Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.s17.6

v3.c12.s17.6

The grouping of the figures in the right half of the fresco appears to be somewhat confusing. There are two processions, one approaching the stūpa and the other returning from it. In both of them are seen royal personages, riding on elephants and accompanied by umbrella- and chaurī-bearers. The presence of the guard with the special headgear (supra, p. 28) in both the processions, as the bearer either of the chaurī or the umbrella, leads to the surmise that they represent the arrival and return of the same rājā, who may be identified with one of the Andhra kings of the second century B.C. (Śrī-Śātakarṇi¹). Such a visit to Gaya, the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment, or to Sanchi, where, according to a contemporary inscription, the southern gateway was built by the sculptors of Śrī-Śātakarṇi, cannot be regarded as improbable. A close study of the fresco further reveals that the rājā near the right end of the painting has in front of him, on the head of the elephant on which he is riding, a vase with a leaf or a branch of a tree rising from it. Will it be too much to fancy that the rājā is carrying a branch of the Bodhi-tree with a view to planting it at his own capital? There is no doubt that the figure holding the vase is that of the rājā, for the guard with the special headgear is seen with an umbrella behind his royal master (Plate XXIVc).