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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
PART B are seen from behind. The sculpture evidently wanted to represent the pradakshiṇā of the edifice, and he has therefore continued the royal procession on the right, where two men mounted on elephants are moving in the opposite direction. As the royal personage in the procession is called King Prasenajit of Kosala in the label, Foucher[1] was of the opinion that the sculpture refers to the great miracle of Śrāvastī. But his view can hardly be upheld. As shown below in detail, the typical representation of the miracle is quite different in the Buddhist art of Bhārhut and Sāñchī. Moreover, there is nothing in the sculpture to indicate that subject. The legend of the great miracle of Śrāvastī is narrated in the Pachchuppannavatthu of the Sarabhamigajātaka (483; IV, 263, 7 ff.), in the DhA. (III, 199 ff.), in the Prātihāryasūtra of the Divy. (p. 143 ff.), and in Aśvaghosha’s Buddhach. (20, 54 f.)[2]. Foucher followed the history of the representation in art in an instructive treatment[3] which needs some additions only as far as the sculptures of Bhārhut and Sañchi are concerned.
In the Pāli literature, the miracle, as Foucher remarks, is often called the double
miracle under the Gaṇḍamba tree[4]. So the miraculous creation of the mango tree
forms here an introduction to the narration of the yamakapāṭihāriya. In the Jātaka the
Buddha has the announcement made, that after seven days he would perform a miracle
which would destroy the Tīrthikas under the Gaṇḍamba tree before the gate of Sāvatthī.
The Tirthikas and the vast crowd of men come to Sāvatthī to be witnesses
of the miracle. King Pasenadi offers to erect a pavilion (maṇḍapa) for the great spectacle
but the Buddha refuses, adding that god Sakka will construct a pavilion of jewels twelve
yojanas long for the purpose. To prove the Buddha a liar, the Tirthikas cause all the mango
trees in the vicinity of Sāvatthī to be cut down. In the morning of the great day, Gaṇḍa,
the gardener of the king, gives a mango fruit of unusually big size to the Buddha. The
master eats it and orders the gardener to plant the kernel into the earth. Instantly a vast
mango tree beset with flowers and ripe fruit shoots up. In the evening Sakka makes
Vissakamma build a pavilion of jewels. The gods from their ten thousand chakkavālas
come together. Then suddenly it is said in a very short manner: satthā titthiyamaddanaṁ
asādhāraṇaṁ sāvakehi yamakapāṭihāriyaṁ katvā bahuno janassa pasannabhāvaṁ ñatvā oruyha Buddhāsani
nisinno dhammaṁ desesi | vīsatipāṇakoṭiyo amatapānaṁ piviṁsu, “When the master had made the
yamakapāṭihāriya, which destroys the Tīrthikas and which cannot be carried out by pupils, and
when he knew that many people were disposed to believe in him, he descended, sat down on the
seat of the Buddha and preached the Dharma. Two hundred millions of beings drank the
drink of immortality”. At the first sight it might appear that the author could have understood the miraculous creation of the mango tree and the erection of the pavilion out of jewels
as the ‘double miracle’. The remark, however, that the Buddha “descended” after having
performed the miracle shows that the Buddha did the yamakapāṭihāriya, when standing in
the air, and the same is clearly seen from the DhA. where the narration is much more extensive and contains many details which can be omitted here. The basic elements of the story
are the same as in the Jātaka. Regarding the locality in Sāvatthī, where the miracle takes
[1]Beginnings of Buddhist Art, p. 178 ff. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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