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On the right, an equal number, in violent. action while in the act of worshipping, seem also to be flying as if driven from the sacred presence. Something of the same action is repeated in the lowest bas-relief on the pillar. Four women on the left and four dwarfs on the right are worshipping the Tree. On the right stands the king or prince, with the umbrella of state borne over his head in front of another Tree, with a kneeling figure in front of the altar. . On the right an elephant pursues a horseman. His horse has fallen on his knees, and he is being knocked on the head by a dwarf with a mallet. It is probable that the interest of the story centres in the fallen horseman, who, with his companions in the corresponding compartment above,. seems to be driven from the eongregation of the faithful; but till we recover a Druma Purana, it is hardly likely we shall know who he is. The Lalita-Vistara and the books we have make no prominent mention of Tree Worship. -It belongs apparently to an earlier ‘form of faith, and the legends connected with it are not to be found there.* * The following is a curious instance of the irradicability of local forms, even long after the religion to which they belonged may have perished, At the present .day, during the festival of Navaratri, in honour of Siva as Amreshwar, the immortal lord, on the third night a brazen tree is carried round the town in procession ; on the fifth night a ten-headed serpent in brass. At the close of the festival the worshippers go in great pomp to a tree called Shemmu Veerchum, where the god is made to exercise in shooting an arrow‘at the sacred tree, followed by a discharge of fire-arms in the air, which closes the ceremony. In the festival called Siva Mahfrdtri, the procession to the same tree is the culminating point, to which all previous arrangements are subordinate, and thus the foetal closes.—See Asiatic Journal, vol. XV. p. 472 and 473. x 2 172 | | THE TOPE AT AMRAVATI. The two lower bas-reliefs:on the right-hand pillar of this- Plate are devoted to the same subject. In the centre a number of women—there are no men—are per- forming various acts of devotion, and bringing offerings, to the sacred Tree. The scene is laid in the centre of a village, the huts of which are seen both above and on either hand. In the lower bas-relief all the actors are men. ‘Two in the centre present pieces of cloth or garments to the Tree, and those in ‘the. side compartments seem also to be bringing scarfs or similar objects. The upper sculpture is of a different nature. In the sae a flight of Hansas or sacred. geese are winging their way across what appears to be a lake, between two trees. A hand issues from the right-hand tree, with two circular objects in it, and - the geese under it look as if falling dead on the shore, but it may be they are only flying downwards. On the sand are five impressM@hs of the sacred feet,—there were probably originally eight,—and two birds, apparently peacocks, are somewhat indistinctly seen strutting on the sand. I have met with no legend that explains ali the incidents depicted in the bas-relief, but it seems probable that it is an early form of a Jdtaka, still found in Ceylon. “The royal Hansa assembled all his subjects in an extensive “ plain, that his “daughter might choose a husband from among them. She chose * the peacock, at which the vain bird was so elated that he raised his tail, and ** made such a display as to disgust the king, who in consequence broke off the “ match.”* If this.is the legend, all that can be said is that what is here, repre- sented must be an earlier form.t On the left hand are several women presenting flowers ‘in pots, and on the right the Naga Raja with his seven-headed snake hood, and behind him his three wives, over each of whose heads may be seen the. single- headed snake, which always marks them.} Taken altogether, this is one of the most elegant of the Amravati pillars; and whether as regards its sculptures or’ its ornamental details, exhibits the progress in elegance and ‘purity of design that has been made since the representation of. the. Naga Raja and his three wives was carved,’ which is seen on Plate: XXIV., Fig: 2., : from Sanchi. The: snakes here are so subdued as not to be offensive, and the figures of the women are of great elegance. The ornaments of the circles on this pillar are also of great beauty. Those of the lower semicircle are not surpassed by any in this collection, though the scale of the photographs is rather too small to exhibit them in all on perfection. * Upham’s Historical Books of Cajon, vol. III. p. 289. t There is another legend quoted by Schiefner (Transactions of the St. Petersburg Academy, 1851, p. 238) from a Thibetan life of Buddha, which may be the one referred to. Devadatta, it is there related, wounded a goose, which fell into the garden of the Bodisattwa. He extracted the arrow, and having cured the wound let it go. It was claimed, however, by the sportsman, and hence arose a serious quarrel. <A tree ‘figures as the most important feature in this legend, which may be that one on the left hand; but no hand from another tree, and no peacocks, On the whole the probability seems to be that there was an older legend which is here represented, and which was afterwards broken up into numerous fragments. t The inscription will be found in Appendix E., Nos. XVII. and XIV. _ They merely record the names of the donors. ‘ CUERVATT 97° Ae - | ~ Lye ik ALG Die ag cat Taos ewe tise - . - YY yITy x MY £\¥Y YY YRYMYIYRYS Y YY A Ane YY YIYNY 5) Birra TATION OX AAV A RAMANA AR BR as GR Lea PULUXR 3) N SCALE 1 INGH TO 1 Foor? YYY ¥)Q yx YYMIMIYD YINYPY aryoy S OF OUTRE ENCLOSU sas DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 173 PLATE LIX. . Tuer is no difficulty in recognizing the principal figure in the two central circles of the pillars in Plate LIX. In the first it is the Prince Siddhartha riding* forth from the city gate, with all the insignia of his. rank. The umbrella of state is borne over his head; Chaori bearers attend on either hand, and music and dancing precede him. The glory round his head marks him as the elect—the future regenerator of the world. This is the first time we meet with this distinguishing mark, as there are no glories at Sanchi, though they are found commonly behind the heads of saints in the Peshawer sculptures. e In the circle of the right-hand picture we have the same individual after he had attained Buddhahood, in.the robes in which he is always represented after apparently: the second or third century of our era.. On his right a. woman, more fully clothed than any other woman in these sculptures, presents a boy to him, who catches hold of his garment’as if entreating him to come with him.:° The boy’s toys are seen in the foreground. It hardly seems doubtful but that this represents Yacodhara and her son Rahula entreating the great ascetic to return home to them, and reoccupy the position of his rank .and his duties as a prince and @ father. The figures around Buddha are his disciples, among whom will be remarked: in the foreground a hump-backed woman (Kubja), “who Poauontly reappears in the sculptures. _ The lower bas-reliefs on both these pillars seem to continue the subjects represented in the principal circles. In the centre of the left-hand pillar we have Siddhartha with the glory round his head; one man kissing his feet, and others in reverential attitudes; and beside him “the Horse,” to whom we shall. frequently have occasion to. revert hereafter. On the left of this a man bearing a relic in a tray; the same as seen in Plate LI., whatever it may be. Below him is a Naga Raja in a kneeling attitude. On the right is the worship of the Chackra or Wheel, with the usual accompaniments, and two antelopes in the foreground. The story told in the lower bas-relief of the right- hand pillar is easily ass out, A prince is seated on a couch, surrounded by his attendants, and a boy with a bow seems to ask him to join in the chase or .some martial exercise. In the central compartment he resists the temptations of the daughters of Mara;+ and in the third, having ~assumed the priestly. robes, teaches a multitude under a Bo Tree.- It looks at first sight as if intended for an epitome of the life of Buddha, but it. may be doubted whether he is really the person intended here, as in none of the three com- partments has he a glory round his head, and it is hardly probable that in the same * It is worthy of remark that at Sanchi the prince is always in his chariot, at Amravati on horseback. | There is only one chariot in all the sculptures at Amravati, Plate LXXXVI, ‘and: the subject of that bas-relief is singularly connected with Sanchi. , } This scene occurs again more in detail, Plate LXIIL, where it will be more especially referred to.. 174. THE TOPE AT AMRAVATL pillar he would be represented with and without. this accompaniment. . It may be some Bodhisattwa, but on the whole I am inclined to believe that it may represent scenes in the life of Rahula, who seems certainly to be the hero of the central bas-relief; and if this is so nothing can be more natural than that his story should be continued on, the same pillar: This prince, according to the legend, at the age _ of twenty, assumed the garb of a priest, and shortly after, by his father’s teaching, rose to the rank of a Rahan.* It will be observed that the old woman who appears behind the boy in the central picture Teena in the left-hand lower poy: Is she the mother of Yagodara ? The two upper bas-reliefs are too completely destroyed for their subjects to be made out. We can just see in the central.