the weapons to fall from his hands, and we find him again in the centre in edifying conversation with the wonderful animal, whilst the treacherous informer seems to be hiding behind the royal person. We know from another source that the Bodhisattva, always charitable, intercedes with the king in favour of his perfidious debtor (*Jât.* 482 ; not to be confused with 12).