North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

B 9 (771); PLATES XIV, XXXI

ON the opposite side of the same pillar as B 8, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 16). Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 111. Cunningham’s reading was corrected by Childers, Academy Vol. VI (1874), p. 586; edited again by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 20; 136, No. 60, and Pl. XXII and LIV; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 68, No. 74, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 233, No. 74; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 69 f., No. 177; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 61 f., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. LVIII (63); Lüders, Bharh. (1941) p. 12 f.

TEXT:
Suchilomo yakho

TRANSLATION:
The Yaksha Suchiloma (Suchiloman).

   According to a Sutta which is found in the Sn. p. 47 ff. and again in the S. I, 207 f., the Yaksha Sūchiloma lived at Gayā in the Ṭaṁkita-mañcha^[1] in the company of the Yaksha Khara. When the Buddha dwelt at that place, Sūchiloma behaved haughtily and rudely towards him, but the Buddha calmly answered his question about the origin of passion and ill-will. In both commentaries on the texts the Yaksha is said to owe his name to the quality of the hair of his body which was like needles, thus proving that the original name was Sūchiloma. Similarly the Yaksha whose taming by the Bodhisattva is told in J. 55 is called Silesaloma, because everything struck fast upon the hair of his body. In the label, Suchilomo, of course, may be an inaccurate spelling for Sūchilomo, but it is remarkable that there is nothing in the image to indicate that bodily peculiarity, the Yaksha being represented as an ordinary well-dressed man who, with folded hands, stands on a rail. Probably this conception of the Yaksha is influenced, as Barua remarks, by the later legend occurring in the SnA., where it is said that Sūchiloma and Khara by the advice of the Buddha became friendly, “gold-coloured and decked with heavenly ornaments”. It is perhaps for the same reason that the name Sūchiloma is frequently changed in the manuscripts to Suchiloma (Sk. śuchiloman), ‘White-haired’.

   In later times Sūchiloma was metamorphosed into a serpent. In the snake-spell of the Bower MS. P. 224 he is called Sūchīloma, in that of the Mahām.p. 221 Suchiraman.

B 10 (790); PLATES XVI, XXXII

ON the same pillar as No. A 39, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 31). The inscription is engraved by another hand than No. A 39. Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 111; StBh. (1879), p. 20; 137, No. 78 and Pl. XXIII and LIV; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 70, No. 89, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 234, No. 89; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), 72, No. 183; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 71, and Vol. III (1937), Pl. LXIV (74); Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 12.
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^[1]Barua’s supposition (Barh., III, p. 55) that the rail beneath the figure of Sūchiloma is representing the Ṭaṁkitamañcha is quite Ṭunbelievable. According to the commentary the Ṭaṁkitamañcha consisted of a stone-plate put on four stones. The explanation of the word given in AO., XV, p. 101, seems to me doubtful.