Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.s27: The Mahā-Ummagga Jātaka: The Murder of a Child and Other Episodes

Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v3.c12.s27

Language: English

The Mahā-Ummagga Jātaka: The Murder of a Child and Other Episodes

*The subject is painted on the left wall of the front corridor and is continued on the pilaster adjoining the former. As the fresco is much damaged, it is reproduced in monochrome, but an outline of the drawing is given as a separate plate.*

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THE desire expressed by Griffiths regarding the copying of this fresco some sixty years ago has been fulfilled by the Department;¹ but the identification of the story on the

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¹ Notes, p. 58.

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phant living alone in a forest. One day he heard a sound of weeping and wailing, and beheld a company of seven hundred weary travellers grievously afflicted with hunger and thirst. They were terrified as he approached them. But he bade them have no fear of him, and asked who they were. They answered that they were the survivors of a thousand men who had been driven out by the king, and they were now near to perishing. The Bodhisattva, reflecting that they could not find enough food in the forest to keep them alive in passing through it, resolved to sacrifice his own body for that purpose. He therefore bade them go towards a certain mountain, below which they would find a great lake of pure water and near to it the body of an elephant; they should use the flesh of this elephant as provision for their journey, and his bowels as bottles wherein to carry water to be drawn from the lake. Then the Bodhisattva, hastening away by another road to that mountain, flung himself down from it, and so died. When the wanderers came thither, they found the lake with his dead body near by. Some of them perceived that it was the Bodhisattva, who had sacrificed himself for their sake. They gratefully acknowledged his goodness, and in obedience to his bidding took his flesh from his body, drew water from the lake, and thus provided with drink and meat journeyed safely through the forest.

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basis of Buddhist legend has hitherto remained a problem, which has now at last been solved.

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Commencing with the top left corner of the fresco, first a royal rider is noticed, who is wearing a full-sleeved coat and striped stockings, or soft leather long boots. A straight sword hangs by his left side. The trappings of the horse are complete except the stirrups, which are missing also in the trappings of the horses painted on the right wall of Cave II.¹ The figure of the horse shows rapid movement, for one of the hind legs is stretched backward and the other raised forward. Beside the horse is an attendant, perhaps the royal umbrella-bearer, for the long handle of the umbrella is seen in his hands. The accoutrement of the rider, particularly the striped stockings, or the soft leather long boots, indicate that at this period Scythians (*Sakas*), Parthians (*Pahlavas*), and Greeks (*Yavanas*), who had established their kingdoms in different parts of India much earlier than the date of this cave (A.D. 475-500), formed a conspicuous element of the *Sangha*, either as votaries or as patrons, and this is apparently the reason why such foreigners with their typical dresses are seen frequently on the wall-paintings of Caves I, II, and XVII.² Above the figure of the royal rider are conventional bands representing hills, between two ranges of which the eddying waters of a stream are seen, which is continued towards the right.

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¹ *Ajanta*, ii, p. 40. For details of the harness see 1. 19, f.n. 3.

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² Ibid., i, pp. 46-50, Pls. XXXVIII and XXXIX, and ii, pp. 9 and 29, Pls. XI *a-b* and XXX.

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Below the royal rider in a plantain-grove are four figures representing apparently servants of the royal rider, listening attentively to the talk of a boy who is sitting on a ledge. Below the rocks a saddled horse without a rider may be seen. The fresco is much damaged at this place. The boy has bent forward in talking to the men, and the gesture of his hands shows that the subject of conversation is a religious theme. He is wearing a small crown on his head. The two men nearest to the boy have long hair, while the third has a Persian cap on his head. The expression of the fourth figure is somewhat wild, his hair being dishevelled, and although he is making gestures with his fingers as if to convey that he is following the sermon of the boy, yet the dagger inserted in his belt suggests that he has some sinister task to perform.

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Below this scene, a little to the left, we see a man and a woman stretching the body of a child, holding him by his arms and feet. A soldier, who is fully dressed, has raised his sword to cut the boy in two. Another person with dishevelled hair is watching the scene.

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But the execution of the child by some miraculous power is stopped, for lower down in the fresco we see the child again talking to two persons, one of whom is fully dressed and standing at some distance from the boy, while another is quite close to him and squatting on the ground. At the back of these figures towards the right there is a country cart, the design of the upper railing of which has not changed in India in the fifteen hundred years since this subject was painted. Above the railing there is a semicircular hood attached to the cart for protection against rain and sun, similar to those to be observed on country carts to-day. The driver, or one of the inmates of the cart, is seen in front of it.

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The scene representing the river flowing between two hills mentioned above is continued on the pilaster between the front and the left corridors, and two ladies with a child are seen bathing in the river. The water is shallow here, being only knee-deep. The ladies appear to be engaged in conversation, for the gesture of the right hand of the lady on the left indicates that she is inquiring about some affair from her friend. The latter holds a fruit (?) in her right hand, and appears to be preoccupied by some serious thought. The child is looking up to this lady appealingly, and his hand is stretched out as if to get the fruit from her. In painting the figures of boys or dwarfs the artists of Ajanta have always introduced something comic in the subject, and here also the delineation of the head of the boy conveys the artist's sense of humour. He has painted the head as if shaved, but some hair has been left which is twisted in the form of horns on the sides of his forehead. To the left of the two ladies who are bathing in the river there is another who is in a boat. The boat is narrow and its two ends are raised upwards in the gondola style. She is young, and her features have been drawn with care by the artist.

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Above this scene are the usual bands representing hills, on which the figure of the Buddha may be seen. His hands show that he is teaching, and there are figures of some votaries in front of him. The latter are not clear because the fresco is much damaged at this place.

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Below the river-scene are some houses, the barrel-shaped roofs and heavy curvilinear eaves (*chhajja*) of which bear close resemblance to the rock-hewn shrines of this period (fifth century A.D.). The fresco farther down has decayed much, but the heads of two human figures can be made out.

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The painting, although not identified, tells its story in a clear manner. Mr. Moreshwar G. Dikshit has identified the scene in Plates L-LI with certain episodes of the *Mahā-Ummagga Jātaka* (Cowell, vi, 156 ff.). This interpretation is absolutely correct, for the horse-rider on the top, towards the left (Plate L), may represent the councillor of King Vedeha, who was deputed by the latter to test the wisdom of the supernatural child Mahosadha. The lake, the garden, and the building shown in the middle of the fresco are the tank, the grove, and the palace built by Mahosadha, where, in the form of a seven-year-old child, he answered successfully the queries of the people who had assembled to examine his supernatural powers. Lower down, towards the left, is ‘the riddle of the son’ (Cowell, vi, 163), at the bottom ‘the riddle of the chariot’ (pp. 165-6), and on the right, in the bathing scene, ‘the riddle of the cotton thread’ (p. 162).¹

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¹ *Transactions, Indian Hist. Congress, Vth Session, 1941, pp. 567-9.*