The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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472 NOTES
earth he becomes enlightened, possessed of supreme
wisdom, and endowed with superhuman powers
enabling him to direct all creatures to the path of salvation.
This definition does not apply to the 'Pratyeka
Buddhas' who seek salvation only for themselves.
54. 8. As an illustration of the survival or reworking of
far earlier concepts in Buddhism, it may be pointed out
that the 'Eightfold Path' is no more than an analogy
based on the Eightfold Path of circumambulation in
the plan of the Indo-Aryan village.
55. 9. The Tushita Heaven, lowest in the tier of paradises
or devalokas rising above the sky, is the residence
of the Thirty-three Gods presided over by Indra.
10. In a relief sculpture at Bhaja, the Vedic gods
Surya and Indra appear as symbols of the Buddha's
spiritual and temporal power.
56. 11. One factor that led to the Buddha's ultimate
deification was his identification with the ancient
Indian concept of the universal ruler or Cakravartin
his 'royal' character was implicit in the cicumstances
of his birth, in his possession of the cosmic tree and the
solar wheel, typifying his Enlightenment and Preaching.
Asoka conferred royal honours on his remains;
the umbrella, emblem of royalty and of the sky,
crowned his relic mounds. The occasional representations
of Cakravartin with the Seven Jewels of his
universal power may be simply interpreted as
allegorical
representations of the Buddha, (See, for
example, the relief from Jaggayyapeta of the Early
Andhra Period reproduced in L. Bachhofer, Early
Indian Sculpture (New York, 1929), plate 107.)
57. 12. The relative 'realism' or 'abstraction' of the
multiple representations of Buddhas at Barabudur in
Java are so qualified in accordance with this concept.
The crowned and bejewelled Buddhas of Pala-Sena
times have been interpreted as representations of the
body of bliss.
58. 13. Vajrayana Buddhism was introduced to Japan
as early as the ninth century, and survives there in the
Shingon sect.
chapter 5
60. 1. Since, as the Buddhist texts inform us, the
superman designated by the thirty-two laksanas or
magic marks has before him at his birth the choice of
becoming a Cakravartin or adopting a career leading
to Buddhahood, the concept of the universal ruler is a
kind of temporal complement to the spiritual idea of
the Buddha.
2. Aelian, Nat. Anim., xxn, 19. The discovery of an
Asokan inscription in Greek and Aramaic near Kandahar
makes the connexion with the Hellenistic
world appear even closer.
3. Beal, lv.
65. 4. The striking resemblance between the decoration
of the facade of the Lomas Rishi cave and certain
ivories of the first century a.d. found at Begram in
Afghanistan has led Philippe Stern to date the Barabar
cave early in the Christian era. (Cf. P. Stern, 'Les
ivoires de Begram et l'art de l'lnde', in J. Hackin,
Nouvelles recherches archeologiques a Begram, Paris,
1954, p. 38 f.)
5. Examples with their sculptured capitals still intact
have been discovered at Saiikisa, Basarh, Rampurva,
LauriyaNandangarh, Salempur, Sarnath, and Sanchi.
6. A relief of the Sunga Period in the Provincial
Museum, Lucknow, shows us a man and woman
circumambulating a free-standing column of the
Maurya type - a clear indication of the veneration
accorded such memorials. (Illustrated in Indian Historical
Quarterly, 1935, opposite 136.)
67. 7. This site was selected by Asoka possibly because
it was, as we have seen, the site of a royal cemetery of
pre-Maurya date.
8. One is reminded of St Patrick's practice of carving
Christian sentiments on pagan monuments in Ireland.
9. Beal, 11, 46.
10. We can form some idea of its original appearance
from a relief at Sanchi that portrays a similar stambha
with a lion capital supporting the Wheel of the Law.
(See Sir John Marshall, The Monuments of Sanchi, II,
plate xxvii.)
70. 11. The four beasts of the Evangelists and four
seasonal animals of China are only variants of this
geomantic symbolism. The Siamese ceremony is
described in Margaret Landon, Anna and the King of
Siam (New York, 1944), 299 fF.
12. We find them again as gargoyles attached to a
tank at Neak Pean in the ancient Khmer capital of
Angkor; here, they were associated with the worship
of Lokesvara, the merciful Bodhisattva, who causes
the water of the sacred lake to flow downward for the
relief of souls in hell. In Ceylon, they are invariably
represented on the 'moon stones' at the entrances of
sanctuaries; the excavation of actual metal effigies
of these beasts buried at the four quarters around a
stupa lends further support to their identification
as directional symbols (See Vincent Smith, History
of Art in India and Ceylon (Oxford, 1930), 18, n. 2.)
72. 13. The bull, of course, is an emblem of Siva; the
lion, sacred to his consort, Durga. The epithet Sakyapririgava,
meaning 'bull, hero, eminent person', is
sometimes applied to Buddha.
14. W. Andrae, Die Ionische Sdule (Berlin, 1933).
15. D. S. Robertson, A Handbook ofGreek and Roman
Architecture (Cambridge, 1939), 60, suggests a theory
related to this problem: 'It may be that the classical
Ionic form is an adaptation of the Aeolic ... to a
special type of timber construction, the "bracket-