Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.s19.6

v3.c12.s19.6

The wish of Subhaddā was carried out, and the king sent for hunters who dwelt in his territory and who numbered as many as sixty thousand. One of them, named Sonuttara, had once been an enemy of the Great Being. Subhaddā selected him and pointed out the route leading to the golden cliff beyond which the abode of the royal elephant was situated. Sonuttara, after traversing a long distance and climbing several hills, reached the golden cliff, whence he observed the royal elephant. The hunter waited for an opportunity and dug a pit to conceal himself at the place where the royal elephant used to come after his bath. Sonuttara shot a poisonous arrow from the pit and wounded the Bodhisattva, but when he attempted to cut out his colossal tusks with his saw he did not succeed. The royal elephant, although in great agony, yet showed mercy to the hunter, and seizing the saw with his trunk moved it backwards and forwards and cut off the tusks. Then bidding the hunter take the tusks, the Bodhisattva observed: ‘I do not give you these, friend hunter, because I do not value them, but the tusks of omniscience are a hundred thousand times dearer to favourite resort of the Bodhisattva under a colossal banyan tree (Plate XXX *b*) alluded to in the *Jātaka* by the following lines :