Charpentier Remarks On The Identification of Some Jātaka Pictures

Remarks on the Identification of Some Jtaka Pictures
Author(s): Jarl Charpentier

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol. 4, No. 3 (1927),
pp. 493-503
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REMARKS ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF SOME
JATAKA PICTURES
By
JARL CHARPENTIER
W HILE
busying
himself with
reviewing,
for this
Bulletin,'
vols. iii-v of Professor von Le
Coq's great
work Die
Buddhistische
Spatantike
in Mittelasien the
present
writer had an
opportunity
of
making
a somewhat closer
acquaintance
also with
Professor
Griinwedel's
very important
book Altbuddhistische Kult-
statten in
Chinesisch-Turkistan
(1912).
Various
passages
of this
work,
and most
specially pp.
65-75,
contain
interesting descriptions
and
pictures
of
Jitakas
(or Avadinas)
found in the different
caves
in
Eastern
Turkestan
visited
by
Herren Griinwedel and von Le
Coq.
Most of these
pictures
have
already
been identified
by
the learned
author
with
passages
in Buddhist
literary
works;
and the identifica-
tions
are,
of
course,
in an
overwhelming
number of
cases,
quite
correct
ones,
though
sometimes
perhaps
in need of some
improvement.
However,
a certain number of
pictures
are left
unidentified,
and as
the
present
writer ventures to think that he has succeeded in a few
of these cases in
hitting upon
a hitherto overlooked identification
this
may
be the excuse for now
giving publicity
to these
very
modest
remarks.
For it should be understood from the
very beginning
that this
is in no wise an outcome of a
prolonged
and
systematic
research into
Buddhist
lore,
for which the
present
writer cannot
pretend
to
possess
the
adequate capacity.
He has
mainly
consulted a few
works,
such
as Finot's edition of the
Rdstrapilaparip.rcchi,
Chavannes' admirable
Cinq
cents contes et
apologues
extraits du
Tripitaka
Chinois
(1911), etc.,
in
order,
if
possible,
to unearth from them some
passages explaining
a few of Professor Griinwedel's
pictures.
Some use has also been
made of Professor Foucher's
interesting
letter from
Ajaint.
in the
JA.
1921,
i,
p.
201
sq.2
But
although
the
following
remarks are of
a
very
scattered and
scanty
nature it is to be
hoped
that
they may
prove
of some little use to students interested in this field of research.
The set of
pictures chiefly interesting
us here is the one
running
1
Cf.
vol.
iii,
p.
814
sq.;
vol.
iv,
p.
348
sq.
2
With this
paper
cf. also the short notices
by
Mlle
Lalou
in the JA.
1925, ii,
p.
333
sq.
494 JARL CHARPENTIER-
from No. 125 to No. 164 of the Altbuddhistische Kultstatten. Of these
the
following
ones seem to have been
correctly
identified
already by
Professor Griinwedel
:-
125. This is the
story
of
Rfipivati
in
Divydvadina, p.
471,
who
cut off her own breasts in order to
satisfy
a
starving
woman
1;
cf.
also
RSstrapilapariprcchS,
p.
25
(No. 30):-
kanakdbhapinasukumirarm
tyakta
stanadvayarm
hrdayakintam
stri
preksya
me
ksudhat.rysrtam
siriipyavatiti
vanitd
yaddbhht
I
126.
According
to Griinwedel this is the well-known
story
of
Ks~ntivadin (Jitaka, iii,
p.
39
sq.;
JitakamSl,
28, etc.),
whose hands
and feet were cut off
by
a cruel
king.
But this seems rather uncertain
as in this
picture only
the hands have been cut
off,
and the tormentor
of the Bodhisattva seems to be
leaving
him; cf.
possibly
Rdstrapdlapari-
p.rccha, p.
24
(No. 27) :-
cakrdikitamr
kamalatulyarm
pniyugarm
paradattam anapeksam
I
n.rpa
A'uketu
yada
dsd bodhim
abhhpsamina jagadarthe 11
or even
ibid.,
p.
23
(No. 17):
m.rdutiilapicipamasiiksmau
komalapadmapattrasukumirau
I
tyaktau
karau
sacaranau
me
pfirvam
n.rpena
Dhrtimati
ca
211
127.
This,
as well as
131,
seems to be the famous
story
of
King
gibi
sacrificing,
his
eyes
to a blind
Brahmin, cf.
JitakamSi5,
2,
etc.
In the
RdstrapilapariprcchS,
p.
24
(No. 22)
the name of the
king
is
given
as
Utpalanetra
3
;
in the
Chinese version
of
"
the Wise and
the Fool " he is called "
Pleasing-eyes
".4
128. Professor Griinwedel
(p. 345) tentatively
identified the
Bodhisattva who has set fire to his hands in order to show the
way
to a caravan with
Aguketu (cf.
above under No.
126).
But it seems
more
probable
that we should turn to the
following
verse in the
RastrapdlapariprcchS,
p.
24
(No.
21):-
mayi tyaktam anguli
udira satvahitirtham
eva
carata
me
jSl5rcit5 vimala'uddh5 KSnicanavarna
parthiva yadds7t I1
129. This is the
VessantarajJtaka,
cf.
picture
No. 317
(p. 141).
In the
Rdstrapdlaparip.rcchk,
p.
22
(No. 10),
the hero of the tale is
1 Cf.
picture
No. 254 in Grfinwedel.
2
But this later one seems to be less
fitting
our
picture,
and for the same reason
as the
Ksdntivddijataka.
3
In
Chavannes,
Cinq
cents contes, i,
p.
104
sq. Kundla,
the son of
Adoka,
whose
wicked
stepmother
had his
eyes put
out
(cf.
Divydvtad&na,
p.
382
sq.), has,
curiously
enough,
been turned into a
Bodhisattva.
4' Takakusu,
JRAS.
1901,
p.
4f0.
THE IDENTIFICATION OF SOME JATAKA PICTURES 495
called
Sudamnstra (cf. Lalitavistara,
p.
194, 10; Chavannes, loc. cit.,
iii,
p.
362 and
note);
in
Chavannes, loc. cit., i,
p.
56,
he is called
Sarvadina.
130. Sibi and the
dove,
cf.
picture
No. 251
(Griinwedel, p. 114).
131. Cf. 127 above.
132. This is the
Mahikapij'itaka
in
Jdtakamald, xxvii,
etc.
(cf.
also
p.
216
sq.).
134. Cf. No. 160 below.
136. This is said
by
Griinwedel,
p.
68,
to be the
oarabhajitaka
(Jdtaka,
vol.
iv,
p.
267
sq.;
Jitakamald, xxv),
which is
probably
correct. But it seems curious that two
persons
should be seen
riding
on the animal here
while,
according
to the
texts,
it
only
saved the
king
who had been
pursuing
it. Whether the animal
depicted
here,
which is somewhat like a
very misshapen hippopotamus,
is
really
meant for a s'arabha also seems
doubtful;
at
Ajant.
the sarabha is
simply
a
species
of
antelope.'
138,
Professor
Griinwedel
(p. 70)
identifies this
picture
with the
story
of
Sain tir61tu
in the
Mongolian Dsanglun,2
the
young boy
who,
in order to
support
his
starving parents,
had his own flesh
cut
off in
portions.
This
story
does
not,
so
far,
appear
to have been found
in
any
Indian version. But it is found in the Chinese Tsa Pao
Tsang
King,
where,
in the
summary given by
Chavannes it runs as
follows
3
:
" Un roi avait six
fils;
il est
tu6,
avec
cinq
de ses
fils,
par
son
ministre Lo-heou-k'ieou. Le sixieme fils . . . s'enfuit avec sa femme
et son
jeune gargon
. . . il
s'6gare
en chemin et souffre de la
faim;
il veut tuer sa
femme,
mais son
jeune
gar;on
se devoue
pour
la sauver
;
on
coupe
donc
chaque jour
a celui-ci une certaine
quantite
de chair
qui permet
aux trois
voyageurs
de ne
pas
mourir de
faim,"
etc.-
the
story,
like all the other ones of the same
type,
is rather
disgusting.
The
picture
intends to
give
the situation described above: the
prince,
with raised
sword,
is
going
to kill his
wife,
but the
young boy,
sitting
astride on the shoulder of his
mother,
with a
deprecating
gesture prevents
this and offers his own life in ransom for hers.
142.
Vyighr;jdtaka,4
cf.
Jdtakaml1d,
i; Chavannes, loc. cit., i,
p.
15
;
Rstrapilaparip.rcchc,
p.
22,
etc.
1 Cf. JA.
1921, i,
p.
210
sq.
2 Cf. I. J.
Schmidt, Dsanglun, i,
p.
xxv
sq.
3
Chavannes,
loc.
cit., iii,
p. 2;
according
to Chavannes the title of this Chinese
work would translate a Sanskrit
original Samyuktaratnapitakasiitra.
4
There are other
pictures belonging
to this
Jitaka
in Professor
Griinwedel's
book
; cf. pp.
76, 116,
and
pl.
446, 447. In some of the
pictures
the animals seem to
be
jackals
rather than
tigers.
150. On
p.
345 Professor
Griinwedel
seems to
identify
this with
the
story
abbreviated in the
Rds
rapdlapariprcchi, p.
24
(No. 25):-
hitvd svam
asthi ca
saririd
vyadhik.rasya
majja
maya
dattam
na ca satva
tyakta
mama
jdtu
asi
nrpo yadd
kusuma
nama
[1
Although
the identification does not
belong
to those which strike
one as
being immediately
obvious it is
probably
correct.
151. Professor
Griinwedel
(p.
71
sq.)
thinks this
picture
to be
a variation of the
Vyaghrijataka (142).
This
may
be
correct but the
tale must be a
separate
one and
is,
so
far,
unknown to us.
155.
Professor
Griinwedel (p. 74) points
to
Dsanglun,
ii,
p.
215
sq.
This is
quite
correct,
and the text is
otherwise
found in
Chavannes,
loc. cit., i,
p. 11,
in the
Rdistrapilaparip.rccha,
p.
26
(No. 42):-
bodhicarirm caramanahu pfirvam matsya
babhfiva
yadd jalacdrT
[
tyakta
maySiraya
satvahitaya bhaksitaprdnisahasrasatebhih
I1
and in other works.' Our
picture,
however,
comes nearest to the
tale as told in the
Dsanglun
where we read the
following:
"
Wiihrend
zu der Zeit
fiinf
Holzarbeiter am Ufer dieses
Gewaissers
herumgingen
um
Holz zu
suchen,
entdeckten sie den
grossen
Fisch,
welcher in
menschlicher
Sprache
sie
folgendermassen
anredete: 'Wenn euch
hungert,
so schneidet von meinem Fleisch
ab,
so viel ihr
wollt
und
esset! ...
Sagt
auch allen
Hungernden
im
Lande,
dass sie nach
Belieben von meinem Fleische nehmen sollen.' Hierauf schnitten
die Fiinf von dem Fleische ab und riefen die Einwohner des Landes
herbei,
so dass die Nachricht von Einem zum Andern kam und endlich
alle Bewohner des
Dschambudwips
sich
versammelten,
von dem
Fleisch abschnitten und
assen,"
etc. The
picture
shows us two
woodcutters-instead of five-one
cutting pieces
out of the fish
with his
axe,
the other with his knife.
157. To the literature
quoted by
Professor
Grfinwedel
(p. 74)
should be added
Jdtaka, 12; Mahavastu, i,
p.
359; Chavannes,
loc.
cit., i,
p.
68
sq.;
ii,
p.
35
sq.,
etc. The scene is found also at
Ajant.,
cf.
JA.
1921,
i,
p.
208.
160. Cf. 134 above. The
story
is found in
Dsanglun, ii,
p.
29
sq.
To these identifications
by
Professor
Griinwedel
can now be laid
a short series of others which are
given
below. As has been
pointed
out above I have not been able to make
any systematic investigations,
and the results achieved here can thus
,not
be looked
upon
as final.
1
For references cf. M. Finot's edition of the
R~strapalapariprcchd, p.
viii.
135. In this
picture
we see three
young
men,
of whom one is
dressed in a sort of
flapped
coat of rather common occurrence in
the Turfan
pictures,'
surrounded
by
a
very bulky serpent
or
dragon
with
heads'at
each end of its
body
and with
widely opened jaws;
in the lower
part
of the
picture
is seen an
elephant
on the back of
which stands a lion
springing upwards
in order to attack the
dragon.
On
p.
60 of his work Professor
Griinwedel
mentions a
duplicate
of
this
picture
where, however,
elephant
and lion are
missing;
and
on
p.
115 the same scene occurs with the lion but without the
elephant.
This is what
may
well be called the
Sirmhakuiijardvadina.
It
occurs
amongst
the
pictures
at
Aja.nt
where the
elephant
is likewise
missing.2 Literary
documents
relating
to it are found in
Ksemendra's
Bodhisattvavadinakalpalatd,
No.
102,
and in
Chavannes, loc. cit.,
i,
p.
253
sq.;
iii,
p.
70.
From the last
passage
I borrow a few lines
which will form an exact
commentary
to our
picture:
" Autrefois
de nombreux marchands s'etaient vus entoures
par
un
serpent
monstrueux
qui
ne leur laissait aucun
moyen d'&chapper.
Pour
les
delivrer,
un lion monte sur un
elephant
blanc et
attaque
le
serpent
dont il brise le
crane;
mais le lion et
l'6l'phant
meurent tous deux
pour
avoir
4te
atteints
par
l'haleine
empoisonnee
du
serpent . .
.Le
lion,
c'est le
Buddha;
l'elphant
blanc c'est
Qariputra."
3
137. A bear
sitting
on a tree holds a man on his
lap
while a
tiger
waits at the bottom of the tree.
This is the
story
of the noble animal
which,
without
listening
to
any temptations
saves the man from the
tiger
while the mean and
ungrateful
human
being
tries to throw his
benefactor,
during
his
sleep,
from the tree. The
story
is found in
many
variations in Buddhist
literature,
where the chief actors are
invariably
the Buddha and
Devadatta.
139. A man dressed
only
in a dhot7 is
standing
on an elevated
plot
of
ground
on the bank of a
pond
from which
emerges
a
ndgariija
in a
suppliant
attitude.
The former
figure
is taken
by
Professor
Griinwedel
to be
a Bodhisattva to whom
he, undoubtedly,
bears a
great
likeness.
Now,
it seems that we must
identify
this
picture
with a scene out
1
Cf. Professor
Griinwedel's
index s.v.
Klappenrock
and Professor
von Le
Coq's
Bilderatlas, p.
49.
2
Cf. JA.
1921, i, p.
219.
3
Travellers
surrounded
by
a
great serpent
occur also in the tales of
Sindbad,
cf.
Burton,
Arabian
Nights,
vi, p.
29. But there no lion or
elephant
comes to their
rescue.
VOL. IV. PART III.
33
498 JARL CHARPENTIER--
of the
8aiikhapalajataka
.(Jitaka,
No.
524),
which is also
depicted
at
Ajanta
and is thus described
by
M. Foucher 1:"
Burgess
a vu
A tort un 'Buddha ' devant
lequel
se
prosterne
un roi:
elle
2 montre,
en
fait,
un
ascite
ordinaire recevant les
hommages
d'un roi des
Ndgas."
This
scene, however,
belongs
to the
previous story
of
gailkhapala
when,
according
to the
atthakatha
of the
Jataka,
the Bodhisattva
was a
prince
of
Magadha
who turned ascetic and received the
homage
of the then
ndgarija
oailkhapala.
Consequently,
Professor
Griinwedel
was
quite right
in
looking upon
the
figure standing
beside the
pond
as
being
a
Bodhisattva.
140. In this
picture
we see a
square pond
or tank in the middle
of which stands the nude
figure
of a
girl weeping
while
above,
in
the
air,
a
winged boy,
a sort of
angel
or
genius,
is
carrying
another
young
man in his
arms.
Professor
Griinwedel's
reference to the
story
of
Kalmasapada 3
is not
quite intelligible.
We have here a scene from the Vidhura-
panditajdtaka (JJtaka,
No.
545)
where a
young genius,
after
having
won the wise Vidhura at a
game
of
dice,
carries him
away
in order
to
please
his own
daughter,
a beautiful
ndgi.
This
jltaka
also occurs
at
Ajanta,4
and a similar
story
about Pi-t'ou-hi
(= Vidhura)
is told
in
Chavannes, loc.
cit., iii,
p.
100,
although
it does not
quite tally
with the
jataka.
143.
A man is seen
merged
to the waist in a round
pit
from
which issues a
high, pointed
flame. On both sides of the
pit
are
seen two
gods
who take hold of his arms and
try
to raise him
up.
A variation of this
picture
on
p.
114
(pl. 253)
assures us that the man
in the
pit
is in
reality
the Bodhisattva.
Professor
Griinwedel
thinks of either the
story
of
Vijitdvin
in
Mahavastu, iii,
p.
42
sq.,
or the
gresthijitaka (Jitakamdld, iv),
but
neither is the case. This is the scene described in the
Dsanglun,
ii,
p.
11
sq.
The Bodhisattva was at that time the
prince Damgama,5
son of
king T'sangpa-hla,
and
Indra,
in order to
try
him,
arrived at
the
palace
in the form of a brahmin
saying
that he wished to
proclaim
a
holy
doctrine. But when the
prince
wants to hear it he is told
that,
before he can do
so,
he must have a
fire-pit
made of ten
yards'
1 JA.
1921, i,
p.
210.
2
Viz.
"
la scene ".
3
Cf.
Watanabe, Journal of
the Pali Text
Society, 1909, p.
236
sq.
-
JA.
1921, i, p.
208.
6
This
name, according
to
Takakusu,
JRAS.
1901, p.
454,
is from the Chinese
Tan-ma-kan,
a
corruption
of Sanskrit Dharmakeama.
depth
and filled with
burning
coals and sacrifice himself
by springing
into
it.
The Bodhisattva
willingly complies
with this and has all
preparations
made. After
hearing
the
Rlokas
recited he is
just
on
the
verge
of
jumping
into the
pit when.on
either
side Indra and
Brahma
take hold of his arms and
try
to dissuade him. This is
exactly
the scene
of our
picture.
144. A
giant
demon holds a
young boy
before his mouth in
order to eat him. There is another
picture
of the same event on
p.
114
(pl. 248)
but more
complete;
in front of, the demon are seen
a
king
and a
queen loudly wailing.
(p. 345)
takes this to be the
story
of Sutasoma
(J&taka,
No.
537,
Jatakamal1,
xxxi, etc.)
which is also found at
Ajanitd,1
and this at first seems
probable.
But some doubts seem
possible
as the
prey
of the demon is
apparently
here a small child which
does not
tally
with the
jdtaka
where Sutasoma is a
grown-up young
prince.
There is a
story
of a
man-eating ogre
converted
by
Buddha
in
Chavannes, loc.
cit,,
iii,
p.
96
sq.,
but this does not fit our
picture
as the child
captured by
the demon must
undoubtedly
be a Boddhi-
sattva.
145-8. All these
pictures
are
extremely puzzling
as there is
very
little real difference between them. In all of them it is
apparently
told how at one time or other the Bodhisattva sacrifices his own
blood
and flesh for the welfare of some other
beings,
but the
difficulty
is to find out
precisely
what is
represented
in the different
pictures.
In 145 the Bodhisattva is seen
sitting
on a throne
raising
his
left
arm,
while a servant is
cutting open
his left side with a
knife,
the
impression being
that he is
going
to tear out his heart. In 146
the Bodhisattva is
again
seen
sitting
on his
throne;
a small servant
is
cutting open
his
right leg
while the Bodhisattva himself is
holding
a bowl into which blood is meant to flow. Behind the servant
another small
person
is seen
waiting-probably
for the blood in the
bowl. In 147 the Bodhisattva clad
only
in a
dhot5
is seen
standing
in front of a
tree;
a small man
(possibly
a
demon)
is
sitting
beside
him
holding
a bowl and
pointing
at his dhotT with some
pointed
instrument. In 148 the Bodhisattva is
sitting
on a throne
(like
that in
146);
behind him is a servant
probably cutting
flesh out
of his
back,
and beside the throne is a
large cooking-pot.
Professor
Griinwedel
thinks 145 to be the
story
told in the
Dsanglun,
ii, p. 15, where the Bodhisattva in shape of the wise
Utpala
had his
1
JA.
1921, i, p.
213
sq.
skin made into
parchment,
one of his
bones
into a
stylus
and his blood
into ink in order to take down a
subhasita.
But
this,
for
apparent
reasons,
is
impossible; unfortunately,
the
present
writer is
just
as
little able to
identify
the
picture,
but
the
solution should
apparently
be found in a
story
where,
for some reason or
other,
the Bodhisattva
sacrifices his own heart.
In 146 we
should,
according
to the same
authority,
see the
Maitr7balajdtaka
(Jitakamld,
viii),1
in which the
Bodhisattva,
as
king
Maitribala,
has his veins
opened
in order to
satisfy
the
craving
for blood of five
ogres (yaksa).
That there are here
only
two
persons
instead of five is an
objection
of no
consequence;
but it is more
important
that these
persons
do not seem at all like demons. It
seems much more
probable
that we
ought
to connect the
picture
with this verse in the
Rastrapilapariprcchi, p.
24
(No. 24) :-
vyddhydturam
ca naram
7ksya
svam rudhiram pradattam api
me
'bhiat
nirvyddhitah
sa ca
krto
me
pregbhava
Sarvadar'i
yad
abhfivam fl
But there seems also to exist another otherwise unknown 2
Story
of how the Bodhisattva once
gave away
his one
leg,
cf. ibid.,
p.
24
(No. 29) :-
mrdu komalam
vimalagauram
iru tac chittva
drstamuditay5
3I
dattaym
svamamsa
rudhirarm
me
Jninavati
yaddsi nrpaputtri
In this
legend
the Bodhisattva was a
woman;
but
might
there not
as well have existed a
parallel
version where he
performed
the same
act
of
sacrifice as a man ? Our
picture might just
as well be meant
to
depict
that event.
In 147 Professor Griinwedel
suggests
that we
might
find the
story
of how the Bodhisattva had his whole
body perforated
and a
thousand
burning
wicks
put
into the
holes.4
This seems
probable
enough, although
the
picture
in itself does not
give
us much
information.
As for 148
nothing
definite
can,
unfortunately,
be said about it.
But the
story
should be that the Bodhisattva has his own flesh cut
out and cooked in order to
perform
a
good
deed.
149. In this
picture
the Bodhisattva is seen
kneeling
beneath
1
Cf.
Dsanglun, ii,
p.
65.
2
Not quite though,
as
according
to
Finot, loc. cit.,
p.
viii,
it occurs also in the
Samddhiraja,
ch. xxxi.
3
Read
hrsta'.
4 Cf.
Dsanglun, ii,
p.
5
sq.
a
tree,
while on the other side a
huge
man with beard and
top-knot
approaches
with a raised sword in his
right
hand.
Professor
Griinwedel
(p. 71)
takes this to be a scene from the
Sutasomajdtaka,1
for what reason is not
apparent
as there is in this
story nothing
that
especially
reminds us of that tale. The
story,
I venture to
believe,
is found in
p.
17
sq.,
and
runs
as follows: The Bodhisattva was once a
mighty king,
called
P'ien-yue,
renowned for his boundless
liberality.
A wicked
ascetic from a
foreign country presented
himself before the
king
and
asked for his head as he wanted it for a certain
object.2
The
king
tried to turn him off with an offer of vast
wealth,
but all in vain.
Then we
may quote
the text
itself:
"Le
roi ne s'6tait
jamais
jusqu'alors
refuse
'
aucun des desirs
qui
lui avaient
6t
exprims ;
il descendit donc de la
salle,
enroula ses cheveux a
un
arbre et dit: 'Je
vousfais
don de ma tate
'. L'ascete
tira son
epde
et
s'avanga
en marchant
rapidement."
The
king,
however,
was saved
by
the intervention of
a
vanadevdtS.
The italicized sentences seem to me to describe
exactly
the scene
found in our
picture.
153. A man
sitting
under a tree is seen
flaying
a small animal
while another animal of the same
species
is seen at some distance.
There is a
duplicate
of this
picture
described on
p.
60,
but there the
animal is said to be an
elephant.
There can
be little doubt that this is the
story
told in the
Dsanglun,
ii,
p.
101
sq.
A
king
of Benares sees in his dreams a
golden
deer and
sends his hunters to fetch its
skin,
threatening
them with death
and destruction if
they
fail to
bring
it.
Finally,
one of them sees a
Kunta-deer
(the Bodhisattva)
which offers itself to be
flayed
alive
in order to save the hunters and their families. The one
difficulty
is to account for the
presence
of the second animal in our
picture
as
there is
nothing
about it in the text.
156. A bear is seen
sitting
in the entrance of a cave. In front
of him is a
tree,
and on its other side a man is seen
bending
a bow
and
taking
aim at the bear while in the front
part
of the
picture another
man is
pointing
it out to the bowman.
1 Cf.
Jataka, v, p.
456
sq.; Jatakamlda,
xxxi, etc.;
and
Kern, Verslagen
en
Mededeelingen
du Kon. Akad. van
Wetenschappen, afd. Letterkunde, 3de Reeks, v,
p.
8
sq.
2
In the well-known Vetala-tales the wicked
Yogin
wants the head of
King
Vikramiditya
in order to
perform
a
magic
rite.
The
story
is found in an abbreviated form in the
Rsitrapdlpari-
prechi, p.
25
(No. 37) :
rkapatir
abhiva
dailadurge
himahata
sapta dinini
raksito
me
purugsa
vadhaku tena me
prayukto
na ca
pratighita
krta4ca
me
taddsmin
]
The
same scene is found
depicted
at
Aja.nt
1
and has been identified
by
Mile Lalou
2
from
Tibetan and other sources.
Already
M,
Finot,
in his edition of the
Rastrapilapariprcchd, p.
viii,
had
pointed
to its
existence in the Karmasataka.3
The
story
runs thus:
A
bear
(the
Bodhisattva)
rescued a man from a snow storm and fed him in his
cave
for seven
days.
The man
promised
not to
betray
the site
of the animal's
lair, but,
in
spite
of
this,
he led hunters to the
spot,
who killed the bear with their arrows. When the
ungrateful
wretch
was
going
to
carry away
his
part
of the flesh
his
hands detached
themselves from his arms.
159. The Bodhisattva is seen
lying
in a coffin on the lid of which
two men kneel
apparently occupying
themselves with
closing
it.
(p. 74)
thinks this to be either the
Miiga-
pakkhajitaka (Jdtaka, vi,
p.
i
sq.)
or the
story
of the Saint
KrIa
Vatsa
and the cruel
king Dandaki.4
The latter
suggestion
is
impossible,
but the former one
might
be taken into consideration
though
there
are
great
difficulties. The
story
about an old man
being
buried alive
in
Chavannes, loc. cit., iii,
p.
13,
is too
vague,
nor does it
identify
the hero with the Bodhisattva
though
this would be rather an obvious
conclusion.
163,
A
king
on his
throne
surmounted
by
the
royal
sunshade.
An old emaciated brahmin escorts a Bodhisattva whose hands are
tied behind his back towards the throne.
This is the
story
told in
p.
41
sq.; ii,
p.
59
sq.
The Bodhisattva was a
king
world-famed for his mildness
and
liberality.
As he did not want to
fight
his
enemy conquered
his
kingdomi
and he himself had to resort to the wilderness. There
he met an old and
poor
brahmin who was on his
way
to ask him
for alms. As the Bodhisattva had
nothing
to
give
him he exhorted
him to
put
chains on his hands and take him to his
enemy
who had
1
Cf.
JA.
1921, i, p.
216.
2
Cf. JA.
1925, ii, p.
335
sq.
SOCf. Feer,
JA.
1901, i, p.
99.
4
On this
story
cf.
Charpentier,
VOJ.
xxviii, p.
227
sq.
offered a substantial reward for his
capture.
This is
precisely
the
scene of our
picture.
This
fini'shes my very
modest list of identifications. There is
a number of other ones still to be
done,
but I must leave that to
scholars who are far better conversant with Buddhist lore.
There is one circumstance of some interest
which,
in this
connexion,
I should like to
point
out. We have
drawn,
Professor
Griinwedel and
myself, upon
different sources for the identification of
the
pictures.
Most of them are found in Indian
sources,
though
the
Chinese tales translated
by
Chavannes have also
yielded
a
good
deal
of
helpful
material and will
perhaps,
on a more careful
perusal, yield
still more.
But there is one source that seems to me to stand in a
peculiar
connexion to our
pictures
and that is the collection of tales
occurring
in
Chinese, Tibetan,
and
Mongolian
versions,
and
perhaps
best known
under the name of
Dsanglun,
" der Weise und der Tor." I should
like to
emphasize
that the
picture
138 was identified
by
Professor
Griinwedel
with the
help
of a
story
in the
Mongolian Dsanglun (not
found in the Tibetan
version),
and that the
pictures
143, 153, 155,
and 160 all
exactly tally
with the situations described in the
coinciding
stories of that work. This remarkable coincidence can
scarcely
be
wholly
fortuitous. It
proves,
in the
opinion
of the
present
writer,
that the
painters
of our
pictures
worked
upon
texts which
were,
at
least
partly,
identical with the
original underlying
the
Dsanglun.
The
history
of the
Dsanglun
has been written
by
Professor
Takakusu.1
According
to him the Tibetan
(and Mongolian)
text is
a
translation,
for obvious reasons
dating
from after A.D.
632,
of the
Chinese
original,
the
Hien-yii-king,
" Tales of the Wise Man and the
Fool,"
which itself exists in two different versions. The
original
Chinese
work was
compiled
in
A.D.
445 from various Indian sources and
scarcely
presupposes
a
single
Sanskrit
original.
It is of
special
interest,
in
this
connexion,
to learn that the materials
upon
which the Chinese
translators worked were collected in Central Asia and
chiefly
at
Khotan.
For,
if that is so we need not feel
very
much astonished
that these Central Asian
pictures
should
tally
well with texts
originating
from that same
neighbourhood. Perhaps
there once
existed,
in
"Tocharian
"
or some other Central Asian
language,
another
"
Dsanglun
"
which to the artists of these
pictures
was one of the
chief sources of their
inspiration.
1
Cf. JRAS. 1901, p.
447
sq.,
and M.
Sylvain
L6vi,
JA.
1925, ii, p.
311
sq.

Charpentier Remarks On The Identification of Some Jātaka Pictures

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Charpentier Remarks On The Identification of Some Jātaka Pictures

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Remarks on the Identification of Some Jtaka Pictures

Author(s): Jarl Charpentier

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