DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0104
82 EASTERN CAVES.
Yakkhos and Yakkhinis always perform important parts. It is one
too of the most likely subjects to be depicted in these caves, as it is
always from this country of Kalinga that the conquest of that island
is said to have originated.1 But it may be some Jataka to whose
interpretation we have no clue, and regarding which it is conse-
quently idle to speculate
The second bas-relief (Plate I., fig. 4) is certainly the most interest-
ing of the series, not only because it is one of the best preserved,
but also because it is repeated without any variation in the incidents,
though in a very different style of sculpture, in the Canesa cave, to
be next, described. This bas-relief contains eight figures, four males
and four females, in four groups. The first represents a man
apparently asleep in the doorway of a hut, and a woman sitting by
him watching. In front of these is a woman leading a man by the
hand apparently to introduce him to the first pair. Beyond these,
on the right, a man and woman are engaged in mortal combat with
swords of different shapes, but both bearing shields of very unusual
form, which I have never seen elsewhere. Beyond these, on the ex-
treme right, a man is carrying off in his arms an Amazonian female,
who still carries her shield on her arm, though she has dropped
her sword, and is pointing with the finger of her right hand to the
still fighting pair. Here again the first suggestion is Ceylon, for
nowhere else, that I know of, at least, do Amazons figure in Buddhist
tradition. But they are represented as defending Ceylon against
the invasion from Kalinga in the great fresco in Cave XVII. at
Ajanta, engraved by Mrs. Speir in her Ancient Life in India, and
repeated further on in a woodcut in the second part. It is by no
means impossible that this bas-relief may represent an episode in that
apocryphal campaign. It may, however, from its being repeated
twice in two different caves, be some local legend, and if so the key
will probably be found in the palm leaf records of the province,
whenever they are looked into for that purpose, which has not
hitherto been done. If not found there, or in Ceylonese tradition,
I am afraid the solution may be difficult. It does not look like a
Jataka. At least there is no man in any of these four groups whom
we can fancy could have been Buddha in any former birth. But
nothing is so difficult as to interpret a Jataka without a hint from
some external source.
1 Tumour's Mahmvanso, chap. vi. p. 43, et seq.
Yakkhos and Yakkhinis always perform important parts. It is one
too of the most likely subjects to be depicted in these caves, as it is
always from this country of Kalinga that the conquest of that island
is said to have originated.1 But it may be some Jataka to whose
interpretation we have no clue, and regarding which it is conse-
quently idle to speculate
The second bas-relief (Plate I., fig. 4) is certainly the most interest-
ing of the series, not only because it is one of the best preserved,
but also because it is repeated without any variation in the incidents,
though in a very different style of sculpture, in the Canesa cave, to
be next, described. This bas-relief contains eight figures, four males
and four females, in four groups. The first represents a man
apparently asleep in the doorway of a hut, and a woman sitting by
him watching. In front of these is a woman leading a man by the
hand apparently to introduce him to the first pair. Beyond these,
on the right, a man and woman are engaged in mortal combat with
swords of different shapes, but both bearing shields of very unusual
form, which I have never seen elsewhere. Beyond these, on the ex-
treme right, a man is carrying off in his arms an Amazonian female,
who still carries her shield on her arm, though she has dropped
her sword, and is pointing with the finger of her right hand to the
still fighting pair. Here again the first suggestion is Ceylon, for
nowhere else, that I know of, at least, do Amazons figure in Buddhist
tradition. But they are represented as defending Ceylon against
the invasion from Kalinga in the great fresco in Cave XVII. at
Ajanta, engraved by Mrs. Speir in her Ancient Life in India, and
repeated further on in a woodcut in the second part. It is by no
means impossible that this bas-relief may represent an episode in that
apocryphal campaign. It may, however, from its being repeated
twice in two different caves, be some local legend, and if so the key
will probably be found in the palm leaf records of the province,
whenever they are looked into for that purpose, which has not
hitherto been done. If not found there, or in Ceylonese tradition,
I am afraid the solution may be difficult. It does not look like a
Jataka. At least there is no man in any of these four groups whom
we can fancy could have been Buddha in any former birth. But
nothing is so difficult as to interpret a Jataka without a hint from
some external source.
1 Tumour's Mahmvanso, chap. vi. p. 43, et seq.