Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v2.c9.5

v2.c9.5

In a previous existence the Bodhisattva was a hermit in a forest, whose favourite subject of discourse had earned him the name of Kṣāntivādin, the ‘preacher of patience’. One day the king with some of his queens visited the forest, where he lay down and fell asleep. His queens wandering about the forest came to the hermitage and were at once entertained to a discourse on forbearance which fascinated them. When the king awoke and found himself deserted for a hermit’s discourse his anger knew no bounds. The women pleaded in vain and the hermit urged him to be calm, but he drew his sword and cut the hermit’s limbs off one by one; the earth thereupon swallowed up the king while the dying hermit blessed him and assured the frightened people that they would not be similarly punished for their king’s impiety.