North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

B 57 (691); PLATES XXI, XLII

ON a coping stone, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 111; StBh. (1879), p. 78f.; 130, No. 2, and Pl. XLVIII and LIII; Hoernle, IA, Vol. X (1881), p. 119 f., No. 5 ; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 60, No. 3 and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 227, No. 3; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 78 ff., No. 189; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 82 ff., and Vol. III (1937), Pl. LXX (87) ; Lüders, Bharh. (1941), p. 153.

TEXT :
Maghādeviyajataka^[1]

TRANSLATION :
The Jataka concerning Maghadeva.

  The story of King Makhādeva of Videha, as he is called in Pāli, who, when his barber showed him the first grey hair from his head^[2], renounced his throne and become a hermit, is told in Sutta 83 of the M. The story was converted into a Jātaka, the Makhādevajātaka, No. 9 of the Pāli collection, which is briefly repeated in the beginning of the Nimijātaka (no. 541). The sculpture agrees exactly with the Jātaka. In the centre the king is seated in an arm-chair, with his hair hanging loosely on his shoulders. The barder presents him the hair which he has pulled out and the king accepts it with his right hand and turns his head sideways to inspect it. A stand in the foreground carries the utensils of the barder, the shaving-basin and the brush. On the left of the king there is a person with folded hands in respectful attitude. He is apparently Maghādeva’s eldest son, to whom the king addresses the Gāthā announcing his retirement from the world’.

  The name of the king has elicited much comment. In the Siṁhalese manuscripts it is generally Makhādeva, whereas the Burmese manuscripts have Magghādeva and Magghadeva. But, as pointed out by Barua-Sinha, the Suttanta of the Majjhimanikāya is referred to in the Chullaniddesa, p. 80, as Maghādevasuttanta(sic), and in the Mahāvyutpatti 180, 31 we find Mahādeva. This is apparently meant of the name of the Videha king as it is followed by Nemi, the name of one of his successors. In the Sutanojātaka (No. 398) Makhādeva is also the name of a Yaksha, or rather of the fig tree in which he dwells. Here the Burmese manuscripts read Māghadeva. In the SnA., p. 352, Maghādeva occurs as the name of an ancient king, Hoernle takes Makhādeva as the original form, while Barua-Sinha think that it goes without saying that Makhādeva and Maghādeva are Prakrit forms of Mahādeva. I am, on the contrary, convinced that the original form from which all others are distorted is Maghādeva^[4]. Maghādeva belongs to that class of names that are formed by adding deva to the name of a constellation; cf. from the Brāhmī inscriptions Pusadevā (821 = A 120), Poṭhadevā (205), Haggudeva (29), Phagudeva (780 = A 30), Phagudevā (870 = A 75), Bhāranideva (874 = A 100), Saṇadevā(177 ; 178).
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^[1]Barua-Sinha: -jātaka[ṃ], but the anusvāra is very uncertain.
^[2]For grey hair as messengers of death cf. R. Morris, JPTS. 1885, p. 62 ff.
^[3]In the prose tale of the Jātaka the king informs first his son of his intention and then, in the Gāthā, his ministers, but in the original tale the Gāthā was probably addressed to his son and the ministers did not appears at all, just as they are not mentioned in the Sutta. The representation of the Jātaka appa- rently follows the original version, for at the side of the king and the barder, in the medallion, only a man, elegantly clad, appears in respectful attitude.
^[4]The Siamese printed edition reads Maghadeva throughout.