North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

  [B 27-31 refer to one and the same sculpture.]
   As rightly pointed out by Barua-Sinha, it is not mere chance that Alambusā and Missakesi B 28 are placed foremost in the sculpture. They seem to have enjoyed greater esteem withs the Buddhists than the rest of the heavenly nymphs. Their names are coupled in a list of Apsaras occurring in Vv. 2, 1, 10 f.; 4, 12, 26, and they are heading the list of the eight Apsaras residing in the Western quarter in Mvu. III, 308, 8 ; Lalitav. 390, 5. Alambusā has gained special renown by the seduction of the great ascetic Isisiṅga, for which, according to the Alambusajātaka (523), she was selected by Sakka from amongst her numerous companions. Alambushā and Miśrakeśī are frequently mentioned also in the Epics and the Purāṇas.

   Padmavatī occurs as the name of one of the eight Apsaras assigned to the Northern quarter in Mvu. III, 309, 8 and Lalitav. 391, 3. The name is not found in Pāli texts nor is an Apsaras of that name known in the Brahmanical literature. Barua-Sinha are inclined to identify her with Puṇḍarīkā who appears in the Epics and the Purāṇas and is mentioned also in the list of the Vv., but the Lalitav. clearly differentiates the two, naming Puṇḍarīkā among the Apsaras of the Western quarter.

   The name of the fourth Apsaras which clearly is Sabhadā in the label, has hitherto been read or corrected to Subhadā. Barua-Sinha have identified the name with Subhaddā, which occurs as the name of an Apsaras in the passage of the Vv. quoted above. The printed text, it is true, has Subhaddā, but all manuscripts, both Siṁhalese and Burmese, read Sambhaddā or Saṁbhaddā (S^[2] once Saṁsaddā), which exactly agrees with the form of the name in the label, the anusvāra being frequently omitted in the inscriptions of this time. An Apsaras of the name of Subhadrā has never existed.

B 31a; PLATE XXXIX

    ON a pillar, now in the Allahabad Municipal Museum (Ac/2914), inscribed above the inscription No. B 49a. Edited by Kala, BhV. (1951), pp. 31 f., Pl. 26; Sircar, EI., Vol. XXXIII (1959/60), p. 59.

TEXT:
Muchilido nagaraja

TRANSLATION:
Muchilida (Muchilimda^[1]), the king of the Nagas.

    The wording of the label is similar to the text of the inscriptions No. B 6 (Chakavāko) nāgarājā) and No. B 36 (Erapato nāgarājā). It refers to the picture of a five-headed snake surrounding and sheltering a stone-seat standings underneath a tree. The Buddha is symbolized as sitting upon the seat by two footprints cuts into the footstool, each of them ornamented by a wheel. The sculpture depicts a well-known event taking place in Urubilvā (Pāli Uruvelā) under the Bodhi-tree, in one of the first weeks after the Enlightenment of the Buddha^[2]. When there was a great storm and shower of rain, the king of the Nāgas protected the Buddha by winding his coils seven times round the Buddha’s body and spreading his hooded canopy over the Buddha’s head. The episode is very often represented in Buddhist sculpture, from Bhārhut, Sāñchī, Amarāvatī etc. onwards up to modern times.
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^[1]Pali Muchalinda (Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli-Proper Names, Vol. II, pp. 638 f.); Muchilinda is common in Buddhist Sanskrit texts, see Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary s.v.
^[2]A comparative edition of the Sanskrit text is to be found in E. Waldschmidt, Das Catuṣpariṣat- sūtra, Teil II, Berlin 1957, pp. 96-101.