Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v1.c5.s2.2

v1.c5.s2.2

It is interesting to note that the delineation of this story at Ajanta tallies with the earlier version of it in the *Mahābhārata*, wherein Indra and Agni assume the forms of hawk and pigeon for the trial of Prince Śibi.¹ In Buddhist literature several stories are related of the charitable disposition of Prince Śibi, his giving away his eyes or the flesh of his body to the ‘hawk’; but the full pigeon and hawk anecdote, with balances for weighing an equivalent amount of flesh, is not to be found except in later works, such as the *Sūtrālaṅkāra* or the *Bodhisattvāvadāna-kalpa-latā*, wherein it seems to have been adapted from the *Mahābhārata* version.² At Ajanta we notice a pigeon in the lap of a rājā, whom afterwards we see standing by a pair of scales and encircled by a bevy of ladies who are lamenting. The hawk, however, does not appear; evidently he has assumed a human form when demanding justice from Prince Śibi.³