Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.s19.4

v3.c12.s19.4

² The principal incidents as given in the Jātaka may be summed up thus: Once the Bodhisattva was born as a royal elephant of pure white skin with red feet and face. As he grew up in years he assumed colossal dimensions, measuring 88 cubits in height and 120 cubits in length. He had a trunk 58 cubits long, and six tusks, each being 15 cubits in circumference and 30 in length. The royal elephant had taken up his abode in a golden cave situated near a large lake. The latter had beautiful surroundings, lotus-growths being in the immediate vicinity, while a thick forest of stately trees formed the outskirts. The royal elephant had a herd of 8,000 who obeyed his commands, and among them were his two favourite wives, named Chulla-subhaddā and Mahā-subhaddā. Once it was reported to him that the great sāl grove was in flower. The royal elephant accompanied by his following went over to it and sportively struck with his frontal globe a sāl tree in full bloom. ‘At that moment Chulla-subhaddā stood to windward, and dry twigs mixed with dead leaves and red ants fell upon her person. But Mahā-subhaddā stood to leeward, and flowers with pollen and stalks and green leaves fell on her.’ Through feelings of jealousy it occurred to Chulla-subhaddā that the royal elephant had done that purposely, and she conceived a grudge against the Bodhisattva. Accordingly she offered a prayer to this effect: ‘Hereafter, when I pass hence, may I be reborn as a royal maiden and on coming of age may I attain to the dignity of the queen consort to the Rājā of Benares. Then I shall be dear and charming in his eyes and arrange to send under the royal command a hunter with a poisoned arrow to wound and slay this elephant, and thus may I be able to have brought to me a pair of his tusks that emit six-coloured rays.’ The prayer of Chulla-subhaddā was granted, and in her next life she was born as a royal maiden and married to the Rājā of Benares. She did not forget her desire for revenge, and pretending to be sick she told her husband that until the tusks of an elephant which she had seen in her dream were brought to her she would not recover from her illness.