The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.83.2

v2.c16.83.2

her subsequent confinement in an Aśoka grove, but the details are entirely against such an identification. The Sītā of the Buddhist legend in the *Daśaratha Jātaka*, was never abducted from her brother and husband Rāma,¹⁴ and so the picture cannot be intended for her. Nor can we for a moment suppose any relation between the story of the frieze and the mistress of Paris. All that may be safely concluded is, that the frieze records the abduction of a married woman, her constancy and faith, and probably also her final restoration to her husband. Such a story would be a most appropriate one for representation in a Buddhist monastery, and its counterpart will most probably be met with in one of the Jātakas or Avadānas, of which so many hundreds are extant, and so few have as yet been examined. The second theory of the lady being a maiden, to which I am disposed to give greater credence, would obviate all difficulties. She is carried away by force, and is for a time in a desponding mood, and driven to seek solace in religion, notwithstanding various attempts to divert her, but ultimately she yields to her ravisher and is united to him. Marriage, under such circumstances, is admitted to be right and proper: there is no immorality, at least in Indian estimation, in a marriage of this kind, and Buddhist monks may well represent it on the walls of a monastery without any compunctious visitings of conscience.