The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.52

c9.52

the documents we seem to catch the play of the two dominant forces which brought the number of the great pilgrimages up to the sacred figure of eight. Sometimes the preponderant element seems to be the prestige which a certain miracle had very early acquired in the popular imagination. Thus we see the « descent from heaven » separate itself very early from the crowd of traditional marvels; but its localization continues fluctuating, at least if we keep to the letter of the texts (¹). On the other hand, the ancient capital of Magadha, Râjagṛiha, and the wealthy free town of Vaiçâlî easily, by reason of their preëminent rôle in the Buddhist scriptures, eclipsed the titles of Kauçâmbî or Mathurâ : there is, however, no consensus of testimony as to which among all the edifying scenes which had there come to pass it was right more particularly to commemorate. At Çrâvastî even, where the interest is at once concentrated upon the Jetavana, the Master's favourite sojourn, unanimity of choice does not fall, as might have been expected, on the « great miracle », the triumph whereby its immediate environs had been rendered famous (²). In the face of the capricious divergencies of the texts the concordant precision of the figured monuments has fortunately permitted us to make out the list, and to sketch the traditional scheme, of the four supplementary great scenes, the miracle of Çrâvastî, the descent from heaven at Sânkâçya, the monkey’s offering at Vaiçâlî, the subjugation of the savage elephant at Râjagriha (¹). It is true that, in order definitely to fix this scheme, we have availed ourselves chiefly of miniatures in Nepalese and Bengali manuscripts of rather late date (XIth-XIIIth centuries). At the most we had been able to compare with them only a few carved slabs, which came from the scene of the « first preaching », at Sârnâth, in the northern suburb of Benares, and which date back approximately to the Vth century of our era. Unfortunately, these slabs were quite incomplete : we may be permitted, therefore, to emphasize the interest of the recent discovery at the same place of a stele in fairly good condition, divided into eight panels and consecrated precisely to the eight great scenes (pl. XIX, 1). Let us say at once that seven of these bas-reliefs only confirm what we already knew of the subjects which they represent and the conventional manner of treating them. Besides, Mr. J. H. Marshall has completely identified them. He has no hesitation, except as regards one single scene, « of which the identification », he says, « is doubtful, but which appears to have taken place at Çrâvastî » (²). And it is, in fact, concerning the traditional