Part 4

When, for more than thirty years ago, I began to study the majestic ruin, I thought (like I afterwards wrote[43] in my first essay about the Båråbudur) many other imageries, at least those of the undermost series of the back wall, and those of the uppermost row on the front wall of this first gallery, to be the representations of Buddha’s former lives, of the jâtakas of the man honoured by all the Buddhists of the northern and the southern church as the Redeemer of this world, the Dhyâni-Buddha of the Mahâyânists, for the last time reincarnated for about 25 centuries ago, and who enjoyed the rest of the nirvâna after having finished his heavenly task, but in order to reveal himself once more to a future world, that is, as the Redeemer of not yet existing beings.

When in July 1896 I attended the king of _Siam for three days on his journey to the ruins_, this royal Buddhist expressed the same supposition, especially with regard to the lower series on the back wall of this first gallery.

But I could not possibly study these _jâtakas_ as long as I didn’t know any translation of the original _sanscrit-_ or _pâli_ text[44] in one of the languages known to me.

In 1893 professor J. S. Speyer published in the “_Bydragen van ’t Koninklijk Instituut_” an English translation of 34 of these legends derived from a sanscrit manuscript, the so-called Jâtakamâla or the _wreath of birth stories_[45].

And in the same “_Bijdragen_”, but in those of 1897, professor Kern gave a translation of an essay which had appeared from the hand of the Russian Orientalist Sergius E. Oldenburg—as far as it concerned the Båråbudur—who discussed the representations of a few _jâtakas_ on different monuments whereas Dr. _Kern_ had been so kind as to inform me of them by letter.

It therefore became possible for me to recognise in the two mentioned series some of the legends treated in Speyer’s _Jâtakamâlâ_, and moreover, show some other ones elsewhere.

And five years ago Speyer gave at length a full account of the _Maitrakanyaka_ legend superficially treated by Oldenburg, and hewn on six sculptures of the _lower_ series on the back wall. Oldenburg however, had only mentioned five of them.

In November 1899 I visited the Båråbudur in order to examine all these sculptures one by one, that is, in as much as they still existed and had not been lost or damaged, or no more to be recognized since the engravings studied by Oldenburg had been drawn in Leemans’ work.

It is a pity that these drawings are not exactly true ones, and not to be relied upon, but we shall afterwards speak about them.

As short as possible I shall successively treat these sculptures, mentioning again their numbers they refer to when counted from the preceding staircase, and afterwards from the first till the ninth reentering or projecting wall angle, and begin again from the _eastern_ staircase, and walk towards the South. Doing this I’ll have to count in the disappeared and consequently _missing_ sculptures—and many of them have been lost on the front wall—, because otherwise the numbers after each new loss would become quite worthless. _Corner_-sculptures are those which occupy the two sides of a wall angle, in Leemans’ engravings divided in two by a perpendicular line.

Let us begin with the upper series on the front wall after the _eastern_ staircase.

_Second_ corner, 3, 4 and 5 (W. L., 16, 17, and 18.)[46].

The Lord once lived as a _rich man_ who did much good. One day rising from table to fill the beggar’s bag of a monk, Mâra, the Evil Spirit, opened a precipice before his feet wherein he saw hell flaming. But the Lord steps through this precipice, remains uninjured, and favors the monk, in reality a _Pratyéka-Buddha_, a heavenly saint, with a gift and the latter afterwards disappears in a brilliant cloud.

On 3 we see the benefactor with his gifts, on 4 he steps through hell, and on 5 the monk ascends to heaven.

Hell is represented here by condemned persons in a cauldron with boiling contents.

_Second_ corner 11 and 12 (W. L. 24 and 25). The _Bodhisattva_ once lived as a hare in a wilderness frequented by many hermits. Her authority over all other animals was honoured even in heaven.

In order to put her to the test, Indra, the god, descends to her in the shape of an exhausted traveller. An otter brings him fish, a jackal presents him with a lizard and a cup of sour milk (left behind by another traveller), and a monkey favors him with juicy fruit to refresh the man. But the hare who could give nothing else but bitter grass flung herself into a fire (burned by Indra’s will) in order to be taken by the poor man as roasted food. But now Indra shows himself again in his divine shape, saves the hare out of the flames, and carries her to heaven in order to adorn his own palace, and that of the _dévas_, and also the moon, with the hare’s picture[47].

On 11 the animals carry their presents to _Indra_, and on 12 the hare is going to fling herself into the fire.

_Second_ corner, 18, the corner-sculpture and 1 and 2 after the _third_ corner (W. L., 31, 32, 33 and 34).

The Lord as a _king_ of a happy people. Five _yakshas_ (demons), expelled from _Kuvera_’s kingdom, the subterranean god of riches, come to tempt him in order to ruin him. They ask him for a good meal, but refuse the best things the king offers them, and demand human blood and human flesh.

The Lord doesn’t wish to let them go unsatisfied, but he is not inclined to sacrifice one of his subjects, and therefore offers them his own blood and flesh in spite of his ministers’ and courtiers’ resistance.

The demons reclaim themselves and acknowledge the king’s holiness, he then admonishes them not to do wrong in future, but only that which is good (also, among others, to leave off drinking intoxicants).

Indra descends from heaven to praise the Lord and to close his wounds.

On 18 and on the corner-sculpture the _yakshas_ come across a herd who praises the king’s virtues. On 1 and 2 we see them near the king.

These five _yakshas_ were afterwards reincarnated men, and became the first disciples who followed and left again the _Shakya-muni_ in order to join the _Buddha_ once more, and to become his first apostles[48].

_Fourth_ corner, 3, 4 and 5 (W. L. 37, 38 and 39). Now the Buddha of after life was king _Samjaya_’s son and hereditary prince.

One day, riding his white elephant, he met with some brahmins who asked him, in the name of their king, for the elephant. He dismounts and gives them the noble animal.

On account of this foolish deed he saw himself driven away by his father who acted at the instigation of his (the father’s) courtiers.

He mounts his carriage accompanied by Madrî, his wife, and their two children, and then sets off. Once more some brahmins come to ask him for his fine horses. The prince gives his consent, and puts himself before the carriage. Another brahmin appears now, and demands this carriage; Madrî and the children get out, and the prince takes his little son on his, and the mother takes their little daughter on her arm to continue their journey afoot.

Trees bend their branches in homage, lotus-ponds refresh, and clouds overshadow them, and so they reach their place of exile where they find a tabernacle built for them by Indra.

One day, when Madrî found herself in the wood to seek for roots and fruit for their meal, there came a brahmin demanding from her husband the two little ones in order to lead them away as bound slaves.

An earth-quake calls Indra’s attention, and when the deity hears the cause of this he also comes, as a brahmin, to the now childless father, and claims the latter’s wife, the disconsolate mother.

But as the prince is also inclined to comply with this demand of his, Indra reveals himself and gives him back all that which he lost. Even his place at his father’s court.

On 3 we see him cede his elephant, and the children have been hewn on 4. On 5 the _yakshas_ conduct the princely carriage after having put out the horses.

_Fifth_ corner, 1, 2, 3 and 4 [W. L., 48, 49, 50 and 51].

Time was when the Lord himself was a _king_ to whom one of his subjects offered his most beautiful daughter. At the advice of his courtiers sent to her, fearing that the king would become crazy of love for such an strikingly beautiful woman, he declines the offer after which she marries one of his officials. One day taking a drive the king saw her, and took a passionate love to her. On his being informed that she had already entered upon marriage he controls his passions, and even refuses to get her from the hands of her own husband, because he places his feelings of justice above his personal happiness.

On 1 the offer is being delivered to the king; on 2 his messengers visit the virgin; on 3 they give the prince a full account of the state of things, and on 4 the king meets her himself.

_Fifth_ corner. 5 [W. L., 52].

As a retired old _sailor_ the Lord, though almost blind, allowed himself to be gained into embarking for a commercial journey in order to assure the ship a safe voyage.

A heavy storm flung the ship far away, and through unknown seas till near the end of the world. Return again was impossible and their ruin seemed to be inevitable. One means only could save them, and they prayed the deities for help for the sake of the Lord’s spotless virtue and love of truth. And this succeeded.

The storm abated, and they could return to the harbour. On their journey home through an emerald-green sea, the blind sailor, seeing with the eyes of other passengers, told them to pull up sand and stones from the bottom of the sea, and take them on board by way of ballast. On their arrival into the harbour this appeared to be precious stones and jewels.

The only remained sculpture shows us the merchants with their ship on the open sea.

_Fifth_ corner, 9 and 10 [W. L., 56 and 57].

We here see the Lord as a _fish_ obeyed by all other fishes of the lake. Because of want of rain this lake once dried up, and became a little pool in which the fish didn’t know any means to escape from the birds of prey. The _Bodhisattva_ prayed Indra for rain as a reward for his true virtue, and the deity himself came to him, and it rained as fast as it could pour, and Indra promised that the very same spot would be never tried again by such a plague.

The first sculpture represents the fishes in the lake before, and the other one, after the rain.

_Fifth_ corner, 11 [W. L. 58].

A young _sparrow_—it was the _Bodhisattva_—who despised all little worms and insects—was outdistanced by the other young of the paternal nest. When on the occasion of a forest-fire all other animals fled away he only remained behind, because he could not fly. Praying he knew to persuade the fire-god Agni into going off. Since that day every forest-fire died out on this spot.

We see the young sparrow on the nest whilst the other birds fly away in all directions, and while all other animals give way for the fire.

_Fifth_ corner, 12 [W. L. 59].

It once happened that the Lord descended from heaven in the shape of Indra[49] in order to convert a king, _Sarvamitra_, who daily drank too much strong liquor with his courtiers. As a _brahmin_ Indra now offers the king a bottle of _sûra_ praising the pernicious properties of this drink in so eloquent a manner that the prince renders homage to the preacher as a _guru_ (teacher), after which the latter admonishes him to fear drinking that he might afterwards live with him in heaven.

The sculpture needs no further interpretation.

_Seventh_ corner, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (W. L. 65, 66, 67 and 68).

In the primeval forest the Lord once lived, as a _brahmin_, a life of severe penitence with six brothers and one sister. Only every fifth day they came together in his hut to hear him proclaim the doctrine. As for the rest they didn’t see each other. Every day their two servants put the eight portions of lotus-stems on the leaves of the lotus, and according to their age they came one by one to fetch their sober meal in order to take it in their own hut.

Indra, putting the Bodhisattva to the test, took away the first portion during five following days so that the Lord was obliged to fast. On the next service the others assembled again, and saw how their brother had grown thin. Being informed of the cause of it everyone wished the thief to be punished in a fitting manner, and even three strange auditors, a _yaksha_, an elephant, and a monkey cursed the thief, every one of them in his own manner. The Lord, returning good for evil, hopes that this one and the other that suspected one of them, wrongly perhaps, may live to see all his wishes fulfilled. But then Indra comes, and accusing himself he says why he did so—and humbles himself before the Lord whom he wishes to serve as his superior.

On 3 and 4 we see the hermits in the wood. On 5 is to be seen the lotus-pond with the servants seeking for leaves and stems, and on 6 we see Indra humbling himself before the Lord.[50]

_Seventh_ corner, 11, 12 and 13 [W. L. 73, 74 and 75].

Another time the Lord, a rich brahmin, left everything he possessed, and accompanied by his wife, who didn’t wish to leave him, he went to the woods to live there a hermit’s life.

There they were found by the king who came in this region to chase, and touched as he was by the woman’s beauty he ordered her to be kidnapped and carried away to his _zenana_.

In spite of her cry for help her husband doesn’t oppose himself against this robbery, and when the king asks him why he does not the brahmin answers with an oration about the virtue of self-command, and he therefore compels the king to honour him as an ascetic and to ask his pardon.

On 11 we see the brahmin and his wife on their way to the wood; on 12 the hunting king, and on 13 the woman’s abduction.

_Seventh_ corner, 15, 16, and 17 and the _eighth_ corner, 1 (W. L., 77, 78, 79 and 81).

In the lake of Mânasa the Bodhisattva once ruled as a king over many hundreds of thousands of swans, and was assisted by his viceroy Sumukha. Their praise sounded till the court of the king of _Bénarès_ who desired to meet the two swans. He therefore ordered another lake to be made in the neighbourhood of his court-capital which was much more beautiful than the first mentioned, and promulgated everywhere that he should guarantee the safety of all birds who came to visit the new lake.

The swans of _Mânasa_ went there in spite of their ruler’s objections, and so the Lord himself was obliged to follow them.

Shortly after he saw himself caught by the king’s hunter, and all other swans flew away with the exception of Sumukha however, who would not leave the Lord. The bonds which tied him to his king were stronger than those which kept the king in his trap, he said, and he demanded the hunter to bind him first, and afterwards release his master.

This touched the hunter and releasing both of them the Lord now requests him to speak with the king to persuade the latter not to punish, but to reward his hunter. This happens, and the king offers rich presents to the two swans they decline, and now all the swans return to their lake.

This lake with the swans has been hewn on 15. On 16 the king is informed of these birds. On 17 we see how the Lord is caught whilst all the other swans fly away with the exception of one of them.

The following sculpture after the eighth corner, which represents the meeting with the king, is almost wholly lost, the other one is lost at all.

_Ninth_ corner, 5, 6, 7 and 8 [W. L., 90, 91, 92 and 93].

Another king once pursued a _sharabha_ [a strong kind of stag], and fell from his horse into a cleft over which the wild beast had easily jumped, but before which the horse started back in full run. The _sharabha_ descends into the cleft in order to rescue the fallen man, and help him on his way home after having admonished him to persevere in all princely virtues.

The chasing king we see on 5; on 6 the hunter stands on the brink of the cleft, on 7 we see the stag [the Lord] run to assist the fallen man, and on 8 the latter bids his rescuer farewell.

_Southern_ staircase, 2, 3, 4 and 5 [W. L. 95, 96, 97 and 98].

In another life the Master ruled as a _ruru_ [another kind of stag] over all other wild animals. One day he rescued a traveller out of a swollen mountain-stream, and for his only reward he wished the saved man to be silent about the event.

Now the queen, whose dreams had never turned out to be false ones, had dreamed of a stag who preached the doctrine sitting on a throne. The king therefore offered a rich reward to him who could show him this miracle of an animal.

The drowned person was a poor fellow, and breaking his promise, he led the king into the wood and showed him the _ruru_, but doing this the hand which had served him to indicate the animal, fell from his arm as if it had been cut by a sword.

The stag now asked the king who had conducted him there, the prince mentions his guide’s name, and when the _ruru_ recognises and reproaches him his breach of faith, and whilst the king has the intention to shoot at the man, the noble animal sues the weak man’s mercy who had by his own fault recklessly lost his welfare in this, and in a future world.

The king pardons the guilty one and conducts the stag to his palace, and throning there the _ruru_ preaches the law of love before the whole court.

The animals in the wood have been hewn on 2; on 3 the drowned person is rescued; the king meets the stag on 4, and the preaching stag has been hewn on the 5th sculpture.

_Southern staircase_, 6, 7, 8 and 9 [W. L. 99, 101, 102 and 103].

The Buddha of after life once ruled as king over a troop of _monkeys_ in the _Himâlaya_. They lived in a fig-tree, abundant with fruit, situated on the bank of a brook. In order not to make the tree known by its delicious fruit the king ordered his people not to have a single fruit ripened on the branches which hung over the water.

Once upon a day such a fruit unperceivedly ripened fell into the stream, and drove away to an open spot in the wood, where the king and his wives were fishing.

Never before had the prince seen or tasted such a fine and nice fruit, and so he went up-stream to look for the tree.

Seeing the many monkeys he told his hunters to drive them away. But in order to take to flight the animals had to risk a leap no one but their ruler only ventured to undertake. He jumps, reaches the mountain-slope situated on the other side, and seeks there for a long _bambu_ which enables him to return to the tree. Armed with this he forms with his own body a bridge over which all the monkeys know to escape at the cost of the Lord who sees his skin torn to bloody pieces by the monkeys’ toes.

This happens to the astonishment of the hunters who now catch up the swooning king of monkeys, and lay him upon a bed of leaves. He soon came to, and when the king interrogates him the Lord answers that he did his _duty_, because a prince should _serve_ his subjects, and not let himself served by them.

On the 6th and 7th sculpture the king accepts the fig, on 8 he and his hunters go in search of the tree, and on 9 has been hewn the wonderful escape of the monkeys.

_Southern staircase_, 10 and the corner-sculpture [of the _first_ angle] [W. L. 103 and 104].

The Lord once lived in a wood as an _ascetic_ and taught patience to all who visited him.

It then came to pass that the king and his wives came into this wood to amuse themselves, and while the latter took a bath in a brook, which ran there, the former fell asleep.

Awaking he didn’t see them any more. They had strayed to the hermit and listened to his preaching. The king found them there, and angrily called the preacher a liar, and menaced him with his sword. The wise man however, remained calm, and the king, embittered as he was by his wives’ supplications, came up to the pious teacher, and cut his hands, ears, nose and feet.

The martyr, who only feared that the king could be said to have killed an innocent person, suffered much more from his sorrow for the king’s fall than from his own wounds, but when the evildoer left the dying man he saw the ground opening itself before him, and fell into the flaming depth.

The frightened courtiers thought that the preacher himself had punished their master, and they asked for mercy, and dying the poor man blessed them, and also the murderer whose ruin had remained unknown to him.

On 10 we see the king asleep, on the corner-sculpture we see him go off to seek for his wives. I suppose the first and 2^nd sculpture behind the corner [W. L. 105 and 106] refers to the widows on their way home.

_Second_ corner, 5 [W. L., 111].

This sculpture brings us again in the presence of a king, the unbelieving prince of _Videha_, who lived a life of unjustice renouncing all virtues. There was a time when the Lord lived as a _devarshi_ [a wise one among the celestials] in the _Brahmâloka_, and descended to earth to convert the unbelieving ruler.

As sure—he says—as this life has been preceded by other lives there will once come other future lives. He then speaks about the tortures of hell which fall to the evil-doer and unbeliever when he doesn’t mend his life, and ... the king acknowledges that he is in the right, and bids the Lord to lead him henceforth on the right path[51].

The sculpture need no further explication.

_Second_ corner, 6, 7, 8 and 9 [W. L., 112, 113, 114 and 115].

Seven hundred astrayed and exhausted travellers meet on their way an elephant, the _Bodhisattva_. They had been expelled from their country with 300 others who had died on the way.

By means of his trunk the elephant shows them the way to a stream where to quench their thirst and near which they will find a dead elephant whose meat will feed them. Along a shorter cut he speeds to the indicated spot, runs headlong into the bottom of a ravine and was smashed.

It is on this spot that the hungry wanderers find his dead body, and angels descend from heaven to sing his praise.

On 6 the exiles come across the elephant; on 7 we see them on their way to the place pointed out to them; on 8 the elephant is ready to fall into the precipice, and on 9 the saved ones worship the ashes of their rescuer.

I suppose this homage to the ashes closed in a _tyaitya_, as if it were to indicate a preceding cremation, should be taken in a symbolical sense only.

_Second_ corner, 10, 11, 12 and 13 [W. L., 116, 117, 118 and 119].

This is one of the most important _jâtakas_.

As Sutasoma, a _king’s son_, the Bodhisattva was once walking with his wives in the garden of his palace when there entered a brahmin whom they invited to deliver a harangue about virtue. This harangue was unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of a monster who put all of them to flight, that is, with the exception of the prince himself. Another king had formerly procreated this monster by a lioness; most times he lived of human flesh only. Persecuted as he was by his own subjects after his father’s death he called in the aid of the demons and promised them a sacrifice of one hundred king’s sons. He now came to carry off Sutasoma to add him to the princes he already apprehended.

Sutasoma resolves to follow the lion’s son in order to convert him and to rescue the imprisoned princes. But on his arriving at the den of the violent monster he remembers that he left the brahmin unrewarded, and that he hasn’t wholly heard the latter’s preaching, and so he asks for permission to do that which he neglected; afterwards the man-eater could dispose of him.

The latter who has already gathered his 100 princes after all, releases his prisoner hoping to rejoice afterwards at the man’s fall as a person false to his word.