The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c7.s1.t2.28

c7.s1.t2.28

c) Finally, every one must recognize at the top of this same face, in the religious fig-tree (*açvattha*) surmounted, as usual, by a parasol and inhabited by winged genii, the tree and the symbol of the perfect « Bodhi of the Blessed One Çâkya-Muni » : of this the inscription on an analogous bas-relief at Barhut convinces us. In both cases we find at the foot of the same tree the same throne, surmounted by the same symbol (which is double at Barhut), and, about the offshoot of the branches, the same temple open to the sky. We may safely aver that this strange sanctuary is, at the earliest, that which Açoka had piously built around the sacred tree, more than two centuries after the death of the Master : but this flagrant anachronism is one of those to which we are perfectly accustomed in the religious art of all times and all countries, and does not in any wise prevent the picture from relating to the very miracle of the Illumination of Buddha. Perhaps it has not been observed with sufficient attention that the analogy of Barhut forces us to establish a close connection between this scene and the double row of people contiguous to it : the whole difference consists in the fact that here they are above it, while in the former case they are below; but the inscriptions prove that they are different categories of Gods, and must be regarded as grouped in adoration at the four cardinal points of the tree, as happened at the moment of the *Sambodhi*¹. Henceforward we must here also recognize in the four worshippers at the bottom « the four great kings », who live in our atmosphere, to the right those of the east and the south, to the left those of the north and west. The ten persons of the first row, counting two for each heaven, would then indicate the kings and viceroys of the five other paradises of the Kâmâvacaras, just as on the face of the other pillar (§ 6) they happen to be represented in their heavenly palaces; then the eight gods in the row above, of whose bodies (as in the case of the two who form their counterpart on the upper terrace on the right) only half is seen, would represent in twos the inhabitants of the four stages of Brahmâ's heaven, the last that we may ask the sculptor to show us (cf. above, p. 71). Thus a close examination reveals, under the evident striving after variety in the outer forms, a striking carefulness in balancing the intrinsic importance and the religious value of the subjects on the symmetrical faces of the two jambs.