North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

the Southern one, is attributed to them. The distribution of the gods to the regions is accordingly as follows.

   .................................................N tini Savaganisisā
E Sudhāvāsā devā.........................................W [Māra, Nāgas, Supaṇṇas]
...............................................chha Kāmāvacharasahasani S

  Now the statements regarding the regions given in our inscriptions can hardly refer to the habitations of the gods in the cosmos. According to the Buddhist view the heavens of the gods lie above and not at the side of each other. The arrangement of the gods can only have been made in respect of the places which they occupy as spectators of the dance of the Apsaras. In the theatre of the classical Sanskrit period also the seats of the spectators are divided according to the different castes and marked by pillars in different colours (Bharata 2, 48 ff.). An amphitheatre, differing from the later theatre, has to be thought of in our case as the spectators stand in all the four different quarters. Already in ɀDMG., XCV, p. 264 ff., I have shown that this was the oldest form of the auditorium for the spectators to assemble and that it, as long as the representations consisted of mimic dances and not of real dramatic performances, served its purpose completely.

B 27 (743); PLATES XVIII, XXXVII

ON the railing of the lowest relief of the outer face of the same pillar as No. A 62, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 29). The inscription is engraved on the fourth and fifth pillars of the railing from the left. Edited by Cunningham, StBh. (1879, p. 29; 134, No. 32, and Pl. XV and LIV; Hoernle, IA. Vol. X (1881), p. 257 f., No. 14, and Pl.; Hultzsch, ɀDMG., Vol. XL (1886), p. 66, No. 50, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 231, No. 50; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 47 ff., No. 146; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 9 ff., and Vol. III (1937), p. 1 ff. and Pl. XXXIX (34); Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 57 ff. It is referred to by Lévi, Théatre indien (1890), Appendice, p. 47.

TEXT :
1 saḍikasaṁmadaṁ
2 turaṁ devānaṁ

TRANSLATION:
The music of the gods accompanied by (?) a mimic dance.

   [B 27-31 refer to one and the same sculpture.]
  For the interpretation of the label we must turn to the sculpture^[1]. On the left side of the panel there is a group of eight female musicians seated under a tree. Two are clapping
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^[1]For Barua’s explanation of this and the preceding relief one may refer to his book (Barh., Vol. II, p. 8 ff., Vol. III, p. 1 ff.). So much only be mentioned that in the middle relief (B 26) he at first saw the assembly held by the gods in the Tushita heaven in order to exhort the Bodhisattva to take his rebirth on the earth. The lower relief, representing according to him a ‘forecast’ of the birth of the Bodhisattva, expresses the great rejoicings of the deities. Later on, when T. N. Ramachandran had told him the right explanation of the figure of Māra he declared that the middle relief was showing the gods having come to congratulate the Buddha on his victory over Māra. Then the lower relief is also brought in connection with the same. According to the Lalitav. 321, 7 f. as well as according to the Nidānakathā (J, I, 79, 8 ff.) the daughters of Māra in the form of women of different ages try to entice the Buddha. Some approach him as maidens, others as women, who have given birth to children once or twice, others as women even more advanced in age. The female dancers in the relief are said to represent these daughters of Māra in their different stages of age and the dancing boy should perhaps hint at the fact that mothers also are amongst them. A refutation of these views is superfluous.