Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c16.s22: The Śarabha Jātaka, or the Story of the Merciful Stag

Ajanta: The Colour and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajanta Frescoes Based on Photography v4.c16.s22

Language: English

The Śarabha Jātaka, or the Story of the Merciful Stag

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*The Jātaka is painted on the rear wall of the back corridor, right of the antechamber in Cave XVII.*

THE fresco has become much blackened owing to various causes, and the beauty of the colours and the skill of the drawing cannot be appreciated; yet the main events of the story can be made out easily.³ The artist has closely followed the version of the *Jātaka*

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³ The story as given in the *Jātaka* (iv, 169–73) may be summarized as follows:

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Once the king of Benares, who delighted in hunting, went to the forest to chase deer, and ordered his courtiers not to let a single animal go by him. The Bodhisattva, who had then been born as a stag, happened to be the first to be put up when the men surrounded a covert and began the beat. The stag, finding men standing on all sides without a break, rushed straight at the king, who, seeing him, shot an arrow but missed; as the stag rolled over, the king thought he was hit and gave the halloo. The circle of men then broke up and the stag, rising, made off swift as the wind. The king, who considered himself the best marksman, seeing that his courtiers were laughing at him, set off after the stag at great speed and plunged into the forest. There was a covered pit which the stag avoided, but the king fell into it, and as it was sixty cubits deep and full of water, he was unable to get out. The stag, finding he was not followed, retraced his steps and rescued the king, who was struggling helplessly in the water. Setting him on his own back, he then brought him forth from the forest and set him down not far from his army, after admonishing him and establishing him in the Five Virtues.

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The king was much impressed by the benevolence of the stag, and when he returned to the city he ordered this proclamation to be made: ‘From this day forward, let all the dwellers in this city observe the Five Virtues.’ Next day, remembering the noble qualities of the Great Being, when the king was chanting some stanzas which expressed his aspirations, the king’s chaplain, who had come to inquire about his health, overheard him, and being a wise person understood the cause of the change in his religious attitude. Afterwards Śakra, who wanted to test the ‘noble worth’ of the king, having disguised himself as the king’s chaplain, went to the park where the king had gone to shoot at a mark. By his power the king made the stag except for the test of the king's 'noble worth' by Indra, who, however, is seen with two other gods (?) in a hall shown in the lower part of Plate XLVa. The story begins with the king's going out to hunt with his retinue, and this is reproduced in Plate XLVa. The gate of the city from which the royal party has emerged is shown at the left end of the fresco. Near the gate there are three footmen armed with swords, one of them being clad in a long white coat. Close to these footmen is an officer of the royal retinue riding on a horse. Ahead of this officer is the king himself, riding on a spirited horse which is shown going at a fast canter. Behind the king is his umbrella-bearer, and by his side are three hunters with dogs, running alongside the horse. Quivers filled with arrows may be seen attached to the saddles of both horses, namely those ridden by the king and by the officer of his retinue. There are four attendants in front of the king's steed, and one of them is armed with a bow. The artist, to suggest that the royal party is passing through a forest, has painted some trees in the foreground (Plate XLVb). Among these trees the samālū, the cotton-wool tree (Bombas heptaphyllum), and the teak can be recognized by their leaves.

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A little farther up, towards the right, the royal party is shown again, and the king can be easily recognized by his umbrella-bearer. The officer of the retinue in this scene is shown as if separated from the king, for some large trees have come between the two. Farther up on the wall, in the middle of the top of the fresco, the king's horse is shown without his rider; evidently the king has alighted from his horse to chase on foot the stag, which, according to the Jātaka, he believed to have been wounded by the arrow shot by him. Below, a little towards the right, a pit has been shown, outlined by a band in the painting. The surface of the pit is covered with the leaves and flowers of aquatic plants, and on one side the king is shown with joined hands in an attitude of utter helplessness, looking towards the stag, who is standing at the brink of the pit and looking down compassionately at his pursuer. Lower down, along a range of conventional hills, the stag may be seen again, climbing up with a large boulder on his back. This is to suggest that the stag made a sort of rehearsal in order to be sure whether he would be able to rescue the king from the deep pit into which he had fallen.

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Returning to the pit, the stag is shown carrying the king on his back and climbing up the precipice. Above, the king is seen again sitting in an attitude of reverence before the stag, who is teaching him the Five Virtues, as is related in the Jātaka. Subsequently the return of the king has been indicated by the headlong gallop of the royal steed, which is represented not only by the significant drawing of his legs but also by the tassels of his mane and the hair of his tail, which are waving in the air. The ends of the king's scarf, which are stretched out behind him, also suggest rapid movement.

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The next two scenes of the painting, to the left of the last scene, which owing to the dim-appear between the king and the mark and repeatedly provoked him to shoot the stag. The king refrained from committing such an ungrateful act and recited this stanza:

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'Once in a grisly forest full of dread
That very stag saved me from hopeless woe.
How can I wish my benefactor dead,
After such service done me long ago.'

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Śakra, on hearing this stanza, assumed his own shape, and wished the king long life on earth so that he might comfort the people of his kingdom by benevolent acts.

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ness of the fresco were not identified by previous scholars, are also connected with the story. One of them represents the king sitting at ease on the floor, but he is in a thoughtful mood, evidently revolving in his mind the events of the day, his own conduct, the peril of his life, and the stag's mercifully rescuing him and finally teaching him the Five Truths.¹ The queen, who is sitting by him, has lovingly placed her hand on his thigh in order to arouse him from his state of profound meditation, which she does not understand, since the king, according to the *Jātaka*, 'had told no one of the kindness done to him by the Great Being (in the guise of the stag)'. A maid is rolling bread, or perhaps preparing some dainty for the king's supper, and another maid, to be seen between two pillars of the hall behind the king and queen, is apparently bringing food of some sort for him. The pose of this maid, which is fairly clear in the original fresco, is extremely graceful. On the right there are two more maids, who in typical Indian style have placed their hands on their chins, as if to express their astonishment at the king's being so absorbed in reflection. In the *Jātaka* it is mentioned that 'the king ate many choice meats' in the evening, and that afterwards he retired. The painting confirms the serving-up of appetizing dishes to the king there mentioned.

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¹ The king holds a staff in his right hand, while his left hand is suspended in a sling.

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On the left side of the fresco another scene is depicted in which the king is shown seated on a throne, while with the forefinger of his right hand he is pointing at something, perhaps instructing one of his attendants to admit the brahman chaplain, who is shown sitting on a low chair, a little below the king's throne. According to the *Jātaka*, the chaplain overheard the six stanzas which the king recited to express his aspirations after a better life, and in his perspicacious mind divined the events which had taken place when the king went out to hunt, and the impression which they had made on his heart. In the painting the gesture made by the brahman with his hands indicates that he is following the religious significance of the stanzas which the king is reciting.

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Behind the throne there is a lady of a fair complexion, and to her left a *chaurī*-bearer, whose face is darkish-green in colour. There are two more ladies to be seen farther to the left between the pillars of the building. Their gestures suggest that they are talking together. At the left end of the fresco there are some trees, among which a banana is prominent on account of its large leaves. On the right side of the throne another *chaurī*-bearer may be noticed, and also a maid who holds in her hand a vessel with a lid.

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Below the king's court a pillared hall can be seen in the painting in which three persons are talking together. They perhaps represent gods, since one of them has a third eye in his forehead, and this type of figure when found elsewhere is usually identified as Indra. His presence in the painting suggests the last episode of the *Jātaka*, in which Indra disguised himself as the king's chaplain in order to test the monarch's steadfastness in following the injunctions of the Law as taught to him by the benevolent stag.

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In the lower part of the painting there are two buildings, one of them being a pillared hall crowned by three *stūpa*-shaped domes, the finials of which resemble the finial of the original temple at Bodh Gaya, as shown in the photograph taken by Mr. Peppé,² or the top of the lid of the relic-casket discovered at Piprawa. On the roof of the hall there is a balustrade upon which are set ornamental horseshoe-shaped arches, like those of the chaityas.

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² Fergusson's *History of Indian and Eastern Architecture*, vol. i, p. 78 (revised edition).

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The other building consists of a hall, the roof of which is supported by stone beams resting on pillars. The openings of the hall are filled up with lattice work such as can be seen in the tenth- to twelfth-century temples of the south-western districts of the Deccan.