14. Such another representation but with a second nun standing behind
Syailâ. In all likelihood an ordinator. In the king’s place we see
a _third_ BHIKSYUNÎ who may be queen Tyandraprabhâ. Acquainted as
she is with the circumstance that she won’t live much longer she
got the king’s permission for being admitted into the order.
15. The queen, after death born again in heaven, descends to show the
king the way for a reunion in the Great Beyond.
16. Rudrâyana communicates to his son Syikhanḍin his resolution to
become a monk, and so to abdicate the throne in his son’s behalf.
17. At _Râyagriha_ the _Buddha_ consecrated Rudrâyana a _bhiksyu_, and
on his first way as a mendicant friar he declines Bimbisâra’s rich
offerings.
18. To the right we see how merchants from _Rudrâyana_’s country inform
him Syikhanḍin’s bad behaviour. And to the left how the son is
informed by his wicked ministers about his father’s return, and we
then also see how he therefore forms a plan to have his father
murdered. In the back-ground we see Syikhanḍin’s mother in her own
palace.
19. Even this relievo is divided in two. To the right Syikhanḍin learns
that his father has been killed, perhaps by the man with the long
sword. And to the left he seeks comfort from his mother who frees
him from the heavy burden of parricide by letting him know that
Rudrâyana wasn’t really his father.
20. But the equally unpardonable murder of a _bhiksyu_, a saint, weighs
heavily on the king. In order to free him from so great a debt
they now pretend there are no saints. Deceivers are those who mean
to be _arahats_. To the left we see two cats, each of them in a
_stûpa_ of her own. They have been taught to answer to the names
of the two first converts convinced by Mahâkâtyâyana, and to the
right we see the queen-mother with her son who agrees with such
sofisms.
21. To the right king Syikhanḍin in a sedan-chair. He tells his retinue
to throw sand at the monk Mahâkâtyâyana. To the left the monk
himself, released as he now is from the heap of sand, predicts
_Roruka_’s downfall to the two good ministers Hiru and Bhiru.
22. From his palace the king is watching the rain of jewels which
precedes the wicked storm of sand[58].
People jostle each other on catching up the treasures. In the
foreground we see the two good ministers loading a boat with the
mentioned riches.
23. Fate in fulfilment. _Roruka_ and almost all its inhabitants are
buried under the sand. We see Mahâkâtyâyana on his home-journey in
the village of _Khara_. Through the air the tutelary goddess of
the destructed town followed him to that place, and the monk
leaves her his begging cup over which a _stûpa_ will be built.
24. In the next stage, called _Lambaka_, the inhabitants offer the
royalty to the monk’s disciple, Syâmaka, because of the wonder
they saw, that is, that the shadow of the tree under which he took
his seat, behaved to himself but didn’t follow the course of the
sun.
25. In the third stage, named _Vokkâna_, the monk gives his mendicity to
a woman, who in former life, had been his mother. Reason for the
building of a new _stûpa_.
26, 27 and 28. A rural scene between two sea-pieces. On 27 we see a monk
in a town fenced all around. Mahâkâtyâyana’s return in
_Syrâvastî_. 26 and 28 represent Hiru’s and Bhiru’s disembarkment
on the spots where they once will found the towns of _Hiruka_, and
_Bhiruka_.
The 2 remaining panels, 29 and 30, relate the touching story of the two
_kinnaras_ who could never forget that one day, 697 years ago, man and
wife had been separated in their millennial life for a whole night
because of a swollen river.
The king of _Bénarès_, one day hunting for game, surprised and listened
to them. In the one relievo we see the prince hewn in a standing—in the
other in a sitting posture, for the rest both the representations
consecrated to the _kinnara-_ or _Bhalâtya-jâtaka_, have been hewn in
the same manner.
These mythical beings I always called _gandharvas_ because they always
represent birds provided with a human head and bust. I never saw them
with a horse’s head like _kinnara’s_ have been described in Dowson’s
_Classical Dictionary_.
With the exception of the _Maitrakanyakavadâna_, mentioned here-above,
Foucher didn’t explain any other _relievo_ of the inferior series of the
back wall at the _north-west_ corner, because we haven’t any data.
He also had no time necessary for a complete and decisive study of the
sculptures we see on the 3 higher galleries. He only acknowledged their
less historical or legendary sense but accepted their iconographic
character. Some sculptures of the second gallery _I_ thought to be
Hindu-gods represented as _Bodhisattvas_, _he_, on the other hand,
thought they were _Avalokitésyvara_, and _Manjusyri_. This does
correspond at last to my meaning because _Avalokitésyvara_ is nobody
else but the deity Shiva, in this case Padmapâni, at the same time the
fourth _Dhyâni-Bodhisattva_.