bell didactic_narration jataka iconography in dunhuang

8/12/2019 Bell Didactic_Narration Jataka Iconography in Dunhuang

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CoNTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION ... .. . . . . ........•. ••.••.. ....•...•.......•..•. . .. . . .. . . . . ... . . .. . .. .. . ... . . ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .•... . . . . .11

NoRTH-CENTRAL INDIA •. . . . . . . . . . . . ••• • • . .•••••••• . .• • 14

1 1 Introduction * .. ft ., e , e - - - e A A e A e e e .. A e • A e .. ft e .. • I 0 e 0 e .. •• • a ,&. e A oe e ,e e e e e e e , e e A eA e e ft A &,a L e L ,a ........ e e .. . p .... a

1.1.1 Loca tion · ··•··· ··· · ·· ···•· · ·· ·•·•· · ·· ·• ·· ·•• · ·• ··•·· · ·· •·•· · · ·····•··•·· · ·· · · · · ·· · · · · ·· ···•············ · ·· · · · · 14

1.1.2 Chronolo •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••• ••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••• 14. L 1 . . . . ~ . 1 _ _ _ _ . ~ . H . . L J i l o . s t.oric,1al1-..o ......... .. •..•••.•.•..•.•...•.. .•..• .•...• .... .•.•.•.•.•.. .... ..... . ..••.•.••• •. 14

l lA Cultural e et e e - e e 4 e et eee e e t I t t t I t t t t t I t t t t t t t t t t t I t t t t t t t t l t t t t t t t t t t t t t t I t t t t t t t t t t I ' ' t t t t • t • t t ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' J5

. _ ~ L . . u 5 ___ ..L:Jeconomic Context ~ ~ .... . .. . . .. . ~ ~ ~ ' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ' ~ ~ · ~ ~ ~ ~ - ~ · ~ ........ l5

L2 _______Sanchi1.,1.___ ..· · · ·-. ~ ~ .. .... ~ ~ ~ ............. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1 L . < . J 51.2.1 Historical context ... .......... .......................................................... .. ............... 15

1.2.2 The earli est known Jataka de iction .............. .. ........................................ 15

1.3].3.1

1.3.2

1.3.3

1.4

1.4.1

1.4.2

1.4.3

1.4.3.1

1.4.3.2

1.5

1.5.1

Bharhut ... ...................... ... ....... .. ......... ........................................................ 17Historical c o n t e x : ~ - - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ · ~ ....-··-. -_._. · ~ ~ . . ...... - ~ - - · - - ~ . ~ . ...... . --------. ~ . . . J l u 7.Jatakas .......................................................................................... 18

leono ·························· ····································I·················· ·· ··· · ·· ··· ·· ·· 20

Sanchil t t t t t t t t • t et t t t t t t t t t at t t t t t t t .. t t 1 t t t t t t • t t t t• t t 1 t 1 t t t t t t t t t t t .. • • • t t t t • t t • • t t t t • • • • t • t • 1 • p t 1 • 21

Historical cont£xt . . . ..... ..... . _ . . . . - · · · · . . _ _ . _ :1 • :1 ••• - - - - _ _2 ]

Jatakas •• • • •• • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••••• • •••• • •• • •• • • •••••••• •••••••••••••••••••• ...21

Ieono ··························· ······ ····· I······························ ··························· 25

~ u a n t i t ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • ••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••• 25

Presentatioo • ••••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • •• •• • • • •• ••••••• • • 26

Mathura ................................................ ....... .......... ...•...............................1 Historical context t A&f f t t t t t t t I I I t t Al t t t ... .... f t I t t 0 1 0 . t l & l & t t t 01 01 t I . .. tt lt ,t l t .,At•0 & 21

L.5...2.________Jatakas._._t .................. _ _ _ _ _._.. .................. ......................... ....................27

1.6 Hinayana and Mahayana in North-Central India

(ea. 100 B. C. to A. D. second centu ) •••••••••••• • ••••• • •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••• 281.6.1 Maitre a ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••• ••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••• 29

1.6.2 Texts · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ~ · · · · · · · · · · · · 29

1.6.3 Omni resence · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ~ · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · • · · · · · · · · · ~ · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 30

1.7 Conclusion of North-Central India .. . ....................••...•...•.•.•••••••••..••.••.. .. . . •• 30

1.7.1 The ince tion ofbuddhist visual narration ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 30



C oNTEN'I'S

2.1 lnt,roduct.ion_._____ _ ____ _ ..................................._.............._______............................................................ ........ ...... .. ................ ._32

.2. ___________JL o.catioou...__, ______________ ________-- -· ·--··---------------.. -· · · ______ 2

2.1.2 Chronolo ••• • •••••••••••••••• ••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••• ............. ............................ 32• 3• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••

2.1.4 Cult ural . .. . . . .. .. - ..................33

2.1.4.1 Faxian 's e of A. D. 399 to 414 •••••• • ••••••••••••• •••••••••••• ............. ....... 3 3

2.1.4.2 Song-Yun 's pilgrimage ofA. D. 518 to 521 • ••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••• ................34

2.1.4.3 Xuanzang's pilgrimage ofA. D. 629 to 645 ••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••• • •• •••• • ••••••• • •• 35

2.1 .5 Eronomic Context .......................................................... ...........- .... ... .................36

2.2 Jatakas ....................... . . . .. . . . . . . ............................... 36

2.3 Ieono •••••••••••••• • •• • • ••••••• • ••••••••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •42

2.4 Bami an ·· ··················· · ·· · · ············••••o••••••••••o••······· ······ ····· ·· · ··········· ··· ······ ····· 43

2.5 Hinayana and Mahayana in Gandhara ••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• •• •• •• • •••••••••••••••••• 44

2.5. 1 Ma itre a in Gandhara ••••o••·· ··············••oooo•••••·· · ·· ·· ··· ······ · ·· ·· ············............ 45

2.6 Conclusion ... ........ ....... ...... ... ..... ........................... ........ ............ ...................46

PART THREE: KIZIL .•.. .........•. ..• .......•....•.....•. ••..•..........•....••...• ... •.....• f t . t e e l f t e l e e e e e e e e ~ J 7

3u J lL_____ un utwrJ.Joduction ••• I I ft• • 0 0 f I f f f • I • f • 0 • I • 0 • I S I . ..... .1. I I I I • 0 . ................................................. f • 0 I 0 O.e . . . .P . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. f f . . 0 f f f f f f f 0 0 0 • I 47

3__1.1 Loc t.. i. on....__ . UOcouou. , . . . . . . ... .. . .. ......_._..._._._••• • • • •• •• • ••• -·-· ' •••••• ..._..••••• -· ••••• A ... . . . . . . ...w •• • 4 _7L

3.1.2 Chronolo otooooooooooooooooooooooooooooeooooooooooooooo••oooooooooooooo•ooooo ooooootoo 0 . 4 7

3.1...3

3.1.4

is torical

Cultural

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... . _ . . . . . . . . _ ......._._......._._........_._._._...._.•• • •• . . . . . . . .. ... 50

... .................. ..................................... .......... ............................·- ......... ....... . . . . _ _ 5 ~3.J .....5.___ ..... c o>J onomic Cont.ext

3.2 Jatakas ·l··· ·· ··· · ··· · ·· ······ ··· ·· · ·· · ······ ·· ···········o o•·············· ...................... ............. 51

3.3 Ieono ·· ······· · ··· ·· ········ ·· ··••o••································································ 55

3.4 Hina ana and Maha ana in Kizil •• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 57

3.4 .1 Maitre a in Kizil ..................................................... ...............................

3.5 Conclus ion ···1······· ··1····· ······ ·· ·······1 1······· ··· · ··········........................... .............59

3.5.1 Tumshu •• ······· ·············o••••················································· ·························E)()

PART FouR D uNHUANG ...... ............................................................................ .... .. >1

4.1 In troduction • • • 0 •• •• • • • • ••• •• • • • • • • • • • 0 0 ••• •••••••••• • 0 ••••• • 0 0 . . . 61

4.1.1 Location 0 f f 0 f e . 0 f • I 0 0 ft 0 • 0 0 0 0 e f 8 f f . ......................... 0 f e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 • 0 . ............ 0 f • 0 f • f ........................ 0 f I I • 0 • f I 0 f t t . f • f f •• e .... . ~ · ~ · . J 64.1.2 Chronolo •••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••• E>Jl

c . . . _ __ .HLListorical I • • • 0 f f •• f f . f ••• e 0 e . 0 . f •• • • f •• f I . .............................. f ••••0 f . . . .............. . 0 4 . 4 0 •• 0 . 4 . . . . 4 0 4 f I •• •• • ..........._62

4.1.4 Cultural 1 0 0 00 0 0010 1 0 0 0 000 0 00 0 00 00 000 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 o 0 1 0 0 o 0 oo 0 • 1 0 O , , O 0 • 0 , O o 0 o • • • O • • • 0 I I • 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 62

4.1.5 Economic Context ... .... ............................. ...................... ...... ........ ........ .... ...62

4.2 .Iatakas t 0 ••• • • • 0 •• •• •• 0 •• •• 0 •• •• •• • • • • . . 0 e 0 0 0 I 0 0 0 0 e 0 I • • 0 • • .... ..62

4.2.1 Northern Lian A. D. 421-439 ·········· ···························I··············. ..........63

4.2.1.1 Descri tion of Mo ao 275 •• • ••• • •••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• ••• ......64

4.2.1.1.1 Bhilan li (B irab) Jataka · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · • • o · • · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · E ~



4.2 24.2.1.1.3

4.2.2

4.2.2.1

4.2.2.1.1

4.2.2.1.2

4.2.2.2

4.2.2.2.1

4.2.3

4.2.3.1

4.2.3.1.1

4.2.4

4.2.4.1

4.2.4.1.1

4.2.4.1.2

4.2.4.2

4.2.4.2.1

4.2.4.3

4.2.4.3.1

4.2.4.4

4.2.4.4.14.2.4.4.2

ONTENTS

a • • • • . . . . 0 . . . ................................72

Candraprabha Jat.aka ................................................................................73

Northern Wei A. D. 386-534) .................................................................... 75

Description of Mogao 254 ...........................................................................76

Sivi (Sibi) Jataka ..... ...................................................................................79

Mahasattva (Vya hri Jataka ............... ........ .. ........ ......... ...... .... ............... 79

Descri tion o: Mo ao 257 ...........................................................................80

Ruru J ataka ..................................................................................... ............ 82

[Western Wei (A. D. 535-556): No caves with Jatakas]

Northern Qi (A. D. 550-577) .. ...... .... ............. ....... ..... ................................ 84

Description of cave 12 of The Western

Thousand Buddha Caves ....................................................................................84

Sam a Syama) Jataka ................................................................................... 85

Northern Zhou A. D. 557-581) .................................................................. 85

Description ofMogao 428 ........................................................................... 85

Mahasattva (Vyaghri) Jataka ......... ... ........................ ............................... 87

Vessantara (Visvantara Jataka ...............................................................88

Description of Mogao 296 ...........................................................................89

Sujata Jataka ........ ... ..... ........... ........................................ ........... ...... ...... ... 91•

Descri ·tion ofMo ao 299 ............................................................. .............. 92

Sama S am a) Jataka ................. ..... .... .......................... ............................92

Descri tion ofMo ao 301 ...... .... ...................................... ...........................93

Mahasattva V a hri) Jataka .................... .. ...... ..... 93Sama S ama) Jataka .......... .......... ............... ...... ..... ........ ....... ... ........... ... ... 94

4.2. 5 .S ui_(A._D. 589 6_18 .. ·-· A · •• _ • · • · · • • .. _ __ ___ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ . _ _ . _ . . _ . _ . _ . _ . ......._9_4

4.2.5.1

4.2.5.1.1

4.2.5.2

4.2.5.2.1

4.2.5.2.2

4.2.5.3

4.2.5.3.1

4.2.5.44.2.5.5

4.2.5.5.1

4.2.5.5.2

4.2.6

4.2.6.1

4.2.6.1.1

4.2.6.2

4.2.6.2.1

4.2.6.2.24.2.6.3

4.2.6.3.1

4.2.6.3.2

Descri tionofMo ao 124 ........................................................... .. ..............94

Sama (S ama Jataka (now in the Hermita e) ........................................94

Descri tion o·f Mo ao 302 ....................................................... .... ................ 95

Sa.ma (S ama) Ja ta.ka ... .... .......... ............................ .................... ...............96

Descri tion of Mo ao 423 ...........................................................................96

Vessan ara isvantara} J ataka ................ _ ___.. __ . ____._._..._._.... _ 9 7Descri tion ofMo ao 427 .................................... .. .. ...................................97

Descri tion of Mo ao 419 ........................................................... .............

Mahasattva V a hri Jataka ...................................................................99

Vessantara Vi svantara Jataka ............. . ..... . . •

Tan (A. D. 618-907) ..................................................................................99

Description of Mogao 112 ............... ..........................................................100

Nalinika Jataka (Tang-lady-version) ........ .... ......... ................... .............. 100

Description of Mogao 85 ... ........................................................................ 101

Mahasattva (Vyaghri) Jataka ........................................................ ......... 102

Sivi (Sibi) Jataka ...................................................................................... 102Description of two banners from Mogao 17 ............................................ 103

Nalinika (lsisinga) Jataka ....................................................................... 103

Sujata Jataka ........... ................... .............................................................105



INTRODUCTION

The visual context in which jatakas1 first appear in Sanchi , Bharhut and Sanchi I,

in North-Central India, is the very beginning of Buddhist art. This art was born

trying to bridge the gap between the abstract values of meditation and ascetic self

effacement of the spiritual followers of the Buddha Sakyamuni and the uneducated

masses. Didactic narration became illustrations showing examples of virtuous behavior

to people who could not read.

The specifically Serindian transformations, here defined as Gandharan and Tarim

Basin transformations, extend (broadly speaking) from the second to the tenth century,

from the reign of the Kushan king Kaniska (beginning ea . A. D. 110-15) in Gandhara

to the painting of the Mogao cave 72 during the Five Dynasties (A. D. 907-960).

In spite of losses, there are still ea. 45,000 square meters of wall paintings in the

492 Mogao, Western Thousand Buddha Caves and the Yulin caves; all of which are

close to Dunhuang.2 The caves containing jatakas were painted between the Northern

Liang dynasty A. D. 421-439) and the Five Dynasties A. D. 907-960) and have a total

of nine narrat ions in sixteen caves, some of them depicted several times. Two of these

were also painted on two Tang dynasty banners from the Mogao cave number 17,

which are now in the British Museum and one of them is the subject of a mural

depiction taken from Mogao 124 and now in the Hermitage.

The stories which, adapted to Buddhism, became the jatakas were part of an oral,pictorial, musical and dance culture long before they were recorded3 and there is no

reason to reject the tradition that the oral Buddhist Canon became written text in Sri

Lanka before being written in India proper during the second half of the first century

B C. ,4 perhaps at the time of the first Buddhist counci l believed to have taken place at

Ragir in ea. 483 B. C. The u se of jatakas 100-80 B. C. in Bharhut, during the Sunga

dynasty which ended in 72 B C. , and perhaps even somewhat before in Bodh-Gaya

and Sanchi ,5 is thus later but it is still very possible that the depictions followed the

1Skr • ataka. Engendered by, bo rn under, from t past pa rt iciple of jan to produce. In Buddhist li te ra ture,

a story of one or other of the former births of the Buddha; also th e name of the Pa li co llection of these stories.(OED 1992, The Oxford English Dictionary . Second Edition on Compact Disc. Oxford: Oxford Un iversity Press.

Duan, Wenj ie 1989, Le s fresques de Dunhuang, p. 13. In: Duan, Wenjie (ed.) 1989, 5000 a ns d'a rt chinois,Les fresques de Dunhuang, Peintu re 14 15. Bruxelles: Vander-Chine . (The edition in French of: Ounhuangbihua Zhongguo meishu chua nj i. Sha nghai: Renmin).

3 The Sanskrit gra mmarian Patanjali in the second century B. C. refers to it inera nt showmen who preached

moral and religious sermons illustrating their talks with illuminated scrolls. Rawson, Philip S. 96 1, Indian

Painting . New York: Universe Books, pp. 153-4. Cit. in: Mair, Victor H. 1988, Painting and Perform ance.

Chinese P icture Recitation and Its India n Genes is. Honolulu: University of Hawa ii Press, p. 94. It must be

these religious se rmons illus trated with scroll s which were the forerunners of t he Buddhist didact ic use of

jatakas.

4 Norman, A. K 1983, Pali Literature. Wiesbaden, p. 8. Cit. in: Dehejia , Vidya 1990, On Modes of Vi sual

Narration in Early Buddhist Art . The Ar t Bulletin. September 1990, vol. WOOl , no. 3. New York: College Art

Association, p. 377.5 Marshall, John and Foucher , Alfred 1983 1940), The Monuments of Sanchi, 3 vols. Delh i: Swati Publica tions,vo l. I, p. 181.

11



I NTRODUCT ION

oral tradition transmitted by reciters, not the younger written versions·6

From their Indian origin as ancient legends, the jatakas were absorbed into the

Buddhist canon as previous lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni . Their oral provenance,

texts now lost and later additions, results in stories being in the Chinese san zang

(three baskets) which have no Indian versions. t is only as a great exception that the

depiction of a jataka in China can be sa id with reasonable certainty to cor respond to a

specific text.

The omnipresent Mahasattva (Vyaghri) Jataka is a jataka in name only, for

example, because we have no version in which the Buddha te lls the story himself. The

depictions of the Mahasattva Jataka follow and illustrate a story for which we have

several written versions. The Gandharan and Kizil representations, which show only

a figure giving himself to a tiger with or without her young, could be from any of them.

For the Dunhuang depictions (a prince with his two brothers), no corresponding text

seems to have survived.7

During the Andhra period, at about th e beginning of the Christian era, a writerwhose name was Gunadhya composed a work called the Brhatkatha in the Pisaci8

language but the identity of the a uthor is otherwise unknown. A complete text is

lacking, but the numerous authors who took jatakas from t his work attest to how

popular it wa s.

Some of the jatakas are also to be found in the Pancatantra which, since it was

compiled by a Brahman, confirms the acceptance of the tale s not only among the

illiterate but also among the educated.9 Ca. 550 jatakas are in the Khuddakanikaya

and these describe the future Buddha Sakyamuni as a Bodhisa ttva10 in search of

6 In Paint ing and Performance Victor H Mair follows Chinese picture recitation from its Indian genesis and

shows how narrators used pictorial ma terial toget her with recitation. Jataka representations, from Sa nchi toOunhuang, are picture material used with lectures on virtue. This corresponds, in China, to the bia nwen/bianxiang

(see 4.5.5) tradition. Cf., Wu Hung 1992 (2), What is Bianxiang? On the Relationship between Ounhuang Art

and Ounhuang Literatu re. Harvard Journal of Asiat ic Studies, vol. 52, 1 (June). Cambridge, Mass., p. lllff.

7 From Griinwedel, in 1905, to Yaldiz, in 1987, German researchers on Central Asia have preferred to use the

Sanskrit names for jatakas but since there are no Sanskrit names for a large number of jatakas, in Bharhut fo r

example, these will all be written in Pali with Sanskrit and other frequently used fo rms in paren thesis. Th isalso allows cross-references with Grey 1994 (cf: n. 4).

The Mahasattva story is the perfect example for the problem of what is a jataka and wha t is an avadana. Those

ta les in which the Buddha Sakyamuni declares that he was the Bodhisattva are undeniably jatakas, i e., former

birth sto ries. The Pali word apadaana is etymologically the harvesting of a karmic seed (Richard Gombrich),

and refers, therefore, to stories used for the propagation of virtue but without specific reference to Buddha

within each story. This clarity of definition evaporates the farther one goes from the Pali texts an d the

depictions of Oharhut and Sanch i; almost di sappearing in China and ,Japan. Leslie Grey has resolved theproblem by dropping hoth Jataka and Avadana in the second edi tion of his Birth Stories (cf. op. cit.: p. ix).

Since a clear definition is not possible for stories not in the FausboiVCowell Pali Collection, the traditional

(sometimes technically inexact) designations will be used.

8 Th e Pisaci language was e ither the forerunner of th e modern Dard language or it was the language spoken

in the area around Ujain. Cf., Nagar, Shanti Lal1993 , J atakas in Indian Art. Delhi: Pa rimal Publications, p. ix .

9 It was this version which was trans lated du ring A. 0. the sixth century into Persian and from Persian into

Syrian which, together with the translation into German, was published in Leipzig in 1876. The Pancatantra

was also translated into Arabic in 750, into Greek in 1080, from Arabic into Hebrew in A. 0 . 1250 and from

there into Latin. It became, in 1644, the Livre des Lumieres in French and was farther translated in 1R72

from French into Italian. (Cf., Nagar 1993, p. x).

1 Rowland, Benjamin 1953, The Art and Architecture of India. Baltimore: Penguin, p. 271: In Mahayana

Buddhism a being who, al t hough capable of attaining Buddhahood, renounces this goal in favor of acting as aminister ing angel to humanity; emanation of a dhyana Buddha; a Buddha before Enlightenment. In this text

the term inus is used, as by Cowell, Chavannes, Schmidt, Kho roche et al to mean the lluddha-to-be , who is

12



INTRODUCTION

enlightenment (bodhi). These are divided (in their present form) into five parts, of

which only the Atitavatthu or story of the past was ever illustrated. 11

The Chinese canon san zang) was translated from manuscripts as they were brought

from India, from aboutA

D. the first century. There is, therefore, neither a date ofgenesis nor an original language for the whole and the process of sinicization was

further complicated by the fact that each sect translated us ing its own Hinayana,

Mahayana or individual premises.

The first official collection of the car.on in Chinese was the translation ordered in A.

D. 518 by the Emperor Wudi of the Southern Liang dynasty .

The jataka texts were translated and commented on in several European languages

during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the jataka depictions in Dunhuang

have been studied and published by the Dunhuang Institute and Japanese scholars

during the second half of the twentieth century. European , American and As ian

scholars have continued the work of investigation begun by Stein , Pelliot, Griinewedelet al and are making considerable progress even with such difficult problems as the

dating of the caves and painting in Kizil.

A consideration of the iconological development of Dunhuang jataka depictions

beginning with their Indian origins has not yet been realized. The aim of the following

is, therefore, to understand the expansion of this very basic form of Buddhist art from

its origins in folklore, and its route via Central Asia, to the apex which the painting of

Dunhuang is in Serindian art.

The method used in the present pursuit is perhaps a change in perspective: using

all of the admirable results already obtained to regard jatakas and the spread of

Buddhism from a Serindian or Central Asian point of view.Following the progress of Buddhism, India, Gandhara, Kizil and Dunhuang have

received an individual presentation. This material has then been organized into

appendices and catalogueswhich are surely not complete, but hopefully a good beginning.

Words in languages o ther than English are italicized, proper names are not. The

italicized words are, if not normal English usage, the titles of Buddhist sutras or other

reference works, to be found in the Glossary. The writing for all of the languages used

has been simplified to the utmost (which will not be universally popular). Chinese is

written using the Pinyin system.

A short resume of each jataka is to be found in the Alphabetical Catalogue.

Leitfaden: In every case these dedications the caves) reflected changes in the nature

of Buddhist teachings and beliefs, whether these changes had been introduced from

India and Central Asia or were Chinese developments. 2

a lways t he protagon ist in a j ata ka . Cf. , Khoroche, Peter (tr.) 1989, Once the Buddha Was a Monkey. Chicago

and London: The University of Chicago Press, p. xiv.

u Saddhatissa, H. tr. and ed . 1975, The Birth-Stories of the Ten Bodhisattvas and the

Dasabodhisattuppattikatha. London: The Pali Text Society, p. 5.

12 Wh itfield, Roderick 1995, Dunhuang. London: Textile and Art Publications, vol. I, p.8.

13



PART ONE NORTH-CENTRAL INDIA

1.1 Introduction

The iconography ofjatakas begins, as far as we know, in the railing of the stupa called

Sanchi 11, which was built during the Sunga period ea. 100 B. C. t is smaller than

Sanchi I, which is from early A. D. the first century, and was so designated by

Alexander Cunningham who discovered it in 1873.

1.1.1 Location

The sites of the stupas of Bharhut and Sanchi were, during the Maurya dynasty ea.

323 to 185 B. C.), near mercantile centers on the route between the capital Paliputra,

in the fertile Ganges basin, and the trading ports of the western coast. Vidisa, nea r

Sanchi and half way between Paliputra and the coast, then became the capital of the

Sunga dynasty ea. Second Century to First Century B. C.) and Bharhut was half way

between Paliputra and Vidisa see Map). Together with their monuments, they profited

from the popularity of Buddhism and the prosperity of this trade route.

1.1.2 Chronology

Buddhism established itself on the Indian sub continent, politically and

iconographically), during the period between the first council, ea. 483 B. C. after thedeath of Sakyamuni Buddha, and the fourth council which was convened by Kaniska

ea. A D. 120.

1.1.3 Historical

Buddhist iconography probably began with the stupa , which was originally a tumulus

or funeral mound, but the Buddhist cult of the stupa built for relics, s ince not previously

mentioned, must have been initiated by Asoka reigned ea. 272-231 B. C.), when he

divided the relics of Sakyamuni into eight parts and built stupas for them as part of

his use, and reformation, of Buddhism.

t was in this sense, not of real innovation but in the innovative use of things and

ideas, that the genius of Asoka seems to have lain. He was not the first to use pillars,

polished stone, lions, the wheel of law and edicts chiselled in stone, but he had, for

example, the edicts written in a language which the populace of the respective areas

spoke or understood, not the way Latin was used universally in medieval Europe

excluding, or rather ignoring, the people. In the same political) sense, he did not

invent the Buddhist religion, he imposed it, but he seems to have used it in a way that

the people, not just the monks and ascetics, could really understand; paving the way

for it to become a p o p ~ r religion during the Sunga and Andhra periods.

14



NoRTH CENTRAL INDIA

1.1.4 Cultural

Paramount in the evolu tion of Buddhism in North-Central India is the slow evolution

which brought about the Hinayana13/Mahayana changes of emphases from an ascetic

doctrine for individual monks and monasteries to a religion of salvation for everyone.This process also influenced the frequency, iconography, presentation and selection of

jataka depictions in India and in China.

1.1.5 Economic Context

After the Asokan wars of subjugation of Northern India, his reign was characterized

by rapid economic expansion. This, and his own sponsorship of Buddhism as a stabilizing

factor, stimulated its latent powers.

Monks were sworn to individual poverty, but they went to beg for food, or for sustenance

for the monasteries, to the major centers close to which their monasteries wereestablished. Larger donations were also solicited from benefactors.

1.2 Sanchi 11

1.2.1 Historical context

The inscriptions on the reliquaries found in the Sanchi 11 stupa indicate that the

contents was of the Maurya period (ea. 323 to 185 B. C.) but the body of the stupa, as

well as the railing on the ground, stairway, berm and harmika, can be dated onstylistic and paleographic grounds to the last quarter of the second century B C. 14

Sanchi 11 has the earliest important examples of indigenous relief-work in stone in

lndia.15

1.2.2 The earliest known jataka16 depiction

The similarity between the medallion of the pillar 86b17 (PI. 1.2.2) at Sanchi 11 and a

half-medallion which he had seen at the stupa in Bodh-Gaya lead Marshall to believe18

that the horse-headed woman with a child on both were depictions of the

Padakusalamanava Jataka19 as Foucher had already stated in 1919.20 In the jataka a

13 Hinayana ..designates the entire stream of Abhidharma Buddhism, of which Theravada (Way of the Elders)

was only one among ma ny sects . Mizuno Kogen 1982, Buddhist Sutras. Origin, Development, Transmission .

Tokyo: Kosei Publishing Co., p. 9.

14 Cf., MarshalVFoucher 1983 (1940), vol. I , p. 82.

15 Cf., [bid., vol. I, p. 95.

16 Cf., Ibid ., vol. I pp . 181-2.

17 These pillar numbers are those of Marshall Foucher 1983 (1940) and proceed in a clockwise direction from

the Northern entrance. (Op. cit., vol. Jl l , notes to plate 73).

18 Cf., Ibid., vol. I, pp . 181-2 and vol. l ll , PI. XC, 86b.

19 No. 432 in : Cowell, E. B. (t r.) 1969 (1897-1905 ), Th e J at.akas. Stories of the Buddha's Former Births, 6 vols in

3. London: The Pali Society, vol. IV, p. 298fT. AJso in: Nagar 1993, pp . 87-8.

20 Foucher believed another depiction to be of the Chaddaota Jataka, but this seems less certain . Cf., Foucher,

15



N ORTH-CEN'I'HAL I NDIA

horse-headed ogress falls in love with one of her prey and from this union the Bodhisat tva

is born.21This is the first jataka depiction known to us. 22

The very flat low relief of the Padakusalamanava Jataka and the other carvings of the

oldest per iod on the Sanchi 11 railings seem to be a continua tion of the workmanship

of the wooden railings which these apparently replaced. The disproportions in the

figures (the feet in an awkward profile and much too large as seen in PI. 1.2.2) are

perhaps re flections of difficulty with the new medium. With this in mind, the carvings

of Sanchi 11 are particularly rewarding because they show the evolution made from

the pres umable substitution of stone for wood as a medium to the mature perfection of

carving of a century or more later , demon8trating how rapid and how remarkable the

development was, which the sculpture of Central India underwent in the first century

B c

1.2.3 Iconography

t is also here in Sanchi 11 that attempts at narrative are first made. To show

Sakyamuni as the child be ing born and (or) taking his first nine steps would have

been an anthropomorphic Buddha depiction for which the time had not yet come. The

symbolic presentation of this and other scenes from the li fe of the Buddha had also not

yet been conceived, but the first moves in t his (narrative) di rection had been made·23

Of the 455 medallions or half-medallions of the pillars of the ground level railing, 293

are filled with a lotus and 126 with the lotus together with other motifs. Thirty-six

have other subjects, one of which is the Padak usa lamanava J ataka (1.2.2 and PI.

1.2.2). t is, together with the rectangular depictions on the corner pillars and on thesta ir and berm balustrades, the prolegomenon of the iconography of t he depictions of

Bharhut and of the much more evolved torana depictions of Sanchi I which were

created circa a century later 4

The relatively few Buddhist subjects on the ground level railing and the remains of

the berm and harm ika railings of Sanchi II are later additions, from the time of

Sanchi 25 The abstract iconography of the wheel without worshippers is, like the

wheel on the Sarnath pillar with t he addorsed lions, that of cosmic law which had not

yet been incorporated into Buddhism.

Alfred 1919, Memoi res conce rnant I Asie orientale, Il l: p. 23 PI. 2, 3 pp. 10·11, PI IV , 3.

21 This lead Mar shall to suspect. that. the peacock on pillar lOb might be an allusion to the Mora Jataka [Cowell

(tr.) 1969 (1897-1905), no. 159) an d t.hat t.he geese on pillars 55b, 86a and others might refer to the Mahahamsa

Jataka [Cowell (tr.) 1969 (1897-1905), no. 502, etc.) but he felt these indications so vague, that it was safer to

disregard them. (MarshalV Foucher 1983 (1940), vol. I, p. 182).

22 The Padakusalamanava J ataka is a lso depicted in a central medallion on a fragment of a railing pilaster in

Mathura. Cf., J oshi, N. P. 1966, Mathura Sculpture s. A Han dbook to appreciate Sc ulptures in the Archaeolog ical

Mu seum, Mathura. Mathura : Archaeological Mu seum , p. M Fig. 16.

23 Cf., Der zum Buddha Vorherbestimmte kann also im menschlichen Bilde gezeigt werden, der zum Buddha

Gcwordene nicht .... Thi s continues to be true until the appa rition of the first an thropomorphic Buddha depictions

in Ga ndhara (including, in this case, Matu ra ). Cit. from: Seckel, Oiet rich 1.976, J enseits des Bildes. Anikonische

Symbolik in der buddhistischen Kunst. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.

24 This means th at, like the gateways of Stupa I, but more than half a century before them, it ...the

balust rade .. provides arch aeologists with and a lmost e ntire decorative whole:· Ibid., vol. I, p. 170.

25 Cf., Maurizio Taddei in: Dehejia (ed.) 1996, p. 80.

16



NoRTH CENTRAL INDIA

These abstractions were presumably made more accessible to the people with yakshas

and yaksis. There are also male and female centaurs, a queen praying with attendants

holding her umbrella, ewer and fly-whisk, riders on harnessed horses (twice) and a

man riding a Bactrian camel.

More imaginary are the apsaras, naga kings, a naga serpent, a centaur and makaras.

The animal world is represented by hamsas, cranes, parrots, a peacock and pea-hens,

birds holding garlands in their beaks, dogs, lions or winged lions, elephants with or

without a rider or with a rider and servant, tortoises, a rhinoceros, humped Indian

bulls, antelopes, squirrels, winged and wingless griffins. The Lotus Tree of Life (usually

the double Lotus Tree), garlands, creepers, grapes, custard apples and lotus flowers,

st alks, buds and rosaces are among the representatives of the vegetal cosmos.26

These enumerations underline how manifold the depictions and their variations already

were at Sanchi . This is the context of the birth place of jataka illustrations. Indian

carvers had long been masters of carving in wood and ivory and, technically, theymight have started depicting consecutive narrative scenes in stone shortly after the

depictions of the first full length figures in this media. Remembering that depictions

with the largest number of figures at Sanchi are replacements done later by the

sculptures of the Sanchi Itoranas, this initial use of the single scene narrative must

have been a question of cultural tradition and psychological disposition combined with

the limitation of the space available, but not a question of evolution or of he limitations

of technical skill. Consecutive, chronological, multiscenic narrative form, with or

without dividers, was a development made possible by the greater and more suitable

dimensions of long, rectangular .panels.

1.3 Bharhut


In Stupa ofBharhut , published in 1879,AlexanderCunningham describes his discovery

of portions of two toranas and the remaining quarter of the circular railing of the

Great Stupa in November 1873. Almost all of these were no longer standing and were

buried under a mound of rubbish from five to seven feet in height which had the

advantage of having saved them from becoming building material, as did everything

which Cunningham did not remove to the Indian Museum in Calcutta where it is stilldisplayed.

7It would have been useful to have the condition of the monument in the

seventh century described by Xuanzang (A. D. 602-664) but he only states that it was

(originally)built by Asoka and calls the site Su-lo-kin-na (Srughna), 8which Cunningham

believes to be nothing more than a confirmation of the fact that the area had been

26 Ibid., vol. ll l, PI. LXXIV to XCI show all of the reliefs of the ground, harmika, berm and stairway balus trades

known to Marshall and Foucher at the time of publication ( 1940).

27 The present village of Bharhut, which contains upwards of 200 houses, is built entirely of the bricks taken

from the Stupa. Cun ningha m, Alexander 1998 (1879),The Stupa ofBharhut. A Buddhist MonumentOrnamented

with Numerous Sculptures. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., p. 5.

28 Cf., Beal, Samuel (tr.) 1994 (1884), Si-Yu-Ki. Buddhist Records of the Western World. Translated from theChinese of Hiuen Tsiaog A. D. 629), 2 vols in one. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, p. 187.

17



NORTH CEN TRAL I NDIA

1.3.2 .4 Asadi sa J ataka

1.3 .2.5 As ilakkhana Jat .aka

1.3.2.6 Bhisa J ataka

1.3 .2.7 ammasataka Chamasatak a , Hthari ) Jataka

1.3 .2.8 haddanta Saddan ta) Ja taka1. 3.2.9 Chandakinnara Jataka

1.3.2.10 C hulla ka setthi Jataka

1.3.2.11 Dab bhapuppha Jataka

1.3 .2.12 Desaratha Jataka

1.3.2.13 Dubhiyamakkata Jataka

1.3 .2.14 Gahapati Jataka

1.3 .2 .15 Guthapana Jataka

1.3.2.16 H am sa Dulahamsa) Jataka

1.3.2.17 lndasamanagotta Jataka

Is im iga Jataka , see N igrodhamiga Jataka

l s is inga Jataka , see Nalinika Ja taka

1.3.2.18 Kakkata Jataka

1. 3.2. 19 K alinga bodhi Jataka

1.3.2.20 K a n dar i Ja ta ka

1.3 .2 .21 Kanha Kanhausabha) Jataka

1.3.2.22 Kapot.a Jataka

K.inara Jat .aka, see handakinnara Jataka

1.3.2 .23 Kukku ta Bid ala) Ja taka

1.3.2.24

1.3 .2.25

1.3.2.26

Kurungamiga Jataka

Ku sa Ja taka

Latukika Jataka1.3.2. 27 Litt.a Jataka

1.3.2. 28 Mahabodi Jataka

1.3.2.29 Maha ja naka Jataka

1.3 .2.30 Mahakapi Jataka

1.3.2.31 Mahaumagga Jataka

1.3.2.32 M ahavan ija Ja ta ka

1.3 .2.33 Makhadcva Jataka

1.3 .2.3 4 Manikant.ha Jataka

1.3.2.35 M a t ip osaka Ja t .aka

1.3.2.36 Migapotaka Jataka

1.3.2.37 M ugapa kkha Ja taka1.3 .2.38 M u la par iyaya Jataka

N a cca Jataka , s ee Hamsa Jataka

1.3.2.39 Nalinika ls isinga ) Jataka PI. 1.3 .2.39)

1.3.2. 40 Nigrodhamiga Ja taka

1.3 .2.41 *Ruru Jata ka

Saddanta Jataka , see haddanta Jataka

1.3.2 .42 Samgamavacara Sangamavacara) Jataka

1.3.2.43 Sammodamana Jataka

1.3 .2.44 Samugga Jataka

1.3.2 .45 Sangamavacara Jataka

1.3 .2. 46 Sarabhanga Jataka

19



1.3.2.47 Sonaka Jataka

1.3.2.48 Suchi Jataka

1.3.2.49 *Sujata Jataka36

1.3.2.50 Takkariya Jataka

1.3.2.51 Tipallatthamiga Jataka

1.3.2.52 Uraga Jataka

N oRTH C TR L INDIA

Vaka Jataka, see Vrishabha Jataka

1.3.2.53 Vannupatha Jataka

1.3.2.54 *Vessantara Jataka Pl. 1.3.2.54)

1.3.2.55 Vidurapandita Jataka

1.3.2.56 Vrishabha Jataka

1.3.2.57 Vyagga Jataka

Jatakas in Bharhut at least those in the medallions) were compressed into one field

as were those, ea. four hundred years later, in Kizil or those in time and geographically

between)in Gandhara

which were compressedinto

rows.In Bharhut, as

wellas later

in Gandhara and Kizil, there is no attempt to separate the actions even when they are

distant in time. There is also no ''illusion of space . There is also only the beginning of

what was later in Indian art so important: eye contact.37

1.3.3 Iconography

The Buddhist sculpture of the reliefs in Bharhut tries to convince the onlooker of its

message, instead of trying to seduce or cajole him. This makes it stand very much

apart in the sculptural history of India. t is the consciousness of truth of form, as

opposed to a mundane manner, which makes it into a serious art for religious purposescomparable in India only to the equally religious purpose of the architecture of the

rock-cut temples.

The monoscenic presentations of the coping cf. PI. 1.3.2.54), the medallions cf. PI.

1.3.2.39) and a few half-medallions are without time or sequence but the sculptors are

now able to project a narrative into their depictions with assurance. The structure

reflects the judicious presentation of an idea which is no longer in a stage of searching

for a mode of expression or development but, within the limits of what it wishes to say,

capable of doing so with confidence.

The contents of the depictions changes radically between Sanchi 11 and Bharhut. The

great preponderance of the lotus medallions and half-medaUions gives way in Bharhut

to an extensive repertoire of the life and previous lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni. tis here in Bharhut that we find a first zenith of didactic Buddhist Art . t is perhaps

also the need for subject matter and the usefulness for patrons, who could order with

ease the amount which they wished to subsidize, which made the life of the Buddha

and the jatakas so useful and so dominant.

A visible fact of early Indian art before Bharhut is its mundane, sensuous and, in spite

of the abundant use of symbols, unreligious character. This process was halted for atime in Bharhut, but instead of continuing on to influence stylistically the toranas of

Sanchi I, the school of Sanchi I absorbed only the contents in form of the jatakas,

36 Not the same as the much later Sujata Jataka in Kizil and Dunhuang.

37 Cf., Klimburg-Salter 1995, p. 240f., no. 31.

20



NORTH-CENTRAL INDIA

which it adapted from the school of Bharhut. The more severe presentation of Bharhut

was not to have a renaissance, or even a real continuation except n Mathura. It mayhave become, stylistically, part of the sculptural art of Gandhara and have later an

iconographical influence on the art of Kizil but its potential as a really important

religious art was lost.

In spite of the influence of the Bharhut school of sculpture in Mathura, it was the

toranas of Sanchi I which became the ancestors of what was a less ecclesiastic form of

religious art.

1.4 Sanchi I


The hill of Sanchi is located near what was, during the Mauryan dynasty and wellafterwards, the city of Vidisa at the junction of the Bes and Betwa rivers and two of

the most important trade routes in Central India. The Buddhist history of Sanchibegan,38 as far as we know, with the reign of Asoka in the third century B. C. and

lasted until A. D. the twelfth century, after which there was no more Buddhist building.39

During the Mauryan dynasty, the original stupa made of brick, the umbrellas ofpolished Chunar sandstone and Asoka 's pillar were erected. Stupa I was the principalshrine of the sangharama (monastery) on the summit of the hill of Sanchi. It was lessthan 200 miles from the stupa of Bharhut with its railing from the last quarter of the

second century B. C. and gateways from a generation later.40

The stone envelope and

the railing of stupa I in Sanchi, as well as its berm and harmika ba ustrades, wereadded during the following Sunga dynasty but the narrative carvings which are our

subject here are to be found on the torana (gateways) from the Andhra period, ea. the

second or third decade of A. D. the first century.4 1

Hundreds of individual pieces of carving at Sanchi have inscriptions giving the name

of the donor. It is notable that at Sanchi II nearly sixty per cent of th ese were monksor nuns and at Sanchi I the number was still almost forty per cent. t was, therefore,not only pilgrims and craftsmen, but also the community itself, which made the donations.Early Sanchi was not the creation of emperors or kings but of humble people workingtogether for their karma.

4 2

1.4.2 Jatakas

Found only on the toranas,4 at the cardinal points around stupa I at Sanchi, there are

five jatakas. The Vessantara Jataka and four belonging, according to Marshall and

Foucher, to the time when King Brahmadatta reigned in Benares 44 category (i.e.:

38 ' ...the st upa was erected about 255 B. C. ' Marsha ll/Foucher 1983 (1940 , vol. I, pp. 28-29.

39 Ibid ., vol. I, p. 7.

40 Ibid., vo l. I, p. 3.

41 Ibid ., Table p. 18 and p. 95ff. and Hun t ington 1993, p. 91.

42 Schopen, Grego ry 1991, An Old Inscription from Amaravati and the Cult of th e Loc al Monastic Dead in

Indian Buddhist Monasteries. The Journal of the International Associ ation of Buddhist Studi es, 14.2, pp.

281-329; esp. pp. 297-98. Cit. in: Dehejia (ed.) 1996, p. 60.

43 The torana of stupa Il l , probably from the early part of the fir st century A. 0 ., shows th e great miracles

performed by Sakyamuni Buddha, not j atakas. Cf., Foucher in: Mar sha ll/Foucher 1983 (1940 , vol. Il l , pis.

95-105 a nd Marshall in ibid., vol. I, p. 43.

44 Ibid., vol. I, p. 223.

21



NORTH-CENTRAL I NDlA

with a king of Benares or his emissaries as subject, suggesting local patriotism in the

patrons selection).

The narrative, polyscenic, presentation of the Sanchi I depictions and the fact that

there are (only) five, justifies considering them individually:

1.4.2.1 Chaddanta Saddanta) Jataka45

An elephant with six tusks lives with his two mates in a jungle. By giving a veryspecial present to one of them he offends the other, who, in order to avenge herself,wishes to be reborn as a powerful queen. This wish becomes reality. As the wife of

the King of Benares she sends a huntsman to kill the elephant and bring her the

wonderful tusks.

There are five versions (2 Pali, 1 Sanskrit and 2 Chinese) of the Chaddanta Jataka.46

Although questioned by Dehejia,47 it has generally been accepted that the southern

torana was the first of the four to be constructed.48 The relief shown (PI. 1.4.2.1)

depicting the Chaddanta Jataka is on the inner face of the middle architrave of the

southern torana, which would mean that it is the first of three representations at

Sanchi I. The second is to be found on the inner face of the northern and the third is

on the front of the western torana. The sequence of construction of the toranas was,

according to Marshall and Foucher, attested by the inscriptions, southern, northern,

eastern and then western but the latter depictions were not from the same hand as

the first).49

In the middle lintel of the back of the southern torana, Chaddanta the Bodhisattva) is

shown four times, correctly, with six tusks. From left to right,

50

he is shown first inhis bath with his umbrella and fly-whisk bearers. Then leaving his bath and proceedingtowards the banyan tree (PI. 1.4.2.1), which forms the center of the composition. Tothe right of this, he is striding, with his umbrella and fly-whisk bearers, towards the

right. In the last scene, he is shown turned, regarding the center. Closing the panel

on the far right, the hunter is shown, behind Chaddanta, in the act of shooting the

wondrous elephant not visible on PI. 1.4.2.1).

. .in the hot season he stood at the foot of the great banyan tree, amongst its shoots, ..from the Pali textfHis depicted in the center of the torana, and it is depicted, as it was

in Bharhut , with the thick trunk, branches and arial roots of a great banyan tree.They do not grow as far North as Gandhara and the tree has the iconographical value

of textual elements which will disappear in the next transformation of the text intovisual narration. [The dhoti, which is a displaceable visual element, will still be depictedin Dunhuang at the end of the Tang dynasty (Pl 4.2.6.2.2), but the great banyan tree

will be lost].

45 by far the most importa nt of the Jatakas at Sanehi . Ibid., vol. I, p. 223.

46 Cf., Grey 1994, p. 50ff. See un der Feer (1895).

47 Dehejia, Vidya 1972, Early Buddhist Rock Temples. A Chronological S tudy. London: Th ames a nd Hudson,

Appendix I, p. 186fT.

48 Marshall/Foucher 1983 (1940), vol. I , pp . 36-37.

49 Ibid. , vol. I, p. 120fT.

50Ibid., vol. , PI.

15.

51 Cowell (tr.) 1969 1905),vol. V, p. 21, jataka no. 514).



NoRTH CENTRAL l NDlA

The scene is secular, lively and sensual, with the hunter reduced to a minimum on the

right hand side.

Since the norther11 torana was the second to be built, its sculptor presumably had the

earlier version for comparison (not illustrated). He retained the central tree but, with

the exception of the two small elephants whose behinds fill the voids beneath thebanyan tree, he turns most of the animals towards it , i.e.: the center of the composition.This, and the static presentation of the animals, decreases the tension of the composition.He must also have felt that the work of his predecessor was too crowded, because he

not only reduced the number of elephants but left considerable space around them.The elephant in the upper far right hand corner is turned away from the herd and

may be a depiction of the angry (second) wife of Chaddanta, who is portrayed with sixtusks once on either side of the central tree, but this is otherwise a depiction of

elephants bathing in a lotus pond and has no further reference to the narrative.

The Chaddanta Jataka is also depicted on the lowest lintel on the back of the western

torana. The composition follows the preceding depiction in that the tree is in the

center and that all of the animals, except the last in the upper right hand corner, arefacing it. Except for this single animal and for the six tusks of Chaddanta, the scenehas been transformed into an adoration of the (holy) banyan tree , and although it ismore compact and of better execution than the Chaddanta Jataka of the northern

torana, it has neither the tension nor the quality of the southern torana depiction.

The three depictions have in common, iconographically, the lotus of the pond in whichChaddanta and his herd bathed and, always central, the banyan tree with its aerialroots. But the elephants on the northern torana are, as Marshal said, "cumbersome"5

and on it, as well as on the western torana , the hunter, the emblematic umbrellas and

fly-whisks and other references to the legend are absent. The depictions of the jatakas

are no longer primarily didactic, as they were in Bharhut, but decorative solutions

without dramatic contents and the fact that we have three versions from at least two,if not three, sculptors confirms this impression.

1.4.2.2 The Mahakapi Jataka 53

Depicted once, on the front face of the south pillar of the western torana, this scenefollows the Pali version no. 40 ?

4 (not no. 516 which is the same in name only).

The rectangular presentation (PI. 1.4.2.2) begins in the uppermost center with the

Mahakapi ("monkey king," the Bodhisattva) suspended between two trees over the

Ganges in order to save his people from the pursuing King of Benares. Beneath himtwo men are holding the cloth or net with which to catch the exhausted Mahakapi.Below and left of this is the conversation between the monkey king and the King of

Benares who had been suitably impressed by the meaningful action of the Mahakapi.The remainder of the panel is filled with the Ganges, trees and the retinue of the

monkey and Benares kings.

This western torana was the last to be built and in execution the quality of the

5 MarshalVFoucher 1983 1940), vol. I, p. 120.

53 Cf., Barua, Benimadhab M 1979 (1934-1935), Barhut I, and Il l. Pa tna: lndological Book Corporation, I,pp . 129fT. & P I. LXXXIII, 122 .

a nd: Cunningham 1879, PI. 33, 4.

and : Foucher in: Ma rshaiVFoucher 1983 1940), vol. I, pp. 224-5 a nd vol. , PI. 64a.

54 Cowell (tr.) 1962 1897-1905), no. 407.

23



NORTH-CENTRAL INDIA

toranas diminished with each construction. This depiction is crowded but not difficultto read and the Ganges is shown with imagination. The trees are, according toFoucher, banyan and not mangoes as in the jataka).55

1.4.2.3 Nalinika lsisinga) Jataka56

This story is known variously as the Rishyasringa Antelope horn) Jataka , Alambusa

the name of a temptress of Isisinga) Jataka Cowell no. 523), Nalinika another

temptress of Isisinga) Jataka Cowell no. 526) and the Ekasringa Unicorn) Avadana.I t is tale of a young ascetic who has a horn in the versions in which his mother was agazelle or an antelope Sanchi I and none where his mother was a doe Bharhut). The

animal was so enamored of the Bodhisattva that she gave birth to a son lsisinga)

after eating grass with the urine of the Bodhisattva. A temptress is later sent by apowerful divinity to seduce lsisinga. In Sanchi I, it is on the west end of the lowestarchitrave of the northern torana. This version also corresponds to the Rishyasr inga

story in the Ramayana I, 9, and to one in the Mahabharata.57

The portrayal at Sanchi I is of the Bodhisattva, as a hermit in his hermitage, with thegazelle ?) lying in front looking up to him. 58

This is, according to Foucher,59the

moment of conception. This scene is flanked by the newly born child, with a horn,

bathing in a lotus pool and, on the left, the child is presenting himselfto his involuntary

father, the Bodhisattva.

1.4.2.4 The Sama Syama) Jataka60

This oldest known depiction of the Sama Jataka in North-Central India is a squarerelief uppermost on the inner face of the western torana ea. second to third decade ofA. D. the first century) of Sanchi I. The four compact scenes begin, in the upper right

hand corner and continue clockwise, with the blind parents of Sama the Bodhisattva)

sitting as ascetics in individual leaf covered huts in the forest. Sama is shown belowthem going to fetch water from the stream and he stops to speak with an ascetic whois perhaps Indra in disguise. The king stands nearby. In the next scene Sama isshown in the water, between plants, and the king, having heard movement in the

vegetation, shoots him by mistake. In the last scene, upper left, the parents, the king

and Sama are shown with Indra who has restored the Bodhisattva to li fe. Even the

smallest space is filled with water buffaloes and other animals, water lilies, bushe s or

trees, making the presentation very dense.

1.4.2.5 The Vessantara Visvantara) Jataka61

This fifth jataka depicted at Sanchi I PI. 1.4.2.5) is on both sides of the lowest lintel of

the Northern torana, which is by far the most space devoted to a former life. It beginson the right hand side of the front and could well be used as a definition of horror

55 Foucher in: MarshaiVFoucher 1983 1940), vol. , PI. 64 a.

56 Cf., Barual979 0934-1935 , vol. I, pp. 145ff. PI. LXXXVlll, 131.

and: Cunningham 1998 1879), p. 64f. PI. 26, 7.

and: Foucher 1919, p. 23 PI. 2, 3 PI. IV, 3.

and: MarshalVFoucher 1983 1940 , vol. I, p. 225 vol. ll, PI. 27 text by Foucher .

57 Barua 1979, vol. , p. 1451T. and Nagar 1993, p. 106 PI. 34.

59 Cf., Foucher in: Mars haJVFoucher 1983 1940), description ofPI. 27.

so Texts: cf., Grey 1994, p. 3161T.

61 Texts: cf., ibid., p. 438ff.

24



NO RTH-CE NTRAL INDIA

vacui because not only all of the elements of the narrative are present, and the figuresseveral times as elsewhere, but even the spaces which would normally be bare, the

stonework of the balconies of the palace or between the legs of the prince's horse, forexample, have arms or plants where another artist would not have thought of adding

further elements (PI. 1.4.2.5). This over-abundance is not oppressive but in many

places, such as the scene of the prince (the Bodhisattva) and his family leaving thepalace on their chariot, decidedly festive. Prince Vessantara's wife Madri is here

pictured waving a huge fly-whisk with such delightful energy that her breasts and

necklace seem to bounce and the horses in the same scene almost seem to be moving.This relief is an apex of ataka presentations and is also full of masterly good humor.

The story begins in the far right of the front side with a representation of the palace,perhaps even the city, of Vessantara s family but, not just architecture, it is peopledwith gesticulating figures. In the lower right hand corner, the prince and the Brahman

face one another three times (encounter, request and gift) behind the city walls but

these scenes, which are so important as the origin of all that follows, offer no movementwhereas the following scene of departure does. This has been given the center and by

far the greatest space in the depiction. The vitality of this scene make it seem not anexile but a triumphal departure.

In the following depiction (PI. 1.4.2.5) of the giving of the chariot, the water pouredfrom the ewer by the prince onto the right hand of the Brahman is really visible and,above, the same Brahman is seen pulling the chariot towards the right. Another

Brahman (not visible on PI. 1.4.2.5) is in front of him, also going to the right, with the

quadriga.

Continuing on the east end of the lintel is a depiction of the prince, now walking and

holding the hand of his son who is also walking, and Madri carrying their daughter on

her hip as women still do in India. Their path is lined with villagers clasping their

hands in salutation, while above them a very rural scene of leaving and returning

from hunting shows how far they are now from the city.

The four scenes on the back of the lintel show the life in the hermitage, the giving ofthe children, and the giving of Madri and the reunion followed by the return to the

palace (and it's beautiful garden) on the end of the lintel. Far from being merelydecoration, as were the last two Chaddanta depictions, this Vessantara Jataka is soabundantly illustrated because the sculptor had so much to say and said it so well.

See Appendix Ill for the same list, but with complete references.

1.4.3 Iconography

1.4.3.1 Quantity

While the jatakas were only five, there were no less than thirty odd o2 scenes from the

life of the Buddha on the toranas in Sanchi. Foucher:

Such a noticeable disproportion has caused us towonder elsewhere63

whether the iconographical roleof the jataka, which was so great in the decorationof Bharhut, was not already slipping into the

background, awaiting later restoration to favor.

6 Fouche r 1919, p. 223.

63 Ibid . p. 223.

25



N ORTH -CENTRAL INDIA

or vacuum but packed solidly in peopled landscapes. The structural concept haschanged.

In the lintels of the toranas the presentations of the Chaddanta Jataka have a newform of centralizing structure which ftlls every available space with a multitude of

trees, plants and animals. The ascetic simplicity of, for example, the Nalinika Jatakaat Bharhut (Pl. 1.3.2.39) has now evolved into the exuberance of the lower lintel of the

western torana. The centrifugal structure, in the form of a stupa , bodhi tree or awheel (as dharma , the wheel oflaw with worshippers, is not new; it is the sophisticatedfilling of the depictions on the jambs and lintels of the toranas of Sanchi I which is astylistic high-point in which time and place are unified, re-constructed.

Time, place and sequence are now re-united, re-constructed, in its most exemplaryform not in a jataka but in the Great Departure on the middle lintel on the front of the

eastern torana. This continuous narrative form will still be used, with and withoutdividers, for lives and past lives at irregular intervals into the Tang dynasty in

Dunhuang. t began here, in the second or third decade of A. D. the frrst century.

1.5 Mathura

Situated on the Yamuna river between Dehli and Agra, Mathura was already important

during the Sunga period (ea. second to first century B C.). Characteristic of Mathura

is the white spotted red sandstone out of which most sculpture and reliefs werechiseled and, in spite ofnotable exceptions, this can be a helpful aid in the identificationof works from Mathura. Because of its location in the middle of a triangle formed bythe Ganges depression, Sanchi and Gandhara it was for ea. six centuries, from the

Sunga to the end of the Kushan dynasties, often dominated politically from verydifferent quarters and was the recipient of numerous and diverse influences which

made its own sculpture singular.


No large scale systematic excavation has been carried out in and around Mathura sothat the historical context of Mathuran art can be reconstruct only from fragments.These begin with a three meter statue (which, ofcourse, can not be without predecessors)from the Sunga dynasty (ea. second to first century B C.) and the peak of Mathuran

production was, ea. A. D. the second century, during the period when Mathura was the

southern capital of the Kushan Empire.

Rowland believed that it was the Islamic invaders who so thoroughly demolishedMathura and the vestiges of the Bhutesvara stupa which we have are, regardless of

who did the damage, not only fragmentary but very badly damaged.7

1.5.2 Jatakas71

The damaged jataka panels from Mathura are not sculpted with the illusionistic

depth, or the quality of workmanship, of the Sanchi I toranas. The figures are

isolated against a plain background with little or no overlapping and seem to be

descendants of Bharhut rather than Sanchi I1 Rowland 1953, p. 96.

71 Sixteen jatakas from Matu ra are depicted in Nagar 1993 and these, together with depictions from the life of

the Buddha in Row land 1953, PI. 50 , give the material for a tentative reso con o of the na rrative material.

27



N ORTH-CENTRAL I ND IA

1.6.1 Maitreya

The reasons for including a minimum of information about Maitreya in a work on

jatakas are not at first self-evident, but the caves in Dunhuang which have muralpainting with jatakas are either dedicated to Maitreya or have a strong Mahayana

character involving Maitreya.

The concept of Maitreya first appeared illustrated in Matura see 2.6), shortly after

the reign of Kaniska , as part of Mahayana theology, with its less introspective focusand its emphasis on Bodhisattvas and Buddhas of the past and future).

7No longer

primarily inspired by the life of the historical Buddha and by asceticism and selfdiscipline, it depended on the Bodhisattvas and their dedication to helping others.74

Maitreya figures are not infrequent in Mathura, which is the reason for starting toconsider him here between Mathura and Gandhara.

There are other, later, indications but Maitreya icons are from the beginning most

clearly identifiable when holding a kundika (water jar) pendant in the left hand , with

the right hand ra ised in abaya mudra The most certain source for the Identification

of Maitreya images comes from the representation of a series of the Manusi Buddhas.

The Bodhisattva figure at the end of a row of seven Buddha figures can be definitely

identified as Maitreya. This is based on the belief that Maitreya will appear af ter a

series of Manusi Buddhas of the past, the last seven of whom are Vipasyin, Silkhin,

Visvabha, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kasyapa and Sakyamuni Buddha.

Two of the earliest Maitreya statues still existant are from the period of King Huviska,

ea. A. D the second century, son and successor of Kaniska. One of these is from

Mathura, the other from Ahicchattra North of Mathura,75 and both show the early

Maitreya standing firmly on two feet, far from the lotus position or the crossed ankleswhich were adapted shortly thereafter, presumably from depictions ofSassonien kings.76

1.6.2 Texts

Maitreya is not mentioned in the Pali Canon. His conception is subsequent and hisorigins are extra-canonical.The only Maitreya text which exists in Pali is in the Dasabodhi sattuppatt ikatha.78

This contains stories of the ten future Buddhas, beginning with Maitreya. The factthat it is in Pali is deceptive because it is a Mahayana text of late fourteenth century

Pali literature and is a document of post-canonical Theravada Hinayana) development.

t was created after the jataka paintings in Dunhuang and is therefore interesting inour context only because its editor believes that the emphasis on self-destruction and

bloody sacrifice is due to the decadence of Buddhism in South India after t he twelfth

7 lngold, Har ald 1957, Gandharan Art in Pakist an. New York: Pantheon Books, p. 122.

74 Ibid., p. 132.

75 Kim lnchang 1997, The Future Buddha Mai treya, An Iconological Study. New Delhi: D. K Pr intworld , fig s1 2.

76 Cf.: Bas relief of King Cuddhodana sit ting on a throne with his feet crossed on a foot-res . Published in:

Foucher 1905, L art greco-bouddhique du Ga ndhara . Paris: Ernst Leroux, Editeur , fig. 151, p. 299.

77 Saddhatissa 1975, p 15.

78

Pali Text Society no xxix. See: Saddhatissa 1975.

29



NoRTH CENTR L INDIA

The monoscenic depiction of a story which took place when a linear narration wasconfined to a medallion or half-medallion, was one of the most concrete stylisticexpressions of the period before the toranas of Sanchi I and the pillars of Bhutesvara.This was not only of striking visual importance, but it must have encouraged the

participation of the viewer. The Andhra Period architraves of the toranas of Sanchi I

provided, compared to the compartments in carved coppings, a field on which thenarration could either be presented centrally, as is the Chaddanta Jataka on the backof the western torana or in a continuous linear form. This was done, returning

partially on itself at the end, in the depiction of the Great Departure on the central

outer face of the eastern torana. This linear presentation, which was in part a result

of the shape of the lintel, was later the self-evident spacial solution of the stair-risers

in Gandhara. t is also in K izil in the Maitrakanyaka and Sronakotikarna Avadanas

in cave 212 and it became the scroll presentations with and without returning onthemselves) of the Sui dynasty in Dunhuang. These structural differences in the

presentation of jatakas and the life of Siddhartha which are found in the linear

presentations of Sanchi I were not only of importance in themselves but also for the

ensuing evolution.

A visible fact of early Indian art before Bharhut is its mundane sensual and , in spite

of the abundant use of symbols, unreligious character. This process was halted for atime in Bharhut but did not continue on to influence stylistically the toranas ofSanchi I. The school of Sanchi I absorbed only the contents in the form of jatakas,which it adapted from the school of Bharhut but the execution was an evolution of the

more sensuous style of Sanchi itself. The more severe iconographic style of Bharhut

was not to have a renaissance, or even a real continuation except perhaps for a short

time at Bhutesvara in Mathura. t may have become, stylistically, part of the sculptural

art of Gandhara and have later an iconographical influence on the art of K izil but its

potential as a really important religious art was lost.

In spite of the influence of Bharhut in the sculpture and iconography of Mathura, it

was the toranas of Sanchi I which became the ancestors of what was a less ecclesiasticform of didactic religious art.

31



P RT Two: G NDH R

2.1 Introduction

During the evolution of Mahayana Buddhism and the enlargement of the Buddhist

pantheon after the fourth council, ea. A D. 120, the didactic and emotional utility of

the jatakas seems to have been transferred, at least in part, to the Bodhisattvas. The

former lives of the Buddha lost some of their usefulness, and patronage. Their role

in the establishment of Buddhism, as a liaison between the elitist trefoil concept for

the monks and a usable a-intellectual vehicle for the masses, was now no longer of the

immediate interest it must have been in Bharhut (and in a different context in Kizil

ea. A. D. 400) because the number of stories used was nowhere else even comparable.

One of the most striking things about jatakas in Gandhara is that, although those

used were given considerable prominence, there seem not to have been many of them.

Researchers are quite certain that the Buddha Sakyamuni was never in the Gandharan

region but, in an effort to give jatakas a local relevance, some of them were evidently

located in , or relocated to, Gandhara. The four jataka texts in which Sakyamuni te lls

his audience of the things described as happening in Gandhara, and the stupas built

to honor them, are meaningful for the region. Because of the subsequent destruction

of the Gandharan monuments, the records of the Chinese pilgrims of the fourth, sixth

and seventh centuries are invaluable source material.

2.1.1 Location

The more narrow limits of Gandhara are the large basin formed by the Kabul, Swat

and Indus rivers in the North-Western frontier region of the Indian Sub-Continent

(0.4 Map). The territory was , and is, a fertile agricultural region which provided an

excellent sustenance for the population of this nodal point between the Ganges culture

in the East, the Persian culture and the Greek and Roman Hellenism in the West, the

Indian Sub-Continent in the South and China in the North. The somewhat wider

geographical limits included the eastern part of what is today Afghanistan (as far

West as Kapisi/Begram), the southern parts of the Swat and Buner areas and Taxila.

2.1.2 Chronology

Still problematic, the chronology of the Kushan Empire depends upon the dates of the

era of King Kaniska, starting with his accession to the throne. Although other opinions

have since then been formulated, the summary of Rosenfield86 is, after almost thirty

years, still not superseded and probably will remain so until archaeology or science

provide us with new data.

The Yuechi, who became the Kushans, arrived in Bactria ea. 135 B. C and Kaniska

86 Rosenfield, John M 1967, The Dynastic Art of the Kushans Berkeley Los Angeles, Appendix I. The Era of

Kan ishka (p. 253).

32



GANDHARA

was the third Kushan ruler.87 Accepting, for the time being, Rosenfield s date of A. D.

110-15 as the beginning of the Kaniska era and the date of the Epthalites conquest as

ea. A D. 460-470, the Kushan period began 135 B. C. and ended A. D. 460-470. Its

zenith was from ea. A D. 110 to A. D. 460-470. (Cf. 2.1.3.3 above).

2.1.3 Historical

The area we call Gandhara was the easternmost component of the Achaemenid Empire

from 558 to 529 B. C. Alexander the Great went as far as the Indus River in 326 B. C.

The historical documents left to us from before the destruction of the Buddhist

monasteries by the Epthalites or White Huns (ea. A. D. 460 to 470) are Asoka s

rock-cut inscriptions of the third century B. C. and the narrative in which Faxian

records his travels between A D. 399 and 414.88 The situation after the devastation by

the Huns is described, A. D. 518 to 522 by Songyun and A. D. 629 to 645, by Xuanzang.

The texts of Songyun and Xuanzang are documents for the area during, and shortlyafter, the Kushan Empire which lasted broadly speaking from the first to the fifth

centuries and provided the political structure and prosperity within which Buddhism

was propagated.

2.1.4 Cultural

Lacking painting in situ as well as knowledge of where painting which is perhaps

Gandharan might have come from, our relationship to jatakas in Gandhara is through

has-reliefs.

Buddhist art in Gandhara proper came to an end with the invasion of the Epthalites,

who almost succeeded in obliterating the Art and Culture of this Buddhist region, but

the style did survive in Kashmir and in isolated Buddhistestablishments in Afghanistan

as late as A D. the seventh or the eighth century.89

Since we have only fragments of reliefs and statues and archeological sites in Gandhara

itself, research in the evolution of the Kushan period begins with the narrative texts of

the Chinese pilgrims.

2.1.4.1 Faxian s pilgrimage ofA D. 399 to 414.

The cultural situation in Gandhara and the region around it, between the time of

Asoka s reign and the devastations of the Epthalites , is documented by Faxian who

found on his arrival in the Darel Valley,90 in A. D. 402 a sight impressive even t

87 Huntington 1993 (1985), p. 125.

88 Legge, J ames (t r. and ed.) 1991 1 886), A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. New York : Dover Publications.

(The jatakas recorded by Faxian in Gandhara were five, including the Dipankara).

89 Rowland 1967 (1953), p. 75.

90 Cf.: Tsuchiya, Haruko 1998, Prel iminary Report on Field Research along the Ancient Routes in the

Northern Areas of Pakist an and Related Hi storical and Art Historical Information. Sophia International Review,

vol. 20, p. 47ff. (Contains, p. 56ff, a bibliography of her own publications and those of Karl J ettmar et al onpetroglyphs and other material pertaining to this part ofCentral Asia).

33



GANOHARA

someone who wa s, as he was, from Chan 'an, then one of he largest and most cosmopolitan

capitals of the world. It was the great quinquennial assembly of monks, which had

been instituted by King Asoka, to which the monks came:

as if in clouds; and when they are all assembled, their place of session is grandlydecorated. Silken streamers and canopies are hung out in it , and water-lilies in goldand silver are made and fixed up behind the places where (the chief of them) are tosit . 9

The offerings of the king and his ministers are described, as well as the rituals and

gifts distributed. Faxian also says that there was a tooth of Buddha , for which the

people have reared a tope,92 connected with which there are more than a thousand

monks and their disciples .93 He also describes here t he legendary creation of the first

documented anthropomorphicBuddhist figure a Maitreya).94In the Kingdom ofWuchan

(Soo-ho-to), between the Indus and the Swat rivers,95 Fax ian says that there were five

hundred mona

steries

andd

escribes things that the Buddha ostensibly did while inthis area with his disciples.96

In Soo-ho-to the Buddha told them that as a Bodhisattva,

in the form of King Sivi, he had saved the li fe of a dove, which was pu rsued by a hawk,

by offering the equivalent of the doves weight in his own flesh the second Sivi

Jataka , depicted in Gandhara [PI. 2.2.8] and in Mogao 275 [Pl. 4.2.1.1.2] for example).

Also while a Bodhisattva, the Buddha had given his eyes the first Sivi Jataka) to a

Brahman, who had asked for them, and the location is marked by a large tope,

adorned with gold and silver plates. 97 Also marked by large topes are the places

where the Chandraprabha and the Mahasattva Jatakas there are seven Mogao

depictions of the latter) were purported to have ta ken place. He goes on to Peshawar

and Hadda, visits north of Hadda the place where the Bodhisattva once purchased

with money the five st alks of flowers, as an offering to the Dipankara Buddha 98 beforegoing south and across the Indus in to what is today part of the Punjab.

Gandhara was, as Faxian saw and described it in A. D. 400 to 404, very ardently

Buddhistic and ru led by kings or princes who spared no time, effort or expenditure in

its support. His description is, of course, very partial, i.e.: Buddhistic, but it tells us

under wha t spiritual and economic conditions the art of Gandhara evolved until .the

middle of the fifth century.

2.1.4.2 Songyun's pilgrimage of A. D. 518 to 521.

For the s ituation after the invasions of the Epthalites we have first of all the records91 Legge 1991 0886), p. 22 .

92 i.e.: constructed a stupa .

93 Legge 1991 {1886), p. 23.

94 Ibid., pp. 24 25.

95 Ibid., p. 29, n. 5: Soo-ho-to has not beer• clearly identified. Bea l says that later Buddhist writers include it in

Udyana. It must have been between the Indus and the Swat.

96 In point of fact the Buddh a never came this far from the Ganges Basi n.

9 Legge 1991 {1886), p. 32. Legge notes, page 31, n. 6, that Dr. Eitel in his Han dbook for the Student of

Chinese Buddhism of 1870 thinks this may be a myth, constructed from the story of t he blinding of Dharma-

vivard hana (the son of Asoka).

98 Ibid., p. 38.

34



GANOHARA

of the "Mission of Sung-Yun and Hwei Sang to Obtain Buddhist Books in the West"

which was translated by Samuel Beal in 1884 from the fifth section of the History of

the Temples of Loyang.

Songyun was sent by the Northern Wei Dowager Empress Tai-Hoo in A D. 518 to

India to obtain Buddhist texts and he returned , in A D. 521, with 170 volumes. From

Chan 'an he and his companion went by the Taklamakan southern route from Dunhuang

to Khotan.99From here they went to the capital

100of the Ye-tha presumably the

Epthalites)101 who "received tribute from Khotan to Persia"102

, wore felt garments, had

no written characters, no knowledge ofastronomy and very "defec tive" ru les ofpoliteness.

From the capital of the Ye-tha, the pilgrims went to Udyana, most probably the Swat,

and it is from this point on that the descriptions of the objects and the behavior

patterns of the kings and monks described by Faxian and Songyun are very similar.103

The principal difference is that Faxian most probably entered Gandhara through the

Khora Bhort Pass104 in the North whereas Songyun approached from the North-West.They both describe the kings of Udyana as being devout Buddhists, but although some

ofthejatakas and legends which they recount are the same Candraprabha, Mahasattva

and Sivi I Jatakas) some are not. 1 5 Songyun nowhere mentions in A. D. 520 the

devastation of the Ephthalites (Ye-tha) in A D. 460106

or "around the beginning of the

sixth century"107, which so impressed Xuanzang circa one hundred years late r, and this

n spite of the fact that Songyun was very offended by the rudeness of the king. t is

possible that the Ephthalites established themselves in their capital near the Oxus

before A D. 520 but devastated Udyana afterwards, between A. D. 520 and Xuanzang' s

arrival.1 8

2.1.4.3 Xuanzang's pilgrimage of A. D. 629 to 645.

Xuanzang (A. D. 602-664) went from Aksu to Balkh via Samarkan, crossing the Oxus

north-east of Balkh/ 09 and went from there to Bamiyan .110 On hjs outward journey, he

99 Songyun s description of the king's headdress is interesting because it may mean tha t the king wore kus ti

attached to it . "The king of th is country wears a golden cap on his head, in shape like the comb of a cock; the

appendages of the bead-dress hang down behind him two feet., and they are made of taffe ta (kiln , about. live

inches wide." In : Beal (tr.)1994 (1884), p. LXXXVll.

100 This mu st have been nea r the Oxus, perhaps somewhat north of it, an d between Balkh and the Pamir

mountains.

101 Beal (tr.) 1994 (1884), p. XCI, n. 24.

102 Ibid., p. XCI.

103 Ibid., p. XCIII T. a nd Legge 1991 (1886), p. 28 IT.

104 Cf.: Tsuchiya 1998, p. 52.

105 In Faxian but not in Songyun: Sivi 11 (pigeon), alms-bowl, Oipankara. In Songyun but. not in Faxian :

sku ll-bone of the Buddha, Kanishka ' s stupa, Ma-kie or Makara great fi sh) and Vessantara J a takas.

106 Beal tr.) 1994 (1884), p. XVI.

107 Huntington 1993 (1985), p. 195.

108 Cf.: Ebert, Jorinde 1985, Parinirvana; Untersuchungen zur ikcnographischen Entwicklung von den indischen

Anflingen bis nach China . Stuttgart: Franz St.eioer Verlag, p. 57.

109 Beal tr .) 1994 (1884), p. 41.

HO Ibid., p. 50 .

35



GANDHARA

traveled from Bamiyan to Taxila.111On his return to China after re-passing Taxila,

and loosing his manuscripts in the Sintu river nearby,112 he went North-West only as

far as Kunduz, did not cross the Oxus, and went by way of the Pamir Valley,u3

Kashgar and Khotan ,114 i.e.: taking the southern Taklamakan route home.

His description of Gandhara is incomparably longer and more complete than those of

Faxian and Songyun but it describes, between A. D. 629 and 645, the desolate condition

of the ruined cloiste rs with only a few monks after the Ephthalite destructions of

practically everything they could find, whereas his predecessors had described Gandhara

during its zenith.

2.1.5 Economic context

The importance of this nodal point between East and West had reached its economic

pinnacle during the Kushan Era. There was another pinnacle in the nineteenth

century, but this was a purely political situation created by English and Russianexpansion and colonialism and although it fostered a pragmatic absorption of the

rules of warfare , cartography and the English language, the indigenous economical

development which began with Asoka and ended with the Ephthalite destructions was

to remain by far the greatest in its history. With the Arab discovery of the monsoon

winds, the Indian Ocean became a safer and less difficult manner of transporting

goods from East to West and vice versa. The economic importance of Gandhara as a

trade route was , therefore, never to return.

2.2 Jatakas

Considering the large number offragments, above all the unidentified ones, ofbas-reliefs

in private collections and in museum reserves, we may for many years to come have

no valid catalogue raisonne of jatakas in Gandhara. Foucher (1905), lngholt (1927),

the art dealer Isao Kurita <•EB Ij]•• (1990) and Nagar (1993) have, however,

made honorable steps in the right direction (see Literature Cited). In spite of this, we

seem to have for Gandhara a total of only nine different jatakas in twenty fragments,

including the fine relief panels of the Dipankara J ataka.115

Chronologically and geographically the Gandharan jatakas are the closest to China.

They are documented by the records of the pilgrimages of Faxian and Xuanzang.

111 Ibid., p. 143.

11 2 Ibid. , p. 136.

3 Ibid., p. 297.

114 Ibid., pp. 306 309.

'115 The Dharmaruci or Dipancara, which is usually called a jataka because it is a previous life ', is not in the

.Pali jataka texts but is a part of the Mahdvas tu and Divydvada na texts.

36



GANOHARA

2.2.1 Chaddanta (Saddanta) Jataka116

The Bodhisat was then born as a six-tusked mighty elephant, all white, and guarded

by a large herd of windswift elephants with tusks as big as chariot-poles. He lived

with his attendant herd on a golden cliff beyond seven long mountain ranges in the

north. Beneath this cliff was a royal banyan tree whose roots supported eight thousand

spreading shoots. l17

The Chaddanta Jataka was depicted on the Indian Sub-Continent at Bharhut, Sanchi

I, Amaravati, Goli and at Karamar in Gandhara.

From Karamar we have a fragment of a stair-riser (Pl. 2.2.1), now in the Lahore

Museum which shows the Chaddanta Jataka in three scenes. From left to right, it

shows the six-tusked elephant king standing over the pit in which the hunter has his

bow and arrow poised ready to shoot. In the second scene, the elephant is kneeling

obligingly for the hunter who is cutting off his tusks and in the portion which remainsof the third scene the hunter is presenting the tusks to a male (he wears no ankle

adornment) sitting on a raised seat with a footstool. Ingholt assigns th is work to his

Group 11, i.e.: between the victory of Shapur I over the Roman Emperor Valerian (the

Sassanian conquest) in A. D. 260 and ea. A. D. 300.118

The comparison of the stair-riser from Karamar with the Chaddanta Jataka in Sanchi

(PI. 1.4.2.1) is revealing because it shows how far removed, physically and culturally,

Gandhara was from the world of central India.

In thereliefs from Bharhut

andSanchi I

thebanyan

treewhich is described inconsiderable detail in the Pali texe

19has the leaves, thick stem, branches and the

hanging roots that it has in reality but in the fragment from Karamar it looks like a

banana tree (presumably because the sculptor in the North-West of India did not

know what a banyan tree looked like). In the southern torana at Sanchi I the dress of

the hunter is not recognizable but in Bharhut he is shown dressed with a short dhoti

and a small turban whereas in the Gandharan fragment he seems to be wearing a

longer dhoti and the flat hat which men still wear in the region. The fragment of the

king on his throne is depicted with the western folds of Gandhara, not those of central

India.120

2.2.2 Dipankara Jataka 121

The jataka most often illustrated in Gandhara 122 is of a young ascetic named Sumati

6 Lahore Museum, oo. 1156. 21 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches.

l17 Baru a 1979, p. 14lf. Chadamtiya..Jatakam . See also: Cunn ingham 1998 (1879), p. 61fT.

8 lngholt, Ha rald 1957, Gandharan Art in Pakistan . New York: Pantheon, p. 47 f.

l19 Cowell (tr.) 1969 (1897-1905), vol. V p. 21.

120 For fu rther research see the in terpretations in: Goli(ca. second century), Amaravati (late second-early third

century), Ajanta X (ea. late fifth century?) and Ajanta XVII (eighth century) in Nagar 1993, p. 46 ff

12 1 Berlin, Museum fUr lndische Kunst, I 5964. Schist, 35 x 12,5 cm.

122 lnghold 1957, p. 50.

37



GANOHARA

buying lotuses from the girl Yasodhara) who in later life was to be his wife, and

throwing them above the Dipankara Buddha where they remained suspended in the

air. ter having made a vow to become the Buddha in a future life, Sumati prostrated

himself before the Buddha Dipankara and spread his hair on the ground so that the

Buddha would not soil his feet. The Dipankara Buddha then predicted that Sumati

would become Sakyamuni Buddha (which he did).

The most frequent illustration shows Sumati throwing himself on his hands and

knees to cover with his hair the mud on the road for the Buddha to walk on.

The Dipankara Jataka exists in at least four distinct plastic forms. The fragment in

schist now in Berlin (PI. 2.2.2)123 shows, to the right of the pillar, Sumati buying the

lotus from Yasodhara, throwing them above the Dipankara Buddha and with his hair

spread before the Buddha. Its form (35 x 12,5 cm.) suggests that it was a stair-riser .

The almost quadratic or rectangular panels (in the Sikri Stupa from the KushanPeriod, now in the Lahore Museum), for example form such a coherent group that they

could well have been inspired by one example. In two versions in which the kneeling

Sumati has been reversed, the future Yagodhara and Sumati buying the lotuses, as

well as the door and the balcony have also been reversed, as if done from the same

original. Many scenes show corinthian capitals flanking one or both ends.

The six steles or fragments (not illustrated here) from Dipankara Jatakas from Shotorak

(in Mghanistan) are very different from the rest. They are not related to any of the

above pieces except in the textual context. They are , however, very closely related to

the two Wonders ofSravasti which are probably both from Paitava (al so in Mghanistan)

and are now in Paris and Berlin. These have been dated A D. the sixth n t u r ~ and

come from the western edge of greater Gandhara .

Faxian described on his arrival in Nagara, on the Kabul river (between today's Kabul

and Peshawar) in A D. 403 that it was the place where the Bodhisattva once purchased

with money five stalks of flowers, as an offering to the Dipankara Buddha.125 Although

a former birth, it frequently took its place, as in the Sikri stupa in Lahore, among

scenes of the Buddha s life, the has-relief depictions of which were the preferred

subject in Gandhara at this time. By leaving empty the space occupied by the Buddha,

it would have been possible for th is story to have been long since a part of Buddhist

iconography, much as was done, in A D. the second century, in the medallion of PrinceRahula before the Buddha in Amaravati, but the story seems not to have existed in

either Bharhut or Sanchi before its appearance with the anthropomorphic Buddha in

Gandhara.

2.2.3 Mahasattva Jataka

The (in spite of its small size) very clear Gandharan depiction (PI. 2.2.3) shows the

123 Klimburg-SaJter, Deborah E. 1995, Buddha in Indien. Catalogue of the exhibition in the Kunsthistor isches

Museum, Vienna. Milan: Skir a, pp. 175 and 272.

124 Klimburg-Salter 1995, pp. 194-5.125 Legge (tr .) 1991 (1886), p. 38.

38



GANDHARA

Mahasattva Jataka at the base of a small stupa. The prince is lying on the ground,

dressed in a short dhoti, with his left arm raised above him and his right arm parallel

to his body. This Kushan Period A. D. the second to the third century) portrayal can

be compared to the depiction in Kizil47126

and with the Eastern Han representation of

A. D. 25 to 220 at K'ung-wang shan, Kiangsu.127 This jataka story was the subject to

which one of the four great stupas near Taxila (visited by Faxian ea. A. D. 403 and by

Xuanzang ea. A. D. 630) was dedicated.128

2.2.4 Mahaumagga (Amaradevi-panha) Jataka129

This longest Pali jataka is the story of four pretended wise men and Mahosadha, the

Bodhisattva. In a short portion of this, he and Amara, his virtuous wife, are plotted

against by four pseudo wise men. The segment is finished with Amara delivering the

four, wrapped in rolls of matting (not illustrated here), to the king.13

2.2.5 Maitrakanyaka Jataka

In this story Maitrakanyaka kills his mother and years later has a flaming wheel on

his head as punishment (not illustrated here). His reaction, to pray for all those who

had sinned, was so noble that it saved him from his torture.

Since the story, of which the above is only a short condensation, is long and very

complicated it was seldom depicted 3but it is documented (in the Museum in Peshawar)

as having been twice represented in Gandhara. lngholt assigns both fragments to his

Group Ill, which would date them between ea. A. D. 300 to 400.132 Since so few

jatakas were depicted,as far

as we know,in Gandhara

, it isinteresting

andstrange

that this complicated story should be one of them.

2.2.6 Nalinika (lsisinga) Jataka

A doe, enamored of an ascetic the Bodhisattva), eats grass with his urine and gives

birth to a full-grown male.

In the medallion from Bharhut (PI. 1.3.2.39) the sage is wearing birch bark clothes

and his locks of matted hair are coiled, piled up and knotted on his head. He is

represented as a typical Vedic ascetic and fire-worshipper. His cottage is a one-peaked

126 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 151.

127 Rhie 1999, Figs. 1.13 1.14. The pointed cap which he is wearing, may be a device to show the Kushan

origin of Prince Mahasattva .

128 Cf.: Legge (tr.) 1991 (1886), p. 32 for Faxian. Beat (tr.) 1994 (1884), p. 145 for Xuanzang.

129 Cummings denomination in: Cummings 1998 (1879), p. 53ff. and PI. XXV 3. He recounts a version as told by

Kshemendra in the Vrihat Katha ( Dr. Bii.hler [tr), Indian Antiquary, vo l. 1, p. 332 ) and a similar one as told by

Somadeva in the Katha Saritsagara ( Ancient and Medieval India, by Mrs. Manning, . 316. Her abstract is

taken from H. H. Wil son, Works, vol. Il l ). In these the virtuous Upakosa, during her hu sband's absence,

maneuvers suitors into baskets and de livers them to the king for justice.

130 Cowell tr.) 1969 (1897-1905), vol. VI , p. 185f.

131 Cf.: Yaldiz 1987, p. 70ff.

and Fig. 55 for the depiction in Kizil 212.132 lngholt 1957, pp. 30,48 49. Ills. 2 3.

39



GANDHARA

house, the vaulted roof is divided into several layers, each layer consisting of several

square slices. 133 In the Gandharan fragments (one of which is Pl. 2.2.6) he seems to

be wearing a short dhoti, hi s hair is arranged in a Brahman knot and his hut is shown

woven like a basket. In all three Gandharan depictions he seems to have a beard and

a moustache .

2.2.7 Sama (Syama) Jataka

The young Bodhisattva lives with his blind parents in the forest and cares for them

until a king out hunting shoots him by mistake. The king s sorrow moves Sakra

Devendra (the god Indra) to bring the young Bodhisattva back to life.

The depiction of this jataka on the western torana of Sanchi I (not illustrated here) is

carved to be read clockwise and since it includes trees and vegetation, six large animals

and other elements not necessary to the understanding of the story (and perhaps

therefore somewhat confusing) it must have been very well known in A. D. the firstcentury. Sama is depicted twice, his parents twice each and the king four times so

that it may be assumed that the original didactic purpose, which in Bharhut even

required captions, could now become more decorative and be still comprehensible to

the viewer. The clothing consists of dhoti and turbans n the Sanchi depiction. t is

decidedly Indian.

Most complete of the four Gandharan versions ofthisjataka are the two (not illustrated

here) now in London. They are 16 cm. high so that they may both have been stair-risers.

One was sculpted to be read from right to left and the other from left to right; the huts

made of leaves are similar and have a flat knob on top. Both have Sama s mother

dressed in a long robe while the men are wearing the short garments over trousers

which are still used in Pakistan and which, here worn together with belts, give the

costumes a Kushan look. Both pieces are Gandharan in style and the differences

between them may be safely attributed to different execution. The difference in

clothing and in the huts, between these two representations and the depiction at

Sanchi I, shows clearly the chronological, regional and cultural differences between

Gandhara and the more sensual Madhya Pradesh central Indian interpretation.134

2.2.8 Sivi (Sibi) Jataka

In the two Sivi jatakas the generosity of the magnanimous king is described.135

Oncewhen he complied with the wish of a blind Brahman for one of his eyes, by giving him

both of his, and again when, in order to save a dove from a bird of prey, he agreed to

give the hawk an equal amount of his own flesh in exchange for the dove (PI. 2.2.8).

The jatakas, which also exist twice from Nagarjunakonda, once from Amarava ti136 as

well as in Kizil137 and Dunhuang, are not among those which were found in Bharhut.

133 Barua 1979, p. 145.

135 Nagar 1993, p. 81 82.

136 Nagar 1993, Pis. 21 22 from Nagarjunakonda and PI 23 from Amaravati.

137 Yaldiz 1987, pp. 54 -55.

40



GANDHARA

Faxian describes , in A. D. 403, the ransom of the dove as having taken place in

Soo-ho-to in Udyana. 138 Five days later he describes a stupa erected on the spot

where the Buddha, while a Bodhisattva (King Sivi), gave away his eyes. The Sivi

Jataka, number 499 in the Pali collection/ 9is the story of the giving of the eyes. The

dove/pigeon version is perhaps a Gandharan invention.

The has-relief of the dove/pigeon Sivi Jataka from the British Museum (PI. 2.2.8) could

be, with its height of 21,59 cm., part of a stair-riser. lngholt describes the folds as

billowing, but believes that the drapery as a whole rather recalls that of the Parthian

period. The earlier isolation of the figures has been abandoned, there is some overlapping

of them and the representation of at least two different plains has been attempted.140

Prince Sivi is sitting on his throne. Above him is a canopy and his feet rest on a

footstool. He is supported by a female figure, while a person kneeling cuts flesh from

his leg. The next figure holds a scale consist ing of a pole and a rope sling with a stone

as a weight. The following figure is richly dressed, wears jewelry and a crown, a halo

and is holding a vajra in his left hand. This is presumably Indra . The last figure inthis fragment has no attribute but a small halo. The last three figures to the viewer s

right are shown in somewhat flatter relief, bringing the principal figures forwards.

2.2.9 Vessantara (Visvantara) Jataka

This Jataka tells of the benevolent Prince Vessantara who incurred the anger of his

father's people by giving away the rain-making elephant. When his father banned

him, he gave away the horses and the chariot, then his children and finally his

devoted wife.

Among the many depictions of this perhaps most popular of all jatakas, are has-reliefs

from Bharhut (PI. 1.3.2.54) and Sanchi (PI. 1.4.2.5), Goli, Jamal-Garhi and Shotarak

in Gandhara (as well as mural paintings in Ajanta, Kizil, Miran and Dunhuang).

The Vessantara Jataka was not mentioned by Faxian. Songyun (between A. D. 518

and 521) describes it as having taken place in Udyana141

and Xuanzang describes it in

Po-lu-sha 142

The monoscenic Bharhut (PI. 1.3.2.54) depiction shows Prince Vessantara pouring

water from his kundika, water jar, onto the right hand of the Brahman (hair style and

yajilopavita or sacred thread), thus sealing the gift of the richly decorated wondrous

elephant.

The depiction on the architrave of the northern torana of Sanchi I (PI. 1.4.2.5) is a fme

138 Legge (tr.)1965 (1886), pp. 29, 30 31 and p. 29, n. 4 5.

139 Cf.: Dutoit 1908-1921, Jatakam. Das Buch der Erzahlungen aus frtiheren Existenzen Buddhas. Leipzig: Bd.

I-VI 1908-1916, Bd . VII 1921, no. 499. See also: Chavannes, Edouard (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), Cinq Cents Contes

et. Apologues ex traits du Tripitaka Chinois et tradu its en r n ~ i Four vols in th ree. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve,

nos. 2 197.

140 Ingholt. 1957, p. 28.

141 Beat t.r .) J968 (1884), p. xciii.

142 Ibid. : p. 111 .

41



G NDH R

comparison. t not only has the unique distinction ofcovering almost an entire architrave,

both front and back143but is, in great contrast to the pieces from Bharhut and Gandhara,

almost bursting with episodes and people. As noted above, in the Sanchi I depiction of

the Sama Jataka not illustrated here), the didactic va lue, which is perhaps no longer

as important at Sanchi I as it was in Bharhut, has been sacrificed for an interpretation

which is as decorative and full of energy as it is difficult to read.

PI. 2.2.9 from Gandhara is another unusual bas-relief. 144 It shows the Brahman and a

younger Brahman as two figures in front of a large chariot carrying Vessantara, his

wife Madi and their two children. The first figure from the left has a yajfiopavita the

Brahman thread) and knot but he is very small. He carries a small flask in his left

hand and his right hand is by chance?) in Abhaya Mudra. The next figure holds, in

his left hand, the club with which he la ter hits the children and his right hand

receives the water which seals the gift, from Vessentara . The fragment H. 24,1 cm; L

55,9 cm) is closed on both ends by square pilasters with meditating Buddhas on

reversed 1otuses145 above whom are Corinthian capitals.

2.3 Iconography

In Bharhut, during the first century B C., Buddhism was younger, relatively near to

the lifetime of the Buddha himself. The unadulterated ideographic Indian form of

Buddhism did not yet depict the Buddha but its symbolism, which seems in Bharhut

and Sanchi I deceptively simple, was in fact very sophisticated. The mound had

become a stupa, the law and the preaching of the Buddha were symbolized by the

wheel and in place of the Buddha himselfwas a vacuity which was sometimes underlinedby the presence of a royal attribute, the parasol. The didactic utility of the jatakas

was genuine in this early stage in which the symbolism of the stupa certainly appealed

to the intellectually inclined; less sophisticated pilgrims were given more useful guidance

with stories which they could follow .

In ea rly Buddhism a Bodhisattva in animal or human form , was the hero of the

jatakas, whereas in Gandhara, the remembering of previous lives being a divine

prerogative, it was the Buddha who was the protagonist. Little by little, in the form of

an animal, woman, or man he had accumulated sufficient virtue to be ready for

enlightenment, to become a Bodhisattva. t was the importance of this accumulation

of virtue which needed to be made understandable for , and desirable to, the simplest

of persons doing his circumambulation of a stupa.

Of the nine jatakas documented as having been in Gandhara , in eight the central,

heroic, figure is a man, king or deva. Only once, in the Chaddanta Jataka the

elephant with six tusks), is he an animal. This is in striking contrast to Bharhut,

where Cunningham found that half of the first twenty jatakas he identified had an

animal as hero in spite of the fact that in the Pali co llection of jatakas the proportion

14 Nagar 1993, p. 170.

144 Meunie 1942, p. 36. Ills.: Nagar 1993, PI 71 and Kur ita, Isao 1990, Gandara bigutsu, vo , p 276, PI 846.

145 On this reproduction from the Serinde Catalogue t he right hand Buddha has been lost. lt is, however , still

t o be seen in ot.her photograph s

42



GANDHARA

of animal heroes is only one fifth.146

Remembering that although Christianity does represent Christ, whereas Islam does

not represent The Prophet, the anthropomorphic representation of Buddha might not

necessarily have taken place at all. This took place during the Gandharan, presumably

Kushan, period and was ofsuch primary iconographic importance that it also diminished

the importance of jatakas. Scenes from the life of the Buddha became more popular.

2.4 Bamiyan147

Bamiyan was already a stop on the caravan route from Baktrien (the region around

Balkh) to Taxila at the end of the first century and it was (together with Samarkand

and Balkh which are on the same longitude) the westernmost point in the travels of

Xuanzang in the seventh century. His description from A. D. 632, of the two colossal

Buddhas, the grotto architecture and fragments of mural painting, confirm theimportance ofBamiyan, and of its cloisters, in the seventh century. From the Kingdom

of Kucha, Xuanzang had gone, via Aksu, Tashkent, Samarkand and Balkh, to the

Kingdom of Bamiyan, n the western continuation of the Hindu Kush which he called

the Snowy Mountains. The Bamiyan Valley was then, as it is now, an arable

expanse between cliffs; the Northern with the two colossal Buddhas and the lower

cliffs opposite where the capital was. The valley produces spring-whea t and few

flowers or fruits. t is suitable for cattle, and affords pasture for many sheep and

horses. The climate is wintry, and the manners of the people hard and uncultivated. 148

Xuanzang also wrote that, although the language is a little different, the literature ,

customary rules and money are the same as those of the Tukhara country, the

region between Balkh (near today s Mazar-i-ShariO and Bamiyan. The monks of the

ten convents belong to the Little Vehicle, and the school of the Lokottaravadins. 149

Xuanzang did not record signs of destruction in Bamiyan and its cloisters were still

intact under Iranian rule in A. D. 727.150

As part of the Kushan Empire during the first centuries of our era, Bamiyan artistic

production was predominantly under Gandharan influences. But as Kushan strength,

perhaps preoccupied with Ephtalite incursions, waned Gandharan characteristics also

diminished. They were replaced by those of the Guptan Empire which had become

dominant in India between the third and the sixth centuries.

From the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries (at least until A.

D. 727)151 Sassanoid influence was strong. The arts of Bamiyan belong to a single

146 Foucher 1905, p. 271.

147 Cf.: Klimburg-Salter, Deborah E. 1989, The Kingdom of Bamiyan. Naples Rome: Inst ituto Univers itario

Orientale. It is, and probably will remain, the best and most complete art historical treatment of the area.

148 Beal {tr.) 1981 {1884), p. 50.

149 fbid.

150 Cf.: Ebert 1985, p. 167 - 190.

151 When the Korean monk Hui-ch ao visited Bamiyan in A. D. 727, he found it under Iranian rule and the

cloisters in tact. Ebert 1985, p. 169, n. 1075.

43



GANDHARA

cultural period from the seventh to the ninth century, with three concentrated (Kushan,

Guptan and Sassanoid) influences, not simultaneous but overlapping.

These influences are part of the legacy of Gandhara, but there are no pictorial scenes

representing jatakas and avadanas in the Hindu Kush. The didactic function of such

scenes which had been so popular in early Buddhist art was, according to Deborah

Klimborg-Salter, fulfilled by the image of the Buddha-to-be Sakyamuni...hovering in

the Tusita heaven, emphasizing the transcendent rather than the histo rical nature of

Sakyamuni.162 This explication for the lack ofjatakas, avadanas and scenes from the

life of the Buddha Sakyamuni in Bamiyan is very plausible.

Serious comparisons of the oldest mural paintings in Bamiyan and Kizil are nearly

impossible because the oldest vestiges of painting in Bamiyan, in the niche of the 38m

Buddha, are from the second half of the seventh century. Painting in Kizil begins,

however, (following the chronology of Su Bai) with the already very sophisticated

painting, in cave 38 for example, of the beginning of the fourth century, more thanthree hundred years before.

To judge from the remaining vestiges, the influence in painting went from Kizil to

Bamiyan, perhaps during upheavals such as the Chinese conquest of Kizil in A. D.

647-648, but n any case between the second half of the seventh and the eighth

century or later.153

Bamiyan was at this time a prosperous center 54 offering a logical

refuge from disturbances coming to Kizil from the East.

Interest in jatakas and avadanas was reduced to a minimum in China during the

Tang dynasty (A. D. 618-907). Perhaps this was equally true for Bamiyan at the sametime. Maitreya in the Tushita heaven appears t{) have captured the imagination of

the faithful and replaced the stories ..both in Tang China and in Bamiyan.155

t would

seem so.

2.5 Hinayana and Mahayana in Gandhara

The lack of monastic or other documents, presumably another result of the destruction

wrought by the Epthalites ea. A D. 460, makes serious research in Gandhara imposs ible

but we do know that by the time of the fourth council, which was called by the Kushan

King Kaniska in A D. the first or the second century, there were already 18 schools of

Buddhism. The leading school at this council was the (Hinayana) Sarvastivadin.156

Faxian recorded, ea. A D. 401, that the king of Ladakh had more than a thousand

monks around him, that they were students of Mahayana beliefs, 57and in the chapter

52 KJimburg-Salter 1989, p. 109.

53 Ibid .: p. 82.

54 Ibid.: p. 85.

155 Cf.: Ibid., p. 97.

156 Gronbold 1984, p. 9.157 Legge tr.) l991 (1886), p. 21.

44



G NOH R

following, during the description of the Great Quinquennial Assembly at Skardo, he

affirms that the thousand monks there were all students of Hinayana Buddhism. This

documents how close together , geographically, the schools were.

In their descriptions of Gandhara, Faxian and Xuanzang record precisely whichmonasteries are Hinayana and which are Mahayana, thus underlining constantly the

importance which they related to thi.s difference in A. D. the fifth and A. D. the

seventh centuries. There is, however, nowhere an indication of why they thought this

so important and the real differences certainly lie in the scholastic interpretation of

the texts transmitted by the various sects. It seems almost political' ; that the older

Hinayana orders were trying to maintain their influence, while the newer Mahayana

beliefs sought to gain ground.

2.5.1 Maitreya in Gandhara158

That the original cult ofMaitreya as the Buddhist Messiah was established in Northern

India at least as early as the Kushan Period (A. D. the first to the third centuries is

attested by the widespread prevalence of Maitreya images in Gandhara (including

eastern Mghanistan and Mathura . The key to his identification is in reliefs where he

is shown in the company of Buddhas of the past and can, therefore, be only Maitreya.

Apart from his, usually, princely attire, his distinguishing features are his hair tied in

a knot on the top of his head in most of Gandhara (in Mathura his hair is in tight

Buddha curls) and that he is holding a kundika in his left hand. In Gandhara, he is

depicted standing, sitting in a lotus position, with crossed ankles or in lalitasana.159

Two Gandharan reliefs demonstrate a direct lineage for the Maitreya as depicted inChina.

In a interpretation of Maya's dream, which was in the guides' mess in Mardan and is

now in the museum in Peshawar (Pl. 2.5.1)/ 60 King Suddhodana is depicted sitting on

a throne with his feet in a crossed-ankle position. Not only this crossed-ankle position

of the Sassanian kings/61

but also the proportions of the baldachin, the throne with

the large back and the feet on a foot stool, can be followed from this relief to Dunhuang.162

Another relief is from Charsadda and now in the collection of the Lahore Museum (no.

1211).163The triangular back of the five Maitreya thrones in Mogao 275 and the

composition of the Maitreya lunettes in Kizil17 et al, have their roots here. Curious is

the mudra, which is the abaya mudr with the hand turned inward.

158 Cf. : Ibid., p. 24f.

59 Cf.: lngholt 1957, Pis. 288-310 and the 241 Maitreya illustrations in Kim 1997.

160 Foucher 1.905, p. 299, PI. 151 a nd (same lngold 1957, PI. 12.

161 Soper 1959, p. 217.

162 Mogao 275 et al.

163 A drawing of the same relief, formerly in Berlin is published in Soper 1958, No rt hern Lia ng and Northern

Wei in Kansu . Artibus Asiae,vol. XXI , no, 2, pp . 131-164. Ascona, p. 152, Fig. 20.

45



G NOH R

2.6 Conclusion

Ther e seems to be an archaic and a Gandharan fo rm of jataka presentation and

perhaps even a form showing western influences.164 The jatakas in the medallions in

Bharhut and in the almost square torana depictions in Sanchi I had several sometimes

many different scenes and tempi compressed into one icon. The preferential method

of presentation in Gandhara was with the exception of the steles in Shotarak and the

pillars of the Bhutesvara rai ling at Mathura a horizontal form not unlike the

presentation in the bands chiselled in the top of the ra iling at Bha rhut. This is of

course a question of space available in the copping of Bharhut an d in the stair risers of

Gandhara but the iconographic solution of many scenes presented in a compressed

monoscenic form never appears again.

The scarcity of jatakas in Gandhara is partly because the monasteries an d stupas

were devastated by the Epthalites ea. A D. 460 but there were other reasons . Faxian

and Xuanzang reported very carefully which monasteries and what populations were

Hinayana or Mahayana and the currents of discipline and didactic conviction which

from one sect or indeed one abbot to another may have changed the methods of

teaching and their tools. The evolution of Buddhist sects was important for the future

of Buddhism but with the new presentation ofthe Buddha in his human form something

which had never happened in Bharhut or Sanchi the monks the people and the

sculp tors in Gandhara were less interested in depicting animal stories and more

in terested in depict ing the anthropomorphic Buddha. Their in terest was therefore

diverted from the fables which were to re-emerge in the didactic and propagandistic

missionary context of Kizil. Spreading northwards the utility of the older didactic

methods in the missionaryco

ntext again became apparent.

64 Cf : Foucher 1905 p. 280f.

6



lziL

In 1933, Waldschmidt added his theory of a first and second lndo-Iranian style and a

C hinese-Buddhist third style based on his considerations of color, form and the

paleographic research of H. Liiders167

using the analyses of donations found in caves

66 and 67. 168 The first Indo-lranian style was, he felt, characterized by finely graded

earth colored tones, with modeling achieved through shaded planes. The only contrasting

color wa s green. The fine color and shading of the face and the careful brush strokes

of the hair of the young ascetic or Brahman from 212, is one of his examples, as are

the Maitreya from 76 and the cowherd from 77 (PI. 3.1.2). He dates this first style to

ea. A. D. 500.

Wa]dschmidt defines his second style as a continuation of the frrst with the addition of

an effort towards more decorative effects. Strong contrasting colors, including the

ultramarine made from lapis lazuli, the frequent use of unnatural colors for people,

conventionalized folds and the stencil-like repetition of themes are the most obvious

qualities. Lines become stiffer, loose their meaning, and planes of shading are created

with less care. He dates the apex of this style in Kizil to A. D. 600-650.

Max Klimburg, in 1969, divides Waldschmidt 's second Indo-Iranian style into an

Iranian early phase, in which, he says, haptic (tactile) tendencies dominate, and a

second , more Indian influenced late phase in which the optically creative form dominates.

He dates this second style from the time of the paintings which may be compared with

those of the Northern Wei in D•1nhuang until the Tang co nquest of Kucha in A. D.

647-648. This results in a ea. 150 year second style.169

Klimburg 's chronological theory is that the early second phase, in the Northern Wei

style of Dunhuang, is that of the Maitreya (PI. 3.4.1) and the Sama J ataka in Kizi117.He compares these with the Sivi Jataka in Mogao 275 (PI. 4.2.1.1.2) and several rows

of dancing Bodhisattvas in Mogao 272, which Duan Wenjie dates to the Northern

Liang dynasty, i. e.: A. D. 421-439. 17 The early late phase, which Klimburg places in

the second half of the sixth century, begins in Kizil 110, and shows the optical , i.e.

perspective, point of view. The last phase of the second style is, Klimburg feels, a

Maitreya from Kizil 224 (in the third Kizil cave group, i.e. the beginning of the

seventh century) , and the paintings of Kizil 114 and 38. 171

M. Yaldiz, in 1987, examines the composition of the murals, trying to establish a

chronology of style elements. She divides Waldschmid t s first Indo-lranian style into:

Group I. In which: figures have an order, a composition.

It is not difficult to follow the story.

Earth colors and, in contrast, green.

167 Liiders, H. 1922, Zur Geschich te und Geographic Ostturkestans, in: Sitzungsber ichte der Preussischen

Akademie der Wissenscha ften, 1922, pp. 243-261. Cit. in: Yaldiz 1987, p. 30.

168 Wa ldschmidt, E. a nd LeCoq, A. von 1933, Die Buddhist ische Spiitantike in Mi ttelasien. Vol. Vfl , Neue

Bildwerke lJ I. p. 24. Cil. in: Yaldiz 1987, p. 29.

169 KJimburg, Max 1969, Die Entwicklung des 2. indo-iranischen Stils vo n Kulscha. Untersuchungen zur

buddhist ischen Wandmalerei in Mit te lasien. Disser tation. Vienna (unpublished), p. 140.

170 Duan Wenjie (ed.) 1989, vo l. I, p. 14 and Pis. 3 7.

Cr., Klimburg 1969, Zusammenfassung, p. 135fT.

48



K JZIL

criteria, with plans of the caves, as well as stylistic crit eria and subject matter to

propose new dating based on his many years of research in situ . Angela Howard

Rutgers) has now published a summary of this with her own supporting arguments

for th is dating.179 Su Bai divides the K.izil periods into:

Phase 1 from 310 - 80



to 350 - 60

to 465 - 65

to 685 - 65.180

The reopening, in the Fall of 2000, of the Museum for Indian Art in Berlin has given

us radio carbon analysis (C14) dates for some of the K.izil mural fragments exhibited.18 1

Those which are of immediate in terest here are:

Yaldiz 2000 (C14 dates) Su Bai 1983

Cave 38: A. D. 419-535 A. D. 310 - 80

Cave 77: A. D. 406-425 not available

Cave 171: A. D. 391-427 A. D. 395 - 65

For cave 224 Marianne Yaldiz gives us two dates and a timely, unspoken, warning) .

Researc hers have untill now spoken of the date of the pain tings in a cave, but the

Maitreya (C 14 date A. D. 261-403) and the Cremation (C 14 date A D. 416-526) in

224 are perhaps not the only of very different dates within the same cave.

The Chronological Catalogue Part Five) summarizes the s tate of research as far as it

has been published.

3.1.3 Historical

The deciphering and translation of the Tokharien B language and the documents of•

Kucha during the first half of the twentieth century have given access to the Kuchan,

and therefore the K.izil , records for the sixth to the eight centuries. The history of

K.izil before these is kn own to us through Chinese sources. 182

Chinese forces conquered Kucha in A. D. 648 and ten years later it became one of the

four Garrisons.183 The conquest of Kashgar in 1043 and, thereafter, most of the Tarim

chronology in part of the Kizil Grottoes ). In: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, 3 vols. Tokyo: Heibonsha, vol. I, pp.

162-178.

179 Howard, Angela F. 1991, In Suppo rt of a New Chronology for the Kizil Mural Paintings. Archives of Asian

Art, 44, pp. 68-83.

180 Su Bai 1983, p. 174.

181 Ya ldiz M. et a l, 2000, p. 189ff.

182 Liu Mau -tsai 1969, Kutscha und se ine Beziehungen zu China vom 2. Jh . v. bis zum 6. Jh . n. Chr . 2 vols.

Wiesbaden: Otto Harr assowitz p. 3.

183 Ebert 1985, p. 197. The other three were Khotan, Tokma k (replaced later with Qarasar) and Kashgar. Ibid.,

50



KlZIL

basin by Mohammedans terminated for all intents and purposes its Buddhist history.

3.1.4 Cultural

Xuanzang, writing about Kizil, said that there were, ea.A D

629, about one hundredconvents ..with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to the Little Vehicle of

the school of the Sarvastivadas. Their doctrine and rules of discipline are like those of

India, and those who read them use the same Indian originals). 184

The Sarvastivadin sect prospered originally n Gandhara (here including Kashmir)

where a corruption of classical Sanskrit was in common use. The sect thus used a

form of Sanskrit from the outset and only later made revisions in their sutras that

brought the language of their scriptures closer to classical Sanskrit.

Doctrinally the sect was regarded as representative of Hinayana Buddhism, and its

theories influenced other Hinayana sects , as well as Mahayana Buddhism. Most of

the Hinayana Buddhist teachings transmitted to China were those of the Sarvastivadin

sect.185


Xuanzang described, A D 630-631, the bounty of the agricultural harvest, saying that

the soil was suitable for rice, corn, grapes, pomegranates, plums, pears, peaches and

almonds. He described the abundance of mineral deposits as gold, copper lead and tin.

In commerce they use gold, silver and copper coins. 186

Apart from its abundant water supply and fertile soil, which was due to the spring

floods , the Kucha area owed its prosperity to its location on the northern Taklamakan

trade route.

3.2 Jatakas

In 1928, according to Waldschmidt, ea. 80 different stories could be distinguished in

Kizil and more than 60 in 160 to 170 wall paintings could be identified with certainty .187

The following list contains 28 jatakas and avadanas. References are in Appendix V

The 7 jatakas and one avadana, which are to be found later in Dunhuang, are marked

with an asterisk and are commented briefly at the end of the list.

In Kizil the majority of the representations are of the blood-thirsty type, which seems

to be typical for Central Asia in contrast to earlier representations. The contents of

these jatakas are to be found frequently in the works of Faxian and Xuanzang and

n. 1192.

184 Beal tr.) 1994 (1884), p. 19.

186 Mi zuno 1982, p. 32 f.

186 Beal (tr.) 1994 (1884), p. 19.

187 Waldschmidt LeCoq 1928 1933, vol. VJI, p. 6. Cit. in: Yaldiz 1987, p. 44 and n. 41 His coun ting

included the s ketches which Griinwedel made in s itu .

51



KfZIL

In the Xian yu jing (Xian yu yin yuan qin), T 202, Nj 1322, from the Damamuka

Sutra, n Der Weise und der Tor. The man drives nails into the body of King

Byilingirali.190This is the version used In Kizil 38.

3.2.3 *Candraprabha Jataka

The Candraprabha Jataka is depicted in Kizil in the third register of the south side of

the barrel vault ceilingsofcaves 8191(Pl. 3.2.3) and 17.192The lozenge shaped compartment

n cave 17 has a dark background strewn with flowers . The Bodhisattva s hair is

attached to a tree in the center, the Brahman (painted black with a stylized Brahman

cord and a necklace) has a sword ra ised above his head. An assisting figure, on the

other (right hand) side of the king, is also painted black.

This scene, as depicted in Kizil 17, is discribed in the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing T

156, Nj 431193and in Der Weise und der Tor .

194There is no indication of which

version might have been used. Thisjataka is not in the J atakamala.

3.2.12 *Mahasattva (Vyaghri) Jataka

The Mahasattva Jataka is in Kizil 8, 17, 34, 38 (2 x), 47 (Pl. 3.2.12), 114 and 184.

Four of these depictions (caves 8, 38 (1 x), 47 and 184) show the Bodhisattva with the

upper arm ra ised over his head. This gives the famished tiger better access and would

not be in teres ting if the depictions from Gandhara (Pl. 2.2.3) and Kongwangshan195 did

not show the same position. Perhaps this is a farther sign of giving of oneself (dana

paramita).

The Mahasattva Jataka is not n the Pali collection. In one of the depictions in cave

8,196where the status of the Bodhisattva is not explicit, the source could be the Liudu

jijing in which the hero was an ascetic. 97 In those (8, 17, 34, 38 (1 x), 47, 114 and 207)

in which the Bodhisattva has a complex hair arrangement and is (sometimes) wearing

a large necklace or a scarf, the most likely source is the Jatakamala in which he is a

Brahman. 98The Der Weise und der Tor version was not used until later.

3.2.17 *Ruru (Rurumiga) Jataka

Three times in Kizil (caves 17, 38 and 178), the Ruru Jataka is depicted in lozenges,

but each time very differently. In cave 17 (PI. 3.2.17) the Rurumiga is saving the

drowning man. In cave 38 the king seems to be asking the deer to forgive him and in

190 Schmidt (tr.) 1978 (1843), p. 10.

191Tan, Shut.ong and An, Chunyang 1981, vol. I, PI. 39.

192 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol 1., PI. 68 .

193 Chavannes (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 17f. no, 5 and vol. VI , p. 88f.

194 Schmidt (tr.) 1978 (1843), p. 135fT.

195 Rh ie 1999, Figs. 1.2, 1.13 1.14.

196 Chugoku sekkutsu, Ki zil, vol. 1, PI. 117.

197 Cf., Chavannes (tr .) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 15fT. no, 4 and vo l. VI, p. 87f.

198 Cf., Khoroche (tr.) 1989, P. 5ff.

53



KIZIL

178 it is the deer who is talking to the king.

In caves 38 and 178 the king is dressed in a long dhoti and scarf, is wearing a crown

and has a halo. This is not surprising but the fact that the ignoble man being saved in

the depiction in cave 17 is also wearing a long dhoti and scarf and is wearing not only

a crown but also a large necklace is strange. In Bharhut the man is also dressed in a

dhoti and turban.199

The explanation for both depictions is to be found in the Pali Ruru

Jataka , no. 482•200in which a rich young man tries to drown himself because he has

spent all his inheritance ..and is saved by a golden deer ..etc.

3.2.18 *Sama Jataka

In Kizil 8 (PI. 3.2.18), 13, 17 and 114 (now in Berlin), the Sama Jataka follows the Za

bao zang jing T 203, Nj 1372 version.20 1The only noteworthy detail is that in Kizil 13

and 17 the Bodhisattva Sama is painted in black. This suggests that the painting of

the Brahman and his helper in hlack in the Candraprabha Jataka in Kizil 17 has nostandard (good, bad) iconographic importance.

3.2.24 *Sivi (Sibi) Jataka 11

In cave 17, the painting (PI. 3.2.24) shows King Sivi in lalitasana on a carpet with

another figure attending. The rhomboid mountain background is strewn with flowers

and the pigeon pursued by the hawk are above this group. To the king's right is a

courtly figure who is not defending his sovereign, but giving him moral assistance by

holding the king's head. Singular in this depiction is that the figure who is about to

cut the flesh from the Bodhisattva 's leg not only has a halo, as Devadatta202

is often

depicted, but he has a triple pair of wings as well.

The depiction in cave SZ3 is a rhomboid monographic scene with King Sivi sitting in

lalitasana, with another figure assisting, during the cutting of his leg. Both of these

figures have halos, but no crowns, and the figure cutting is wearing his hair as a

Brahmin. He has a somewhat misunderstood yajiiopavita Brahmin thread). Flowers

are on the background, as lotus buds are raining in the depiction in Mogao 275, but

there is apart from this heavenly benediction no real iconographic singularity.

The only depiction which showed King Sivi cutting his own flesh, as in the Zhongjing

zuan za bu yu jing (Zhongjing zuan za buyu) T. 208, Nj 1366, text,204

was in cave 114in Kizil.205

On a diamond shaped field with flowers, the hawk and the pigeon are on

the left and an observing figure fills the void on the right. In the center, in front of a

199 Cf., Cunningham 1998 (1879), PI. XXV , 1200 Cowell (tr .) 1969 (1879), vol. IV, p. 161ff.

201 Chavannes tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 156tf. no, 43 and vol. VI , p. 112f.

202 Oevadatta was the Buddha's evil cousin who is particularly well-known for having released the wild

elephant, Nalagiri, with the intention of killing the Buddha. Cf., Huntington 1993 (1985), p. 396.

203 Ibid., PI. 131.

204 Chavannes tr.) 1962 0910-1935), vol , p. 70ff., no. 197 and vol. fV , p. 85f., no. 2.

205 Cf.: Sketch from Grunwedel in Yaldiz 1987, p 53, Fig. 32. t is not known if the mural depiction still exists.

54



KlZJL

tree, a figure holds a large scale. On the left-hand scale plate is a second, smaller,

depiction of the pigeon. King Sivi has his foot on the right hand scale plate and is

about to cut the portion of flesh from his leg.

Another depiction, which is s till in Kizil114,

206

shows King Sivi, in lalitasana, reachingup to -save the pigeon pursued by the hawk. At the same time, the Brahmin (yajiiopavita) ,

on the king's right, is cutting flesh from the king's dangling leg. On the king's left, a

courtier is holding a scale with which to weigh the flesh.

3.2.25 *Sujata (Sujati) Avadana

The Za bao zang jing T 203, Nj 1372,2 7 corresponds to all of the depictions in China.

There is also a Sujata text in the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing T 156, Nj 431 and in the

Xian yu jing (Xian yu yin yuan qin) T 202, Nj 1322 ( Der Weise und der Tor ). No

depiction previous to Kizil is known.2 8

While fleeing, a prince, his wife and son are starving. When the prince raises his

sword to sacrifice his wife, his child offers himself instead.

The four Kizil depictions which are, or were, in caves 8 (PI. 3.2.25), 38 (2 x) and 114

are single scenes. They all use the scene of the father , Shan Chu, drawing his sword

to sacrifice his wife. It is the violent central action in the story itself.

3.2.28 *Vessantara (Visvantara) Jataka•

This jataka isabout

Prince Vessa

ntara who givesaway

everything

fromthe

staterain making white elephant to his own wife and children.

The damaged Kizil 81 depiction shows the recipient leaving with the white elephant

and Prince Vessantara with his family in the car t. The other three depictions in caves

8, 38 (now in Berlin) and 198 all show the moment when the Brahman takes away the

protesting children. This underlines the suffering of Prince Vessantara and his family

and corresponds to the Central Asian penchant for the gruesome.

3.3 Iconography

The distribution of the murals seems not to follow a scheme corresponding to the

various types of architecture. Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, flying garland carriers, Yaksas ,

musicians and demons represent the heavenly sphere. Only the donor figures are of

the worldly realm. Parinirvana scenes, either painted or molded and painted, usually

have a fixed architectural place on the back wall of the traversal room or corridor.

The ruins which were not caves but free-standing structures are not well enough

2 6 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. 1, PI 128 and Tan , Shutong and An , Chuoja ng, vol. 11 , PI. 21.

2 7 Chavannes (t.r.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. Il l , p. 2 a nd cf. vol. IV, p. 201.

2 8 There is another Sujata Jataka [FausbOII 269, Cowell 352 and Chavannes 209] which is un related to this

one. It is the one depicted in Bharhut (Cuoningham 1879, plate XLVII , 3).

55



KJztL

preserved to give evidence of a scheme of decoration.209Programs are only the scenes

from the previous lives of the Buddha and these frequently assume a form quite

singular in that they depict the many scenes of each story compressed, even more so

than in Bharhut, into one.

The fundamental iconographic importance ofKizil was that it continued the presentation

of he anthropomorphic Buddha in his mortal life(and previous lives) and in presentations

of his parinirvana. Steles and fragments in stone confirm this in Gandhara as well,

but no painting survived the EpthaJite destruction. Kizil became, presumably more so

than sit es on the southern route, the major iconographic bridge between India and

China.

To the iconographic elements from Gandhara were added, in Kizil, those (kusti and

Persian scarves, for exam ple) of the Tokaran B or Sassanian civilization.

That rea lly innovative iconographic elements were added in Kizil would be difficult to

sustain, but if caves 38, 47 and 80 are in fact from the first phase, A D. 310-350 or

395, as Su Bai believes, then the Sassanian elements such as flying scarves and kusti

were already in the fourth century an established part of Kizil mural painting. The

shading is not yet in cave 38 but it is in cave number 80.

The li fe of the Buddha, the previous lives of the Buddha and the moral avadanas

were didactic in purpose. In the stair-risers of Gandhara, in the painting in Miran or

in the has-reliefs in the stupa from Sikri, they were placed so that the person going up

the s tairs or doing his circumambulation could read them by himself but the

organization in Kizil suggests that they may conceivably have served a monk, a teacher ,

as an illustration or pictorial elucidation during his teachings of younger monks orpilgrims. The form of the presentation , compact or not, becomes in the latter case of

relative importance. Compressed into a single scene, as in by far the largest number

of depictions in Kizil, in two or more or in a frieze of scenes, the didactic utility is the

same while the differences become a valid reflection of chronology, origin, taste and

style.

In Kizil the number of jatakas, avadanas and legends (Chavannes refers to them

collectively in his introduction as historiettes, 210 which is not complimentary in French)

depicted is (according the Berlin Museum lineage of Griinwedel, Waldschmidt, Le Coq

and Yaldiz) 52.211

Of these 22 are self-sacrificing, with 6 animals and 16 humans as

heroes, and 30 are not self-sacrificing, with 15 animals and 15 humans. The utility of

these in attempting to foster unselfish behavior was, in this condensed format for this

purpose, ideal. Of these 52 depictions, without forgetting that the majority were

presented several times, only five (the Rudrayana Legend in cave 83 , the Maitrakanyana

and Sronakotikarna Avadanas in cave 212, the Sumagadha Avadana in cave 224, the

Mahaprabhasa Avadana in the Ritter Cave n Kiris and the Mandhatar Avadana in

the Middle Cave, small gorgef 12 were presented in several scenes. Even assuming a

2 9 Pclliot, Paul 1961-1982 (19'??), Vol. Ill. Duldur aqur Plates XV to XXIV and Subashi Pla tes LV to LX.

210 Chavannes tr.) 1962 {1910-1935), vol. I, p. v.

2 11 Yaldiz 1985, pp. 45-79.

212 Ibid., pp. 26-28 and Ch ugoku sekkut.su, Kizil, vol. Il l , PI. 193.

56



KIZIL

margin of error, the preponderance of single scene presentations is overwhelming and

would be difficult to account for unless they served as notes or sketches for the

teaching of virtue or as auto-didactic reminders for those who knew them well.213

3.4 Hinayana and Mahayana in Kizil

The well known translator Dharmaraksa received in Dunhuang, A. D. 286, a Mahayana

Sutra from a messenger from Kucha. This gives a concrete early date for the existence

of Mahayana beliefs in Kucha but it is not known how long before that Kucha had

followed Hinayana convictions, or even Buddhism. The unambiguous early documented

facts are to be found in the life of Kumarajiva. He was, ea. A. D. 350, a believer in

Hinayana doctrines, as was most of Kucha at that time. He went to Kashmir , ea. A.

D. 352, and then to Kashgar, ea. A. D. 356, to study Buddhism. While in Kashgar, he

met a Mahayana monk from Yarkland and, under his influence, converted to Mahayana

beliefs at a time when Kucha was still predominantly Hinayana.

When Kumarajiva returned to Kucha his influence was such that Mahayana Buddhism

became the stronger of the two but at the same time Fotushemi, a well known and

much respected Hinayana teacher, was abbot of eight Hinayana cloisters.214

The king of Kucha was a believer in Mahayana Buddhism in A. D. 583/584 but only

shortly thereafter Xuanzang documented, ea. A. D. 630, that Kucha was largely Hinayana

during his stay. All of these facts confirm the varying but parallel influence of the two

schools.

The thematic origin of the murals in Kizil is largely Hinayana. They are concerned

with the life and deeds of Sakyamuni and with salvation (nirvana) through individual

effort (the paramitas . The statue sitting in the niche, or standing in front of the wall,

which the viewer saw first when he entered was as far as we know Sakyamuni. The

next impression was of the previous lives, the jatakas and avadanas pertaining to

Sakyamuni, and his paramitas or virtues. The third, usually on the back wall, was of

the parinirvana, the extinction of Sakyamuni. Then, with the exception of cave 80

where the Maitreya is shown above Sakyamuni as on some Gandharan steles, the

Maitreya is shown enthroned in the Tushita heaven above the entrance (PI. 3.4.1), as

hope for the future for mankind and, more specifically, for the viewer as he left the

cave.

The narrative habits of Hinayana ..and the theological dogmatism of Mahayana , as

Soper referred to them,215

are the key, or at least a key, to the differences between

Kizil and Dunhuang because so much that is Hinayana persisted to the end in Kizil.

The preponderance of one or the other form of Buddhism in Kizil seems to have

depended on the personalities of the leading monks and the kings, accompanied by a

213 Cf., SchlinglofT, Dieter 1991 (?), Traditions of Indian Narrative Painting in Central Asia. Reprinted from:

Biblioteca Indo-Biddica no. 88. Delhi: Sri Satburu Publications.

214 In a document from A. D. 379. Cf. , Liu Mau-tsai 1969, p. 26.

215 Soper 1947, p. 236.

57



K:JZIL

very notable tolerance towards the other viewpoint.216

3.4.1 Maitreya in Kizil

Aside from the donors, who are from the terrestrial sphere, the heterogeneous heavenly

beings and the stenciled or seemingly stenciled repetitions, the contents of the murals

of Kizil can be divided into two categories: devotional and didactic. The devotional

were the Buddha Sakyamuni statues as the central object of worship,217the Maitreya

Bodhisattva, and the parinirvana. With the exception of cave 80 (see above), in the

four versions in situ and in the one in Berlin218

, the Maitreya Bodhisattva is enthroned

(PI. 3.4.1) in the middle of a large semi-circle above the entrance in the midst of a host

of noble worshippers. The Bodhisattva and those around him are aJl wearing symbols

of nobility: crowns with kusti, abundant jewelry with many pearls and the yajnopavita,

the sacred thread crossing from the left shoulder to the right side of the body. They

are otherwise clothed in dhoti and Persian scarves. The depiction remains

iconographically almost the same the number of people varies) from the early cave 38(A. D. 310 +- 80), 80 (also A. D. 310 +- 80), 171 (A. D. 395 +- 65), 17 (A. D. 465 +- 65)

and, from 224 (no new date known), in Berlin.

The image of Maitreya Bodhisattva is based on that of a mendicant seeking

Enlightenment, and is intimately related to the iconography of Brahma and Brahman

ascetics. The syncretism of the iconographies of Maitreya Bodhisattva and Brahma is

already known through the studies made by A. Foucher and other scholars. The

present writer, through the examination of sutras on Maitreya Bodhisattva, primarily

in Chinese came to realize that Maitreya not only comes from Brahmans , but, as Prof.

M Taddei pointed out, had a structural resemblance to Brahma. In Gandhara, the

Maitreya Bodhisattva was considered to have been born into a family of a Brahman

and is at present a sage pursuing the path for the bodhi, and is established as a

Future Buddha succeeding Sakyamuni. 219

Akira Miyaji closed this summary of his chapter on the Iconography of the Maitreya

Bodhisattva in Gandhara mentioning the special environment prevailing in Gandhara-

Kapisi and saying that the iconography of the Maitreya Bodhisattva in the Tusbita

heaven had an immense influence on the Buddhist art of Central Asia as well as in

China during the Northern Wei period. 220Except for the hand positions, the other

figures , six in the first row and four in the second following the curve of the vaulted

ceiling, are in the same position, either with lowered eyes or with their eyes turnedtoward the Maitreya. Their legs, or ankles, with one exception, are also crossed and

216 Cf., Liu Mau-tsai 1969, p.25f.

217 These were either seated in a lotus position in a niche in the central pillar opposite the cella entrance or on a

pedestal, perhaps seated in a western position and/or with crossed ankles, in front of this same pillar. None of

these types has survived in Kizil, however, and we are obliged to refer to those st i ll in situ in Dunhuang.

218 Cf , Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, Pis. 56, 57 83, vol. ll , PI. 43 and vol. Il l , Pis 3 222. The four in situ

are in caves 17, 38,80 and 171. The fifth, in Berlin (MIK 8836), is from cave 224.

219 Miyaji 1992, p. 14 of the English translation (by Prof. Haruko Tsuchiya, Sophia University , Tokyo) of the

conclusion.

220 Ibid., p. 15. Thi s is about the Maitreya Bodhisattva in Gandhara, but it would seem that the origin of the

Maitreya in cave 17 , in Kizil, is very well described.

58



KlZIL

their crowns, jewelry and clothes are very similar to those of the central figure as

described above.

The scarcity of Maitreyas in context in Gandhara the exceptions are the steles and

the presumably stair-riser fragments showing Maitreya with the seven other Buddhas)

makes the Kizil depictions even more important.

In addition, It is interesting to note ..that the Bodhisattva Maitreya ..which is

represented in the soffit of the niches and several cupolas in the Hindu Kush (in and

near Bamiyan), is clearly a synoptic extract of the scene of Maitreya in the Tushita

heaven found earlier in Kizil. 221

3.5 Conclusion

The construction of the stupa-pillar caves for the Buddhist cult in Kizil was conceptually

descended from the architectural heritage of Kondivite, Bhaja and Ajanta X In theKizil variation, the entrance opened into the end of a rectangular cella which was

barrel roofed. In the wall in front of the viewer (PI. 3.5), a niche with a statue, or a

statue standing on a pedestal, occupied the center while left and right of this a

passageway was excavated. These, connected by a transversal room or corridor behind,

gave the poss ibility of circumambulating the cult object, transforming the remaining

central block of stone into a stupa.222

Kizil 4 , 8 and 38 also have small notch-shaped indentations in the wall facing the

entrance which would be difficult to understand without the example of cave 171 (Pl.

3.5).

The cave belongs to an early, A D 395 65,223

Kizil phase and still has rhomboid

shaped pieces of wood with nine rounded protrusions made of molded earth, simulating

mountains, anchored in many of the small notches. In the center of this mountain

landscape wall, is the niche painted with a mandorla and a halo for a seated figure ,

presumably a Sakyamuni Buddha sitting in his mountain refuge seeking enlightenment

(which Gandharan artists had often portrayed as the emaciated Sakyamuni). The

scheme is not only important in itself, but is also the explanation of the presentation

of the jataka and avadana stories in the barrel ceiling in rhomboid forms divided by

the same mountains .

Parallel to the anthropomorphic evolution of the representation of the Buddha in

Gandhara , the disciples and figures around him became, dressed as noblemen of the

times, the more accessible Bodhisattvas, among which the central figure was enlarged

to maintain his status. The didactic function had now been divided clearly into an

object of devotion and an object of didactic and popular usage .

Bodhisattvas are in Kizil, one could argue with the exception ofMaitreya , manifestations

221 Klimburg-Salter 1989, P. 97

222 It must, for sake of completeness, be added that the caves for habitation were wh ite-washed and had no

decoration.

223 Su Bai 1983, p. 173.

59



KIZIL

of Sakyamuni Buddha and not yet independent deities. Even Maitreya is shown in

discussion asprimus inter pares amidst other beings in the Tushita heaven.

This is the situation which we find during the economic and cultural quintessence of

Kizil during the sixth century. The oldest and most conservative eight elements224 of

the Buddha s life,225 together with the jatakas and avadanas which had been adopted

into the Hinayana faith from popular morality and were more accessible to the people

at large, form the didactic iconographic program in the rock-cut temples of Kizil. The

Mahayana vision of Buddhism,226 not only related it to the traditions of Indian thought

but also provided the people with a category of intermediaries in the form of the

Bodhisattvas. These are also present in Kizil in the form of he retinue of he (devotional)

Maitreya in cave 17 (PI. 3.4.1), for example.

It was probably the Chinese conquest of647-648 which caused the upheavals resulting

in the decline of Kizil and the rise of Kumtura in the Kucha region, at a time when

Dunhuang was becoming more important and was also absorbing religious and cultural

influences from the Western Tarim Basin. Kizil was, therefore, not only the middle nthe sense of a wheel with a hub, but it was in the middle of an outstanding evolution.

3.5.1 Tmnshuk

Another element linking the northern route and Gandhara was found in Tumshuq

between Kizil and Kashgar. t is the depictions of the Vessantara and Sujata Jatakas

and the Sanjali Avadana fashioned n dried earth (Pl. 3.5.1).227 Rowland believed that

this medium had largely replaced schist and green phyllite for the decoration of stupas

and viharas in Gandhara by A. D. the third century. It is undeniably much more

adaptable to production of fine sculpture than the brittle schist of Gandhara and, since

both stone and earthen images were originally embellished with polychromy and gold

leaf, the final surface was virtually the same.28

The small figures in dried earth from Tumshuq are from the sixth or beginning of the

seventh century, and similar work, of A. D. the first half of the first century, was

found in Taxila.229 A monastery in Hadda, in Afganistan, had many of them in situ

but if these fragile vestiges have survived the civil wars of the 1990s is unknown.

224 Supernatural birth, Renunciation, Meditation, Assault by Mara, Enlightenment, Preaching, Miracle of

Sravasti and Parinirvana.

225 Ma Shizha ng in: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil 1983-1985, vol. 11, p. 170ff.

226 .. we have evidence tha t Mahayana doctrines were taught. in Central Asia at. least from the second century

A. D. However, as late as the seventh century Hstian-tsang records that t he Sarvastivadin, a Hinayana sect,

predominated throughout Central Asia. (Bareau, Les sectes bouddhiques du Pe tit. Vehicule, pp. 133-134) and in

continuation ''Fifty years la ter, 1-cbing reports a greater diversity of sectarian affiliation, the existence of

Sarvastivadin, and a few Mahasamghika in western Central Asia. (Li tvinsky, Outline History , p. 65) Both

cit. in: Klimburg-Salter 1989, p. 52.

227 Bussagli refers to this work as coroplast. For excelent photographs see: Gies (ed .) 1996, Pis. 137-139.

228 Rowland 1953, p. 83f and Pis. 53 54 b. (Rowland 1967 is a reprint of Rowland 1953 but t he numbering of

thepages is different

).

229 Cf. : Huntington 1993 (1985), Figs. 7.6 and 7.7.

60



P RT FouR: DUNHU NG

4.1 Introduction

Dunhuang, from its contacts with the clerics and laity of the West, obtained therefrom

ancient models to follow. Its villages were alike in possessing many pagoda-temples.

When [in 439] the province of Liang was conquered and its population was transferred

to the [Wei] capital, the monks came eastward with their Buddhist paraphernalia, and

'teaching by images' spread far and wide. 230

The previously existing Confucianism and Daoism were textual and largely concepts

ofcomportment. Daoism did have heavenly figures but they provided too li ttle assistancefor the illiterate. The shamans and demons, of Chinese decoration schemes of the Han

dynasty for example, were reassuring, protective or frightening to ward off evil, but

they were not something to worship. It was Buddhism which provided the moulded

auspicious images 231 accompanied by the pictorial illustrations found in Kizil and,

from the very beginning in Dunhuang, in Mogao 272 and 275. These, including the

jatakas, which filled the awaiting vacuum. In Dunhuang they lost the usually rhomboid

monoscenic form used in Kizil and became increasingly Chinese.

Because of its location, the monks who built and tended the rock-cut temples near

Dunhuang benefited, not only economically but also intellectually, from Chinese

influences from the East and Central Asian influences from the West.

4.1.1 Location

South of the Gobi and east of the Taklamakan, Dunhuang is the geographical point

near which the southern and northern Tarim Basin trade routes converged.

Near Dunhuang, which is in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang (0.4 map), the

Mogao caves were carved in the eastern wall of Mount Mingsha: thirty li or so

southeast of the present Sha-chou, on San-wei Shan .. .232

4.1.2 Chronology

Referring to caravan traffic around the Tarim Basin, and its cultural influences,

Bussagli says that the southern route was the preferred one until A D. the fourth

230 Wei Shu, cxiv, p.4r. Cil. in: Soper, Alexander C. 1958, Northern Liang a nd Northern Wei in Kansu.

Artibus Asiae, vol. XXI , no.2, p. 131fT.

231 Wei Shu , pp. 417c-4l8 a . Cit. in: Sopcr 195 8, p. 141.

232 Dao Xuan, Chi S hen Chou San Pao Kan-t ung Lu (mid seventh century). T 2103. Cit. in: Soper 1.958, p.

142.

Gies, Jacque

sand

Cohen

, Monique

(ed.) 1995

,Se

ri nde, Terr

ede Buddh

a. Dix siecles d a

rt

sur

laRo

ut.e dela Soie. Paris. See the sketch which is probably of Ounhuang, p. 196.

61



D uNHUANG

century.233 This is difficult to prove, but it is pertinent in this context, that the

Gandharan angels in the Miran murals (on the Southern Route) are dated to A D. the

third century.

4.1.3 Historical

King Mengsun , the founder of the Northern Liang dynasty, A D. 421-439, used the

years of prosperity which followed the founding of the dynasty, to build temples and

pagodas instead of palaces.234 This was the genesis of the caves in Dunhuang.

4.1.4 Cultural

Probably due to its location at the cross roads of the trade routes to the West Dunhuang

seems to ha ve had a special fidelity to Buddhism235and the cultural importance of

the Liang state lay chiefly in the encouragement that it gave to its expansion.236 The

Juqu Mahayana l ibrart37

in Dunhuang, under the direction of the Indian missionaryTanmochan, won lasting celebrity as a center of tr anslation of portions of the Buddhist

canon.


Dunhuang was the last point of relative safety and social order before confronting the

uncertainties of the Tarim Basin 38and could count on ample donations from pass ing

caravan s. There was royal patronage (only?) during the Liang dynasty (see 4.1.2 and

4.1.3).

4.2 Jatakas

Near Dunhuang, in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang (0.4 Map), the Mogao

caves were carved in the eastern wall of Mount Mingsha. There seem to be no caves

with jatakas among the nearby East ern Thousand Buddha or the Yulin Caves but

the Sama Jataka is depicted in cave 12 of the West ern Thousand Buddha Caves. In

all, nine jatakas are identifiable ·in seventeen caves.239

Some of the differences between contents of the jatakas used in Dunhuang and those

used in Kizil may be explained by the use of different texts. The monk Senghui, whodied in A D. 280 and was the translator into Chinese, of the 155 jatakas, avadanas

and legends of the Liudu jijing and the Jiu za bu yu jing which form volume one of the

233 Bussagli , Mario 1965, La pittura deii Asia centrale. Firenze: Sadea/Sansoni, p. 3.

34 Ibid., cit. in: Soper 1958, p. 141.

235 Wei Shu , cxiv, p. 4 r . Cit. in: Soper 1958, p. 134f.

236 Soper 1958, p. 134.

237 King Mengsun was a Juqu . Soper 1958, p. 132 and p. l41.

236 Or, obversly, lhe point at which a caravan could be thankful for its survival.

239 Mogao 124, from which the Sama Jataka now in the Hermitage (no. Oh 197 198) was ta ken , would have

been the fifteenth , but no informa lion about the iconography of the cave is available.

62



DuNHU NG

Edouard Chavannes translations into French, made his own choice of what he tran slated

and perhaps the translations themselves are not unbiased. Chavannes does not te ll us

which texts Senghui used, ifindeed th is is known, but texts were increasingly translated

from the Sanskrit sutras into Chinese, which may account for some of the differences

between the depictions in Dunhuang and places where the older Pali texts had been

followed.240 During the Sui dynasty, A. D. 589-618, pictures illustrating the Mahayana

sutras substituted little by little those of the Hinayana jatakas, avadanas and legends241

which, having lost their preponderant didactic role, were thereafter only seldom used.

4.2.1 Northern Liang (A. D. 421-439)

With the establishment, A. D. 317, of the Jin capital in Nanjing and the clo sure of the

Gansu corridor as a passage to the West, it was the Liang states which main tained

friendly relations with Kucha. This gives us the geopolitical background for the

eastward progress ofBuddhistcave paintingfrom Kizil to Dunhuangduring the Northern

Liang dynasty.242

The short Northern Liang dynasty lasted from King Mengsun 's defeat of his last local

rival n 420 until his son's surrender to the Northern Wei in 439. Both rulers supported

Buddhism. Caves 268, 272 and 275 are the three Mogao caves which have come down

to us from this period. Although only 275 has jatakas, the caves are more coherent if

considered together. They illustra te the Mahayana iconographic foundation on which

Dunhuang is built.

Mogao 268 is an elongated rectangle flanked by four small meditation cells, with the

ceilingpainted

on a level surface.The

undamaged portion ofthis

is dividedinto

twosquares with a rectangular half square between them. These in turn are divided into

a total of four square lantern ceiling elements. The principal icon is a Maitreya

surrounded by adoring figures being reborn ou t of lotuses in the Tushita heaven

Mogao 272 is roughly square with a large niche in the middle of the Western wall,

opposite the entrance. The large mandorla behind the icon has concentric bands of

seated Buddha emanations, flying p and flames. This iconographic motif of a

mandorla filled with miniature Buddha i m is distinctly Central Asian in

origin 243

confirmed , for example, by the mandorla and halo of the cosmological Buddha

from Kizil13 which is now in Berlin (PI. 4.2.1.1 c).

The thousand Buddha motive and the Bodhisattvas painted on the walls were continued

halfway up the curved ceiling to the central square. This square in the lantern ceiling

has apsaras, flames and a central circle which must have symbolized a lotus. Here,

for the first time in Dunhuang, the addition of tassels ( triangular lappets' ' as Soper

calls them) makes the square lantern ceiling element into a heavenly canopy which is

followed by a band of vegetal patterns on alternating white and cinnabar backgrounds.

240 For the Pa li texts see: Cowell (tr.) 1962 (1897-1905). For the Chinese texts see: Chavannes tr .) 1962

19 10-35).

241 Duan Wenjie (ed.)l989 , vol I, p. 22.

242 Cf., Ebert 1985, pp. 190-198.

243 Howard, Angela 1986, The Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha. Leiden: E. J . Brill, pp. 49 50.

63



D u UANG

After the central zone, there are balconies with arcades of musicians and dancing

figures who are shown to the knees. They have halos and scarves and the impression

of great movement in this cave seems fitting to the acclamation and adulation of the

large Fu ture Buddha, with both legs pendant, in the central niche.

4.2.1.1 Description ofMogao 275244

The Mogao caves were hewn on three levels in the eastern wall of Mingsha shan.

Cave 275 is on the third level, in approximately the middle of the wall, just north of

caves 268 and 272. The cave is a rectangle, the architectural singularity of which is

the six niches in the uppermost register of the la teral walls

The ceiling of 275 is slightly concave with an indentation above the icon and with

ra ised parallel lines suggesting the underside of small rafters. Since it has been

repaired and repainted it is only by considering the three caves from this dynasty

together (see 4.2.1 above) that we gain a usable picture.

The north-eastern right hand corn er of cave 275 was lost when part of the face of the

cliff collapsed and a sustaining part ition, which is vi sible on the right of PI. 4.2.1.1 a ,

was built in the tenth century, during the Song dynasty.245 Whitfield reported that

the southern portion of th is partition had been removed before 1995246 and a photograph

in the Tokyo exh ibition of 1996 showed that the northern portion had by then also

been removed (PI. 4.2.1.1 b).247

The dominant icon, given its location opposite the entrance and its ea. 3 m. he ight, is a

Maitreya; the friendly, benevolent , future Buddha and Mahasattva Bodhisattva .

This gives a context which is predominantly Mahayana, with a plastic emphasis on a

divine Buddha (the large Maitreya) and of the smaller Maitreyas in niches. These are

the most evident elements, but jatakas and the li fe of Sakyamuni are also present.

The didactic message is of Maitreya 's inclination towards the viewer, together with an

offering of hope for a better future. This is supported, or perhaps even legitimized, by

the presence of the older narrative elements.

The principal icon shows the Maitreya, perhaps after his appearance in the world as

lord of the Ketumati paradise.248 Together with the western wall behind, the figure is

in many ways related to the Maitreya lunette above the entran ce to Kizi l 17 (PI. 3.4.1).

This Mogao 275 icon of Mait reya (PI. 4.2.1.1 b), in clay and in high relief, is seatedwith crossed ank les, the feet resting on two round objects which were originally probably

lotuses,249

not on a foot stool or small rug as in Kizil. The Dunhuang figure is clothed

44 Mogao 275 is a corner-stone for the Dunhuang caves. The following is, therefore, comprehensive.

245 Higashiyama, Kengo 1996, Tonko sanda i sekkutsu. (ea.: the t hree la rge groupes of caves at Dunhuang).

Tokyo: Koda nsha, p. 69, lines 5 6.

246 Whitfield, Roderick 1995, vo l , p. 274.

247 T he Treasures of Dunhuang. Legacy amidst Sa nds. (Tokyo Metropoli ta n Ar t Muse um, 1996). Ca talogue PI.

no 4.

248 Whitfield 1995, vol. , p 275.

249 This, a nd other uses of lotus blossoms underfoot, such as the lotuses a ppearing where a Bodh isa t tva st epped

the Nal inka Jataka pa inted on the St ein Banner in the British Museum (4.2.6.3.1 a b), for exa mple) are, I

64



D UNHUANG

in a long transparent dhoti, through which markings similar to those under the knees

of the Cosmological Buddha, from Kizil 8,250 which is now in Berlin,251 (PI. 4.2.1.1 c) can

be seen. t al so shows a similar wide saddle belt. Here in Mogaao 275 he wears

keyura arm-bands and one short and one long necklace. His hair rests on his shoulders,

from which a scarf, with an undulating border and a blue-green lining, falls behind

him, still visible between him and the back of the throne an d, again , on the front of

the seat. His head has a large nose and mouth and his crown consists of three disks,

of which the middle one shows a Buddha in dhyanamudra, whereas the Kizil 17

Maitreya (PI. 3.4.1) has a crown with a central disk showing seven small globes or

spheres. The halo of this Dunhuang figure has a row of flowers surrounded by a circle

of flames, instead of the unadorned circles of Kizil 17. He is sitting on a throne with

an inverted pyramidal back and is flanked by two free standing stylized lions. The

inverted triangle-shaped back of the throne has the same form as on a late Gandharan

pedestal formerly in the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin?5In Mogao 275, the

painted background shows two standing Bodhisattvas flanking the Maitreya. Beyond

and above these are seated Bodhisattvas , dressed in dhoti with halos, crowns andscarves, in gestures of admiration similar to those of Kizil 17, but instead of being

almost compressed together in the limited space of a lunette, these are seated in

relative isolation on a cinnabar background scattered with flowers. Another cinnabar

background scattered with other flowers is in the early Kizil cave 67,253 dateable, as is

its neighbor number 47 with a Mahasattva Jataka, probably to A. D 350 +- 60 , thus

preceeding Mogao 275 (A. D. 421-429).

The lateral walls of the Mogao 275 chamber are divided horizontally into three registers

(PI. 4.2.1.1 b). The uppermost has three niches on each side. The first two , from the

western wall, have towers, architectural roofs with tiles in relief and protruding eaves.

The architecture with the flanking towers (Chinese: que) reproduces the form of the

monumental gateways of the Han dynasty known to us from sepulchral tiles and

pottery models of grave chambers.254 The presentation of Maitreya in a plastic

architectural setting is continued during the following Northern Wei dynasty (see

below: Mogao 254, 257 259). Elements from Central Asian architecture in painting,

such as the musicians arcades in Mogao 251 and Mogao 248 and 435 where they

alternate with Han architecture porches) from the Northern Wei dynasty (A. D. 368-543),

in Kizil 38 (A. D. 600-650) and the arcades (from the fifth or sixth century) in Kakrak

in Afghanistan255

are frequently found in a heavenly context. The Han monumental

palace gate elements were surely used to represent Maitreya sitting in , or in front of,

his palace in the Tushita paradise. The niches almost touch the ceiling and containstatues in high relief of seated figures in crossed ankle positions on thrones with

think, a re-use of the much earlier first seven st eps of the Buddha Sakyamuni. These were originally footprints

but later became lotuses.

250 On the Japanese list used in Chugoku Sekkutsu, Kizil , vols. I, 11 Il l, the sixteen Schwerttriigerhohle isnumber 8.

251 Cf , Williams 1973, p. 124. Ya ldiz 1987, p. 87 IT.

252 PI. in: Soper, Alexander C. 1958, p. 152.

253 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol I, PI. 167.

254 Cf.: Soper, Alexander in: Sickman, Laurence and Soper, Alexander 1968 (1956), The Art and Architecture of

China. Yale Univers ity Press, pp. 373-378 and Ills. 250 and 251.

255 PI in: Bussagli 1978, p 39.

65



DuNHUANG

inverted pyramidal backs.

The figure in the first niche on the North wall (PI. 4.2.1.1 a is a slightly restored

Maitreya with his right hand in b y mudr and his left hand resting on his left

knee. He is sitting before a background with branches meant surely to represent the

Dragon Pipal Tree < * l l H ~ I f , also called a Dragon Flower Tree , Nagapuspa or

Nagacampa tree, 56 under which Maitreya is to attain enlightenment and to preach.

The painted branches continue onto the side walls of the niche. Two flanking Slflall

painted figures with halos, dressed in long central Asian coats, acclaim him from

between the branches. 57The Dragon Pipal Tree is also painted behind the Maitreya

on the background of the second niche on the North wall (also PI. 4.2.1.1 a) but the

figure has been restored. The tree is again, with the Central Asian acclaiming figures,

in the first two (from the West) of the niches on the South wall (no illustration). The

spaces between the niches on both walls have relatively large Bodhisattvas painted

standing on white circles presumably meant to be lotuses. They have halos, three-disk

crowns with (sometimes striped kusti, Persian scarves, long Brahman cords and longdhotis. Some of these have meditating Buddhas in vajarasana above them.

The third and last niche on the North wall has an ogival frame formed by the symmetrical

trunks and branches of wo Dragon Pipal trees inst.ead of he Tushita Palace architecture.

These are in flat-relief beside and above the Maitreya in lalitasana who is molded in

high relief and painted, sitting with the right leg horizontal and the other planted

firmly on the floor of the niche (also called dangling ). 58 He is sitting on a round

object which is visibly bound and must represent the grass or reed bundles on which

the figures in lalitasana are sitting in the porches of caves IX and X in Yungang. His

right arm is now broken, but was originally in the position of meditation and rested on

his right knee. The figure has a halo in has-relief and had a crown or an ushnisha.

He is dressed in a long dhoti and has a scarf, which covers his shoulders and part of

the wall of the niche, in relief. On his bare torso he is wearing a large necklace with a

longer one beneath it, identical to those of the first Maitreya on this wall. The (two)

flanking figures painted at the time of the restoration on the back wall of the niche,

have halos, long dhoti with vertical stripes and elaborate Persian scarves. Approximately

two thirds of the wall under the niche now shows a painted Western Paradise, but this

theme was probably not used in Dunhuang before the Tang dynasty and is here of a

considerably later date than the original painting. t is probable that the painted

figures flanking the clay figure were also added at th is later date.259 Now that the

partition wall has been removed, the series of jatakas in the second register and thetriangular curtain pattern in the third will surely be seen to continue.

The Southern wall is also organized in three levels, as is it's vis avis, but a passageway,

now closed, was once cut leading to Mogao 272. This destroyed a scene from the life of

56 Kim 1997, p. v.

57 Cf.: Soper 1958, p. 152

58 This la litasana post ure of ease and relaxation is not only still used in J apan but it is documented as early as

the Kushan dynasty. Cf., Huntington 1993, Fig. 8.39, p. 159.

259 Chugoku sekku ts u, Dunhuang, vol. I, Pis. 18 and 19 show the first and third niches and figures side by side.

The comparison demonstrates, together with the flaking paint of the later restoration , rather clearly theoriginal and re-painted portions.

66



D uNHUANG

Sakyamuni in the second register and perhaps there is another undernea th the Song

dynasty wall which has meanwhile been removed. Documentation of this situation is

as yet not known and the walls may indeed still be undergoing cleaning and restoration

[cf.: 4.2.1.1.1 and 4.2.1.1.2]). The uppermost register, starting from the West wall, al so

has architectural niches with Bodhisattvas between them. The Maitreya figures inthe first two niches wear dhotis with saddle belts and are seated on thrones with

inverted pyramidal backs. Both niches are painted with the trees and acclaiming

figures in Central Asian coats found in the first and second niches of the opposite wall .

The uppermost register seems to give the key to the organization of this cave dedicated

to Maitreya. The viewer entered to find Maitreya-Bodhisattva meditating before his

enlightenment in the niche of the North wall, where he is sitting in lalitasana on a

tied bundle under the Dragon Pipal Tree.260The palace or palace gate architecture of

the next four niches (on both sides) shows Maitreya in the Tushita heaven. The

figures in the niches may have been in different mudras, but the arms and hands

appear to have been repaired. The main 3.34 m. earthen statue is dressed as a

Bodhisattva, ha s a Buddha in dhyana mudra in his crown, and cosmological Buddha

markings on his legs. He is flanked by two free standing lions restored) and by

painted Bodhisattvas on the wall behind him.261His missing right hand was probably

in abhaya mudra, meaning fear no t, and his left hand rests, pa lm upwards, on his

left knee in varada mudra , the gesture of offering. From these indications he can be

either Maitreya in the Ketumati Paradise awaiting his next incarnation or after his

descent to earth. 262For Soper he was the great Bodhisattva who ru les over the

Tushita heaven, and welcomes believers to share its joys.''263

The second, didactic, register of the lateral walls is isolated above and below by a(presumably) stenciled frieze, portions ofwhich are a half-palmette-wave plant design264

alternating with portions which appear to be tassels hanging from small waves of

material.265

These are on alternating ground colors as around the tianjing lantern

ceiling) in Mogao 272 and as noted by Griinwedel in Ki zil 17.266 The second register

has an uneven row of apsaras above and an even row of lay figures (donors?) benea th

the jatakas on the northern wall. On the southern wall, these figures are underneath

scenes from the life of the Buddha Shakyamuni and have accordingly become

Bodhisattvas with halos, Persian scarves and dhotis. They are painted in the shading

and underlining manner of the scenes above them and are not dressed in Chinese

clothes and hats as are those under the jatakas. Starting from the West wall, the

second register shows first the discovery of old age at one of the city gates. In the

second scene there are five persons standing in contrapposto under three apsara s.

Four of these persons have halos, one of them is holding a musical instrument and two

others are pointing at one who is dressed as a monk. Of the following scene only the

260 There is no documentation of the niche on the opposite (southern) wall.

261 Cf. : The Maitreya in Kizil 17 (PI. 3.4.1).

262 Whitfield 1995, vol. JI, p. 275.

63 Soper 1959, p. 212.

64 Cf.: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I, p. 201.

265 Cf.: Duan Wenjie (ed.)l989, vo l. I P I. 10 (p. 245).

266 Von Lecoq, Atlas, PI. 10; Neue Bildwerke, , l'' ig. 91. Referred in: Soper 1958, p. 152.

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DuNHU NG

city gate and an apsara remain visible because the cutting of the passageway, now

closed with cement, effaced the painting. t is the two city gates which are, however,

perhaps the most important single iconographic element of this wall. They show the

Chinese architecture of the pottery tomb houses, towers and gates of the Han dynasty,

as do the architectural elements of the niches above them. t seems probable that

another scene followed , completing the Four Sights267ofSakyamuni but only a (painted)

truncated arm and hand are still showing from behind the partition added, according

to Higashiyama,268during the Song dynasty and recently demolished.269

On the northern wall, the same register shows five jataka scenes and one more which

is in the process of being disengaged from behind the sustaining wall and later painting

the Western Paradise under the niche of Maitreya-Bodhisattva in meditation).

Identified are the Bhilanjili (first two scenes), Sivi third and fourth scenes) and

Candraprabha (fifth scene) Jatakas.270 It would stand to reason that the last scene,

which is perhaps still being cleaned, shows a second scene of the Candraprabha Jataka

but only an apsara and a figure brandishing a sword are as yet visible (Pis. 4.2.1.1.3,4.2.1.1 a and 4.2.1.1 b). Once the process of cleaning has been finished , six scenes,

surely all jatakas, should be visible.

The ceiling of this cave is slightly concave and has a square portion in the middle

which is slightly recessed, making it a modified inverted Chinese measuring box.27

The ceiling is now bordered with a row of stenciled Buddhas in dhyana mudra and

with stylized clouds. t would, however, seem that the entire painting of the ceiling

was re-done at the time of this border, in the Song dynasty or perhaps in the Zhou

dynasty as in the case of the Western Paradise described above. At the height of the

lateral walls, and continued there, is a border of small triangles and streamers (s imilar

to those still to be seen in colorcd materials in Tibetan temples) but these were also

added at a later date .272

The program of the Wes t wall, behind the Maitreya, as well as the heavy corporal

outlines and the robust bodies of the apsaras and Bodhisattvas, is (albeit freer) that of

the Maitreya lunette in Kizil 17 (Pl. 3.4.1). The jataka and Sakyamuni register in the

267 When Sa kyamun i saw a sick man , an old man, a dead man a nd an ascetic.

268 Higashiyama, Kengo 1996,Tonkoo sao dai sekkutsu (The Three Big Groups of Caves in Dunhuaog. Dunhuang,

Yulin and The Western T housand Buddha Caves). Tokyo: Kodansha, p. 69.

269 Cf.: section 4.5 Conclusions, and most particularly section 4.5.9 Evolution for the life of Sakyamun i

presentation s.

270 The Candraprabha J at aka is a lso in cave 148 in Dunhuang a nd frequen tly in Kizil. It is sometimes refe rred

to as a jataka and sometimes as an avadana C hugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I, PI. 14 and the captions for

the plates in the supplement volume, p. 156). t is the story of the generous King Candra prabha. In the

Chavann es translation (vol. I, p. 19) the Buddha tells his disciples that he was t he king. It is in the Avadana

Kalpalata (Chavannes tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vo l. Il l , p. 88).

Cf.: Legge (tr .) 1965 (1886), p. 32.

Beal tr.) 1981 (1884), Book Il l , p. 138.

Chavanoes tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vo l. I, no. 5, pp. 17-19 and vol. IV, no. 5. pp. 88-89.

Yaldiz 1987, p. 67 and Fig. 52.

271 ~ (,),<c or measuring box is what Professor Xiao Mo cal ls it (in the J apanese translat ion). Chugoku

sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol , pp. 216-226.

272 It is poss ible that these re-paintings are La ter Zhou, i.e. A. D. 951-960.

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D UNHUANG

middle of the lateral walls is also graphically unconstrained and is in its composition

more like the has-reliefs of Gandhara than most of the Kizil depictions. 73The Buddha

in the central circle of the crown of Maitreya (Pl. 4.2.1.1 b) is also unlike the Maitreya

depictions in the Kucha area. This is a motif from Gandhara. 74

In Kizil the crown of

theMaitreya

wasusually with

three circles,with

orwithout

a tassel, but without aBuddha figure.275 The halo of the Maitreya in cave 275 is, with its large flames, also

closer to Gandharan prototypes than to the simple rings of the halo of the Maitreya in

Kizil17.

Therefore, i he statues and most of the painting in Dunhuang 275 are of the Northern

Liang dynasty, A D. 421-439, then Kizil 17 is from the beginning of the fifth century

or earlier, not as M. Klimburg dated it, in 1969,276 to the beginning of the sixth

century. This would also correspond to the 1991 dating of Angela Howard, who finds

it second phase (395-500),'a77and to the 465 - 65 dating of Su Bai.

78The outline, or

shading, of the small but robust bodies and the highlighting in white are too similar to

be accidental and the iconography in cave 275 in Dunhuang follows Kizil close ly; with

the exception of the above mentioned Buddha on the crown of the Maitreya (from

Gandhara), the (Chinese) free standing guardian lions, the use of the (also Chinese)

gates in the scenes of Sakyamuni s walk to the four city gates and the Tushita heaven

representations in the niches. These gates, complete with owl tails on the roofs and

brackets supporting the beams, in the manner of Han tomb pottery gates and houses

are of Chinese not of Indian or Central Asian origin (Pl. 4.2.1.1 a).

The program of Mogao 275 is Mahayana . The pilgrim has the Maitreya meditating

before his Enlightenment under the Dragon Flower Tree to his right upon entering.

He then has four depictions of Maitreya in the palaces or gates of the Tu shita heavenand he is welcomed by the 3,34 m. figure of Maitreya throned, in majesty, among the

Bodhisattvas behind him.

When evaluating the Mahayana (Maitreya) context of Mogao 268, 272 and 275 it is

interesting to compare the later depictions in Kakrak (in Afghanistan) in Klimburg

Salter 1989, PI. XC and (the same, but in color) Bussagli 1978, p. 39 (fifth or sixth

century) with crown, kusti, triangular shape of back of throne and a dog-like animal.

4.2.1.1.1 Bhilanjili (Bylingirali) Jataka

Chronologically the first known jataka depiction in Dunhuang, it shows King Bhilanjili

in two consecutive scenes in the middle register of the North wall of cave 275 (Pl.

4.2.1.1.1). The scenes begin in the West and are followed by two scenes from the Sivi

Jataka and (presumably) two illustrating the Candraprabha Jataka.

A Bhilanjili Jataka text in Pali is not known. The text used in the Taklamakan bas in

73 Perhaps similar t the lost painting of Gandhara?

74 Ti ssot 1985, p. 87 and Fig. 184.

275 Yaldiz 1987, p.92 and PI VI .

276 K limburg 1969: p. 140. Cit. in Yaldiz 1987, p 35. See also: Soper 1958, Rowland 1964-65 and Ha llade 1963.

277

Howard 1991 , p. 70.278 Su Bai 1983 in Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol I, pp. 174 &.173.

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D uNHU NG

could, theoretically, have been the Liudujijing,279

translated into Chinese by Senghueso

who died in A. D. 280, but that text refers to the Bodhisattva piercing his own body

with sewing needles. The Dunhuang and Kizil murals show the Brahman driving

the thousand nails into the body of King Bhilanjili. This corresponds to the Damamuka

Sutra, in the Xian yujing, which is the Der Weise und der Tor text.281

The Chavannes text translation is divided into paramitas virtues)282and the Bhilanjili

Jataka is to be found among the Viryaparamitas ( virtues of energy ). It is in praise of

the energy with which King Bhilanjili pursued knowledge and wisdom. The depiction

of his unswerving example in the Mogao cave 275 is more coherent when viewed

together with this text. Examples of the paramita of energy are enumerated in the

text as: the pursuit and conservation of wisdom with all of one's might and without

respite whether lying, sitting or walking; that one's eyes see visions and see constantly

miraculous images of all of the Buddhas whose diverse manifestations appear before

one; that one's ears, when perceiving sounds , hear constantly the virtuous instructions

which have been bestowed upon men and are correct and true; that one's nose smellsonly religious fragrances; that one's mouth pronounces only religious words; that one's

hands do nothing but religious acts; that one's feet tread no rooms except those of

temples and that one's resolution never wanes, not even the time of a breath of a ir.

That one be full of compassion for the multitude of human beings who, during a

perpetual night, are adrift on the sea, who are kept without respite in the cycle of

birth and death and suffer pain without succors. A Bodhisattva is as sad about their

destiny as a son, filled with filial piety, is sad when mourning for his father; but when

he tries to save all human beings, he finds before him the perils of boiling water and

fire and the evils of cutting steel and poison. In spite of these he flings himse lf into

mortal peril and is joyous to save others in danger .

Having enumerated the virtues of the Viryaparamita Paramita of Energy), the

Chavannes translation of the jataka recounts that King Bhilanjili had heard that all of

the devas who venerated and followed Buddha overcame all evils through the strength

of his wisdom. Therefore, desirous of curing all humans of thei r infirmities and

returning them to their primitive state of purity, King Bhilanjili sought the master

and hi s wisdom but during this time, Buddha was far from this world, there wa s no

assemblage of those who had suppressed their desires and no one could receive

instructions. ··

While in this state of quandary, an avid and evil man,283

seeing the ardor of the kingsresolution, offered to reveal to him three of Buddha's commandments. In response to

the king's supplication he said If you are really sincere, pierce with a needle each hole

279 Chavannes (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 213fT., no. 55.

280 The Liud u ji jing, is T 152 and Nj 143.

28 Nachdem der Brahmane d iese Slokas gesprochen hatte, schlug er in den Korper des Konigs die tausend

Niigel ein. Shcmidt, I. J. tr.) 1978 (1843), Oer Weise und der Tor. Leipzig Weimar: Gustav Kiepenheuer

Verlag, p. 12.

282 These are ten in Theravada and six in Mahayana Buddhism. See: Saddhatissa, H. 1975:

dasabodhisattuppatticata p. 95 (12). Chavannes says that there are six, which presumably means that he was

translating (on ly?) Mahayana texts.

283 A brahma n named Raudraksa in: Ouan Wenjie (ed.)l989, vol. I, p. 261.

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D uNHUANG

of your body where you have a hair; if, when your body is covered with blood, your

suffering heart regrets nothing, you will be worthy to hear the venerable teachings.

To this the king replied that since he would happily die in order hear the Buddha,

piercing his body and continuing to live was slight in comparison. He took sewing

needles and

piercedhis

bodyuntil

bloodran

like a bubbling spring

buthe

was sohappy that he would hear part of the law, that he had obtained a state of contemplation

in which he felt no pain.

Seeing this Sakra Devendra the god Indra), the god of the devas, understood the

ardor of King Bhilanjili and miraculously put a needle in each hole in his body which

had a hair. Beholding this, the man taught him three laws: govern your mouth and

govern your thoughts and see that your body causes no pain. At this, the king

prostrated himself in thankfulness before the man and the needles disappeared.284

The motivation and contents of the above version of the Bhilanjili Jataka are more

complete than in the Xian yu jing ( Der Weise und der Tor ) but it the former) does

not conform to the depictions in Dunhuang (or in Kizil , PI. 3.2.2). In the Liudu ji jing

the Bodhisattva takes the sewing needles himself with the intention of putting one

in every hole which has a hair on hi s body and is only spared the self-infliction by

Sakra Devendra, who does so by miracle. In the Xian yu jing it is the Brahman who

drove the thousand iron nails into the body of the king. 285 This does correspond to

the depictions in Kizil 38 (P. 3.2.2) and Mogao 275 (PI. 4.2.1.1.1) where the Brahman

is shown driving the nails in to King Bhilanjili 's body.

Looking at the depiction from the Mogao cave 275 with t hese texts in mind, it looses

its bloodthirstiness, becoming the picture of a saintly man searching for wi sdom withsuch energy steadfast conviction and desire) that he is impervious to the pain being

inflicted upon him by the secondary figure (whose relative importance is reflected by

his somewhat sm aller size). The small kneeling figure, whose s ize is again in relation

to his importance, is of a man in front of King Byilingirali's left knee) observing the

scene with complete indifference. He is dress ed with the shoulder plates of a Chinese

soldier286

and would be, in hi s role as guard, presumably capable of defending the

King. His pictorial function is , however, not to intervene but to underline the horror

of the situation a third personage does not, by the way, appear in the jataka text).

The man inflicting the torments has a halo because he is Devadatta287 and Devadatta,

in spite of having known the laws before the virtuous King Bhilanjili, was like a blind

man who lit his way with a torch ..because he could not see what advantage the laws

could bring for him.88

In the second , damaged, scene the king has presumab ly become a Bodhisattva and is

284 Chavannes (tr.) 1962 {1910-1935 , vol. I, p. 213 ., no. 55. (my translation .

285 Schmidt (tr.) 1978 (1843 , p. 12. Oer Weise und der Tor (The Wise Man and the Fool) was translated from

the Tibeten (the origional was Indian, probably ir. Sanskrit but no copy is known to us [p. 3321. .

86 Cf.: The guardian figure (statue) on the left hand s idu of the principa l icon in Mogao 257. Chugokusckkutsu, Ounhuang, vol. I, PI. 38.

87 Oevadatta appears not. only in jatakas but also in the stories of the life of Buddha. He was or iginally a

relation (cousin?) of the Buddha Sakyamuni and retains his halo.

288 In each of the Cowell a nd Chavaones translat ions (from Pali and from Chinese) it is Buddha himself whoexplains at the end of each jataka its meaning to the followers around him.

7



D UNHUANG

hearing the promised truths from his tormentor, who is still holdingone of the thousand

nails in his right hand. The guard is still unmoved at the king s feet.

Without the text, this could be a paramita of patience but the text teaches us that the

closed eyes, calm face and posture are not those of patient pass ivity but that King

Bhilanjili 's eyes are constantly seeing miraculous images of all the Buddhas in front

of him and that he conserves, without pause and in every situation , his wisdom with

all his might. The jataka seeks to demonstrate, in the text and in the depiction , how

King Bhilanjili, in his quest for knowledge and wisdom, uses the virtue of energy

(Viryaparamita) to learn a portion of the dharma, as part of the path to Enlightenment.

The Bhilanji li J ataka was no t, from the remaining evidence, depicted in Sanchi, Bharhut

or elsewhere previous to being pictured in the Taklamakan basin . Apart from Mogao

275, a represen tation is to be found only in cave 38 in Kizil (PI. 3.2.2).

n the Dunhuang presentation , the halo of the King was a very light brown over whicha triple-disc crown with kusti was painted in white. The halo was repainted or

retouched with a pigment which is now black and it is only because much of this ha s

disa ppeared that the painting underneath is visible (PI. 4.2.1.1.1). 89

The background in Dunhuang is monochrome (cinnabar), strewn with lotus buds, with

two a psarasas acclaiming and revering King Byilingirali in each scene from above.

The king is seated on a cushion and has a footstool or rug. In the Kizil depiction (PI.

3.2.2) the background is also strewn with flowers or buds, the king is seated on a

throne covered with a flowered material, and is in front of a flowering tree.

The version used for the depictions in Dunhuang and Kizil corresponds exactly to the

Xian yu jing but the motivations are not understandable without the explanations in

the Chavannes translation of the Liudu ji jing.

4.2.1.1.2 Sivi (Sibi) Jataka

The Sivi Jataka is depicted in the third and fourth scenes in the middle register of the

North wall of Mogao 275 Pls. 4.2.1.1 a and 4.2.1.1.2) , between the Bhilanjili and

Candraprabha Jatakas.

The jataka exists in four different versions, all of which express and propagate danaparamita (the virtue of generosity). Depictions probably began in Gandhara, from

where we have reliefs (PI. 2.2.8 for example) and where Faxian and Xuanzang visited

the stupas built to honor King Sivi.

a) There is no Pali text for the pigeon Sivi Jataka . (The Pali text, no. 499, is the

jataka about King Sivi's eyes not about King Sivi saving the pigeon).

b) The Liudu ji jing: Chavannes (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 7fT. , no. 2, Trip.,

89 The dhoti of the Bodhisattva and the flying scarf of the apsara above him, as well as many other elements inthi s cave, have been s imilarly repajnted. This would seem to be a general repainting to give more character or

st rength to the mural as a whole, having nothing to do with the crown of King Bhilanjil i.

7



D UNHUANG

VI, 5, p. 50 V0 -51 r 0

. , T 152 and Nj 143. This text does not correspond to the

Kizil and Dunhuang depictions because in it the king cuts the pieces of his

flesh himself

c) The Zhongjing zuan za bu yu jing: Chavannes (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vo l 11, p.

70ff., no. 197, T 208 and Nj 1366. In this text the king also cuts the flesh

himself.

d) The Xian yu jing: Der Weise und der Tor Damamuka Sutra). Schmidt tr.)

1978 (1843), p. 16 ff , T 202 and Nj 1322. Here, also, it is the king who cuts his

own flesh.

The oldest Chinese text of the pigeon version appears to be that of the Zhongjing zuan

za bu yu jing (see c ) translation made during the fourth century by Kumarajiva.

The three pigeon texts are, for our purpose, so similar that they could well beinterpretations from the same Pali or Sanskrit origional, but this is not known.

In all three texts King Sivi cuts his flesh himself but in the Mogao 275, 254 and 85

depictions someone else does so.

The first of the two scenes in Mogao 275 (PI. 4.2.1.1.2) shows King Sivi sitting on a

seat or backless throne, with a footstool or rug, in lali tasana while being acclaimed by

an apsara above him. He is dressed in a dhoti and is wea ring a crown with striped

kusti. He also has a scarf and a halo. The pigeon, which he is saving, is held

protectively in his right hand. At the same time, he pass ively watches the kneeling

figure cutting flesh from his dangling left leg. The fact that the second figure, also

dressed in a dhoti, is wearing a crown and halo is surely indicative of his being , once

again, Devadatta.

The following scene, beneath two apsarasas in adoration, is of the moment of climax in

which King Sivi, since no amount of his flesh equals the weight of the dove, sits,

dressed in a dhoti, on the plate of a scale. The scale is held by a la rge st and ing figure

who seems to have his hair arranged in an usnisa and held by a string of pearls.290

This could suggest Sakra Devendra the god lndra). The pigeon sits, now lighter than

the king, on the other plate.

The clothing and halos of King Sivi and his acclaiming a psara are painted, in the fir st

scene , with the same pigment. This could have been by chance, but in the second

scene King Sivi's dhoti and the halo and dhoti of the apsara adoring him are also the

same color. The clothing of the figure whom we may suppose to be Sakra and hi s

adoring apsara are once again the same. This suggests that each apsara is painted as

an attribute, belonging specifically to one of the three figures, not just as an observer

of the holy scene.

4.2.1.1.3 Candraprabha Jataka

290 For enlargements of the crown of J{jng Sivi in the first scene and the hair of Sakra in the second see:Whitfield/Otsuka 1995, vol 1, p 143, Pis 185 186.

73



D UNHUANG

Since the removal of the Song dynasty wall a second scene is surely visible for this

thirdjataka of the register (Pis. 4.2.1.1 a band 4.2.1.1.3).

The stupa built to honor this dana paramita (virtue of generosity) jataka was near

Taxila in Northwest India and was visited by Faxian and Xuanzang .

Not in the Pali collection, the story is, as it is found in the Avadana Kalpalata, that of

the Liudu ji jing?91

The Da Fangbian fo baoenjing version corresponds to Chavannes (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935),

vol. IV, p. 89: Trip., VI, 5, p. 21 r 0-V

0, T 156 and Nj 431.

It is also in the Xian yu jing. This is in the Der Weise und der Tor (Damamuka

Sutra), Schmidt (tr .) 1978 (1843), p. 9ff.292

In the Liudu ji jing an ascetic presented himself before King Candraprabha and askedfor hi s head. The king, who had never refused to fulfil the desire of anyone, offered

the ascetic a head made of the seven kinds of precious sub stances in stead, but the

ascetic refused. Descending from his audience hall, the king attached his hair to a

tree, and responded I give you my head . The ascetic grasped his sword and advanced

rapidly towards the king but the tree-spirit, indignant about the perversity of the

man , struck him such a blow that the sword fell from hi s hand. All of the benevolent

people and all of the heavenly beings rejoiced. In conclusion, the Buddha adds:

..King K'ien-yi was I, myself; the ascetic was Devadatta.

In the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing the story speaks of a hea d (one) in precious

substances. The Xian yu jing speaks of heads'' but says that the Minister threw

them on the ground in front of the Brahman which does not correspond to the depiction

in Dunhuang.

The scene now visible shows King Candraprabha, wearing a crown with striped kusti,

kneeling with a tray of three heads before an un crowned but equally large seated

figure, who is making a gesture of refusal. Reading the Xian yu jing text tells us that

th is is the scene where the Brahman rejects jewelled heads instead of the promised

head of the king.

Of the second scene only the figure with a ha lo but no crown (ergo Devadatta) is seenbrandishing a sword. Comparison with the depiction in Ki zil 17 show that the portion

behind the (now removed but not documented) wall will show King Candraprabha, his

hair tied to a tree, waiting for the Brahman to cut off his head.293

Since one of the four principal stupas of Northern India was dedicated to this jataka

and was visited by Xuanzang and Faxian/ 94 there must have been a Pali or Sanskrit

291 Chavann es tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 17fT., no. 5.

292 1'aisho N° 202 , Nanjio N° 1322.

293 Cr., Ch ugoku sekkutsu , Kizil, vol. I, Pis. 34 (cave 8) and 68 (cave 17).

294 Xuanzang 1994 (1884), p. 138 an d Faxian 1965 (1886): p. 32.

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D uNH NG

text but this has not come down to us. A text with the Dunhuang depiction, with the

king offering three heads made of precious substances , is not known. The closest to

this version is the Xian yu jing ( Der Weise und der Tor , p. 144) where a minister,

not the king as here, offers heads made of precious substances to the Brahmin.

The viryaparamita and two dana paramita jatakas shown on the North wall, are , in

this context, pure didactic illustrations. In two scenes, instead of the monoscenic

lozenges usual in Kizil, they are more developed but still unadulterated jatakas, not

yet visually absorbed by and incorporated into the sutras. Although the concept of

Mogao 275 is a Mahayana Maitreya context, the jatakas have kept their Hinayana

purity and are as such documents in the transitional process leading to Tang dynasty

Mahayana visual absorption or fusion.

Concluding the Northern Liang dynasty, it is notable that lantern ceiling elements,

not very frequent in Kizil, are on the ceilings of Northern Liang and most of the

Northern Wei caves. These exist in the caves at Bamiyan and in the stone-beamed

ceiling of the small tenth century shrine at Pandrethan in Kashmir,295

but both aremuch later. Without here considering its origin, it is of interest to note that the

lantern ceiling was, for the Tarim Basin, surely of Gandharan provenance and may

have arrived in Northern Liang dynasty Dunhuang via the Khora Bhort Pass296 and

Kothan, which was built of timber and plaster ..almost completely destroyed at an

early period for the sake of abstracting the woodwork . 297 If this were so it would help

to explain why some elements in Dunhuang are from the Kizil area and came via the

northern route and that the origin and relationshjp of others, which came perhaps

from Kothan via the southern route, can no longer be verified.

A Sakyamuni Buddha is perhaps painted in the middle of both lateral walls of 272

and conceivably also in 268, but the principal icons of all three caves are Maitreya .

This is in marked contrast to Kizil where the central icon upon entering was, not

always but usually, Sakyamuni with Maitreya relegated to the lunette above the exit.

Soper no tes that the scenes of the jatakas in Mogao 275 progress from left to right, in

the non-Chinese direction, and also directs one's notice to the border above them. 98

For him its design, and the fact that it is not of one but of two alternating colors,

shows its Central Asian origin. In Mogao 275, this design is of two vegetal, perhaps

acanthus, patterns. In Kizil 17, which is from about the same period, 99 the border is

of alternating colors but painted with a fish-scale pattern. The same, or other, patterns

are also treated in this alternating manner in Kizil172, 224 and 205.

4.2 .2 Northern Wei (A. D. 386-534)

When, in A. D. 439, the Northern Liang kingdom was conquered by Northern Wei

295 Soper, Alexander C. 1947, The ''Dome of Heaven in Asia . The Art Bulletin, vo. XXIX , no. 4, pp. 225-248.

December 1947, p. 228 and Fig. 3.

296 Tsuchiya 1998, p. 52.

297 Stein 1912 vol I, p. 243. (Used here as an example [there are many] for the use of wood in construction inthe Khotan area ).

298 Soper 1958, p. 152.

299 A. D. 465 - 65. (Su Bai in: Chugoku sekkuts u, Ki zil, vol. I, p. 173).

75



NHUANG

forces, the victors transferred most of the population, including the Monks/300 from

Dunhuang to their own capital at Pincheng, East of the present Datong. Then, from

A. D. 446 to 452, Buddhism was repressed but there are nonetheless eight caves3 1

from this period and two of them , 254 and 257, have jatakas.

The central pillar of Mogao 259 was not finished, but it and the other Dunhuang caves

of the Northern Wei dynasty all followed the cella and square stupa pi11ar floor plan

which had been typical of phase one (ea. A. D. 300 to 395) in Kizil. The cella has, in all

of these Mogao caves, been turned sideways and has an open gable roof instead of a

barrel ceiling, making it identifiable as the Kizil floor plan in its Northern Wei Mogao

restatement.

The Kizil floor plan had its origin in India, where the Sudama and Lomasa Rishi caves

(for example) had a rectangular Buddhist hall of worship and a (now empty) circular

room, presumably with a stupa for circumambulation, at its end a nd a lateral entrance.

The caves which were built after these, were cut perpendicular to the ou tside wall andgiven a high barrel vault.

The Indian barrel vault hall of worship was retained in Kizil but in the Northern Wei

caves in Dunhuang the hall wa s turned; the entrance was now on the side of the hall,

and it was given a gabled ceiling.

The eight caves made during the Northern Wei period were divided into a front and a

rear area with the entrance in the Ea st. The front section, with its gabled roof, was

the hall ofworship and the second section, with its stupa-pillarwas for circumambulation.

In the fifth century Yungang cave number VI for example, the square stupa-pillar was

sculptured in the form of a pagoda and the Indian origins of the floor plan are no

longer necessarily self-evident. The floor plan of the Northern Wei stupa-pillar caves

and those caves in Kizil which have a stupa-pillar for circumambulation) is of Indian

origin. The Indian version, the ea rliest of which are the above mentioned Sudama and

Lomasa Rishi in the Barbar hills of Bihar, were excavated ea. 250 B. C., and in them

the stupa was cut free from the rest of the live-rock architecture and from the ceiling.

The sturdy rock of the Indian sites allowed th is, but the fragility of the sand-stone of

the rock-cut caves in China allowed for this use of the stupa only when using it

simultaneously as a structural support in the form of a massive pillar.

4.2.2.1 Description of Mogao 254

The cave is a large rectangle divided architecturally, through different ceilings, into

an antechamber or hall of worship and a cult chamber around a stupa-pillar (PI.

4.2.2.1). In Kizil the passage for circumambulation had been cut around a large

quadratic central pillar but it was barely the height of a man. Here, in Mogao 254,

and in Yungang) the passage and central pillar have become two storied with figures

in niches in both stories, making a shaft at the center of a room, rather than a cella

3 Wei Shu , cxiv, p. 4r. Cit. in Soper 1959, p. 141.

3 1 Cf. Ning, Qiang 1992, The Emergence of the Dun huang Style in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Orientations,vol. 23, May, p. 45fT. Hong Kong, p.451T. The eight caves were: 251 254, 257, 259, 260, 263, 265 and 487.

76



uNHUt NG

On the eastern end of the northern wall is a large Subjugation of Mara and its vis avis on the southern wall is a Conversion of Nanda, both of which are Hinayana, not

Mahayana, Buddhism themes. The two jatakas are the Sivi (pigeon), in the center of

the northern wall, and the Mahasattva in the center of the south wall. Both of these

convey the message of dana paramita, the virtue of generosity. The iconography of

this cave and its didactic message are, as in Mogao 275, Hinayana and conservative ,

in the depictions, perhaps combined with a principal icon of Maitreya. If th is were the

case it would offer the testimony and the credence of noteworthy legendary beings and

of preaching compassion and these elements are Mahayana.

The conservative motivation becomes, however, ques tionable when one considers the

clay figure in the niche in the northern wall of the antechamber above the Attack of

Mara (PI. 4.2.2.1 a). t is otherwise not comparable, but it shares wi th the niche a nd

figure which are likewise on the upper left hand upon entering cave 275 the fact that

it seems strangely out of context and enigmatic.

The upper portion of th is wall is covered with stenciled Buddhas in the center of

which is one of the Chinese architectural niches which rests directly on the mounta ins

belonging to the Mara scene below. The figure is in high relief. Symbols, which seem

similar to those on the legs of the principal icon of Cave 275 are perhaps visible

beneath the long dhoti which clothes the crossed ankles but most unusual is a dark,

heavy line hanging vertically from the belt, which has no known parallel. On the

bare(?) torso, two snakes not an Indian-style Bodhisattva necklace) hang from the

shoulders, curling upward to meet in the center. The upper arms have undecorated

keyura and around the neck is a seemingly imperforate wide necklace with a downward

pointing center. The ea rs have long ear-lobes but no ear-rings and the face is slightly

elongated but perfectly plain and without signs of character or emotion. The painting

around the eyes is singular. Reaching to the shoulders and in shades of blue like

those of the halo, mandorla and cape is material such as that used by Arabs in the

desert to protect their necks from the sun; not surprising elsewhere but used here for

the first time in Dunhuang and si ngular in this context. Above this is an unusually

important crown with a (Buddha?) figure or object in the center and a horizontal

Chinese or perhaps nomadic decoration a status symbol?) attached to the back half

seems to have been broken off). The right hand is mi ssing but seems to have been in

abhaya mudra and the position of the legs and a Buddha in a crown are to be found in

the Maitreya of cave 275 of the previous dynasty . The niche in Tushita heaven palace

architecture also suggests Maitreya .

The other depictions seem iconographically orthodox but the painting is done in a

transi tional manner. The muscles, faces and ntours of those figures which are

partially clothed, are done in the underlined technique of Kizil but with highlights in

white and with a feeling and skill which are not conventional. The pleating is

sophisticated and the stupa in the depiction of the Mahasa ttva Jataka has become a

pure Chinese four storey pagoda. Transitional has, in this cave, assumed an

iconographical importance.

78



D UNHU NG

4.2.2.1.1 Sivi (Sibi) Jataka

See the discussion of the texts of the Sivi Jataka in Mogao 275 (4.2.1.1.2) for those

used here as well .

In this cave 254 depiction (PI. 4.2.2.1.1) the hawk is flying, upper right, after the

pigeon which is then shown in the protective right hand of King Sivi. The person

cutting King Sivi's leg is not wearing a crown but does have a halo. This depiction is

singular because of its large size (h. 165 x w. 168 cm.) and by the Bodhisattvas who

are shown in attendance. Also noteworthy, is that the scene, which appears monoscenic,

has the weighing of King Sivi in the right-hand corner, painted as if it were, in

contents, a copy of the two scenes in 275. The ascetic simplicity of the representations

in 275 has given way to elaborate blowing kusti and a manner of painting which finds

its continuation in the Ruru Jataka of257 (PI. 4.2.2.2.1).

The depictions in caves 275 (Northern Liang A D. 421-439) and 254 Northern Wei AD. 386-534) were probably done about a century after those which were sculpted on

the stair-risers from Gandhara third or fourth century) and those in the early painting

(beginning of the fourth centuryY05 in Kizil. All of these illustrate a text in which

someone else (presumably Devadatta) cut the flesh from King Sivi's leg.

In all three texts King Sivi cuts his flesh himself but in the Mogao 275, 254 and 85)

depictions someone else does so.

4.2.2.1.2 Mahasattva (Viaghri) J ataka

No Pali text of the Mahasattva Jataka is known but a Sanskrit text of the Jatakamala,

which includes a version of the Mahasattva Jataka (see b below), is referred to by

Nanjio as part of the Hodgson collection of manuscripts.306 We have three very different

Chinese versions and there must have been a fourth one, corresponding to the largest

number of depictions.

a) Pusa tou shen si e hu qi ta yin yuan jing, T 172, Nj 436, Chavannes (tr.) 1962

(1910-1935), vol. I, p.15 ff. no. 4. Trip., VI, 5, p. 51 V0

• Seemingly not depicted

anywhere, in this version the Bodhisattva is an ascetic and alone.

b) Pusa ben sheng man lun, T 160, Nj 1312, re ferred to by Chavannes (tr.) 1962(1910-1935), vol. IV, p. 87) as Trip. XIX, fasc. 5, p. 1 V

0 -2 r0• This is the

Jatakamala in Chinese but it is a late (Song dynasty) copy. In it the Bodhisattva

is an ascetic who sends his disciple away and gives himself to the starving

tiger.

c) The Bodhisattva as a prince with his brothers: Xian yu jing, T 202, Nj 1322,

Schmidt tr .) 1978 (1843), Der Weise und der Tor. Referred to in Chavannes

tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. IV, p. 87 as Trip., XIV, fasc. 9, p. 7 r0• This is the

305 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, p. 173. Su Bai gives the da te for Kizil 38 as A. D. 310 - 80 and the da te of

Kizil 17 as A. D. 465 65. He gives (here) no dates for Kizil 114.

306 Nanjio 1988 (1883), p. 290, no. 1312

79



UN U NG

from a pair. The central Maitreya is seated in a western position, without adornment

beyond hi s monas tic robe and undergarment. The niche is painted with a halo with

flames and small busts showing rebirth in paradise from a lotus blossom and a mandorla

with apsaras, flames, and a modulated diamond pattern. The balance of the niche is

crowded with three rows ofBodhisattvas and apsaras, again reminiscent ofthe Maitreya

lunette in Kizil 17 (PI. 3.4.1). The western elements in the niche are united with the

Chinese dragon and the dvarapala dressed with the same shoulder armor as the•

attackers in Mara s attack from Kizil 110, now in Berlin (MIK Ill 9154 a) and the

figure si tting or kneeling next to King Bhilanjili in Mogao 275 (PI. 4.2.1.1.1).

Amid the, presumably, stenciled Buddhas on the southern wall is a pain te d niche of

Chinese architecture, the roof complete with owls tails, surm ounted by a stupa with

streamers which are closely related to those of the left-hand corridor in Kizil 171 (Pl.

3.5). The opening is decorated with a curtain ; something not used until now but also

in the architecture (PI. 4.2.2.2.1) of the Ruru Jataka and the Legend of the monk

Sramanera in this same cave. In this painte d niche the Buddha is standing on a lotuswith his legs firmly apart and his hands in a teaching position. His halo is unornamented

but with a ogival pointand the mandorla has large, strong flames whereas the background

shows delicate flowers. Flankinghim are two apsaras, above, and, below, twoBodisattvas

with bare torsos, long dhotis, unusually long Persian scarves and ear -rings. Once

again in this cave, the iconography or contents presents nothing really new (except the

curtain) but the composition of the whole (the Indian stupa painted above the Chinese

architecture in the niche or the Indo-Chinese stupa in the Legend of Sramanera , for

example) is a considerable surprise.

Also unexpected, is a port ionof the

ceiling which is painted with a lantern

ceilingsegment the center of which seems to be a central lotus on a pond with lotus leaves

and buds and swimming figures partially under water, like those from Kizil 212 now

in Berlin, but painted in the hard outline style of the apsaras of Mogao 272 or 275.

The iconographic elements from China and from the west, which were more hesitantly

combined in the previous caves, have here become almost innumer able and are so

convincingly united that they suggest a date later than for cave 254. These iconogra phic

elements and their presentation are becoming the Dunhuang style of painting.

In caves 268, 272 and 275 of the Northern Liang dynasty, the iconographic elements

almost all came from the west. The lantern ceiling elements with their central lotusand apsaras in 268 and 272, the figures seated with crossed ankles or in a western

po sition3 12

and the painted preaching figure in a lotus position with shoulder flames,

are both flanked by Bodhisattvas with and without three-disk crowns with streamers,

Indian jewelry and Pe rsian scarves in 272. The organization of the painting of 272,

with its almost cramped rows of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, arches and muscles

painted in outline as in Kizil originate from India, Persia or from the western Tarim

Basin. The new elements in Dunhuang are the Chinese architecture of the niches

and in the painting of the visit to the four gates in 275. These are the architecture of

Han tomb pottery houses and gates. Also an innovation is the patterned undergarment

of the Buddha in 272.

312 As in the 5th century cave 26 in Ajanta.

81



D UNHUANG

The most striking mutation in cave 257, is the Chinese organization of the iconographic

elements. The presentation of narration in horizontal stripes had been used in Gandhara

in stair-risers, in the Sikri Buddha cycle on the stupa now in Lahore and in Kizil 212

in the depictions of the Maitrakanyaka Avadana and the Sronakotikarna Avadana.

Here in Mogao 257, the stories are fewer, but they are given more space than in Ki zil.

The mountains used as a row under the narration and as dividers between the scenes

PI. 4.2.2.2.1) are a rendition of the mountains painted in Kizil. In Kizil 171 PI. 3.5),

they are both painted as dividers on the barrel ceiling and used , in a plastic form

molded on boards and hung in niches on the wall, as mountains around the niche of

the principle icon; showing that it is the cave of an ascetic in the mountains. Here, in

middle of the West wall of Mogao 257, the Ruru Jataka unfolds horizontally and is

conceptually unconstrained. The addition of Chinese cartouches without writing) is

seen here for the first time in a cave with jatakas.

The presentation of the jatakas has now become Chinese. The Persian scarves have ,in the Ruru Jataka depiction (Pl. 4.2.2.2.1, 4.2 .2.2.1 band 4.2.2.2.1 c), upturned brush

strokes, like the end of many Chinese characters. The fusion of the elements from the

west with those of China takes place elsewhere as well, but very noticeably here in

cave 257.

4.2.2.2.1 Ruru Jataka313

Called Miga (deer) Jataka by Cunningham and Barua, it is depicted in the central

medallion of a railing pillar (ea. 100-80 B. C.) from Bharhut which is now in the Indian

Museum in Calcutta. t shows four scenes set in a deer park, with flowering trees, on

the bank of a river. At the bottom left the deer-king hears, while drinking at the river,

the cries of a drowning man. In the second scene he is seen saving the man on his

back. In the third he is among his herd with his head turned toward a figure about to

shoot him with a bow and arrow. The center of the medallion shows the deer-king

Ruru the Bodhisattva) sit ting with great dignity ta lking to the king , his hunter, with

the traitorous man looking on from behind.

This jataka has been depicted in Bharhut, Ajanta, Borobudor and in Mogao 257.

In the Jatakamala , when the traitorous man points at the deer his hand falls off. This

is not in the Pali text and is not depicted in 257. Two mounted figures, one is theQueen behind the King and the other is a man drawing a covered cart behind him,

and the spots on the man are not accounted for in either text. Otherwise (except for

the end where the King takes the Bodhisattva to the capital) the depiction in 257

conforms to both the Jatakamala3 14

and the Liudu ji jing- 5versions.

313 Cu nn ingham 1998 (1879), PI. XXV ,l and Barua 1979, p. 136 PI. LXXXV. Jn Nagar 1993, p. 65 P. 15.

The Pali text is Fausboll ed.) 1962-1964 (1877-1897) and Cowell (t.r. ) 1969 1897-1905), no. 482. The Sa nskrit

text is num ber 26 in the Jatakamala. For the Chinese vers ions see Chav ann es 1962 091 0-1935) , vol. IV, p. 220

a nd n. 58 , p. 122 fT.

3 4 Khoroch 1989, p. 175fT.

315 Chavannes 1962 19 10-1935), vol. I, p. 220fT.

82



D UNHUANG

In the Pali text the skin of his body was of the color of a gold plate well burnished,

forefeet and the hindfeet seemed as it were (as if) covered with lac, his tail like the tail

of a wild ox, the horns of him were as spirals of silver, eyes had he like bright polished

gems, when he turned his mouth in any direction it seemed like a ball of red cloth. 3 6

This does not conform to the mural of257.

In the Liudu ji jing the deer is described as: having a coat (or skin [ pelage ]) of nine

colors which does not correspond to the depiction but neither the Pali nor the Jatakamala

text says why the man is spotted.

In the Liudu ji jing: So he went immediately to the palace and informed the king of

all that he knew; as soon as he had spoken his face became leprous and his mouth

became foul and full of the pest .. On the next page is: C'est ce lepreux qui m'en a

informe. This is the only text which mentions, and explains, the spots on the man in

the mural of cave 257.

The Jatakamala texts say that the dear was as bright as pure gold, and its coat was0

downy and brightly dappled with spots the color of rubies, sapphires, emeralds and

beryls. This describes perfectly the picture of the deer in 257.

In the Liudu ji jing the deer kneels before the King. This is only depicted in Kizil 38,

not in Dunhuang.

In the Liudu ji jing the Queen learns of what has happened from the King when he

returns. In the Dunhuang depiction the Queen is mounted directly behind the King.

Going from left to right, the left hand part of th is depiction shows the virtuous realm

of the Bodhisattva (PI. 4.2.2.2.1) whereas the right hand side shows the worldly realm

(which goes, conversely, from right to left: PI. 4.2.2.2.1 c). This structure allows good

and bad, in the form of the deer-king and the king (acting for the Queen), to meet in

conversation in the middle (PI. 4.2.2.2.1 b) of the panel.

In the Liudu ji jing version of this jataka, in the explication at the end, the Buddha

says that he was the (good) deer king who had saved the (bad) Devadatta. This is

thus, once again, an exemplary personage (Ruru) who strives through determination

and energy (virya) for viryaparamita.

The iconography of the Ruru Jataka in 257, which has been continued from Kizil,

includes the saving of the man from the water in Kizil 17,317 the king begging the

gazelle for pardon from Kizil 1783 8

and the scene, from Kizil 38, where the king, about

to kill the gazelle, listens to him and spares him.319 These scenes are, in Dunhuang,

not presented in the form of isolated episodes as they were in Kizil. Instead of being

reminders, almost prompters, for a master, teacher or brother perhaps lecturing to

3 6 Cowell (tr .) 1969 (1897-1905), vol. IV , p 62.

a 17 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizi l, PI. 63.

311 Yaldiz 1987, p. 61, no. 42.

3 19 Ibid., p. 63, no. 43.

83



D uNHUANG

laymen, the presentation of the jataka is now reasonably complete in five scenes. The

elements which were absorbed together with the story , assuming that it did come from

or via Kizil, are the water, the mountains used as dividers, the small flowers strewn

(in a Persian manner) in otherwise vacant spaces, the crowns, Persian scarves and

kus ti. New for this jataka, are the sense of space, the cartouches, the Buddhist jewel

on the background, the cart being drawn by a postilioned horse, the architecture of the

pavilion with its curtain and watch tower, the footwear of the man telling hi s story ,

the embroidery of the queen s bodice and the saddles and harnesses of the royal

couple's steeds. These are all Chinese elements which have come from the East and

fused with those from India, Persia ·and the west ern Tarim Basin , giving birth to the

new composite iconography of Dunhuang. This process can be extended with the

legends of Sumati and Sramanera in the same cave, where the addition of fabulous

flying (Chinese) animals and the monk in flames are perhaps most important.

All three text versions have details which correspond to the mural depiction, but each

has details which do not. There may have been another version which served as itssource, or the artist worked from oral sources which combined, unwittingly, at random.

The magical singularity of the three narratives underlines the Mahayana character of

Mogao 257.

[Western Wei (A. D. 535-556): There are no caves with jatakas.]

4.2.3 Northern Qi (A. D. 550-577)

4.2.3.1 Description of cave 12 of the Western Thousand Buddha Caves 320

Cave 12 is a pillar cave for circumambulation. The southern half has a gable ceiling

brightly painted with palmettes, lotuses and birds. The eastern and wes tern walls of

th is portion of the cave had Buddha Triads made of clay but only the Buddha figure on

the eastern wall is still in situ. t is, for Higashiyama, of the Northern Qi (A. D.

550-577) or, at the latest, of the Sui dynasty (A. D. 589-618).321

The central pillar has a niche in the south side only. t has a seated Buddha in

meditation , with Bodhisattvas outside the niche. On the eastern side is a preaching

Buddha with Bodhisattvas and disciples. The western side of the pillar shows Thousand

Buddhas with a row of three seated Buddhas. The back of the pillar has seven seatedBuddhas; presumably the Buddhas of the past.

On the left of the Buddha figure on the eastern wall are five rows of Thousand

Buddhas, under which is a presentation of the Raudraksa Avadana in eleven scenes in

two registe rs. Underneath it, is a row of more formal figures, possibly donors. On the

other, western, side of the entrance the Sama Ja taka (P I 4.2.3.1.1) is also presented in

320 The s ite is 30 klms. south/west of Ounhuang. The cliff is 20 m. high and 179 m. long and sti ll has nineteen

caves, with another three fu r ther east. They have been numbered from west to east.

The information for this cave is from Higashiyama 1996, pp. 222-243. The Japanese text was very kindly

translated by Professor Haruko Tsuchiya.

321 Cf.: Higashiyama 1996, pp. 231 232.

84



D uNHU NG

eleven scenes. These are separated by trees, have theatrical settings and explanations

written in cartouches.

The conventional iconography of the cave consists of meditating or teaching Buddhas

accompanied by Bodhisattvas, the Sama Jataka and the Raudraksa Avadana , whichwas depicted a total of eighteen times in Dunhuang, Yulin and the Western Thousand

Buddha Caves. This was the first of these depictions.

4.2.3.1.1 Sama (Syama) Jataka

The Indian , Sanchi I, depiction is the oldest representation of the Sama Jataka

known. t is a crowded composite of four scenes and an abundance of finely carved

details (see 1.4.2.4).

Relief depictions are not infrequent among Gandharan fragments, but the stories havethere been compressed considerably and become somewhat st ereotype.

In the Pali text3 the Buddha tells us Suvannasama was I myself' (i. e. that this is·a

previous life)

The Liudu ji jing 1 3 tells a shorter version which, however, agrees with the longer Pali

story.

The painting of the Sama Jataka (PI. 4.2.3.1.1) appears to be in eleven scenes. The

execution was unusually fine, showing carefully cut trees and figures with exceptionalgrace (detail PI. 4.2.3.1.1 a). The care with which the scenes were completed is

underlined by the cartouches which were here finished with elegant writing instead of

being left blank as so often elsewhere.

4.2.4 Northern Zhou A. D. 557-581)


Cave 428 is a large rectangle (Pl. 4.2.4.1), the first part of which has a gabled ceiling

painted with lotus vegetation in vertical stripes. These are animated with heavenly

beings, flying animals, birds and demons. The rest of the ceiling, around the pillar, is

painted with lantern ceiling squares containing lotuses in ponds. They have apsaras

in the four corners. These are painted in a heavy outline style reminiscent of Kizil

and of earlier (Wei dynasty) styles in Dunhuang . Three of these appear to be male

and one female ; an early depiction of heavenly beings not wearing dhotis and seemingly

with genders.

Under the gable are, on the northern , eastern and southern walls, five registers of

Thousand Buddhas which are molded, not stenciled. The lowest register is painted

with material in pointed folds, with the register above it occupied by stereotyped but

3 Cowell (tr.) 1969 (1905), vol. VI , p. 38fT., no. 540.

3 3 Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p.l5 6, no. 43.

85



D UNHUANG

very Chinese and noble figures, probably reference to donors, in three rows, separated

by cartouches, some of which seem to bear names. The central register is ea. two

meters high and is occupied by a series of Buddha and jataka scenes, each of which is

ea. three meters in width.

This central register has, next to the entrance, on the northern side of the eastern

wall, a 185 by 420 cm., representation of the Vessantara Jataka in three registers (PI.

4.2.4.1.2). This is followed, on the eastern side of the northern wall, by a teaching

Buddha seated in a lotus position under a canopy, with a halo and mandorla of colored

stripes with no decoration. He is flanked by two large and six smaller sta nding

Bodhisattvas in positions of adoration. Above and flanking the canopy are unusual

round objects (Pl. 4.2.4.1), otherwise unidentifiable.

The next segment of this central register is 215 by 315 cm. and depicts the Buddha

calling the earth to witness the defeat of Mara. He is flanked by Mara, his daughters,

warriors and demons.

The northern central area of the west wall is 210 by 235 cm. and has the first

representation of the Parinirvana in the Mogao caves.3 4t is followed by the Vajrasana

(Diamond Seat) Stupa flanked by Bodhisattvas and gandharvas. In side this is

shown, from top to bottom, a figure with wings, Buddha in dhyana mudra flanked by

two Bodhisattvas, Maya giving birth to the Buddha and , under that, a row of four

atlantes or demons.

South of the entrance, on the eastern wall, is the Ma hasattva J ataka (PL 4.2.4.1.1) in

three registers; 190 by 420 cm. This is followed on the south wa ll by a Vairocana

(Loshana, light of the universe) Buddha,3 5 under a canopy, flanked by Bodhisattvas

and apsaras. Behind the canopy is a backdrop with a tantric (?)symbol; perhaps an

eye. This is the first preaching Vairocana Buddha 3 6 in the Mogao caves.3 7 West of

this is, 215 by 235 cm., a preaching Buddha flanked by four Bodhisattvas in two rows

with (two) apsaras above them. The west ern portion of the south wall has a preaching

Buddha, seated in the lotus position and provided with a canopy, halo and mandorla.

He is flanked by eight Bodhi sattvas with halos, crowns with kustis a nd Persian scarves

and dhotis, both of which are forked.

The central pillar has niches on all four sides. These are ra ised on a broad shelf, the

front of which shows orderly rows of worshippers in pairs. A man and a smallerwoman behind him are separated by cartouches without writing. Under this is a dado

of Yaksas in great agitation. One of these is playing a stringed instrument, the others

seem to be leaping and cavorting. They have halos and are dressed only in loin-cloths

3 4 Duan Wenjie (ed.) 1989, vol. I, p. 303.

3 5 Particularly honored by the Empress Wu Zetian (reigned A D 690-705). The fi rst translation, from Sanskrit

into Chinese, of the Avatamaska Sutra describes the wo r ld of the Vairocana and was translated, in Khotan by

the monk Buddhabhadra between A. D. 418 and 420. Cf., Howard 1986, p 88ff and the translation of parts of

the Sutra p 157ff. the date 418-420 is from: Hashimoto 1999, p. 40 in Schloms, Adele (ed.) lm Licht des

GroBen Buddha. Schiitze des Todaiji-Temples, Nara. [Catalogue) Cologne).

3 6 The r ight hand would seem to be in abhaya mudra and the left is hold ing an alms bowl.

3 7 Duan Wenjie (ed.) 1989, vol. l, p. 302.

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D u HUANG

and Persian scarves. The niche on the eastern side of this pillar shows a Buddha

seated in a lotus position in abhaya mudra with elaborate flaming halos and ogival

mandorlas; the outermost ends in an ogival arch. These are flanked by painted

Bodhisattvas on two levels with apsaras above them. The niche is closed left and

right by standing figures of Kasyapa and Ananda in high relief. The border of the

niche is framed by truncated stems capped with leaves and entwined with lotus vines

with leaves and large buds. Above and standing on these are dragons whose tails

continue around the niche, uniting invisibly. In partial relief above, is another ogival

flaming mandorla, serving as a canopy. The remaining wall, left and right on this

eastern side of the central pillar, is painted with Bodhisattvas and floating jewels''

before which, in high relief, are cut and leafless stalks (or sticks) and Bodhisattvas.

The meaning of many of these iconographic interpretations is obscure and make this

cave perh aps the most problematic and in teresting of those with jatakas.

The figures and heavenly beings of he wide central register still have the robustbodies and the emphasis of a heavy layer of shaded color. This method (called creux

relief' in French) and the eyes, nose and chin accented with white are typical of the

western regions. But we are here in the Northern Zhou dynasty and it was in the

previous Western Wei dynasty that the great fusion of western Tarim Basin

iconography with Chinese and Daoist iconography took place in cave 285. This Northern

Zhou dynasty only lasted for twenty-four years and yet the relationship between caves

296 and 299 of this dynasty and cave 285 of the Western Wei are as evident as the

lack of relationship with those and this cave 428. A Tibetan influence would explain

this but the Tibetan invasion was in A D. 781 and no other Tibetan influences seem to

be elsewhere at th is early date. The only logical explanation is a Khotan or Kizil

Vairocana iconography which was too conservative to wish to incorporate the new''

Han Chinese and Daoist elements but this requires further research.

4.2.4.1.1 Mahasattva (Viaghri) Jataka

The first four scenes of the mural in Mogao 428 are of the three princes taking leave of

their parents, riding out together, hunting and then taking a rest before seeing the

starving tiger. There seems to be no text which includes these scenes.

The three S shaped registers in cave 428 (Pl. 4.2.4.1.1) begin, above right, with the

three princes taking leave of their parents before leaving, hunting, taking a rest and

discovering the starving tiger. The two brothers of the Bodhisattva are seen departing,

followed by the scenes of sacrifice (Pl. 4.2.4.1.1 a). All of this is very precise. There

must be another text which contains these elements because they are not in t he three

known versions.

The two last scenes of this depiction seem to have no direct relation with the s tory.

The zigzag or S presentation, which occurs here for the frrst time among jatakas,

reflects, according to Shih328

the desire for an economic eye movement.

328 Shih 1993: p. 65

87



D uNHUANG

The architecture of the parents pavilion and the clothes are noticeable Han Chinese

with nomadic influences in the riding clothes) whereas the pagoda, which had already

appeared during the Northern Wei period A. D. 386-534) in cave 254 (PI. 4.2.2.1.2),

ha s reappeared as an Indian stupa (PI. 4.2.4.1.1 a). The rendering of speed, not only

in the horses and riders but also in the bent trees, is particularly successful (PI.

4.2.4.1.1 b). The fusion of conservative and foreign elements is a farther step in the

direction of a new style, and a new iconography.

4.2.4.1.2 Vessantara (Visvantara) Ja ta ka

A segment of coping from Bharhut (ea. 100-80 B. C.), which shows the Vessantara

Jataka (Pl.L3.2.54), is now in the Indian Museum in Calcutta but was not referred to

in Cunningham 1998 (1879). t was published by Barua (1979) p 160 and PL XCI, no.

138 and Klimburg-Salter (ed.) 1995, p 94, PI. 48. t shows Prince Vessantara, with

the state elephant, while pouring water on the hands of the Brahman to validate thegift. t is remarkable that the story which was developed at such length at Sanchi I,

and remained afterwards so universaHy popular, should have received in Bharhut

only the most meager representation.

In Sanchi I the scenes are eight and are placed, in relief, horizon ta lly on both sides of

the lowest architrave of the northern torana (second to third decade of A. D the first

century).

Not only the organization and the number of scenes is singular in the presentation of

jatakasbefore

Dunhuang,

but theexecution

in the Sanchito

rana (

in situ) is the

most

outstanding of all jataka reliefs.

The texts are the Pali jataka no. 547,329 in theTaizi xuda nu jing, T 171, Nj 254330 and

in the Jatakamala.331

The large (h. 190 x w. 420 cm.) dep iction is on the North side of the East wall and is

the pendant of the Mahasattva Jataka (PL 4.2.4.1.1) which is on the South side of the

same entrance) wall.

The story (in S ) begins in the upper left hand corner with Prince Vessantara and a

petitioner in front of one of the alms halls referred to in the J atakamala.332 That the

pet ition in the first scene was granted is shown by the lotus blossoms springing from

the hand of the receiver. In the second scene, they are shown sitt ing in the alms hall.

In the third scene (PL 4.2.4.1.2 a) the figure and Prince Vessantara are shown in front

of the alms hall at the southern gate where the eight Brahmans (depicted with

329 Cowell {tr.) 1969 (1905), vol. VI, p. 246fT

330 Chavannes l r.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. IV , p. 362ff., no. 500. l t was translated by Shan kien, of the Western

.Jin dynasty, A. D 385-431. [Nanjio 1988 (1883), p. 701

331 Koroche (tr.) 1989, p 58fT., no. 9

332 Khoroche tr. ) 1989, p. 59. {The J at akamala)

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D UN UANG

yajftopavita) are shouting Victory to the noble Vessantara. 333 The Brahmans shown

riding off on the white elephant in the following scene are again eight (PJ. 4.2.4.1.2 a),

as in the Pali jataka334 and in theTaizi xuda nu jing.335

In the fifth scene someone is accusing Prince Vessantara. His father banishes him(PI. 4.2.4.1.2 a).

After one day Vessantara, his wife Madi and their children reach the city of Ceta,

where his uncle lived (PI. 4.2.4.1.2, second register in the middle).336

Having given away the horses and chariot, Vessantara had no more possessions to

give. A Brahman then asked Vessantara for some of his clothes, he gave them337

and

the Brahman left (PI. 4.2.4.1.2 b, above right) with the clothes dangling from the end

of a pole.

In the last scene depicted (PI. 4.2.4.1.2, lower right hand corner), the bad Brahman

leaves driving off the protesting children, who are a present from Vessantara.

The depiction in Mogao 428 includes scenes found both in the Pali and in theTaizi

xuda nu jing versions of the jataka, but it follows no known single text.


This cave has a rectangular form with a large niche and two Bodhisattvas in high

relief which occupy all of the western wall. The center of the ceiling has a indented

lantern ceiling segment with apsaras in the four corners. These have halos, Persian

scarves and dhotis and the bodies are painted as if in relief in creux-relief'). Thethree narrow registers around the indentation are decorated conventionally with a

row of presumably stenciled Buddhas, a row of stylized clouds and a row of materials

looped and pleated with painted beads attached to the longer points. The remainder

of the ceiling is divided into six registers.

The first of these consists of an unusually elaborate lotus vegetation with two vases,

pearls on conical stands, monkeys and many different kinds ofbirds. The iconographical

significance of the lotus as purity and the pearl, as the jewel of Buddhist knowledge,

is not problematical but the animals seem to be a documentation of the talent and

humor of the painter depicting a paradise. After a row of presumably stenciled

Buddhas, are two registers composed of the legend of Wei Miao, who was made by the

Buddha into a bhiksuni (Buddhist nun),838illustrations of the Punya-ksetra (Field of

Good Fortune) -sutra and the Kalyanakari ( Doer of Good [brother of Doer of Bad ])

Avadana.339The iconography of these registers is unsophisticated: the walls, pavilions,

333 Cowell (tr .) 1969 (1905), vol. VI , p. 252.

334 lbid.

5 Chavannes (tr .) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. rv. p. 367.

336 Cowell tr.) 1969 (1905), vol. VI, p. 266.

7 Chavannes lr .) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. IV , p. 375.

8 Cf. English contents of: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. V, p. 160, no. l 87.

339 Chavannes (tr .) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. IV, p. 190 , no. 381. See a lso: Chugoku sekkulsu, Dunhuang, vol. V,

89



D UN U NG

gates and palaces are Chinese; nobles are clothed, others are wearing loin-cloths;

dividers a re mountains, trees and car touches (with out writing); the horses and camels

alone presage perhaps the mastery of Tang dyna sty animals. The originali ty and

beauty of the register of lotus, bird s, et al above and the movement, grace, sense of

color and style of the apsaras below is absent here. The only obvious iconographic

originality is that the very small scattered flowers which filled the empty spaces of the

backgrounds in Ki zil and, un til cave 285, in Dunhuang were very Persian whereas

they are now lotus blossoms on whi te backgrounds and have become very Chinese.

Below the two narrative register s, which are so impor tant for their messages of virtue

and moral catharsis through suffering, is the equally wide band of apsaras. The

kus tis and dhotis of these figures have become like wings. Some are playing musical

instruments and some are bearing offerings or trays, but the vase heaped with offerings

(or flames) in the middle of the eastern wall of th is register rests on a lotus which

gives the explanation of the ''vegetation in the upperm ost regi ster an d confirms that

both were painted by the sa me artist. Below thi s is a strip of archi tectural elements

but under thjs on the western wa ll below are, in the right-hand an d left-hand corners,representations of the Queen-Mother of the West and the King Father of the East,

seemingly by the sam e artist again. These are related in turn, though pa in ted by

other hands , to the eminently Chinese paintings of caves 249 and 285 (both of the

Western Wei dynasty, i.e. just previous) in the Daoist tradition.34

The rest of the western wall of cave 296 is occupied by a very large niche flanked by

two li fe-sized figures standing on lotus pedestals. They have an ushnisha and a urna

but are otherwi se uniden tifiable and have perhaps been repainted. Behind each of

these, two Bodhisattvas were painted on the wall. These look older and one ques tions

if some of the painting in this cave is perhaps of a later date.

In the niche itself, the Buddha has no hands but would appear to have been in abhaya

mudra and is seated in a western position. He and the equally high-relief figures of

Kasyapa and Ananda also seem to have been repainted bu t the elaborate halos and

mandorlas showing seated Buddhas and flames, with additional flames from the

shoulders, appear to be original. Both the mandorla of the Buddha a nd the flaming

canopy of the niche have ogival forms and the stalks in high-relief which flank the

niche are covered with lotus vines a nd capped with opened lotus buds.

The northe rn and southern walls are covered with Thousand Buddhas under which is

a register of legends and jatakas and a dado of demons or Yaksas. This dado is 65 cm.high and the cavorting figures have halos, Persian scarves at least one of which is

striped) and dhotis. The outlin es and mu scles are underlined and the eyes and noses

are accented in white but the more subtle tones of colorations needed to produce

creux-relief ' are notable by their absence. The register above this , on the northern

wall, is 45 cm. hjgh and is occupied by a depiction of the Sujata Jataka . The architecture

is Chinese and since the function of the buildings is clearly representative, and within

high walls, it shows the status of the owners. Prince Sujata, his wife and son, are

English contents, p. 160, nos. 188 to 193 and the illustrations t hereof. See also: Ou an Wcnjic (ed.) l989, vol. 1, p.

113 IT

340 Confucian and Daoist. belie fs were firmly ancho red in China before the ar riva l of' Buddh ism from India . Thefusion of elements from all three makes Dunhuang particularly interes ting.

90



D u UANG

recognizable but no more. The outlines of the cartouches have been pa in ted but have

no writing. The trees exist only as outlines and are not done with stencils but they

look as if they had been, because the painting within the outlines is missing. The

depiction was surely unfinished.

Vis a vis, on the southern wall, is a depiction of the Five Hundred Bandits who

became converted. It is 44 cm. high and was also not finished. Ning Qiang,34 explains

that this depiction is different from the same story as depicted in cave 285 because

this one is based on the Mahaparinirvana Sutra and therefore puts the accent on the

battle. The other version is based, he says, on the Mahaupaya Buddha Sutra and

shows the Buddha preaching and the ordination of the bandits.

The iconography of this cave illustrates the power of the Buddha (shoulder flames,

flames of halo and mandorla , the transformation of Wei Miao from a person of constant

suffering to a bhiksuni nun and the conversion of the Five Hundred Bandits. Both of

which show again the power of the Buddha. This is combined with two examples of

virtue and generosity as illustrated with the Sujata Jataka and the Kalya nakari

Avadana. As if in a parenthesis, in the ceiling, the program is completed by the sutra

(of the Fields of Good Fortune which demonstrates that even the least virtue can be a

seed producing great happiness.

Of the caves considered here it is in cave 296 that the Daoist elements of the Queen of

the West and the King of the East together with the even older Wu Huo re united

with the Buddhist traditions coming from India.

4.2.4.2.1 Sujata Jataka

The story pictured and labeled in graffiti Sujato Gahuto Jataka on a coping in

Bharhut (ea. 100-80 B. C.)34 is the story of a son who cured his father of his inordinate

grief (for the death of hi s own father by trying to feed a dead ox. It is related in name

only to the Dunhuang jataka.

On the north torana at Sancbi I there is a scene dep ict ing Sujata. This is the

personage who brings, for the last time, food and drink to the Buddha Sakyamuni

before his enlightenment and has also nothing to do with the jataka of the same

name.

Texts are the Za bao zang jing T 203, Nj 1372 (Taisho 203, pp . 447 448 b),343 the

Xian yu jing ( Der Weise und der Tor ), (Taisho 202, p. 356 a - 357 b) and the Da

Fangbian fo baoen jing T 156, Nj 431 (Taisho 156, pp. 127 b - 130 b).344

This painting (Pl. 4.2.4.2.1) is in the middle of the North wall and measures h. 45 x w.

341 Duan Wenj ie (ed.) 1989, vol. I, p. 314 .

342 Cunningham 1998 (1879), PI. XLVll no. 3 and p. 76.

343 Chavannes (tr .) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. ll l, p. 2.

344

Cf.: Gies, J acques 1996, Les arts de I'Asie central. La collection Paul Pelliot du musee des art s asiatiqucs -

Guimet. Kodansha (in J apanese, 1994) and Reunion des musee nationaux (in French, 1996), Pis. 137-l 39. Vol.

11, p . 358.

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D UNHUANG

370 cm. t seems to be divided into seven scenes:

a) Behind the palace, Shan Zhu is warned to flee with his wife and their son

Sujata.

b) The three leave, with some provisions attached to the end of a stick, from the

other side of the palace.

c) When the provisions are finished , Sujati s mother offers herse lf to feed her

husband and son and is about to be sacrificed by the former, using his sword.

d) Sujata falls to his knees and begs his father to sacrifice himself instead .

e) When the last three portions of the child s flesh are divided and he is left with

his portion at the roadside Sakra Devendra (the god Indra), in the form of a

hungry animal, requests the last piece of meat. The chi ld gives it to him and

regains his original form again.

0 The parents arrive at the palace of a neighboring king.

g) The parents, presumably with the child again but he is not shown, are sent

back in honor and with a great escort, to their own country.

The Dunhuang 296 depiction is of seven scenes, of which two central ones show the

father of the Bodhisattva drawing his sword to sacrifice his wife with the following

scene where the child is on his knees, begging to be sacrificed instead. The fir st is the

scene used in the four representations from Kizil and the second is the first of the two

scenes from Tumshuk (PI. 3.5.1). All of these representations are from the end of the

sixth or the beginning of the seventh century.


Cave 299 is an almost square rectangle with a large niche in the western wall and two

corner pedestals flanking it. The ceiling has the form of a lantern ceiling with painted

squinches 45

in its center and a row of stenciled Buddhas in dhyana mudra around it.

Beyond the now conventional loops and folds of material, is a register containing an

illustration of the Sama Jataka (PI. 4.2.4.3.1).

4.2.4.3.1 Sama (Syama) Jataka

The Sama Jataka is no. 540 in the Pali co llection. 46 The Liudu ji jing, 47 te lls a shorter

version which, however, agrees with the Pali story.

Sama, a young ascetic, cares for his blind parents who live as hermits until one day,

while fetching water, he is inadvertently shot by a king who is hunting.

In cave 299 the king is shown in Chinese robes or in a short riding coat, mounted on a

horse with a saddle blanket. A se rvant, who in the second case is also mounted, holds

an umbrella (PI. 4.2.4.3.1). All of the personages are dressed in Chinese clothes, the

horses are well drawn , the trees are wind blown and the huts of Sama s parents are

45 A naive misunderstanding of squinches because these do not join a dome to a square. rh ey t ry to join a

square t a square, whi ch of course does not function.

46 Cowe ll (t r.) 1969 1905), vol. VI, p. 38fT.

47 Chavannes (t r. ) 1962 1910-1935), vol. I, p. 156, no. 43.

92



D UNHU NG

visibly made of straw.

The band below shows a row of apsaras with halos, in long dhotis with crowns and

Persian scarves. Some of them are playing musical instruments. Protruding above

the niche into these two registers is an ogival canopy bordered with flames and filled

with musicians, dancing figures, two figures pursuing one another and the bust of one

figure being reborn from a lotus. This takes place between huge (compared to the

figures) inverted lotuses and agapanthus leaves. Below this is the perhaps repainted)

niche of the principal icon. The northern wall is occupied by Thousand Buddhas

stenciled in dhyana mudra under a frieze of loops of blue-green material.

The most important evolution in the painting of Mogao 299, is in the depiction of the

mountains, which have now become large rocks painted in layers. That the figures are

smaller than the mountains is a large step and is perhaps a result of the fusion of

western Tarim Basin (Kizil) painting with that of the Central Plane.

4.2.4.4 Description ofMogao 301

This cave is a rectangle with a large niche set into the western wall. The single

lantern element in the center of the ceiling is recessed A band of stylized clouds and

then loops of materials and folds with beads closes this central portion. Around this is

a register with the Mahasattva and Sama jatakas.

The ceiling above the niche in the western wall is occupied by large cavorting heavenly

figures . The apsaras in cave 301 are painted in the underlined-muscle-and-outline

manner of Kizil. This is, however, not a conscious revival of a mode of painting of over

a hundred years earlier but a style of painting which remained archaic in the midst ofall of the other new and changing elements. Presumably, like the chubby cherubs in

the west, they had remained the prototypes of heavenly beings. The whole is colorful

and full of movement and the willow and evergreen trees are not only well-cared for

but used consciously in a decorative manner. The walls have the blue-green loops of

material of cave 299 and also show rows of stenciled Thousand Buddhas beneath

them.

On the southern wall is a painted seated Buddha in a lotus position and in a teaching

attitude. He is flanked by two Bodhisattvas and the tree, or two trees, above him, as

well as the apsaras, seem stylistically related to the apsara register of the ceiling.

These have no halos but crowns with kustis and Persian scarves. They also have

Brahman strings and necklaces, which is now iconographically unusual. Some have

musical instruments. The western wall and its niche were similar to that of cave 296

but the figures, except for the Buddha, in a western posi tion but without hands, have

been removed.

The Mahasattva Jataka (PI. 4.2.4.4.1) begins in the south-western co rner of the ceiling

of cave 301, ending in the north-eastern corner. The depiction is a shortened version,

in two registers, of the one in cave 428.

The texts which we have of the Mahasattva are several but the one which correspondsto the Dunhuang depictions, with the notable exception of Mogao 72, must be lost. See

93



D uNHUANG

4.2.2.1.2 for a complete list of the texts.

This depiction, in cave 301, also begins with the three princes taking leave of their

father the mother is not there this time), and then leaving and hunting on horseback.

4.2.4.4.2 Sama Sama) Jataka

The Sama Jataka is no. 540 in the Pali collection.348 The Liudu ji jing,349 tells a shorter

version which, however, agrees with the Pali story.

The Sama Jataka PI. 4.2.4.4.2) begins in the north-western corner of the ceiling and

occupies only the northern side. Sama is seen several times alone and with his

parents in a landscape with unwritten cartouches, rocks which have become bigger

and badly layered and trees and bushes which are not executed with care. The horses

have not been colored. The final scene in which Sama is returned to life and the

parents are no longer blind is complete but the portion in which the king shoots Samais unfinished.

The largest and most important element in th is depiction is the arrival of Sakra

Devendra the god Indra) in the form of a large apsara. This is another sinification of

motifs and personages which were less sophisticated in their Indian origin and are

becoming more so with siniciza tion

4.2.5 Sui A D. 589-618)


Cave 124 is in the southern portion of the Mogao caves but there seems to be no

documentation available.

4.2.5.1.1 Sama Syama) Jataka

The depiction was removed by the Oldenburg expedition of 1914-1915 and is now in

the Hermitage in St. Petersburg number Dh 197-198).

H. 17 x L 144 cm., the most recent documentation of th is depiction is in th e catalogue s

of the Paris and Tokyo exhibitions of 1995- 1996 PI. 4.2.5.1.1 .350

Several female figures are in th e pavilion behind the king, who is shown leaving from

the right) on horseback with a mounted servant holding an umbrella above him.

A tree in the center of the composition PI. 4.2.5.1.1 shows only the right half, but the

348 Cowell tr.) 1969 1905), vol. VI , p. 38ff.

349 Chava nnes tr.) 1962 1910-1935), vol. I, p. 156, no. 43.

350 Gies, Jacques and Cohen, Mooique ed . 1995, Serir.de, Terre de Bouddha Cata logue of the exhibition in the

Grand Pa lais, Paris, Oct. 1995 Feb.I996). Pa ris: Reunion des musees nationaux.

and: Shiruku-rodo dai-bijutsuten Grand Exhibition of Silkroad Buddhist Art , 1996. Tokyo. T hi s is thesame ca talogue for the same exhibition, bu t in J apanese for Tokyo instead of in French for Paris.)

94



D uNHU NG

tree is visible far left) is shown broken, as are the spirits of the nearby parents of

Sama who ha s just been shot by mistake.


Cave 302 has the remains of an outer chamber which is not considered in the material

available, a short passageway and a cella with a central pillar and small niches on the

external walls at about eye-level. The ceiling around the central pillar ha s a series of

lantern elements with the notable exception of the small eastern antechamber portion

which has a gabled ceiling. This has a representation of the Sama Jataka on two

levels and the Mahasattva Jataka and the Fields of Happiness Sutra on one level

each in lengthwise configurations.

Interesting is the almost naked branches flanking the Buddha and Bodhisattvas in

the preaching scene of the northern wall. This must have the same iconographic

meaning as the trees reduced to their purely symbolic value, in high relief, in cave428. 1

The iconography is dominated by numberless Thousand Buddhas, four Buddha

preaching the law, and the jatakas. The whole is so conservative that it is difficult to

realize that this was painted in the Sui dynasty, but it ha s lost the spontaneity and

the freshness of the earlier periods and become flat and weak, which does confirm its

late date.

4.2.5.2.1 Mahasattva (Viaghri) Jataka

In the western part of the gable ceiling, the Mahasattva Jataka occupies the upper

portion, an illustration of the Sutra of the Fields of Happiness is below it.

This depiction here in cave 302 of the Sui dynasty shows the same story as caves 428

and 301. Ergo a version not yet found.

The story is told from left to right and begins (PI. 4.2.5.2.1) with the three princes

taking leave of their parents, who are sitting in a pavilion with an owls'-tail roof. The

brothers then leave on horseback. The depictions are conventional and close with the

pagoda for the remains of the Mahasattva.

Hardly visible are two very small apsaras above the prince while the tiger and her

cubs are feeding on him . The story is readable from below and the bare spaces are

filled with falling lotus buds.

The presentation is correct, not imaginative but it has the virtue of being

understandable, which the depictions from the same Sui dynasty on the ceiling of cave419 do not).

351 1'he depiction of the Sama J ataka (PI 4.2.5.1.1) from cave 124 also has trees without leaves

95



D u NHU NG

4.2.5.2.2 Sama (Syama) J ataka

On t he eastern ha lf of the gabled ceiling, the 65 cm. high and 345 cm. long depiction is

in the second register and tells the story from left to right.

In the first two scenes of the depict ion, three figures are taking leave of two others in

a pavilion with a Chinese roof. The three then leave on horseback. The depiction

seems to be meant for the Mahasattva Jataka . t does not show a king leaving for

hunting. From the moment when he shoots Sama the scenes are correct, but it does

look a s if the beginning was a mistake or a misunderstanding.

Sakra Devendra (the god Indra) arrives in the form of an ap sara (PI. 4.2.5.2 .2), as in

Mogao 301 (P l. 4.2.4.4.2).

4.2.5.3 Descrip tion of Mogao 423

This cave has a square form, an entrance corridor in the east and a raised niche in the

wes tern wall. The eastern half of the ceiling has a gable.

The nor th ern and southern walls are covered with Thousand Buddhas. They have a

dado with, presumably, donors and loops and inverted points under a cornice with a

fri eze of a psaras above. These apsara s have no halos and have Chinese hair styles.

On either side of the niche, six Bodhisattvas are painted in two register s. In the niche

is a Buddha seated n the wes tern position in abhaya mudra flanked by Kasyapa and

Ananda andtwo s

omewhatlarger Bodhis

attvas.

The

Buddha s halo is

unadorned

,th

eogival mandorla shows very large flames and above are (only two, but large) apsaras.

The niche is framed by two stems with lot us vines and inverse conical ends on which

rest the front paws of the dragons above. The ogival canopy ha s a jewel surrounded

by flames in the middle reaching into the mountains, treasure pond and Tu shita

Palace of the Wes tern Paradise painted above it. Within the palace, Buddha a nd

Prabhutaratna are convers ing in t he presence of a large gathering, as told in Chapter

XI of the Lotus (Saddharma-pundarika) Sutra. To the left and right of this Buddhist

Western Paradise, the Daoist Queen-Mother of the West and the King-Father of the

East , in their vehicles and with their entourages, are ass isting.

The western side of the gable, just above the Western Paradise, shows a large preaching

scene with a Maitreya wearing a crown with kusti and Indian jewelry (two necklaces

and arm-bands) like those of the Bodhisattvas beside him . Flanking the hall, in

which he is preaching , are three storey Chinese pagodas with heavenly musicians.

The two halls, of t his scene and the one below it, have not only owls'-tails on the roofs

but archi tecturally exact, painted brackets. A row of large lotuses on the top of the

gable separates this scene from the Vessantara Jataka on the eastern side of the

gable.

Iconographically the fusion of Buddhist and Daoist elements in t he depiction of the

Tushi ta heaven and above it has gone a step farth er in this cave, uniting a Maitreyawith Indian jewelry with Chinese architecture and t he Daoist Queen-Mother and

96



D UNHU G

King-Father in a scene perhaps difficult to imagine only a generation before.

4.2.5.3.1 Vessantara (Visvantara) Jataka

The Pali jataka no. 547.

35

In theTaizi xuda nujing

T 171, Nj 254

353

and no. 9 in theJatakamala.354

The Vessentara Jataka starts in the upper left-hand corner of the gable ceiling with

the scene in which Vessentara talks to Madi and seems to finish in the lower left-hand

corner with the reunion of all of the participants again in the father's palace.

In the detail (PI. 4.2.5.3.1) shown here a Brahman is pulling the chariot upper right

while Vessantara and Madi, with the children on their shoulders, continue on foot.

Underneath , other Brahmans beg and receive clothing. The arrival ofVessantara and

his family at the house of his uncle is shown on the left.

The depiction is full of Chinese architecture (alms halls), city walls and rocks as

dividers. The elements of the story are there, but the details and the sequence must

be hard to find from floor level.


Cave 427 has an external antechamber still intact, a corridor, and a cella the ceiling of

which is divided into a gabled antechamber and a flat pillar-chamber. The external

chamber has two lokapalas, standing on demons, on the northern wall and another

two, also on demons, on the southern wall. Left and right of the corridor entrance are

dvarapalas. All of these were made of earth and painted.

The paintings of the corridor are of a later date. The walls and ceilings of the cella

are, almost without exception, covered with Thousa nd Buddhas. The exceptions include:

a row of souls being born in the Western Paradise near the center of the gable ceiling,

the elaborate agapanthus, flowers and apsaras with musical instruments in the central

gable panel, a dado with donors, Bodhisattvas painted on the wall between clay triad

figures and flanking the niches of the central pillar and four scenes below the niche s

and shelf on the four sides of the pillru . One of these latter scenes is a depiction of the

Vessantara Jataka.

The triads in the niches of the northern, western and southern faces of the pillar seem

all to be of a Buddha seated on a pedestal in dhyana mudra, flanked by Kasyapa and

Ananda with a background consisting of a halo, ogival flaming mandorla , three rows

of Bodhisattvas and apsaras in the niche ceiling. The niches are bordered by stalks,

painted with lotus vines with leaves and flowers, and dragons supporting themselves

on these. The remaining three triads on the western side of the pillar and the

northern and southern sides of the internal antechamber, consist of a st anding Buddha

35 Cowell tr .) 1969 1905), vol. Vl , p. 246ff.

353 Chavannes tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. V, p. 362ff., oo. 500. It wa s trans lat ed by Shan kien, of th e Wes tern

Jin dynas ty, A. D. 385-431. [Nanjio 1988 (1883), p. 70].

354 Koroche tr.) 1989, p 58ff., oo. 9.

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D uNHU NG

in abhaya mudra and two Bodhisattvas. Some of these have separate halos and some

do not but it may well be that some have been lost. All of them stand on substantial

reversed lotus pedestals. The hems of all of the robes have become very round. The

robes of the Bodhi sa ttvas a re elaborate, while the clinging simplicity of the Buddha

figures is reminiscent of Gupta period figures.

Jus t below the ceiling on all of the walls of the ce a is a row of apsaras, once again

with no halos bu t with crowns and kustis. Some of these have musical instruments.

Below is a cornice under which is a row of short points.

From a purely iconographic point of view, this cave is not very in teres ting. From a

stylistic viewpoint some of the decorative elemen ts, such as the frieze in the middle of

the gable, are certa inly interesting as examples of the beauty and deterioration often

to be found at the end of an artistic as we ll as a dynastic period. (Perhaps showing,

once again in a rt history, how decaying political conditions often produce a singular

form of art . The clay Amanda statue in high relief in the western niche of the pillarhas, however, a face presaging the coming Tang zenith of art in Dunhuang.

There is an illustration in Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vo l. 11, PL 58 which is

labeled Sudana = Vessantara Jataka in cave 427, but its condition allows no comment.

(The cave itself is, as described above, very worthwhile understanding because it

marks another step in the iconography of caves with jatakas).

4.2.5.5 Description of cave 419

Cave 419 is on the upperm ost of three levels in the nor thern third of the Mogao caves

an d has the remains of an outer chamber. From there, a corridor leads into the cell

which is a rectangle with a large niche in the western wall.

In the niche the Buddha Sakyamuni is in high relief, is seated in the lo tus position on

a massive square pedestal. He is now in abbey mudra, but the hands have been

repaired. His garment is made of large squares, covers both shoulders but shows an

undergarment on his ches t, and ha s folds which are now as rounded in front as they

had been pointed in the Northern Wei dynasty. The halo itself is without patterns but

ha s two borders with flowers and a larger border of flames or clouds. Flames come

from his shoulders and the large ogival mandorla has very elaborate flames. The

ceiling of the niche is covered with apsaras, which is important because they link theniche with the Tushita heaven above. Kasyapa and Amanda, in high relief, and two

very Chinese Bodhisattvas, al so in high relief, flank Sakyamuni This group already

looks rather like early Tang work and is certainly transitional. The niche is flanked

by stems with lotus vines and are capped with upturned lotus blossoms. Poised with

one leg on these is a forepaw of the dragon above. These join one another above the

niche. The ogival canopy above is composed of large stylized lotus flowers related to

the frieze in the gable pinnacle in cave 427 and has a border of flames. The ceiling

above this is painted with a Maitreya, with a crown and India n jewelry, preaching in

the Tushi ta hea ven. Left and right of this are the now familiar (caves 285, 249, etc.)

depictions of the Queen-Mother of the West and the King-Father of the East.

98



D UNHU G

Once again, the unification of the Maitreya with the Queen-Mother of the West and

the King-Father of the East above an abbey mudra Buddha Sakyamuni niche guarded

by Chinese dragons is a notable iconographic exploit, which is , however, no longer

new.

4.2.5.5.1 Mahasattva (Vyaghri) Jataka

The eastern portion of the cella ceiling is gabled. The west side of this is painted with

an illustration of the Parable chapter of the Saddharmapundarika Sutra and with a

portion of the Mahasattva Jataka. The east side of the gable is painted with the

Vessantara Jataka on the first three bands and with a portion of the Mahasattva

Jataka on the fourth. These are all painted zigzag in four horizontal bands

The texts which we have of the Mahasattva Jataka are several but the one which

corresponds to the Dunhuang depictions, with the notable exception of Mogao 72,

mu st be lost. See 4.2.2.1.2 for a complete list .

The detail (Pl. 4.2.5.5.1) shows the three princes seeing the tiger, the Maha sattva

throwing himself for the first time to the tiger and his throwing himself from the

precipice after piercing his neck with a twig.

As in all of the Dunhuang representation s, the two depictions in cave 419 both show

the three princes leaving for hunting, ergo again the unfound version.

4.2.5.5.2 Vessantara Visvantara) Jataka

The Pali jataka no. 54 7,355 theTaizi xuda nu jing T 171, Nj 254356 and the Jatakamala.357

As with the Mahasattva Jataka above, this depiction is painted so that it is virtually

unintelligible from ground level. The detail (Pl. 4.2.5.5.3) shows, however, that the

story has been followed attentively .

Among all of Dunhuang jataka depictions, those in cave 419 are the most difficult to

follow. Zigzag presentation, the fact that they are above the viewer, the dark colors in

an already dark cave and the manner in which they are painted all contribute.

4.2.6. Tang (A. D. 618-907)

That the subjects of the decoration of caves 112 and 85 and the banners from 17

includes jatakas is unexpected during the last period of the Tang dynasty A. D.

848-907)358

because interest in them seemed to have been lost after the termination of

cave 419 in the end of the Sui dynasty, some three hundred years earlier.

Once the jata ka s and other stories were incorporated into the Sutras, where they

355 Cowell Lr.) 1969 1905), vol. VI, p . 24611.

356 Chavannes (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. IV , p. 362 ., no. 500. It was translated by Shan ki en, of the Western

Jin dynasty, A D. 385-431. [Nanjio 1988 (1883), p. 70].

357 Koroche {tr .) 1989, p 58ft., no . 9.

358 Duan Wenjie (ed.) l989, vo l. I, p. 12.

99



DUNHU NG

became narrative support explaining the cause and effect of actions or motivations,

new forms of presentation were used. Most sophisticated was the tripartite form in

which the Buddha, or a Buddha, is no longer shown alone in meditation or teaching

within a small group but is seen enthroned as the central figure in Paradise, looking

directly at and demanding the attention of the viewer as in earlier Pure Land murals.

The severity and weight of the palace architecture and the myriad figures in this

central, intellectualized, presentation is now counterbalanced by more accessible stories

which are presented with quality, freedom, and innovation in the upper corners or in

the side panels. Of the following Tang jataka depict ions, those in Mogao 112 and on

the two banners from Mogao 17 belong to this genre.


This cave from the middle Tang, A. D 781-848, Tubo Period, seems to be almost

square and it is decorated with large panels depicting sutras (no measurements are

available). The central panels are painted in the manner of the two banners (4.2.6.3)from Mogao 17. The stories, including the ensuing Nalinika Jataka, are not on side

panels but in the upper corners.

4.2.6.1.1 Nalinika Jataka (Tang-lady-version)

The story is in the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing, T 156, Nj 431 (Baoen Sutra .360 Sutra

of the great good means (mahopaya) by which Buddha recompenses the favor (of his

parents .

It tells of a mountain in the kingdom of Varanasi (Benares) which is the dwelling of

many ascetics. A doe, after drinking water where the ascetic of the southern grotto

had washed his clothes, became pregnant and gave birth to a girl who was then ra ised

by the ascetic. Having let the fire go out, she went to the ascetic of the northern grotto

to fetch embers and went around his grotto seven times leaving lotus flowers which

sprang from her footsteps. The king of Varanasi, seeing th is, asked for her hand in

marriage and from a wondrous lotus five hundred sons were born to them.

The large painted panel (no measurements on the west side of the north wall of cave

112, is an illustration of the Baoen Sutra. In the upper left-hand corner the southern

ascetic is seen meditating in his cave and the doe is drinking. In the right hand upper

corner (PI. 4.2.6.1.1) the northern ascetic, is meditating and the daughter of thesouthern ascetic and the doe, now a young lady, is seen circling the cave. At each

step a lotus s prings from under her feet. The king is shown while passing by.

The doe and the hermit motive has undergone a considerable change in form. The

change corresponds to, and underlines , the taste and social context of Bharhut ea.

100-80 B. C. and the sophistication ofTang China.

359 Duan Wenj ie (ed.) 1989, vol. , p. 288fT PI. 98 and Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vo l IV , PI. 58.Chavannes (tr.) 1962 (1910-1935), vol. IV, p. 98f.

100



D uNHU NG


The Mogao cave 85 is on the ground floor level slightly nor th of the large pagoda . The

j ingban illustrations of this cave are from the Xian yu jing, T 202, Nj 1322, ( Der

Weise und der Tor ).361

The inverted Chinese measuring cup form of the ceiling dictates not only the square

form of t he cave but also to some extent the disposition of the subjects presented.

The indented center of the ceiling contains what was, in Kizil, a painted lantern

ceiling element but it now has a lotus and squinches and its style is purely Chinese.

The four large planes receding towards the walls, as well as the walls themselves,

present Sutras and legends which have an organization similar to mandalas. The

focal point is a preaching Buddha surrounded by those attending. The next elemen ts

are those belonging to, and somet imes defining, t he subject while the remaining space

is filled with stories which include at least one jataka.362 These are illustrated insingle scenes, in principal like those of Kizil, but have, unlike those, empty spaces

between them, instead of dividers. This is no longer a Western Tarim Basin but a

Chinese presentation. Each scene is accompanied by a cartouche.

The iconographic organization of the walls is also in the form of large mandalas

depicting Sutras The eastern side of the southern wall, for example; shows the Da

Fangbian fo baoen jing 405 by 390 cm The preaching scene which occupies the center

of the composition is from the preface and illustrates the Buddha teaching the Law to

the sravaka, the supernatural beings of eight classes and the Bodhisattvas. t takes

place on a vast platform above the sacred pond. The sermon was motivated byAnanda asking the Buddha to interpret his meet ing with a girl begging alms for her

parents and the Buddha's resulting explanation of the compensation of good works.

Around this central theme of the preface are grouped scenes illustrating different

chapters of the Sutra One is the cha pter about Prince Subhuti and is about fil ial

piety, another is the story about the Princes Shanyou and Eyou of Borneo, a chapter of

commentaries called about the mother doe (our Nalinika J ataka) and another about

intimacy called about the lion with the golden fleece.' 63

The Saddharmapundarika Sutra painted on the southern side of the measuring cup

ceiling is the Sutra about unshakable faith and is 95 by 190 cm. t te lls of a young

man who leaves home to become a mendicant and how, after many years of a life of

simplicity, he in heri ts his dying father 's wealth.

The other Sutras are the Bhaisajyaguru in the center of the northern wall, the

Vi sesacin- tabrahmapariprccha on the eastern side of the northern wall, the

361 Shi Pingting 1992: p. 64.

362 The lengthy descr iptions of the plates were written by Wan Gengyu, presumably of the Dunhuang Inst itute

[Ouan Wenjie (ed.) 1989, vol. ll, p. 6]. On page 310 he writes that the depiction of the Sutra of Co mpensation of

Goo d Deeds C S utra des bienfaits recompenses ) contains chapters illustrated sous la form de jatakas He then

proceeds to call several Su tra stories jatakas but these have no relation to the subjects concidered here.

363 These are the Sutra chapters which the author calls J atakas.''

101



uNHUANG

the scale. Also new is that King Sivi is sitting with both feet on the ground, or the

floor, and on a Chinese bench, not cross-legged or in lalitasana like an Indian. The

person cutting his flesh does not have a halo. These differences are due to the size of

the depiction and to its having been painted ea. four hundred years later, not to

textual variances.

4.2.6.3 Description of two banners from Mogao 17

These Tang dynasty Sutra banners are 176.6 x 121.0 (Pl. 4.2.6.3.1) and 168.0 x 121.6

cm. (Pl. 4.2.6.3.2), painted on silk, and illustrate the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing , T 156,

Nj 431, (Baoen Sutra). They are two of the banners, discovered in Mogao 17 and now

in the British Museum. The tripartite scheme of Sutra presentation in Dunhuang

during the Tang dynasty underlines visually the evolution of ataka iconography during

which the stories had become incorporated into the Sutras , loosing not only their

separate identity as bianwen (popular storytelling script) but, with the sole exception

of the paravent presentation in Mogao 72 from the Five Dynasties, also their identityas independent visual exponents. The composition of these Sutra presentations consists

of a large central paradise flanked by illustrations of stories, by no means always

jatakas, taken from the corresponding Sutra. In this case the illustrations are episodes

from three of the nine parts of the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing and two of these are

jatakas.

4.2.6.3.1 Nalinika Jataka

Instead of giving birth to a boy, as in the Alambusa, lsisinga and Rsyasruga versions,

the doe has borne a girl who has become, on this banner, as in the mural in Mogao112, a full grown Tang dynasty Chinese lady.

A doe giving birth to a child after eating grass with the urine of an ascetic is the

beginning of six different stories. (See Nalinika in the Alphabetical Catalogue).

One version in which the child was a girl was in the Liudu ji jing, T 152, Nj 143,364 the

other in the Da Fangbian fo baoenjing T 156, Nj 431.365

These versions are different in the middle but both start with the doe giving birth to a

young woman whose inadvertent father was the ascetic. The imprint of her footsteps

became lotus flowers and, in both stories, she later became the mother of Sakyamuni. 66

Four scenes with five inscribed cartouches (PI. 4.2.6.3.1 b, left-hand side) begin with

the doe grazing in a pasture near a lake between hills or mountains part of the scene

is missing). In the second and third scenes the ascetic is meditating in his cave and

the lady is walking, as in the text, around the cave. Wherever the lady steps, in this

landscape around the ascetic, a lotus springs from the earth. In the second and third

of these scenes (PI. 4.2.6.3.1 a) the ascetic is sitting in a cave under singular pointed

rocks or mountains like those on a stele from Wanfosi (in Chengdu) from the mid sixth

364 Chavannes (tr . 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 80fT.

365 Chavannes tr.) 1962 (1910-1935 , vol. IV , p. 98f.

366 Cf., Whitfield, Roderick (ed. 1982-1985, vol. I, p. 300.

103



D u NHUANG

century,367 n a mural on the west side of the north wall of Mogao 112 (A. D. 781-848)

and on a Tang banner of the ninth century.368

In the fourth and final scene (Pl.

4.2.6.3.1 a, again) a man on the shore of a lake seems to be te lling a boy the story

while indicating a lotus on the water.

The beginning of this jataka has survived, albeit n its simplest form, in sandstone

from Bharhut, from ea. 100-80 B. C. , and is now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta.

That it also exists painted on the si lk banner discussed here from t he mid- to late

eighth century, found in Mogao 17 and now in the British Muse um , demonstrates the

iconographic and material extr emes of the genre perfectly. This is complemented by

its existence twice as a stair-riser in schist from Gandhara, from the second t third

century. The first of these is in t he Indian Muse um in Calcutta and the second in a

private collection in Japan.369

The three stone depictions have certainly been conceived using one of the two Pali

versions. The mid- to late eighth century banner from Mogao 17 used the versiontran slated from Da Fangbian fo baoen jing.3

70

The last three scenes from the bottom of the ba nner (PI. 4.2.6.3.1 b, right-hand side)

are described in the cartouches as from the story of Shanyou and Eyou, the Good and

Wicked Sons. Not a jataka, it had a lso been incorporated in to the Da Fangbian fo

baoen ji ng. 37 1.

The concept and tripartite organization of the (h.176.6 x w.122.0 cm.) banner from A.

D. the mid- to the late eighth century (Pl. 4.2.6.3.1) and of the (h.168.0 x w.l21.6 cm.)

second banner from A. D. the ea rly ninth century (Pl. 4.2.6.3.2) are the same as thoseof t he two Amitayurdhayana Sutra (h. 300 x w. 411 and w. 410 cm.) murals on the

north and south walls of Mogao 172 of the mid eighth century. This is a predominant

scheme of presentation of Sutras in Dunhuang during this period .372

The large central panels, depicting Sakyamuni Buddha in his Pure Land Paradise on

the banners and the Tatagata Amitayus enthroned in the Western Pure Land on the

murals are schematic,873 bu t the scenes in the side panels are illustrations of stories in

the Sutras. Freed from the dogmatic obligations of the central panels, it is in these

side panel stories that evolu tions in Chinese painting during t he Tang dynasty can be

followed.

367 Cf.: Lee, Sherman E. (ed.) 1998, China 5,000 years. (Ca ta logue of t he exh ibition in New York a nd Bilbao).

New York : Gugge nheim Muse um, PI 151 (reverse).

368 Wh itfield (ed.) 1982-1985, vo l. I, PI. 39-1 and p. 301.

369 Kurita 1990, p. 278, nos. 854 855.

370 Cf.: Chavannes (tr .) 1962 (1910-1935 , vol. IV, p. 98f.

371 Cf., Duan Wenjie (ed.) 1989, vol. 15, p. 284.

372 Cf., Wu Hung 1992 l) , Rebor n in Pa radise: A Case S tudy of Dunhua ng Sutra Pa int ing a nd its Re ligious,

Ri tua l and Ar tis tic Context, p. 52fr.

373 For a desc ription see: ibid., p. 52.

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D u UANG

4.2.6.3.2 Sujata (Sujati) Jataka

The Buddhist message of this story from the xiaoyang, or filial devotion section of the

Da Fangbian fo baoen jing T 156, Nj 431 is the earning of merit through generosity

dana paramita), demonstrated here by the readiness of a seven year old boy to sacrifice

himself to save his parents. The concept of baoen, or the requiting of blessings

received, which is the central theme in this Sutra, coincides with the Confucian concept

of filial piety, making it doubly attractive to the Chinese mind.

The Da Fangbian fo baoen jing is the Sutra of the great good means (mahopaya) by

which Buddha recompenses the favor (of his parents). t was translated under the

Eastern Han dynasty , A. D. 25-220, but the translator's name is lost.

The Chavannes translation of the Sujata Jataka is from the Za bao zang jing, T 203,

Nj 1372,Skr.: Samyuktaratnapitaka-sutra , which was translated into Chinese by

Kigaiye, assisted by Tan-yao, in A. D. 472.

Whitfield also indicates that the text used for the banners is from the Da Fangbian fo

baoen jing. 74

The Sujata Jataka is shown as an illustration of episodes on the side panels of two

Paradise of Sakyamuni banners, painted in color on silk. The scenes are presented in

the corresponding architecture or landscape and have cartouches with the explanation

of each scene on the banner from the eighth century.

The eighth century banner375

(PI. 4.2.6.3.1 and PI. 4.2.6.3.1 c), beginning on the upper

right corner, shows an official in red bowing to another, more elaborate, figure. Thecartouche identifies these as the traitorous minister Rahula and the King ofVaranasi.376

The second scene shows a spirit descending to warn the king of an impending attack

by Rahula's troops and in the third scene the king, his wife and their child are shown

leaving the palace or city by way of a ladder leaning on the wall. Their flight, the

intervention of the child to save his mother when the provisions are finished and the

wounded child left by the side of the road are followed by a donor's dedication . t is

not continued on the left-hand side, where the Nalinika Jataka377

and the Shanyou

and Eyou (Good and Bad Sons) story, also from the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing, are

depicted.378

The Sujata Jataka on the banner of the ninth century'379 (Pl. 4.2.6.3.2 and 4.2.6.3.2 c)shows, from upper right, the warning of the spirit in the palace, the flight of the king

and queen with their child, their wandering, a halt for consultation (presumably when

the provisions are finished) and the child stopping his father from sacrificing his

74 Whitfield (ed.) 1982-1985, vol. I, p. 300ff.

75 Whitfield (ed .)1982-1985, vol. l, PI. 8 and Fig. 22.

376 Wbitfield (ed.)I982-1985, vol. I, PI. 8, Fig. 22 and p. 300fT.

77 In Whitfield (ed.) 1982-1985, vol. I, p. 300, the story of the deer mother . In Howard 1986, p. 76, the

Jataka of the Deer Queen Mother .

378 Ibid., vol. f, PI. 11, Figs. 34 35 and p. 307fT. And cf.: Wu Hung 1992 1), p. 52fT.

879 Whitfield (ed.) 1982-1985, P I. 11, Fig. 23 a nd p. 307f..

105



D UNHUANG

asked to become monks and the mother was freed from reincarnation. After

this Ananda asked himself what the three must have done in an earlier life

to be thus protected and the Buddha, reading his thoughts, told the following

story.)

3) A powerful king rode out one day with his wife, sons and ministers .

4, 5 6) The three sons, separated somewhat from the rest, see a starving

tiger. (The first three scenes from the bottom in the second panel).

7) The Mahasattva sends his brothers off and hangs his clothes on a tree.

8 In the last scene he is offering himself by sitting naked in front of the tiger

and her cubs.

This depiction in cave 72 from the Five Dynasties A. D. 907-960) is the only MahasattvaJataka depiction in Dunhuang without the problem of finding the corresponding text.

t follows the Xian yu jing text.

4.3 Iconography

The iconography of the first Mogao cave with a jataka (275) is a pantheon consisting of

a clay Maitreya assisted by six clay Maitreya Bodhisattvas. t is a motive closely

related to Kizil where, in Kizil17 for example, a Maitreya is preaching to the attending

Bodhisattvas (PI. 3.4.1).

Mogao 275 of the Northern Liang Period (A. D. 421-439) and Kizil 17, dated to the

early or mid-fifth century, 381are not only of the same period but their kinship is

supported by innumerable stylistic similarities. What is perhaps not identical is the

composition. f the principal icon opposite the entrance in Kizil 17 wa s Sakyamuni,

then it was only when leaving the cave, after the jatakas and the Parinirvana (i. e. the

death of Sakyamuni) that Maitreya appeared in the lunette above the entrance/exit

as hope, as the future Buddha. In the three caves of the Liang period (268, 272

275), it is Maitreya who receives the pilgrim with Sakyamuni relegated to paintings

on the North and South walls of 272 and to jatakas on the North wall and scenes from

the life of Sakyamuni on the South wall of 275. With the almost total absence of the

statues the principal icons) in Kizil and the statues frequently without hands the

mudras) in the Mogao caves, it is difficult to be explicit but the more one studies the

differences the more one feels that a doctrinal difference exists between the two.

The first jataka which has survived in the Mogao caves is also closely related to Kizil

because it compresses the entire narrative into only two scenes but it already shows a

different feeling for space, one of the greatest differences between the paintings of the

two sites. Kizil depic tions have a horror vacui which fill the, usually rhomboid shaped

spaces with as many figures and attributes as possible and frequently fill in the

remainder with flowers . The Bhilanjili Jataka in the cave 275 is the inverse, presented

381 Yen Wen j ti 1962, cit. in: Howard 1986, p. xiv.

107



0 UNHUANG

as if on a hand-scroll it is the first of three jataka stories, all of which are closely but

comfortably spaced.

During the Northern Liang and Western Wei Dynasties, the iconography of the caves

of Dunhuang was, broadly speaking, an evolved continuation of western Tarim Basin

motives. Specific elements, such as the lantern ceiling, Persian scarves and ku sti can

also be traced back beyond Kizil.

With the increased institutionalization of Buddhism during the period which covers

the fabrication and painting of the caves of the Dunhuang area ,38 the relative simplicity

ofthe iconography ofthis form ofMahayana Buddhism, with its Maitreyas, Bodhisattvas

and jatakas imported from the western Tarim Basin , evolved into a much more

elaborate, rigid form dominated by the Sutras, which terminated the process by absorbing

the jatakas, avadanas and other stories.

This universal process of institutionalization probably always eliminates little by littlethe spontaneity and intellectual freshness that an idea had at its inception. It, and its

iconography, become standardized and therefore less interesting.

The exemplary narratives which had been of such didactic utility upon their absorption

into Buddhism, as they had surely been long before, were now absorbed in turn by the

infinitely more complex and sophisticated Sutras.

Returning to the caves of the Northern Liang and Wes tern Wei periods, it was here

that the process of amalgamation of iconographic elements from India and Central

Asia began with the slow addition of Han Chinese elements the architecture in PI.

4.2.1.1 a, for example). Another capital addition was, in the Northern Wei dynasty,

the flying vehicles animals) of the Buddha's disciples in the Sumati legend (not

shown) and the appearance of the jewel of Buddhist knowledge PI. 4.2.2.2.1, on the

background), both in 257. Since the Western Wei dynasty caves have no jatakas they

are not formally part of this paper, but it was during this period (above all in caves

249 and 285) that the absorption of purely Chinese elements, such as the Queen

Mother of the West, broadened the scope of the iconography almost beyond recognition.

The conclusion came with the amalgamation of these iconographic elements into the

Sutras, and reached its end with the appearance for one last time of the Mahasattva

Jataka in cave 72. The Jataka Iconography in Dunhuang had finished.

4.4 Hinayana and Mahayana in Dunhuang

The oldest canonical texts, the Agama sutras, were assembled at the First Buddhist

Council around 480 B C. and Mahayana sutras began to appear during the first

century B C. One can speak of converting from Hinayana to Mahayana Buddhism,

as did Kumarajiva, without meaning that Hinayana beliefs were all negated. Many

Hinayana beliefs were assimilated into Mahayana Buddhism, which results in the

iconographic amalgamation of the lives, jatakas and the Maitreya in Kizil and , even382 Th e Mogao, but also the Yulin and the Western Thousand Buddha Caves.

108



D UNHUANG

more so, in Dunhuang in Mogao 275 for example.

While difficult to assess, the number of jatakas depicted in Kizil, Dunhuang and

eastward thereof, reflecting the interest in jatakas in a given place and time, seems to

depend upon the differences in the evolution of Mahayana Buddhism.

Xuanzang describes the kingdom of Kucha (Kizil was part of it), ea. 630,383as being

Hinayana of he Sarvastivadaschool, and using the original Indian Sutras and Vinayas.384

We also know that Kumarajiva A. D. 344-413), born in Kucha and a translator of the

Lotus Sutra, converted from Theravada to Mahayana Buddhism.

Within this context falls the probable fact that the caves in Kizil are dedicated to the

Buddha Sakyamuni with Maitreya as an, albeit important, secondary figure . In

Dunhuang the caves are, apparently from the beginning, mostly dedicated to Maitreya.

If the principal icon in Mogao 268 and 272 is Maitreya (in 257 it is) an inversion has

taken place because the Buddha Sakyamuni is, in all three cases, relegated to the

lateral walls.

Since caves 13 and 17 in Kizil are from the early or mid-fifth century they are from

the same period and the differences are geographical or doctrinal. This depends upon

the emphasis given by sects at different places and times and is not a question of

chronology.

The following iconographic transformation is best demonstrated citing the

Xiangtangshan caves of the Northern Qi dynasty (A. D. 550-577)385 in the Hebei province

as an example. The uneasiness which had been caused by the Mahayana doctrine ofthe Later Days of the Law and its prophesying of the end of Buddhism, led to belief

in the paradises or Pure Lands of Maitreya and Amitabha as a refuge. This diminished

the Hinayana preoccupation with its concepts of individual discipline such as the

paramitas which were the rational ground for the existence of the jatakas.

In the Southern Xiangtangshan Qi dynasty caves it is Amitabaha 's Pure Land which

dominates, just as Maitreya's paradise had previously replaced Sakyamuni's ascetic

nirvana. This is analogous to the situation in Mogao 275 and probably 268 272),

where the main icon is no longer the Buddha Sakyamuni.

Angela Howard believes386 that the increasing popularity of guan (Visualization) sacred

texts, such as the Amitayur-dhyana Sutra during the Northern Qi, played a role in the

depiction of paradises because .they emphasized the importance ofvisual devices (sacred

groups or individual deities) for practicing meditation.

The Lotus Sutra was translated six times from the middle of the third century and the

three versions still in existence are those of Dharmaraksa translated in A. D. 286),

383 He left Chang-an in A. D. 629 and sta rted his chronicle, the Si-yu-ki, in Karas ha hr , between Turfan and

Kucha. His progress before Turfan can be researched in his biography .

384 Beal r .) 1994 (1884), pp. 18 19.

385 Howard 1996, p. 7ff.

886 Jbid., p. 16.

109



D uN UANG

Kumarajiva translated in A. D. 406) and Jnanagupta and Dharmagupta translated

in A. D. 601).387

t would seem that, like guan and the Amitayur-dhyana Sutra for

paradises, the Lotus Sutra wa s a reason for the popularity of Maitreya.

The most interesting and most apparent use of the iconography of the Lotus Sutra , in

the caves with jatakas, is in cave 423 of the Sui dynasty A. D. 589-618). This is

described under 4.2.5.3.

4.4.1 Maitreya

The Maitreya of Kizil (PI. 3.4.1) was still very uncomplicated, if compared to Maitreya

enthroned in the celestial and architectonic Mahayana heaven of the Tang dynasty.

Without mentioning the Northern Liang Period (A. D. 421-439) of which Dunhuang

was the capital until subjugated by Northern Wei forces in 439, Wegner says that the

predominant Maitreya sits with crossed legs, the right hand in b y mudr and theleft hand on the left knee. He believes that th is possibly depicts Maitreya, during the

present time, throned among gods in the Tushita heaven.

The Liang Period caves in Dunhuang numbers 268, 272 and 275, all appear to have

Maitreya as principal, sculptural, icon and all have the golden lotus flowers ra ining

from the sky while Maitreya is preaching. The figures of 268 and 272 have later heads

and no hands so that certainty for these two figures is not rea lly possible, but the

crossed legs of the figure in 268 and the legs pendent in 272,388in the context of the

program of all three caves, seems to be Maitreya throned among gods (i.e.: Bodhisattvas)

in the Tushita heaven 389or , in 275, the moment of his descent to save humanity.

In Mogao 268 and 272 Maitreya has a mandorla and halo, as in the Kizil representations,

but in the five depictions in 275 which show him after his enlightenment, he is shown

seated on a throne the back of which looks like an inverted triangle. Maitreya is

shown on the same form of throne in a re lief formerly in the Museum fiir Volkerkunde

in Berlin.390

Attributes change. In the ves tibules of Yungang IX and X, which were completed in

the ea rly A. D. 470ies,39 1in the ea rly caves in Longmen, from the second half of the

fifth century,392 a nd in Mogao 275, A. D. 421-439, Mai treya has a Buddha in dhyana

mudra in his crown, an attribute which was later to belong to Ava lokitesvara The

Maitreyas in the vestibules of Yungang IX and X are flanked by two lions and two

meditating Bodhisattvas whereas in Longmen and in Mogao 275 Maitreya has two

lions and two standing Bodhisattvas. Sometimes the seven Buddhas of the past and,

387 Howard 1986, p. 31 , n. 11.

388 Cf.: Whitfield 1995, vol. , p. 272.

389 Cf.: For cave 268, Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I , p. 228 and for cave 272, Whitfield 1995, vo l. , p.

272.

39 Soper 1958, p. 152.

391 Caswe ll , Ja mes 0. 1988, Written and Unw ritten. A New His tory of t he Buddhist Caves a t Yungang. Univ.

of Briti sh Colombia Press: Vancouver, p. 6.

392 Ibid. , p. 13.

110



CoNCLUSIONs

From the outset, the symbols of he Buddhist faith had been an almost perfectabstraction.

The use of the stupa to symbolize the Buddha, and the wheel of the law for his

teachings, were immensely attractive intellectually but they lacked the kind of popular

accessibility necessary for the development and expansion of a movement of this kind.

The indications of Chavannes, not only of the texts he used but also of others to

which he refers, 96give an idea of the geographical scope and an idea of the number of

jatakas and avadanas which must have circulated from very early times. Nagar

speaks of the jatakas in India as primarily ... oO ... immense educative value 97 which

explains not only their quantity but also the quality, origin and the virtuous message

of those propagated. Indian jatakas were often practical suggestions of how to earn

merit

The use of jatakas and avadanas was in India, from the beginning, probably

illustrative, verbally illustrative, and only in a later phase visually illustrated. They

then became the amalgamation of the metaphysical abstractions of Buddhism and

popular stories and the existing depictions of yaksas and tree goddesses, which had

had their origin in ancient clay fertility figures. This produced the Buddhist art of

Sanchi 11 and the Bharhut railings. t is here that not only the contents but also the

stylistic evolution of the depictions of the Dunhuang jatakas begins and perhaps the

resulting indianization of chinese narrative art is as important as the sinicization

of the style and iconography of the imported jatakas.

Dunhuang, from its contacts with the clerics and laity of the West, obtained therefrom

ancient models to follow. Its villages were alike in possessing many pagoda-temples.

When (in A D. 439) the province of Liang was conquered and its population was

transferred to the (Wei) capital, the monks came eastward with their Buddhist

paraphernalia, and the 'teaching by images ' spread far and wide. 98

The existent Chinese Confucianism and Daoism were textual and largely concepts

of comportment. Daoism did have heavenly figures but they were too abstract for the

illiterate. The shamans and demons, of Chinese decoration schemes of the Han dynasty

for example, were reassuring, as were the Tang banners depicting Bodhisattvas

descending to guide the deceased, or protective and frightening to ward off evil, but

not something to worship. t was Buddhism which provided the moulded auspicious

images 99 accompanied by pictorial illustrations found in Kizil and, from the very

beginning, in Mogao 272 and 275. These, includjng the jatakas, filled the awaiting

emotional (and didactic) vacuum. In Dunhuang they had lost the usually rhomboid

monoscenic form used in Kizil and became increasingly Chinese.

Didactic illustrations from the life of Sakyamuni, and of his miracles, are to be

' 6

Chavanoes 1962 191.0-1935), vol. I, pp. IV-XII.

397 Nagar 1.993, p. x.

398 Wei shu (the history of the Wei Dynasty), cxiv, p. 4r. Quoted by Al exander Soper in: Artibus Asia, XXI , no.

2. Ascona , p. 141.

99 Wei shu , pp. 417 c-418 a. Cit. in: Soper 1958, p. 141.

112



C oNCLUSIONS

found in Bharhut from ea. 100-80 B C. and at Sanchi I from the first decades of A. D.

the first century. These are still without anthropomorphic depictions of the Buddha

but this was conservative and regional because we do have the first Buddha depictions

known to us from roughly the first century B C. in Mathura and A. D. the ear ly first

century from the Swat region.

400

The presentation of the anthropomorphic Buddha inthe life of Sakyamuni is abundantly documented in the thirteen reliefs on the Sikri

Stupa, from ea. A. D. the second century, in the Lahore Museum.

This was the beginning of the largely Mahayana substitution of the, originally

Hinayana , jatakas with the life of Sakyamuni. In Bharhut, Sanchi I, Gandhara , Kizil

and in early Dunhuang both the jatakas and the Sakyamunis' life were depicted, but

with the increasing importance of Mahayana sutra texts, the originally autonomous

jatakas were incorporated into the sutras, loosing their independent identity and

much of their didactic value.

The jataka medallions on the railing pillars in Bharhut had compressed from one to

several Bodhisattva scenes within a cl.rcle. They were illustrations done in a limited

space and in stone. From the very beginning, the Bodhisattva was represented anew

in each of the scenes depicted. This was also true of the stair-risers in Gandhara.

The toranas of Sanchi I were the first to present a medium in stone which allowed a

larger and more detailed depiction.

Monoscenic representation was also used within the (in the early stages) still

Hinayana context in Kizil, developing in Mahayana Dunhuang into narrative depiction

in two or more scenes.

This fusion of depiction and text finds its culmination in the oldest painted

Buddhist scrolls of the Sutra of Cause and Effect, dated A. D. 735, in the Daigoji in

Kyoto.401

The portions which have come down to us reproduce the text of the sutra, itwould seem without jatakas, in eight vertically arranged characters, about the li fe and

miracles of Sakyamuni.402The corresponding continuous illustrations, using trees and

rocks as dividers, are above the text. This process of unification of text and illustration

had st arted with the cartouches {unwritten in Mogao 257 from the Northern Wei

Dynasty) and those (with writing in Mogao 285 from the Western Wei Dynasty) which

did little more than identify the figures. The elementary and naive use of pictures and

writing on cave walls, evolved into the very sophisticated didactic union on Chinese

and Japanese illustrated scrolls.

There is no single text for a jataka . Their oral origin guaranteed from the outset that

two versions were not likely to be ide ltical. In a sense they were canonized" in the

Pali collections but they continued to change.

The Hinayana versions were a simple plaidoyer for virtue paramita). The Mahaya na

versions were adapted to Central Asian blood-thirsty tastes and were either born as,

or became, stories of grisly self-sacrifice.

The programs of the Tang caves in Dunhuang are not difficult to find

Maitreyavyakarana Sutra, Vimalakirti Sutra, Amitayurdhyana Sutra, etc.) because

their illustration is complex and therefore easily recognizable. The texts used n

400 Illust rations: Huntington 1993 (1985), no. 7.11 on p. 120 and no. 7.14 on p. 123.

401 Many tha nks to Prof. Dr. Doris Ledderose-Croissant for this indication.

402 Cf.: Kameda, 'l'sutomo 1969, E lnga-kyo. ln : Nibon emakimono ze nshll Tokyo: Kodokawa. (In Japanese,English summary).

113



C ONCLUSIONS

relation to the early caves are more difficult to find but with the exception of the

Sujata and Vessantara Jatakas all of the (nine) Dunhuang jatakas are from the Liudu

ji jing, the collection of sutras on the six p r mit s4 3 This Chinese co llection was

probably translated from the Sanskrit404 by Seng Huei who died in A. D. 280.

The Sujata Jataka was translated as part of the Zanbao zangjing (Skr.: Samyuktaratna pitaka sutra) by Ji Kaiye assisted by Tan Yao A D. 47T 5

and the long Vess antara

Jataka is the Genben shuo yiqie youbu pinaiyeh poseng shi406 which was transla ted by

Sheng Jian between A. D. 388 and 407.407

Linear organization, continuous narration and zigzag presentation were a1l used in

the depiction ofjatakas and avadanas in Dunhuang. This was sometimes well planned,

as part of the very consequential program of Mogao 275 (Pl. 4.2.1.1 a), for example,

and sometimes an almost extreme freedom of the artist, as in the Mahasattva Jataka

representation in Mogao 254 (Pl. 4.2.2.1.2). The depictions were also subject to changes

in religious currents which were more like fashion than philosophical motivation and

more than the individual artists it was perhaps the kings, queens abbots and sponsors

who were the arbiters .

The narrative reliefs of Sanchi 11 and Bharhut compressed a story into one or

several scenes in a medallion or section of coping. In Gandhara the stair-risers

usually showed several scenes divided by pillars or trees and in Mathura one or more

scenes were frequently carved in square fields presented vertically on railing pillars.

Only the toranas of Sanchi I sometimes presented the narrative material in elongated

polyscenic form and with a desire of quality comparable to the work of the ivory guild

(which is used as an example because we know the quality [the Begram treasure] of

their work and because we know that they worked at Sanchi 1).

In Kizil, the jatakas and other stories had been usually reduced to single sceneswithin lozenges which became, during the Northern Liang dynasty A. D. 421-439) in

Dunhuang, rectangular double scenes. Conversely, the Mahasattva Jataka in Mogao

254 PI. 4.2.2.1.2) is presented in seven or eight scenes, which are not strictly

chronological, in a large square of 165 by 172 cm.4 8

The scenes are thereafter usually, but by no means always, arranged in a linear

sequence.409

In the medallions of Bharhut and the toranas of Sanchi I, that is from the

beginning, the principal actor of the jatakas is shown several times. This means that

the narrative form was either transplanted, as was so much else, along with Buddhist

iconographic form from India or invented independently later in China, and perhaps

taken from there to Japan.

The relationship between Bianwen popular story telling texts) and Bianxiang popular

4 3Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935) , vol. I, p. 1fT.

404 Ibid. and Nanjio 1988 0883), p. 47 , no. 143.

4 5Chavannes 1962 0910-1935), vol. m, p. l ff.

406 Chavannes 1962 (1 910-1935), vol. Il l , p. 362.

407 Nanjio 1988 l 883), p. 70 , no. 254.

408 This was surpassed elsewhe re only in the prese ntation of the Maitrakanyaka Avadana in Kizil 212 of after

A. D. 500 (Waldschmidt cit. in Yal diz 1987, p. 34).

A not.able exeption is the presentation of the Mahasaltva .lat aka in ·u· form on a painted para vent in Mogno 72 (PI. 4.2.7.1. 1 .

114



C ONCLUSIO S

story telling pictures) has been followed by Victor H. Mair from its genesis in India to

its use in China in the twentieth century. 110 Like the stories which became the

jatakas, these were created by and for the laity, and are the historical basis for the

Jianjing and Guanxiang (see following) development, which was very popular in the

Tang dynasty and included jatakas.4 11

George-Jean Pinault relates in the Serinde catalogue4 12and in the his contribution

to the related colloquium from the 13th to the 15th of February 1996,413the importance

of Kucha and of its koutcheen (Sylvain Levi)4 14 Tokharien B language for Bianwen

and its intermediate role n the transformation of the esthetic forms oflndian Buddhism

within the Chinese world. He documents in Tokharien B texts the musique celeste

and narrative and dramatic character, which we know from the Kizil murals, and

shows that the production of these texts, which were jatakas, avadanas and the life of

Sakyamuni, were oral performances. He believes that the texts were recited in front

of pictures, perhaps in front of representations in the caves, which would explain the

frequent use of single scenes in the diamond shaped fields.

Jiangjing sutra lectures) and guanxiang sutra paintings) are related to the increased

popularity of ritual and related literature in the Tang dynasty and do have a direct

influence on the use ofjatakas.

Arthur Waley suggested that it was Shandao (A . D. 613-81) who gave, with his

commentary on the Amitayurdhyana Sutra and the production of three hundred415

Amitayus paintings, the impetus which resulted indirectly in the tripartite organization

of the Amitayus Pure Land mural depictions of Mogao 172 and of the two banners

(Pls. 4.2.6.3.1a & 4.2.6.3.2a) from Mogao 17. The story or stories, jatakas or not,

which were depicted laterally became a humanization or bridge between the viewer

and the central Pure Land depiction with Amitayus. Amitayus , facing the beholder,thus offered the possibility of a relationship, as the result of meditation.

The great popularity of sutra lectures at this time is recorded in the literature of

the period416and the popularity of sutra paintings is documented in almost all of the

Tang dynasty caves in Dunhuang. These have, together, assumed the role which

jatakas, or perhaps jatakas and a narrator, had in the interpretations of Bharhut or

Kizil, where there were also so many of them.

This also shows a profound difference between Hinayana practices, in which jatakas

were used to teach Buddhist virtues paramitas) to the individual for his own salvation

and the Mahayana sutra lectures and paintings which were a collective act of faith.

Jingbian sutra illustrations) depict either a narrative theme of a Buddhist sutra or

410 Mair 1988

411 Cf.: Wu Hung 1992 (2): What is Bianxiang? In the Ha rvard J ournal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 52, no. 1, p.

11 lff.

412Op. cit. (Gies a nd Cohen £ed.]1995), P. 70f.

413Narration dramatisee et narration en pein ture dans la region de Ducha. in: Cohen, Drege an d Gies (ed.)

2000, p. 149 ff.

414Cf.: Ibid., n. 2, p. 166.

4 5Waley, Arthur 1931, p. xxi. Cit. in: Wu, Hung 1992 (2), p. 54.

416 Wu, Hung 1992 (2), p. 55.

115



CONCL USIONS

episodes from a number of related sutras linked to form a composite image.417

Two of the painted paravent panels of Mogao 72 illustrate very exactly a part of the

Xian yu jing, which includes an expanded version of the Mahasattva Jataka (Pl.

4.2.7 1.1). This composite image is considered a jingbian.4 18

The Xian yu jing ( Der Weise und der Tor )

4 19

no longer exists in its original form.What we have are the Tibetan translation, presumably made from a Chinese original,

and parts of other versions.

Jatakas are stories which propagate paramitas and paramit s are virtues or

perfections, the accomplishment of which brings advancement in humis or steps

towards enlightenment.

The paramita most frequently propagated by the jataka s was the dana (giving,

charity, generosity) paramita. As practiced by Prince Vessantara, th is meant giving

away everything, including his wife and children. The final paramita was giving in

the form of self-sacrifice, as in the Mahasattva Jataka when Prince Sattva threw

him self to the fa mished tiger and her cubs.The morality of sacrifice in order to obtain Buddhahood is a popular theme at

Buddhist pilgrimage s ites. The didactic message was conveyed through representations

of pictorial scenes from the life of the Buddha Sakyamuni or jataka or avadana ta les .

The images were located where the laity could see them when worshipping at the s ite,

such as around the main stupa. The widespread interest in the didactic function of

such tales is found at such diverse s ites as the great stupa of Borobudur and the

Pinyang cave at Lung-men . 420

Jatakas were probably performed in Ceylon and the south of India before being written.

If this is the case, the performing arts came first the written form second and theillustrations, regardless of in which media, came la st, but performance did continue

parallel to the others on a popular level until the twentieth century.421

The Nalinika (Isisinga) Jataka has, as an example of jataka evo lu tion, survived

from Bharhut, from ea. 100-80 B C. , and is now in the Indian Museum , in Calcutta.

In Sanchi it is on a torana, i . e. from the second or third decade of A. D. the first

century. t also exists twice in stair-riser fragments from Gandhara from the second

to third century, now in the Indian Museum in Calcutta and in a private collection in

Japan. The story is also conserved painted on the silk banner from the mid- to late

eighth century (Pl. 4.2.6.3.1), from the High Tang Period A . D. 705-781) when painting

in Dunhuang was at its finest. t was discovered in Mogao 17 an d is now in the

British Museum. In its span of nine centuries, and on materials from stone to painting

on silk, the completeness and quality is an un common iconographic documentation .

On the eighth century banner from Mogao 17 the Bodhisattva, who is shown in the

Bharhut medallion as a naked young man with genitals, is a fully clothed and perfectly

combed Tang dynasty Chinese lady. In the Bharhut depiction the young man is lying

417 Shi Pingting 1992, p. 61.

41 8 Ibid.: p. 64

4 9 T 202, Nj 1322 and Schmidt 1978 (1843).

420 Klimburg-Sa lter 1989, p. 99 .421 Cf.: Mai r 1988

116



C CLUSIONS

on the ground and the ascetic, dressed with a skirt of bark and with coiled hair, is

leaning over him and (as a sign of acceptance) about to lift his son. The Tang version

not only presents the child as an elegant lady but the meadow is strewn with the lotus

blossoms which sprouted where her feet touched the ground. f the cartouches had

been left unwritten, as so often and as is the case on the other banner in the BritishMuseum which shows the Sujati Jataka, it would have been difficult to attribute this

depiction to the same story, so extreme has been its evolution over circa nine centuries.

The visible distinction between elements from India and Central Asia, which are

united in Dunhuang with Chinese elements , is particularly evident in landscape details

where the fifth century divider mountains of Kizil, with wild animals and hunters in

Parthian-shot positions, evolve slowly until, on the Tang banners, they have rolling

hills, which could be a simplification of cord-stroke hills, and the pointed and ax-cut

mountains of Eastern (Chinese) painting.

In the murals in the Mogao, and other caves near Dunhuang, the two pre-Buddhist,

Western Han, concepts of heaven as a continuation of a happy individual natural

world and li fe (hunting, food and servan ts ) and the Shaman or immortal world of the

Queen Mother of the West422 were combined with the bliss of the Buddhist Nirvana.

This ultimately became the Tang concept and depictions of the Pure Land, in an

architectural setting very far removed from the simplicity of the Indian origins of

Buddhism.

Ning Qiang has, however, shown that the Tang dynasty Pure Land Sutra presentation

existed previously, during the Southern Liang dynasty (A. D. 502-557).423 Divided into

upper and lower halves, instead of the large central Tang depiction with side panels,

on the back (PI. 4.5.9) of a well known stele from the Wanfosi in Chengdu are, in the

upper portion, all of the elements of Amitabha's Pure Land with the exception of the

accompanying Bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta to the right andleft of the central Amitabha figure. Pavilions give the symmetry of an architectural

setting, but the great and heavy) palace settings of the Tang Pure Land presentations

are here much lighter, presented in a garden instead of in a palace cour t yard.

In this stele and in the Tang depictions with side panels, there are two very

different perceptions of illustra tions. The literary reading of narrative episodes

(Qiang), corresponds to the way jatakas and other stories) were ''read, beginning

with Bharhut. This also applies to the presentation of scenes on the bottom half of the

Liang stele and on the side panels of the banner and mural Sutra presentations of

Dunhuang.

In contrast the mental concentration on the Buddha which begins perhaps with

the upper part of the Wanfosi stele and is consummated in the Tang Sutra presentations

is related to the practice of visualization in the Guanjing or Visualization Sutra,

translated into Chinese by Kalayas between A D. 424 and 442.

uanfo (visualization of the Buddha), which was rela ted to an individual, gave way

to uanjing (visualization of a Sutra), the concentration on a Pure Land Paradise, a

complete conceptual world in which every (virtuous) Buddhist would find his life after

death.

Jatakas and avadanas were originally stories giving examples of vir tue to be

imitated. This uncomplicated didactic evolved to become, in the sutras translated by

422 Cf.: Wu, Hu ng and Ning, Qiang 1998, Paradise Images in early Chinese Arl'' in Ba ker, Janet (ed.) 1998, p.

54

423 Ibid.: p. 61.

117



CoNCLUSIONS

Xuanzang A. D. 602-664), the assurance that if a layman completed virtuous deeds he

could achieve the aupapadaka rebirth through a lotus flower in the Pure Land.4 4

Jatakas thus lost their own identity and dedactic impetus, becoming part of a

sophisticated system which specifically promised salvation.4 5

4 4 Cf : Shi, Pingting 1992, A Brief Discussion on the J ingbiao Buddhist Illust rations at Dunbuang. In:

Orientatioos, vol. 23, no. 5, May 1992.

425J at akas, in t he course of the thousand years covered here, begin in India with many stories where the hero

is an an imal and that the motives are bas ic jealousy, greed) and close to nature. With the sole exception of the

deer in the Ruru J ataka and the deer-mother in t he Nalinika Jataka, the Chinese jatakas are always about a

Bodhisattva who is a human being and they are frequently sanguinary.

118



APPENDICES

To avoid confusion, a short explanation of a plot, depiction or textual reference is

given where necessary.

The Pali jatakas are to be found in Cowell 1969 (1897-1905), Jataka Stories (see the

J reference number after the jataka name). Chavannes refers to: Chavannes 1962

(1910-1935), Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du Tripitaka chinois et traduits

en fran(:ais.

APPENDIX I The 57 jatakas from Bharhut with references.

Illustrations of jatakas from Bharhut are to be found in Cunningham 1998 (1879),

Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Nagar 1993 and Klimburg-Salter 1995. They total 57 (plus

three fragments in Barua of which he was justifiably not certain).

Alambusa Jataka: see Nalinika Jataka

1.3.2.1 Ambachora Jataka, J 344. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), LXXXI, no. 113.

Nagar 1993, PI. 35 (same). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 10f. Nagar 1993, p. 107.

1.3.2.2 Andabhuta Jataka, J 62. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), LXXIV no.95a. Ref.:

Grey 1994 (1990), p. 14f.

1.3.2.3 Aramadusaka Jataka, J 46. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), LXXIII no.95.

Klimburg-Salter 1995, Pl. 46. Nagar 1993, Pl. 31 & Fig. 68 (all same). Ref.: Grey

1994 (1990), p. 19. Nagar 1993, p. 101f.

1.3.2.4 Asadisa Jataka , J 181. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), LXXVI no.100, Nagar

1993, Fig. 137 (same). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 19f. Nagar 1993, p. 175f.

1.3.2.5 Asilakkhana (Anekamsa) Jataka, J 126. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI.

LXXV no.97. Dehejia 1990, p. 379, fig. 2. Nagar 1993, fig. 138 (all same). Ref.: Grey

1994 (1990), p. 23. Nagar 1993, p. 176f.

1.3.2.6 Bhisa Jataka, J 488. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), LXXXVI no.127. Nagar

1993, Pl. 26 Fig. 59 all same). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 36f. Nagar 1993, p. 94f.

1.3.2. 7 Cammasataka ltthari) Jataka, J 324. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), LXXX

no.111. Klimburg-Salter 1995, Pl. 43. Nagar 1993, Pis. 81 82 (all same). Ref.:Grey 1994 (1990), p. 45. Nagar 1993, p. 121.

119



A PPENDIX

1.3.2.8 Chaddanta Saddanta) Jataka, J 514. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI.

LXXXVII no.128. Cunningham 1998 (1879), ( Chhadantiya ) PI. XXVI no.6. Nagar

1993, PI. 1 (all same . Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 141f. Cunningham 1998

(1879), p. 61ff. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 50ff. Nagar 1993, p. 46.

1.3.2.9 Candakinnara Jataka, J. 485. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. XXIII no.19.

Cunningham 1998 (1879), Pl. XXVII no.l2 not same . Ref: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 47f.

Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 138f. Cunnungham 1998 (1879), p. 69.

1.3.2.10 Cullakasetthi (Cullassetthi, Culasetthi) Jataka, J 4. Ills: Barua 1979

(1934/1937), Pl. XCV no.145. Nagar 1993, Pl. 83. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 59 .

Nagar 1993, p. 121f.

1.3.2.11 Dabbhapuppha (Gambhira) Jataka , J 400. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937),

LXXXIII no.121. Klimburg-Salter 1995, PI. 45. Nagar 1993, PI. 78 & 79 (all same .

Ref. : Grey 1994 (1990), p. 64f. Klimburg-Salte r 1995, p. 244. Nagar 1993, p. 200.

1.3.2.12 Dasaratha Jataka, J 461. Ills .: Cunningham 1998 (1879), PI. XXVII. Ref. :

Cunningham 1998 (1879), p. 71ff. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 71. Nagar 1993, p. 143ff.

1.3.2.13 Dubhiyamakkata Dutiyamakkata, Secca) J ataka , J 174. Ill s.: Barua 1979

(1934/1937), PI. LXXVI no.99. Klimburg-Salter 1995, PI. 41. Nagar 1993, PI. 27 (all

same). Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Ill p. 100f. Grey 1994 (1990 , p. 83. Klimburg

Sa lter 1995, p. 243. Nagar 1993, p. 96.

1.3.2.14 Gahapati Jataka, J 199. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937 , PI. LXXVI no.102.

Klimburg-Salter 1995, PI. 44. Nagar 1993, PI. 33 (all same). Ref.: Barua 1979(1934/1937), p. 105f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 90. Klimburg-Salter 1995, p. 244. Nagar

1993, p. 104.

1.3.2.15 Guthapana Gudhabanaka, Sangama) Jataka, J 227. Ills.: Barua 1979

(1934/1937), PI. XCIII no.141a & c. Nagar 1993, Figs. 9 &10 (both same). Ref. : Barua

1979 (1934/1937), p. 164. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 102. Nagar 1993, p. 49f.

1.3.2.16 Hamsa (Dulaham sa) Jataka, J 502: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), pl. LXXI no.91.

Cunningham 1998 (1879), p. 69 and pl. XXVII no.11. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 104. Nagar

1993, p. 76 and fig. 35.

Hastinika Jataka: see Matiposaka Jataka

1.3.2.17 Indasamanagotta Jataka, J 161. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Pls. LXXV

no.98 & 98a. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 99f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 115.

Isimiga Ja taka : see Nigrodhamiga Ja tak a

lsisinga Jataka: see Nalinika Ja taka

1.3.2.18 Kakkata Suvannakakkata, Kuliram) Jataka, J 267. Ills . Barua 1979(1934/1937), PI. LXXIX no.107. Cunningham 1998 (1879), ( Naga J a taka ) Pl. XXV

120



EN IX I

no.2. Nagar 1993, Pl. 4. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 112f. Cunningham 1998

(1879), ( Naga Jataka ) p. 52. Grey 1994 (1990), p.134. Nagar 1993, p. 50.

1.3.2.19 Kalingabodhi Jataka, J 4 79. Ill s.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937 , PI. XLIX no.50.

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 136f.

1.3.2.20 Kandari Jataka, J 341. Ills .: Cunningham 1998 (1879), pl. XIV. Nagar

1993, Pl. 43 (same). Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 117f. Grey 1994 (1990), p.143.

Nagar1993 , p. 149f.

1.3.2.21 Kanha Kanhausabha) Jataka J 29. 11ls.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Pl. LXXI

no.92. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 90f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 144. Nagar 1993,

p. 43f.

1.3.2.22 Kapota Jataka, J 42. Ills.: Barual979 (1934/1937), PI. LXXIII no.94.

Cunningham 1998(1879), pi. XLV no.7. Nagar 1993,Pl.19. Ref.: Barual979 1934/1937 ,

II p. 92f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 150. Nagar 1993, p. 79f.

Kinara Jataka: see Candakinnara Jataka

1.3.2.23 Kukkuta (Bidala) Jataka, J 383. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. LXXXI

no.l19. Dehejia 1990, Fig. 3. Nagar 1993, PI. 16. Ref. : Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p.

125f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 174f. Nagar 1993, p. 73f.

1.3.2.24 Kurungamiga Jataka, J 206. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. LXXVII

no.103. Cunningham 1998 (1879), Pl. XXVII no . 9. Nagar 1993, Fig. 29. Ref.: Barua1979 (1934/1937), p. 106ff. Cunningham 1998 (1879), p. 67f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 186.

Nagar 1993, p. 63f.

1.3.2.25 Kusa Jataka, J 531. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. LXXXIX no.133.

Nagar 1993, PI. 45. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 187. Nagar 1993, p. 153f.

1.3.2.26 Latukika Latuva, Latuwa) Jataka, J 357. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937 , PI.

LXXXII no.117. Cunningham 1998 (1879), Pl. XXVI no.5. Nagar 1993, Fig. 15.

Ref. : Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 123f. Cunningham 1998 (1879), p. 58 . Grey 1994

(1990), p.193. Nagar 1993, p. 52f.

1.3.2.27 Litta Akkhadhutta) Jataka, J 91. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Pl. LXXIII

no.96. Cunningham 1998 (1879), Pl. XLV no. 9. Nagar 1993, PI. 32 and Fig. 69. Ref.:

Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 95ff. Cunningham 1998 (1879), p. 94f. Grey 1994 (1990 ,

p. 194. Nagar 1993, p. 103.

1.3.2.28 Mahabodi (Bodhiparibbaja) Jataka, J 528. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI.

LXXXIX no.132. Nagar 1993, Fig. 84 . Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), II p. 147f. Grey

1994 (1990), p. 208f. Nagar 1993, p. 109f.

1.3.2.29 Mahajanaka Jataka, J 539. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Pl. LXXXIXno.135. Klimburg-Salter 1995, Pl. 44. Nagar 1993, Pl. 46-47. Ref.: Barua 1979

121



PENDIX I

(1934/1937), p. 154. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 211. Klimburg-Sal ter 1995, p. 244. Nagar

1993, p. 154f.

1.3.2.30 Mahakapi (Rajovada) Jataka 407. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI.

LXXXIII no.122 PI. X no.7d. Nagar 1993, PI. 11. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p.129ff. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 214f. Nagar 1993, p. 57ff.

1.3.2.31 Mahaumagga Jataka, 546 (The story of the faithful Amara , vol. VI, p.

185fT. . Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. XCII no.137. Cunningham 1998 (1879),

( Yavamajhakiya Jataka ) PI. XLV no.3. Nagar 1993, PI. 91. Ref.: Barua 1979

(1934/1937), p. 158. Cunningham 1998 (1879), C'Yavamajhakiya Jataka ) p. 53fT.

Grey 1994 (1990), p. 201fT. Nagar 1993, p. 124.

1.3.2.32 Mahavanija Jataka, 493. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. XCIV no.142.

Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), II p. 165ff. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 227.

1.3.2.33 Makhadeva (Magghadeva, Devaduta) Jataka, 9. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937),

PI. LXX no.87. Nagar 1993, Fig. 117. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 82ff. Grey

1994 (1990), p. 233. Nagar 1993, p. 160f.

1.3.2.34 Manikantha Manikanda) Jataka , 253. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PL

LXXVIII no.106. Nagar 1993, PI. 28. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. llOf. Grey

1994 (1990), p. 240f. Nagar 1993, p. 196f.

1.3.2.35 Matiposaka Hastinka, Matuposaka) Jataka, 455. Ills. Barua 1979

(1934/1937), PI. LXXXIV no.124 124a. Nagar 1993, PI. 5. Ref.: Barua 1979

(1934/1937), p. 133f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 110. Nagar 1993, p. 52f.

1.3.2.36 Migapotaka (Puttasocani) Jataka, 372. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI.

XXIII no.18. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), II p. 124f. Grey 1994 (1990) , p. 248.

1.3.2.37 Mugapakkha Jataka Mukapangu, Temiya) Jataka , J 538. Ills.: Barua 1979

(1934/1937), PI. XC no.134. Cunningham 1998 (1879), PI. XXV no.4. Kimburg-Salter

1995, PI. 31. Nagar 1993, PI. 52 . Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 152f. Cunningham

1998 (1879), p. 58 . Grey 1994 (1990), p. 254fT. Kimburg-Salter 1995, p. 240. Nagar

1993, p. 159f.

1.3.2.38 Mulapariyaya Jataka, 245. Ills. Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. LXXVIII

no.104. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 108f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 257.

Nacca Jataka: see Hansa Jataka

1.3.2.39 Nalinika (Alambusa, Isisinga, Isisrnga, Rsyasrnga, Shemiao, the deer mother,

Deer Queen Mother) Jataka, 523 526. Ills. for Bharhut: Barua 1979 (1934/1937),

(lsiimgiya, Rishyasringa) PI. LXXXVIII no.131. Cunningham 1998 (1879), lsi-Singe)

PI. XXVI, no. 7. Nagar 1993, (Alambusa) Pl. 34 (all same). Ref.: Barua 1979

(1934/1937), (lsiimgiya, Rishyasringa) p. 145. Cunningham 1998 (1879); (lsi-Singiya)

p. 64f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 262fT. Nagar 1993, (Alambusa) PI. 34.

122



APPENDIX I

A doe giving birth to a Bodhisattva after eating grass with the sperm or urine of an

ascetic is the beginning of six different stories.

There are two versions in Cowell 1969 (1895), J 523 J 526, either of which could

have been used for the illustrations in Bharhut, Sanchi I and Gandhara. There arefour Chinese versions in Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935). In Chavannes no. 23 the child

is a girl, in no. 342 a boy, in no. 453 a boy with a horn and in vol. IV, p 98f. again a

girl. The last mentioned is from the baoen jing, and was used for the depictions in

Mogao 112 and the banner from Mogao 17.

1.3.2.40 Nigrodhamiga (Nyagrodhamrga) Jataka, J 12. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937),

(lsimiga-Jatakam} Pl. LXX no.88. Cunningham 1998 (1879), (lsi-Migo Jataka) Pl.

XLIII no.2. Nagar 1993, Fig. 27. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), lsimiga-Jatakam) p.

185fT Cunningham 1998 (1879), (Isi-Migo Jataka) p. 75. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 271.

Nagar 1993, p. 61f.

1.3.2.41 *Ruru Rurumiga , Karungamigy) Jataka , J 482. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937),

PI. LXXXV no.126. Cunningham 1998 (1879), ( Miga Jataka ) PI. XXV no.l. Nagar

1993, PI. 15. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p 136ff. Cunningham 1998 (1879),

( Miga Jataka ) p. 51. Grey 1994 (1990), p 306f. Nagar 1993, p. 65ff.

Saddanta Jataka: see Chaddanta Jataka

1.3.2.42 Samgamavacara Sangamavacara) Jataka, J 182. Ills. Barua 1979 (1934/1937),

PI. LXXVI no.101. Cunningham 1998 (1879), PI. XXXII no.4. Nagar 1993, Fig. 91.

Ref : Barua 1979 (1934/1937), II p 103f. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 321. Nagar 1993, p.115.

1.3.2.43 Sammodamana Samodamana , Samoddamana) Jataka , J 33. Ills.: Barua

1979 (1934/1937), Pl. LXXII no.93. Cunningham 1998 (1879), ( Fragment ) Pl. XXVII.

Nagar 1993, Fig. 53. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 91f. Grey 1994 (1990), p 325.

Nagar 1993, p 82f.

1.3.2.44 Samugga Karandaka) Jataka , J 436. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Pl. XXII

no.123. Nagar 1993, PI. 25. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 132f. Grey 1994

(1990), p 328. Nagar 1993, p. 89f.

1.3.2.45 Sangamavacara Jataka, J 182. Ills. Nagar 1993, Fig. 91. Ref.: Grey 1994

(1990), p 321. Nagar 1993, p. 115.

1.3.2.46 Sarabhanga Jataka, J 522. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. LXXXVI

no.130. Nagar 1993, Fig. 87 Pl. 78. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 144f. Grey

1994 (1990), p. 335f. Nagar 1993, p. 111f.

1.3.2.47 Sonaka (Arindama) Jataka, J 529. Ills. Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. XCIII

no.141. Nagar 1993, Fig. 122. Ref : Grey 1994 (1990), p. 367. Nagar 1993, p. 163f.

1.3.2.48 Suci Jataka, J 387. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. LXXXIII no.120.

123



PEN IX I

Cunningham 1998 (1879), PI. XLI no.5. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 126f. Grey

1994 (1990), p. 374.

1.3.2.49 Sujata Jataka, J 352. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI. XIII no.114.

Cunningham 1998 (1879), (Sujato Gahuto Jataka) Pl. XLVII no.3. Ref.: Barua 1979(1934/1937), p. 120f. Cunningham 1998 (1879), (Sujato Gahuto Jataka) p. 76. Grey

1994 (1990), Sujata-III, Matagoni) p. 380. For the Dunhuang jataka the same

name see Grey 1994 (1990), p. 379.

1.3.2.50 Takkariya (Takka-I, Maha akkari) J ataka, J 481. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937),

PI. LXXXIV no.125. Nagar 1993, Fig. 131. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 135.

Grey 1994 (1990), p. 403f. Nagar 1993, p. 167f.

1.3.2.51 Tipallatthamiga Sikkhakama) Jataka , J 16. Ills.: Cunningham 1998 (1879),

PI XLIV no.8. Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI LXX no.89. Nagar 1993, PI 14. Ref.:

Cunningham 1998 (1879), p. 102. Barua 1979 (1934/1937 , p. 87ff. Grey 1994 (1990),p. 411f. Nagar 1993, p. 62f.

1.3.2.52 Uraga Brahmagutti) Jataka, J 154. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), pl.

LXXXI no.l16. Nagar 1993, Fig. 75. Ref. : Grey 1994 (1990), p. 424f. Nagar 1993, p.

105f.

Vaka Jataka: see Vrishabha Jataka

1.3.2.53 Vannupatha Jataka , J 2. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), pl. LXIX no.86.

Nagar 1993, Fig. 159. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 431. Nagar 1993, p. 123f.1.3.2.54 *Vessantara Visvantara) Jataka, J 54. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI.

XCI no.138. Klimburg-Salter 1995, PI. 48. Nagar 1993, Fig. 109. Ref.: Klimburg-Salter

1995, p. 245. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 438ff. Nagar 1993, p. 150ff.

1.3.2.55 Vidurapandita Punnaka) Jataka, J 545. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), PI.

XCI no.136. Nagar 1993, Fig. 162. Ref.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), p. 155ff. Grey 1994

(1990), p. 444ff. Nagar 1993, p. 127ff.

1.3.2.56 Vrishabha Vaka, Vaggupossa, Vakuposatha) Jataka, J 300. Ills.: Barua

1979 (1934/1937), pl. LXXX no.109. Cunningham 1998 (1879), ( Bull and Tiger ) PI.

XVII no.10. Nagar 1993, Fig. 4. Ref.: Cunningham 1998 (1879), ( Bull and Tiger ) p.69. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 426. Nagar 1993, p. 45f.

1.3.2.57 Vyaggha Mittabheda) Jataka , J 272. Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937), Pl.

LXXX, no. 108. Nagar 1993, Fig. 34. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 454. Nagar 1993, p.

67f.

124



PPENDIX II. The 5 jatakas at Sanchi I with references

1.4.2.1 Chaddanta Saddanta) Jataka, J 51. Ills.: Dehejia 1996, PI. 7 (p. 46f.). Nagar1993, Pls. 7 8 (all same). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 50ff. Marshall/Foucher 1983

(1940), vo l. I, p. 223. Nagar 1993, p. 46ff.

1.4.2.2 Mahakapi (Rajovada) Jataka , J 407. Ills .: Dehejia 1996, Pl. 13 (p. 126).Nagar 1993, Pl. 12. Ref.: Nagar 1993, p. 57ff.

1.4.2.3 *Nalinika (Alambusa, Isisinga, Is isrnga, Rsyasrnga, the deer mother, DeerQueen Mother ) Jataka, J 523 J 526. Ills.for Sanchi I: Marshall/Foucher 1983(1940), vol. 11, Pl. 27. Ref.: Marshall/Foucher 1983 (1940 , vol. I, p. 225.

1.4.2.4 *Sama Samaka, Syama, Symaka, Syamaka and Suyama) Ja ta ka, J 540. Ills.Nagar 1993, PI. 61. Marshall/Foucher 1983 (1940), PI. 65, a, 1. Ref.: Grey 1994(1990), p.316ff. Nagar 1993, p. 166f.

1.4.2.5 *Vessantara (Visvantara) Jataka , J 54 . ll ls.: Dehejia 1996, Pis. 1 (p. 36f.) and10 a b (p. 53). Marshall/Foucher 1983 (1940), Pl. 29, 3 (p. 122). Nagar 1993, PI. 63.

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 438ff. Nagar 1993, p. 168ff.

125



APPENDIX Ill The 12 jatakas from Mathura with references.

1.5.2.1 Dipankara Jataka.426 Ills.: Nagar 1993, Pis. 58 59 (2 x same). Ref.: Grey

1994 (1990) Dharmaruci) , p. 78. Joshi 1966, p. 55 (no ills.). Nagar 1993, p. 165f.

1.5.2.2 Kacchapa Jataka, J 215: Ills.: Joshi 1966, PI. 23. Nagar 1993, PI. 37 (same).

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), (Kacchapa-11) p. 128. Joshi 1966, p. 54. Nagar 1993, p. 117f.

1.5.2.3 *Mahasattva (Vyaghri) Jataka not in the Pali co llection): Ills.: Nagar 1993,

Pl. 17. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 222ff. Joshi 1966, p. 56 (no ills.). Nagar 1993, p. 68.

First story of the Jatakamala. Chapter two of The Wise and the Fool.

1.5.2.4 *Nalinika lsisinga, Isisrnga, Rsyasrnga) Jataka, J 526: Ills.: Nagar 1993, PI.

29 and Pl. 30?). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 262ff. Nagar 1993, p. 99.

1.5.2.5 Padakusalamanava Padakulamanava, Padakusamana, Pada-manava) Jataka ,

J 432: Ills. : Joshi 1966, PI. 16. Nagar 1993, Pl. 24 (same). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p.

276. Joshi 1966, p. 54. Nagar 1993, p. 87f.

1.5.2.6 Romaka Parapata) Jataka, J 277: Ills.: Joshi 1966, Pl. 24. Nagar 1993, PI.

20 (same). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 301f. Joshi 1966, p. 53. Nagar 1993, p. 80f.

1.5.2.7 Sukhavihari (Sukhabihari, Dutiya) Jataka, J 10: Ills.: Nagar 1993, Pl. 36.

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 382f. ~ g r 1993, p. 113f.

1.5.2.8 Sutasoma Mahasutasoma, Angulimala, Ahimsaka, Kalmasapada, Saudasa)

Jataka, J 537: Ill s.: Joshi 1966, PI. 15. Nagar 1993, PI. 84 (same). Ref.: Grey 1994

(1990), p. 39lff. Joshi 1966, p. 52. Nagar 1993, p. 126.

1.5.2.9 Uluka Jataka, J 270: Ills.: Joshi 1966, PI. 22. Nagar 1993, Pl. 18 (same).

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 419f. Joshi 1966, p. 55. Nagar 1993, p. 77f.

1.5.2.10 Vanarinda Vanarendra, Catugaradhamma) Jataka, J 57: Ills.: Nagar 1993,

PI. 13. Ref. : Grey 1994 (1990), p. 429f. Nagar 1993, p. 59f.

1.5.2.11 *Vessantara (Visvantara) Jataka, J 547: Ills.: Nagar 1993, PI. 64. Ref. :Grey 1994 (1990), p. 438fT. Joshi 1966, p. 53f. (no ills.). Nagar 1993, p. 168fT.

1.5.2.12 Viryabala Jataka Jataka of the Worst Evil): Ills.: Joshi 1966, Pl. 13. Nagar

1993, PI. 93 (same). Ref. : Not in the Pali collection but appears n a Chinese work on

the li fe of the Buddha. (Joshi 1966 p. 50).

Plus 2 Unidentified: Ills.: Nagar 1993, Pi s. 97 & 98. Ref.: Nagar 1993, p. 203f.

4 6 Text: J ones, J. J . (tr . 1987 (1949). The Mahavastu, vol.I, pp. 188-203. London: The Pali Society. (from the

Buddhist Sanskrit, second century B. C. to A. D. the fourth century)

126



APPENDIX IV. The 9 jatakas from Gandhara with references.

2.2.1 Chaddanta (Saddanta) Jataka, J 514. Ills.: Foucher 1905, Fig. 138 (p. 272).

Kurita 1990, no. 838 (p. 275) (same). Ref.: Dutoit 1908-1921, no. 514 .427

Foucher

1905, p. 271 ff. lngholt 1957, p. 47. Nagar 1993, p. 46 ff.

2.2.2 Dipankara Jataka. Ills.: Foucher 1905, Fig. 140 (p. 277). lngholt 1957, PI. 7.

Klimburg-Salter 1995, PI. 151. Mew1ie 1942, nos. 36 and 38.428

Nagar 1993, Pl s.

55-59. Ref.: Foucher 1905, p. 273 ff. Grey 1994 (1990) (Dharmaruci), p. 78. lngholt

1957, p. 50f. Joshi 1966, p. 55 (no ills.). Meunie 1942, 33 ff. Nagar 1993, p. 165f.

2.2.3 *Mahasattva (Viaghri) Jataka (not in the Pali collection). Ills.: Kurita 1990: p.

310. Ref.: Beer , Roland 1978, p.229ff. (in the postscriptum to the reprint of the

German text). Grey 1994 (1990), p. 222fT.

2.2.4 Mahaumagga (Maha-ummagga, Yava-Majhakiya42 ) Jataka, J 546. Ills.: Ingholt

1957, p. 49. Kurita 1990: no. 850, p. 278 (same stair-riser from Sahri Bahlol). Ref.:

There are many versions of this jataka. Cf. Grey 1994 (1990): p. 9 (Amaradevi-paiiha),

p. 201 (Maha-ummagga) and p. 423 (Upakosa).

Plot: This longest Pali jataka is the story of four pretended wise men and one

real wise man Mahosadha , the Bodhisattva. In a short portion of this (Cowell

1912 (1886), vol. vi, p. 185ff.), he and his virtuous wife Amara are plotted

against by the four pseudo wise men. The segment is finished with Amara

delivering the four, wrapped in rolls of matting, to the king.430

2.2.5 Maitrakanyaka Jataka, J 439. Ills.: Kurita 1990: nos. 852 and 853 (p. 278).

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 229f. lngholt 1957, p. 48. Yaldiz 1987, p. 70fT.

2.2.6 *Nalinika (Alambusa, Isisinga , l sismga, Rsyasrnga, the deer mother, Deer

Queen Mother) Jataka, J 523 & J 526. Ills. for Gandhara: Kurita 1990, vol. 11, p. 278

nos. 854 and 855. Ref. for Gandhara: Nagar 1993, p. 106. Barua 1979, pp. 145ff.

( lsisimgiya-Katakam and Ri shyasringa-Jataka and The scene of Rishyasringa s

birth ).

2.2.7 *Sama (Syama) Jataka , J 540. Ills.: Foucher 1905, Figs. 142 & 143 (pp. 280and 281). Kurita 1990, nos. 839, 40, 41 and 42 (pp. 274 & 275). Nagar 1993, Pl. 61

(same as Foucher p. 280, but better). Ref.: Dutoit 1908-1921, no. 540. Foucher 1905,

p. 279 ff. Grey 1994 (1990), 316 ff. lngholt 1957, p. 49. Nagar 1993, pp. 166-7.

4 7Cf. Yaldiz 1987: p. 62 .

4 8 Meunie, J acques 1942, Shotorak. Memoires de la delegation archeologique en Afghanistan, Tome

X. Par is: Les ed itions d'art et d 'bistoire.

429 Cummings denomination in: Cummings 1998 (1879), p. 53ff. and PI. XXV 3. He recounts a version as told

by Kshemendra in the Vrihat Ka tha ( Or. Biihler [tr): Indian Antiquary , vol. 1, p. 332 ) and a similar one as

told by Somadeva in the Katha Saritsagara ( Ancient and Medaeval India, by Mrs . Manning, . 316. Her

abs tract is ta ken from H. H. Wi lson, Works, vol. Ill ). In these the virtuous Upakosa, during her husbands

absence, maneuvers suitors into baskets and delivers them to the king for jus tice.

430 Cowell 1969 (1905): vol. VI , p. 185f.

127



PPENDIX IV

2.2.8 *Sivi (Sibi) Jataka, J 499. Ills.: Kurita 1990, nos. 847, 8 and 9 (p. 277). Ref :

Ingholt 1957, p 28. Nagar 1993, p. 81f.

2.2.9 *Vessantara (Visvantara) Jataka, J 547. Ills.: Foucher 1905, Fig. 144 (p. 284).

Kurita 1990, nos. 843, 5 6 (p. 275f.). Meunie 1942, nos. 29 and 30. Nagar 1993, PI.63, 65, 66 71. Ref : Foucher 1905, p. 283 ff. Grey 1994 (1990): p. 438 f f. lngholt

1957, p. 49. Meunie 1942, p. 36. Nagar 1993: p. 168fT.

28



PPENDIXV. The 28 jatakas from Kizil with references

3.2.1 Balahasva Jataka. Ills.: Cave 14: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I, Pl. 52. Tan,

Shutong and An, Chunyang 1981,43 vol. I, PI. 49 (same). Cave 17: Yaldiz 1987, PI.31. Ref.: Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 59. Yaldiz 1987, p. 58.

3.2.2 *Byilingirali Jataka. Ills.: Cave 34: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 79. Cave 38:

Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I, 131. Ref. : Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 55.

3.2.3 *Candraprabha Jataka. Ills.: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I, PI. 68. Cave

178: Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 52 (p. 68). Cave 184: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil 111, Pl. 207 (MIK

111 8886-8888 in Berlin). Ref.: Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no . 5 (vol I, p. 19: . 1myself was the king, Devadatta was the ascetic. ). Yaldiz 1987, p. 67.

3.2.4 Catudvara Jataka, J 439. Ills.: Yaldiz 1987, PL X and Fig. 55 (p. 71. Ref.:

Yaldiz 1987, p. 70 Maitrakanyaka A vadana).

3.2.5 Chaddanta Saddanta) Jataka, J 514. Ills.: Cave 38: Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 44 (p.

63). Cave 206: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil Ill , Pl. 131. Ref.: Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935),

no. 344. Yaldiz 1987, p. 62f.

3.2.6 Hamsa Jataka , J 502. Ills.: Cave 184: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil Ill, Pl. 207

(MIK Ill 8886-8888 in Berlin) and Yaldiz 1987, PI. 32 (same). Ref.: Yaldiz 1987,p.59.

3.2.7 Kacchapa Jataka, J 178. Ills .: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I, PI. 66. Tan,Shutong and An, Chunyang 1981, vol. I, PI. 61 (same). Yaldiz 1987, Pl. 33 (same).

Cave 114: Ills.: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil, , 135. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), (Kacchapa-1)

p. 127. Yaldiz 1987, p. 59.

Kalmasapada Jataka. See Sutasoma Jataka

3.2.8 Khantivadi Jataka, J 313. llls.: Cave 38: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I , 123. Ref.:

Grey 1994 (1990), p. 161f. Serinde Catalogue, p. 217. Yaldiz 1987, p. 49f.

3.2.9 Latukika Jataka, J 357. Ills.: Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 36 (in the third cave from theend of the small creek gorge. Not found elsewhere.). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 193.

Yaldiz 1987, p. 59.

3.2.10 Mahakapi Jataka I, J 407. Ills.: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I, PI. 65.

Cave 38: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I, Pl. 124. Cave 186: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil Il l,

PI. 210 (MIK Ill 8851), in Berlin larger in: Serinde Catalogue, no. 162, p. 216f.). Ref.:

Grey 1994 (1990), p. 214f. Yaldiz 1987, p. 60. Yaldiz 1996, Serinde Catalogue, no.

162, p. 216f.

431 Tan , Shu tong and An , Chungang 1981. Shinkyo no hekiga (Murals or Xinjiang), 2 vol s. Bcij ing a nd Tokyo:Wenwu Chubanshe Binobi.

129



PPENDIX V

The legend of the monkey king who saved his people from pursuers by stretching his

body between trees on either side of a river so that they could reach safe ty by using his

body as a bridge.

3.2.11 Mahakapi Jataka , J 516. Ills.: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I, PL 67.Cave 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil 11, PL 130. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 216f. Yaldiz

1987, p. 60 .

Saved by a monkey the Bodhisattva), a man tries to kill him with a stone.

3.2.12 *Mahasattva (Vyaghri) Jataka. Ills.: Cave 8. Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 32.

Cave 13. Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 39 . Cave 17. Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 61. Cave

34. Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 79. Cave 38. Chugoku sekkutsu : Kizil I, 116 117

(different depictions). Cave 47. Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 151 and Tan, Shutong and

An , Chunyang 1981, 1,130 (same). Cave 114: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil 11, 146 and

Tan, Shutong and An , Chunyang 1981, 11, 23 (same). Cave 184. Chugoku sekkutsu:Kizil Ill, 207 (MIK Ill 8886-8888 in Berlin). Ref.: Cf.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 222ff.

Samosiuk, Kira, 1995 (Serinde Catalogue), p. 225. Yaldiz 1987, p. 57f.

Mahasutasoma Jataka. See Sutasoma Jataka (below).

3.2.13 Maitrakanyaka Jataka, J 439 Catudvara Jataka). Ills .: Cave 212: Yaldiz

1987, PI. X and Fig. 55 (p. 71). Ref. : Grey 1994 (1990), p. 229. Yaldiz 1987: p. 70ff.

3.2.14 Mugapakkha (Mukapangu) Jataka, J 538. Ills.: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu:

Kizil I, 63.Cave

38: Chugoku sekkutsu

: Kizil I, 129.Cav

e 184: Chugoku sekkut

su:Kizil Ill, 207 (MIK Ill 8887 in Berlin). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p.254. Yaldiz 1987, p.

51f.

3.2.15 Nigrodhamiga (Nyagrodhamrga) Jataka, J 12.432 Ills.: Cave 38: Chugoku

sekkutsu: Kizil I, 138. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 271. Yaldiz 1987, p. 46f.

3.2.16 Padmaka Jataka not in the Pali collection). Ills.: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu,

Kizil I, 64. Cave 114: Tan, Shutong and An, Chunyang 1981, 11, 29. Ref.: Chavannes

1962 (1910-1935), no. 3 and vol. IV, p. 87, no. 3. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 277. Yaldiz

1987, p. 47. [ Le Buddha dit: 'Celui qui en ce temps etait l'homme pauvre, c'est moi

meme;... Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 3, p. 14.)]

3.2.17 *Ruru (Rurumiga) Jataka , J 482. Ills .: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, PI.

63 and Tan, Shutong and An, Chunyang 1981, I, 68 and Yaldiz 1987, PI. 34 (all same).

Cave 38 : Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 43 (p.63), Cave 178: Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 42 (p. 61). Ref. :

Grey 1994 (1990), p. 306f. Yaldiz 1987, p. 62.

3.2.18 *Sama Jataka, J 540. Ills.: Cave 114: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil Ill, PI. 197 and

Yaldiz 1987, PI. 42 (same, MIK Ill 9103 in Berlin). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 316ff.

Yaldiz 1987, p. 77.

43 Cf. , Marshai VFoucher 1983 1940), vol. I, p. 82.

130



APPENDIX V

3.2.19 Samkhapala Jataka, 524. Ills .: Cave 178:

Fig. 46. Cave 206: Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 46 (p.63).

Yaldiz 1987, p. 64.

Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 45 (p. 63). and

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 324.

3.2.20 Sarabhamiga Sarabha, Sarabhanga) Jataka , 483. Ills: . Cave 17: Yaldiz1987, PI. 35. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 334f. Yaldjz 1987, p. 64.

3.2.21 Sarvandada Sarvandadaraja) Jataka , Contes 10. Ills.: Cave 38: Chugoku

sekkutsu: Kizil I, PI. 137 and Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 30 (p.53) (same). Cave 114. Chugoku

sekkutsu: Kizil 11 137. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 337f. Yaldiz 1987, p. 54.

3.2.22 Sasa Jataka, 316. Ills.: Cave 14. Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 53. Cave 224.

Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil Ill, 154. Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 338fT. Yaldiz 1987, p. 4 7.

3.2.23 Sivi Jataka I (eyes), J 499. Ills.: Cave 17. Chugoku sekkutsu : Kizil I, 70. Cave38. Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 117 123 (Yaldiz 1987, Fig, 31 (p. 33) is same). Cave

114. Chugoku sekkutsu; Kizil 11, 142 and Tan, Shutong and An , Chunyang 1981, ,

20 (same). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 361fT. Yaldiz 1987, p. 54f.

3.2.24 *Sivi Jataka 11 (pigeon), Contes 2 197. Ills.: Cave 17: Chugoku sekkutsu:

Kizil I, 67 . Cave 38: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 132. Cave 114: Chugoku sekkutsu:

Kizil 11, 128 and Tan, Shutong and An , Chunyang 1981, 11 21 (small). Cave 178:

Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 32 (p. 53). Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 361. Yaldiz 1987, p. 55.

3.2.25 *Sujata Sujati) Avadana. Ills.: Cave 8: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil I , 37 and

Tan, Shutong and An, Chunyang 1981, I, 36 (same). Cave 38: Chugoku sekkutsu:

Kizil Ill, 185 MIK Ill 8390 in Berlin). Cave 38: Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 33 (p. 56) not the

same as MIK Ill 8390 in Berlin). Cave 114: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil Ill, 197 (MIK Ill

9103 in Berlin). Cave 186: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil Ill, 209 (MIK Ill 8852 in Berlin).

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 379. Yaldiz 1987, p. 55.

3.2.26 Sutasoma Mahasutasoma, Kalmaspade) Jataka, 537. Ills.: Cave 17: Chugoku

sekkutsu: I, 60. Cave 38: Chugoku sekkutsu: I, 118. Cave 114: Chugoku sekkutsu: ,

143. Cave 184: Chugoku sekkutsu: Ill, 207 (MIK Ill 8887 in Berlin). Ref.: Grey 1994

(1990), p. 39lff. Yaldiz 1987, p. 67f.

3.2.27 Tittira Jataka, 37. Ills.: Cave 80: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil , 59. Cave 114:Cbugoku sekkutsu: Kizil 11, 134. Ref.: Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 481 (same).

Grey 1994 (1990), p. 413f. (Tittira-1).

3.2.28 *Vessantara Visvantara) Jataka ,4 J 547. Ills.: Cave 8: Chugoku sekkutsu,

Kizil I, 33 and Tan , Shutong and An, Chunyang 1981, I, 37 (better). . Cave 38:

Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil Ill , 184 and Yaldiz 1987, PI. 44 (same, MIK Ill 8392 in

Berlin). Cave 198: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil Ill, 104 and Tan, Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981 , 152 (larger) . Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), 438ff. Yaldiz 1987, p. 78f.

4 SchlinglotT, Dieter 1981, Erzahlung und Bild. In : Bietrage zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Archaologie,

3, p. 124-131 for the Vessantara depictions in India. Cit. in : Yald iz 1987, p.79, n. 118.

131



APPENDIX VI. Coordinates fo r Kizil The Chinese numbers and t he German and

Japanese names)

-9-lilK

2

3

4

7

8

17

27

34

36 , 37

38

58

60

63

66

67

76

77

80

9 P318:

82

83

84

85

92

110

114

115

117

118

123

129

H ohlengruppe m it d em Kam in C.D.E

H ohlengruppe m it dem K am in B

H ohle ngruppe m it dem K am in A

Hohle m it d em FreskobodenHohle der sechzehn Schwert trag e r

Hohle m it d em Bodhis attv agew olbe

Nis chenhohle

Hohle m it d em mediti erenden So nnengo tt

Das so genannte Klo ster

Hohle m it d em M usikerchor

Hohle der Be helm ten

G ross te Hohle

K asyapa-H ohle

Rotkuppelhohle B

Rotkuppelhohle A

Pfauenhohle

H ohle der Statuen

H ollento pfhoh le

Schatzhohle D,E

Schatz hohle C

Schatzhohle B

Schatz hohle A

Hohle m it der Affin

T repp en hoh le

Hohle m it dem Geb etm i.ih le

Kle ine Hohle neben der Uberm alten Hohle.. U berm alte Hohle

Hippokam pen Hoh le

Hohie mit den ring tragenden T au b e n

Kleine Kuppelh ohle

132

B : t ~ I C - Ei ~ D B i ~ i i A

+ ' " ' ~ * ' J ~ l l lfii :.Rlfll

~ - ~ ~ I X ~ T o : t : l l l ~ i l \,\ h ll> J.:dtt ~ *:R E

i t 9 e ~ i l•*m ~ • m

U ~ J I H gfi A

iL*lli t ~

M ~ i i D . E ~ m c

M:i:fi B

M:lifi A

j l ~ @

@ J . f i * 1 : 8 ( ? = - · ~

- ~ ~ ~ i t . ~ ~1Ef& ~ h .:t f : M t ~ +$JJI I



-&JliK

165

166

167

168

175

176

177

178

179

181

182

184

185

186

188

189

193

198

198 1filj 1 6: = -i }

199

{IL.UifHK

205

206

207

212

219

l . U : U ~ I K224

225

227

Casetten Hohle 5

Casetten Hohle 4

Casetten Hohle 3

Casetten Hohle 2

Versuchungs H ohle

Zweitletzte H ohle

Hohle 4

Schlucht H ohle

2. Hoh ieUapaner Hohle)

Hochliegende Hohle

H ochl iegende Hohie

Dri t tletz te Hoh le

Kleiner Tempel n ebenan

M itt lere Hoh le

Dri t te Hohle von vo rn ( l2 Budd h a H ohle)

2. Hohle von vom

t\agara jahoh le

Teufelshohle mit Annexen C

eufelshohle m it Annexen B

T eufe lshoh le mi t A :m e x e n A

Hohle m it der M aya,2 .A n i. Hohle 19)

Hohle mit der Fu sswaschung(Hohle 18)

Hoh le der M aler(Hohle 17)

Hohle der Seere ise(Hohle 11)A ja tasa t ru-H ohle(Hohle 1 )

Hohle m it der M aya ,3.Anl.(Hohle 5

Hohle 4

P re tahohle(H ohle 3)

133

1 ~ -~ t? ~ 1) ~ -1;1 t? ~ ) 7e -m3

r.l t? 'J 7C m2

~ ~ m ~ M2m

~ 4 1 1~ ~ m

~ a B * A i f ireifiJfm

+ ~ ~ - p } j - ~~ ~ ~

1 t • + ~c p ~ @WtJ· ~ m3m< =u.

WitJ· ~ ~ z mn:xm: Jili C

~ B~ @ A

( R 7 ' ~m

oo*m

~ l i - t - mM i t i

1 l 7 ' ~M41i

~ ~ ~



APPEND[} VI

PART FIVE CATALOGUES OF JATAKA REPRESENTATIONS IN CHINA4 4

ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE

The eight Jataka names with an asterisk are those treated at length in Part Four:Dunhuang. J refers to: Cowell1969 (1985), T to Taisho and Nj to Nanjio.4 5

Balahasva Jataka < S ~ z ~ See also Appendix V: 3.2.1 Balahasva Jataka in

Kizil.

The Bodhisattva is reborn as a horse. He goes into the ocean and saves, on his back,seafaring merchants from demons. Virtue of steadfastness (virya). Chavannes 1962(1910-1935), no. 59, vol. I, p. 226: . .le roi-cheval, c'est moi-meme.

Kizil 14: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil I, 52 and (print not as good) Tan, Shutong

and An, Chunyang 1981, vol. I, 49.

Kizi117: Yaldiz 1987, PI. 31 and nowhere else).

Ref.: Chavannes no. 59 and (notes) vol. IV, p. 128.436

Bhisa J ataka .

See Appendix I , 1.3.2.6 Bhisa Jataka in Bharhut.

*Byilingirali (Bilengjieli, Bhilanjili, Dschiling-Girali, and Pilengjieli ,Pirinjeri or Pilinjeliin Japanese) Jataka.

A man Devadatta) offers to teach a part of the Buddhist law to the king (Bodhisattva)i he will allow a need le (in the Liudu ji jing, T 152, Nj 143 Ref. translated by

Chavannes) to be inserted at the root of each hair on his body. In the Xian yu jing, T202, Nj 1322, from the Damamuka Sutra, which is the Schmidt translation in Der

Weise und der Tor, the man drives nails into the body of King Byilingirali. Propagated

is the Virtue of steadfastness. Buddha tells the story without saying that he wasthere [Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), p. 216].

434Avadanas are also included.

435 Ta isho refers to: Repertoire du canon bouddhique sino-japonais. Fascicule annexe du Hobogirin , 1978.

Nanjio refers to: Catalogue of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist Tr ipitaka, 1988 (1883).

436 Chavannes 37 is simila r, but the Bodhisattva is the owner of the house, not the horse. He too was saved by

the divine horse.

134

•



ALPHABETICAL CA TALOGUE

Kizil 34: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 79.


Mogao 275: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I, PI. 13.

Mogao 302: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. II, Pl. 9.

Ref.: Chavannes no. 55 and Schmidt 1978 (1843), pp . 9 ~ 1 3

Candakinnara Jataka.

A kinnara couple live happily in the Himalayas. The king of Benaris is out shootingwhen he discovers the couple. Deciding to make the wife, Canda, his own, he shootsher husband , but the fathfull wife will have nothing to do with him. In J. 485 the

Bodhisattva is the husband)

Bharhut. (now in Calcutta , Indian Museum) Ills.: Barua 1979 (1934/1937),PI. XXIII 19. Cunningham 1998 (1879), PI. XXVII 12 (not same).

Ref.: Cowell485 (Chavannes 380 is not quite the same)

*Candraprabha Jataka J=J t z ~

An ascetic (Devadatta) asks the generous king, the Bodhisattva, for his head.437 In

spite of a royal minister, who offers heads made ofprecious stones instead, the Brahman

obliges the king to follow him into the garden where his hair is tied to a tree and he isdecapitated. (Virtue of generosity).

Kizil 8: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 34 and Tan, Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981, vol. I, Pl. 39 (bigger).

Kizil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, Pl. 68.

Kizil 178: Yaldiz 1987, p. 68, Fig. 52.

Kizil 184: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, 207 (MIK Ill 8886-8888).

Kumtura 79: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kumtura, Pl. 184.

Mogao 275: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I, Pl. 14.

Mogao 302: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. , Pl. 9.

Ref.: Chavannes no. 5 and vol. IV, pp. 88 89. Narrative: Yaldiz 1987, p. 67.

Cardulakarna Jataka . See Padmaka Jataka .

4 7 Waldschmidt 1928, pp. 13 14 lists depictions in six caves. Ci t. in: YaJdiz 1987, p 67, n 94.

135



A LPHABETICAL CATALOGUE

Chaddanta Saddanta) Jataka , J 514.

An elephant with six tusks lives with his two mates in a jungle. By giving a very

special present to one of them he offends the other , who, in order to avenge herself,

wishes to be reborn as a powerful queen. This wish becomes reality. As the wife ofthe King of Benares she sends a huntsman to kill the e lephant and bring her the

wonderful tusks.

Kizil 38: Yaldiz 1987, p 63 , Fig. 44 .

Kizil 206: Chugoku sekkutsu , Kizil, vol. Ill, PI. 130.

Ref.: Chavannes 1969 (1910-1935), no. 28 and no. 344.

The Chaddanta Jataka seem s not to have been depicted elsewhere in China.

Chudapaksa Avadana White Horse Legend, Intelligent Horse Jataka) .

When rebels hinder the King of Benares from returning, hi s badly wounded favorite

horse saves him by crossing a lake on lotus blossoms but this effort is too much for the

exhausted horse, who then dies.


Chunyang 1981, I, 5 (same).

Kizil 17 : Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 71 and Tan, Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981, I, 57 (same).

Kizil 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. 11, PI. 140 and Tan, Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981, 11, 26 (same).

Ref.: Chavannes no. 398.

Dharmakama Avadana.

To hear Buddhist wisdom, the Bodhisattva sacrifices himself in a fire or in a cauldron.

He is saved by Sakra and Brahma.

Kizil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu , Kizil, vol. I, Pl. 61.

Kizil 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. 11, PI. 129.

Ref. : not in Cowell or Chavannes). Yaldiz 1978: p. 48 . Dharmaruci Dipankara)

Jataka

Text: Jones 1987 (1949), pp. 188-203. (The Mahavastu, vol. 1).

136




Hamsa Jataka, J 502. See also Appendix V: 1.3.2.16 Hamsa Jataka .

The story about the king of the wild geese the Bodhisattva), who is captured and

brought before the ruler.

Haricandra Avadana.

King Haricandra is convinced by two Brahmans to boil himself in a cauldron.



Kizil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, Pl. 68.

Kizil 184: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, Pl. 207 MIK Ill 8886-8888).

Yaldiz 1987, PI. 27 same).

Ref. : Not found in Cowell or Chavanne. Yaldiz 1987, p. 49.

Hastin Avedana.

The elephant who threw himself from a precepice to feed seven-hundred starving men

in a desert.

Kizil 8: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 36 and Tan, Shutong and An ,

Chunyang 1981, vol. I, Pl. 35 larger).

Kizil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, Pl. 71 and Tan, Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981, vol. I, PI. 63.

Ref : Jones tr.) 1987 1949), no. 30 The Jatakamala). Not found in Cowell or

Chavannes. Yaldiz 1987, p. 45.

White Horse Legend, Intelligent Horse Jataka. See Chudapaksa Avadana.

lsimiga Jataka. See Nigrodhamiga Jataka.

l sisinga Jataka. See Nalinika Jataka.

Kacchapa Jataka, J 178. See also Appendix V: 1.5.2.2 Kacchapa Jataka.

137



A LPHABE'l'ICAL T LO UE

Kizil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 68.


Kizil 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. , PI. 139.

Ref.: Not found in Cowell or Chavannes. Narrative in : Yaldiz p. 49 and

Schmidts tr.) 1978 1843 , p. 7fT.

Kapota Avadana 1 1 . 1 ~

A pigeon jumps into a fire to feed someone who is hungry.


Chunyang 1981, vol. I, PI. 61 same).

Kizil 80: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. , PI. 64.

Kum tura 63: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kumtura , PI. 163.

Ref.: Grey 1994 1990), p. 151f Kapota Ill). Not the Kapota J ataka, Cowell

nos. 42 375, which is, both times, a jataka of a pigeon and a crow).

Kbantivadi J ataka , J 313.

During a walk in their garden, the wives of a king Devadatta) come upon an ascetic

the Bodhisattva) and listen to his preaching. When the king hears of this, he has the

hands and feet of the ascetic cut off.

Kizil 38: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, 123.

Ref.: Grey 1994 1990), p. 161f. and Yaldiz 1987, p. 49f.

Krtajna Avadana Krtajna and Vikrtajna J ataka).

The elder brother, Prince Vikrtajna Devadatta), swear s to treat his younger brother ,

Prince Krtajna the Bodhisattva), forever with cruelty. The virtue of patience).

Kizil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, 70. Yaldiz 1987, PI. 37 same).

Ref.: Yaldiz 1987, p. 69.

Khantivadi Ksantivadin) Jataka, J 313.

139



LPH BETIC LC TALOGUE

Ref.: Cf.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 222fT. Samosiuk, Kira, 1995 (Gies and Cohen

(ed.) 1995, p. 225). Yaldiz 1987, p. 57f.

Ref.: Not in Cowell. Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 4 and notes vol. IV , p.

87 (ascetic, not prince). Khoroche tr.) 1989 (Jatakamala , no. 1 brahmin).Schmidt 1978 (1843) ( Der Weise und der Tor ), p. 20ff. the extended , Mogao

72, version).

The Ref. for the Dunhuang depictions has either been taken out of the middle

of the Weise und der Tor version or it has not yet been identified.

Mahasutasoma Jataka. See Sutasoma Jataka (Appendix V: 3.2.26 Sutasoma Jataka

and below).

Mahatyagavan439 Jataka not in Cowell).

During his wanderings, the ascetic Mahatyagavan the Bodhisattva) goes to t hree

cities ru led by snakes and is able to depart from each with a precious wishing-s tone,

giving him the power of generosity. When the envious snake-gods try to take them

away from him, he threatens to empty the oceans, their habitat. Virtue of generosity).

Kizil 14: Chugoku sekkutsu, K.izil , vol. I, Pl. 50 and Tan, Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981, vol. I, Pl. 46 (smaller).

Kizil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 66 and larger) Tan, Shutong and

An , Chunyang 1981, I, 60.

Kizil 38: Cbugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, 129 and Tan, Shutong and An ,

Chunyang 1981, I, 114 (smaller).

Kizil 178: Yaldiz 1987, Fig. 54 (p. 68).

Kizil 186: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, PI. 209 and Gies and Cohen (ed.)

1995, p. 216, PI. 162 (larger).

Ref.: Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 9. Cf.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 227.

1987, p. 70 . Yaldiz 1995, p. 216, PI. 162.

Maitrakanyaka Ja taka Catudvara Jataka), J 439.44

Yaldiz

When Mittavindaka Maitrakanyaka) wa s grown up, he decided to earn hi s living as a

merchant. His mother, realizing that thi s was unlucky, begged him to change hi s mind

439 Mahatyagava n = grea t generosity. Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935 , vol. IV, p. 90.

44 Cf., Chava nnes 1962 (1910-1935), vol. I, p. 132, footnote, voi . Il l , p. 10 and vo l. IV , p. 90. ('l'he Chi nese

version is not qui te the same.)

143



A LPHABETICAL CATALOGUE

but he struck her down. With his comrades, he set sail but they were caught in a

storm. Maitrakanyaka reached land and met four, then eight, then sixteen and finally

thirty-two beautiful women on various islands. After he had freed himself from them,

he arrived at a city of iron. Once he was inside, the doors closed behind him and he

saw a man with a wheel as sharp as a razor on his head. The wheel sprang from thehead of the man to his own but inspite of the unbearable pain which he had to

withstand, his heart was full of pity for all sinners and he vowed to do penitence for all

the others too. While he was thinking thus the wheel sprang from his head and

disappeared in the sky.

Kizil 212: Yaldiz 1987, p. 71, Fig. 55 .

Maitribala Avadana.

The story of a king who feeds five Yaksas with his flesh and blood.

Kizil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 60 and Yaldiz 198 7, PI. 30 better).


Ref.: Koroche 1989, no. 8. Jatakamala).

Mugapakkha Mukapangu) Jataka , J 538.

Not to be obliged to follow in his fathers footsteps, a prince pretends to be deaf, dumb

and lifeless. After trying everything else he can think of, his father, the king, orders

him to be buried alive.

Kizil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, Pl. 63.


Kizil 184: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, Pl. 207 Berlin: MIK Ill 8887).

Ref.: Chavannes 1962 1910-1935), no. 38. Cf. Cunningham1998 1879), PI.XXV no. 4 and Nj 81, 219 220.

Nalinika Alambusa, lsisinga, lsisrnga, Rsyasrnga, Shemiao, deer mother, Deer Queen

Mother) Jataka. 4.2.6.1.1 and 4.2.6.3.2.2)

The version of this jataka used in both the banners from Mogao 17 4.2.6.1.1 and

4.2.6.3.2.2) and in Mogao 112 is from the Baoen jing, T 156, Nj 431. It was translated

during the Eastern Han Dynasty A. D. 25-220).

Mter licking grass with the urine of a brahman, a doe gave birth to a young woman

144



A LPHABETICAL TALOGUE

(in the Dunhuang versions). The imprint of her footsteps became lotus flowers. Later,

with the name Shemiao, she became the mother of Sakyamuni.

Mogao 17 (banner): Whitfield 1982-1985, Pis. 8 and 8-7 and Fig. 21.

Mogao 112: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. IV, PI. 58.

Ref : Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), vol. IV, p. 98f. Howard 1986, p.76.

Whitefield 1982-1985: p 300. (T 156, Nj 431).

Cf.: the Nalinka Jataka in Bharhut (1.3.2.39), Sanchi (1.4.2.3) and Gandhara

(2.2.2). Cf. also the Padumavati Jataka in the Mahavastu (Jones 1978 (1956),

p 148ft).

Nigrodhamiga (Nyagrodhamrga) Jataka, J 12 = ~ c - ~ f t . ± * ~ 4 4 1

A Gazelle king promises King Brahmadatta an animal out of his herd daily to stop the

king from hunting. When the turn of a particularly fine animal comes he sacrifices

himself instead. In the only example of this jataka in the Kucha area , the animal the

Bodhisattva) awaits quietly its death while the king is waiting for the water to boil.

K izil 38: Chugoku sekkutsu, K izil , vol. I, PI. 138.

Ref : Jones 1978 (1956), p. 148ff. (Mahavastu, vol. I, pp. 305-311). Cowell no.

12. Chavannes nos. 18, 175 vol. IV, p. 94, no. 18. Cf : Grey 1994 (1990), p.271. Yaldiz 1987, p 46f.

Padmaka Jataka Sadurakarna, Cardulakarna), f i i i J i i t . ± * ~ )

The Bodhisattva, a poor man, sacrifices himself in the form of a giant fish to provide

the sick and hungry with food and health.

K.izil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, K.izil, vol. I, PI. 64.

K.izil114: Tan, Shutong and An, Chunyang 1981, vol. , 29.

Kumtura 63: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kumtura, PI. 148.

"Le Buddha dit: 'Celui qui en ce temps etait l'homme pauvre, c'est moi meme ; .."

(Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 3, p. 14). (Not in Cowell).

Pradipapradyota Jarudapana) Avadana.

441 Cf , Mars hall Foucher 1983 (1940), vol. I, p. 82.

145




*Sama Samaka, Syama, Symaka, Syamaka, Suyama) Jataka ~ x ; t T - * ~ > J

540.

Sama, a young ascetic, cares for his blind parents who live as hermits until one day,

while fetching water, he is inadvertently shot by a king who is hunting.



Kizil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil , vol. I, PL 66.

Kizil 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, PI. 197, Yaldiz 1987, PI. 42

(Berlin: MIK Ill 9103) and Yaldiz 2000, p. 204 (all same).

Maijishan 127: Chugoku sekkutsu, Maijishan, Pis. 167, 170 171.

Mogao 124: Gies and Cohen (ed.) 1995, p. 231, no. 175 (Dh 197-198 in St.

Petersburg).

Mogao 299: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I, PI. 196 197.

Mogao 301: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. , PI. 3.

Mogao 302: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. , PI. 9.

Mogao 461: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I, PI. 155.

Wes tern Thousand Buddhist Caves: Chugoku sekkutsu, Yulinku, p. 97f and

Pis. 221 222.

Yungang IX: Caswell1988, Fig. 51.

Samaka Jataka . See Sama Jataka.

Samcarin Jataka. See Sanjali Avadana.

Samkhapala Jataka , J 524.

The Bodhisattva shows himself in the form of the snake king Samkhapala, who allows

himself to be mistreated by people until he is saved by a passing merchant.

Kizil178: Yaldiz 1987, p. 63, Fig. 45.


148




Sanjali Avadana (Sankhacarya Avadana , Samcarin Jataka4 .

The ascetic Sanjali sat so still under a tree that a bird made a nest and laid eggs on

his head. Wishing not t disturb the bird, the ascetic sat motionless until the little

birds were able to fly.

Kizil 8: Chugoku sekkutsu , Kizil, vol. I, PI. 29.

Kizil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I , PI. 61.

Kizilll4: Yaldiz 1987, PI. 41.

Kizil 205: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, Pl. 116.

Kizil 206: Tan , Shutong and An , Chunyang 1981, vol. 11, 165.

Kumtura 63: Chugoko sekkutsu, Kumtura, PI. 160.

Tumshuk Grande temple Gies, Jacques (ed.) 1994, vol. , Pl. 138-1 & 2

and Gies and Cohen (ed.) 1995, no . 165. (E0.1057 in the Musee Guimet,

Paris).

Ref.: Dazhidulun, T 1509 and Sengqielouchasuo jing, T 194.4 3

Yaldiz 1987,

p. 73.

Sankhacarya Avadana. See Sanjali Avadana.

Sarabhamiga (Sarabha, Sarabhanga) Jataka, J 483.

A king hunts the fabled antelope Sarabha and falls, while so doing, into a pit. Sarabaha

saves his pursuer.

Kizi117: Yaldiz 1987, PI. 35.

Sarvandada (Sarvandadaraja) Jataka.

After leaving his realm to his rival, a king becomes a hermit. Later, however, a

Brahman obliges him to return so that the Brahman can collect head money with

the ex-kings head. (In Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 10, p. 45 Buddha says to hi s

disciples: Celui qui, en ce temps, etait le roi Tch'ang-cheou, c'etait moi-meme; .. .

Kizil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu , Kizil, vol. I, Pl. 66.

« 2 Cf., Chugoku sekkutsu, Kumt ura , p. 373, PI. 160.

« 3 Cf., Gies and Cohen (ed.) 1995, p. 221.

149



ALPHABE'l'ICAL CA TALOGUE

Mogao 17 ninth century banner): Whitfield 1982-1985, vol. I, PI. 11 and Figs.

34 & 35.

Tumshuk Grande temple B: Gies, Jacques (ed.) 1994, vol. II, Pis. 137 139

and Gies and Cohen (ed.) 1995, p. 219f, PI. 164. (EO. 1056 in the MuseeGuimet, Paris).

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 379.

Ref.: Za bao zang jing T 203, Nj 1372: This text continues the story saying that

when there were only three more pieces (of the boy) the parents each took one

each and left the last one for the child, leaving him on the road. When Shakra

arrived, disguised as a wolf, and asked for the last piece of meat, the boy gave it

to him, happily.

Za bao zangjing corresponds to the Sanskrit title Samuikata ratna pitaka sutra

and was translated into Chinese in A. D. 4 72 by Kikaiye, assisted by Tanyao.444

Xian yu jing, the Damamuka Sutra ( Der Weise und der Tor ), T 202, Nj 1322

(not in the Schmidt edition) and the Da Fangbian fo baoen jing T 156, Nj 431.445

Suka Avadana .

A parrot, who has lived with the animals of the mountains, is the first to see a fire.

From a nearby pond, he tries with the water which clings to his feathers to put out thefire. A god, moved by the futility of this effort, causes a rain shower to extinguish the

fire.



Ref.: Chavannes no. 114. Grey 1994 (1990), p. 381. Yaldiz 1987, p. 65.

Sumagadha (Samavati) Avadana .

The story begins with the marriage of Sumagadha, the daughter of Anathapindika,

with the son of a friend. His family are , however, followers ofDigambara and Sumagadha

wishes to convert them. After having made an offering of flowers to him on the roof of

her house, she asks the Buddha to come with his followers. He appears with thirteen

of his disciples, most of them mounted on animals. 6

Chavannes 1962 1910-1935), vol. 3, p. 1.

5 Cf., Gies and Cohen (cd.) 1995, p. 219f.

446 For a list ofth e disciples and their vehicles see: Yaldiz 1987. p. 76.

153



A LPHABETICAL CA TALOGUE

Kizii 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizii, vol. I, Pl. 128.

K.izil 224: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. , Pls. 142-150 and Tan, Shutong

and An, Chunya ng 1981, vol. 11, PI. 181f. Yaldiz 1987, p. 74, Fig. 57. A ll the

sa me).

Mogao 257: Chugoku sekkutsu, Dunhuang, vol. I, Pis. 44 45. Duan 1989,

vo l. I , Pls. 27-33.

Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 383f. Yaldiz 1987, p. 76 with a li st of the disciples

and their vehicles).

Surupa Avadana.

The story of the king who gave his wife and only son to an ogre in order to learn a part

of the buddhist law.

K.izil17: Chugoku sekkutsu, K.izil, vol. I, PI. 63.


Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 389. Yaldiz 1987, p. 57.

Texts: Avadanasataka 35 and Jones 1987 (1949), 240ff. ( Mahavastu 11).

Su tasoma Mahasutasoma, Kalmasapada) Jataka, J 537.

The story of the ogre king Kalmasapada who is converted to Buddhism by Sutasoma.

(J 537, p. 279: . .king Sutasoma, it is said, was I myself. )

K.izil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, K.izil, vol. I, PI. 60.


Kizil 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil , vol. , Pl. 143.

K.izil 184: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, Pl. 207 (Berlin: MIK Ill 8887).


Ref.: Grey 1994 (1990), p. 391fT.

Texts: J 537, Chavannes 1962 (1910-1935), no. 41 and Khoroche 1989, no. 31

(The Jatakamala).

154



ALPHACt<:TICAL TALOGUE

Suyama Jataka. See Sama Jataka.

Syarna J ataka. See Sama J ataka.

Syamaka Jataka. See Sama Jataka.

Symaka Jataka. See Sama Jataka .

Tayodhamma J ataka x ~ J 58.

The son the Bodhisa ttva) of the monkey king, who gathers the lotus flowers from the

pond without being eaten by the ogre.

Kizil 17: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, Pl. 71.

Kizi1114: Cbugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, Pl. 197 Berlin: MIK Ill 9103)

and Yaldiz 2000, p 204, Pl. 297 C14 date A D. 391-427). Both same.


Kizil 206: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. Ill, Pl. 132 and Tan, Shutong and

An , Chunyang 1981, vol 11, PI. 168 larger).

Tittira J ataka, J 37.

A partridge the Bodhi sattva), a monkey on an elephan t establish precedence.

Kizil 80: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. 11, Pl. 59.

Kizil 114: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizi l, vol IT, PI. 134.

Kumtura 63: Chugoku sekku tsu, Kumtura, Pl. 159.

Ref. : Chavannes 1962 1910-1935), no 481. Grey 1994 1990), p. 413f

Tittira-1).

Vanara Avadana c m z * ~ . 4 4 7

The monkey king who wonders why a monkey is always missing afLer Lhe herd bathes.

447 Cf.: The Vaoara Jalaka in J 58 is aboul the son of Lhe moo key king, lhe ogre and the lotus nowers. The

Vanara Jataka, J :i42, and the Vanarinda Jalaka, J 57, are aboutlhe monkey and the crocodile

155



A LPH BETIC L T LOGUE

Viaghri Jataka See Mahasattva Jataka

Viryabala Avadana. See Rsipancaka Avadana.

157



CHRONOLOGICAL C ATALOGUE

Kizil: A. D. 395 +- 65 to 465 +- 65. (Phase 2)459

17 Bodhisattvagewolbe (A. D. 465 - 65t60

77 Statuenhohle C14 date A. D. 406-425)461

118 Hippokampenhohle462

35 36 Kloster463

Dunhuang Northern Liang Dynasty A. D. 421-439)

(during Kizil, Phase 2)

Mogao 275:

Byilingirali Jataka

Sivi pigeon) Jataka

Candraprabha J ataka

Kizil: early or mid-fifth century)

13 no name)464

Dharmakama Jataka465

Sujata Jataka

17 Bodhisattvagewolbehohle A. D. 465 +- 65t66

59 Howard 1991, p. 72.

Prad ipapradyota Jataka467

Padmaka Avadana468

Mahakapi Jataka469

Sivi Jataka

Chandraprabha Jataka

460Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil , vol. I, p. 173.

461 Cl4 da te: Yaldiz 2000, p.193. Cf.: Howard 1991, pp . 70 72

462 Ibid.

463 Ibid.

464 Howard 198 6, p. XIV, no. 26.

465 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizi l, vol. I, P I. 38.

466 Chugoku sekk u tsu, Kizil, vol. I, p. 173.

467 Yaldiz 2000, p . 197.

468 Al so Sardurakarna J ataka Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. lfl , p. 379 , no. 64 ). Chugoku se kku ts u , Kizil, vol.

I , P I. 64 and narrative) Chavannes (l r .) 1962 (1910-1935), no. 3 and Yaldiz 1987, p. 47 .

469 Chu goku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI. 65 and (n arrative) Yaldiz 1987, p. 60.

159



Late fifth century

CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE

Kancanasara Jataka

Haricandra Jataka

Hastin Jataka47

118 Hippokam pen hoh le A . D . 395+-

65 to 465+-

65

471

123 Ringtragendentaubenhohle fir s t h a lfof the fifth century)4 72

or C14 date A. D. 431-533 4 73

Dunhuang M id-Nor the rn W ei Dynasty A. D. 465-500474

Y ungang :

K i zil:

M ogao 254:

Mogao 257:

Mahasattva Jataka

Ruru Jataka

Swnagadha A vadana

Sramanera A vadana

YungangIX A. D . 47 -

48 t

75

Syama Jataka

212 See fahrerh oh le C 14 date A. D . 561-637 :476

Ma itrakanyaka Avadana

Sronak otik a rna A vadan a

470 Ib id ., PI , 71 and n a rralive) Kh oroche 1989, p . 213ff. Jalakamala 30 ).

4 7 1 Howa rd 1991, pp. 7 0 and 72 .

4 72 Howard 19 86, PI. 29 .

4 7

Ya ldi z 2000, p. 197 .

4 74 Dates for Moga o 254 257 are from Shih 1993, p. 59ff.

47 Caswe ll 1988 : p . 8.

4 76 Yaldiz 2000, p. 19 7 .

160



CHRONOLOGICAL CATALOGUE:

Kizil (A. D. 550 550-600)

184 Drittletztehohle:48

Mukapangu AvadanaSurupa Avadana

186 Mittlerehohle:481

Mahakapi J a taka

Candraprabha Jataka

Sama J ataka

Mahaprabhasa Avadan a

Mandhata r Avadan a

Mahatyagavon Legend482

212 Seefahrerhohle (C14 date A. D. 561-637):483

Maitrakanyaka Avadana

Sronakotikarna Avadana

Western Thousand Buddha Caves [Northern Qi A. D. 550-577]484

12 (no name):

Syama J ataka

Sixth, early seventh century

Tumshuk (reliefs in dr ied earth)485

Grand temple B:

Vessantara Jata ka

Sujata Jataka

Sanjali Avadana

48 Wa ldsc hmidt: after A. D 650 , Klimburg: A. D 550-600. (Cit. in Yaldiz 1987, p. 341'.).

48 1 Wa ldschm idt : after A. D 650, Kli mburg: A. D. 550. (cit. in Ibid .)

482 Chugoku se kku tsu, Kizil, vol. l l (, Pis. 209 an d 210 . Th ese are two pa r ts of a freeze now in the Berlin

Museum (MIK 885 1 8852).

483Ya ldiz 200 0, p. 197.

484 Chugoku sekkutsu, Yulinku , pp . 196-198 333 and Pis. 221 222 and map p. 190. Cl'., Higas hiyama 1996,

p. 233f.

485 Gies, J acques (ed) 1994, Les a s de l'Asie central , vol. , Pis. 137 & 139 and (text) p. 354ff.

162



CH RONOLOGICAL CA1'ALOG UE

Late sixth, early seventh century

Dunhuang (Sui Dynasty A. D. 589-618)

Mogao 302:

Mogao 427 :

Mogao 419:

Byilingirali Jataka

Chandraprabha Jataka

Mahasattva Jataka

Sivi (eyes) Jataka

Sivi (pigeon) Jataka

Syama Jataka

Vessantara J atakas

Vessantara Jataka

Mahasattva Jataka

Seventh, eighth and n in th centuries

Dunhuang (Tang Dynasty A. D. 618-907)

Kizil

Mogao 85:

Mahasattva Jataka

8 Sechzehn schwerttragerhohle (A. D. 600-650 :486

Mahasattva Jataka 87

Sujata J ataka488

Hastin J ataka489

Vessantara Jataka490

486 Waldschmidt Klimburg: A. D. 600-650. Khoroche 1989, p. 213fT. (J atakamala 30).

487 Chugoku sekku tsu, Kizil, vol. I , PI. 32.

488 Ibid. , PI. 37.

489 Ibid ., PI 36 and (narration) Khoroche 1989, p. 213IT. (J at akamala 30).

'

49 Chugoku sekkutsu Kizil, vol. I, PI. 33 and (better)Tan, Shutong and An , Chunyang 1981, Shinkyo no hekiga

(Mura ls for Xinjiang , vol. I, PI

37.

163



CHRONOLOG ICAL CATALOGUE

Kumtura 43:

Viryabala Avadana ?)509

Kumtura 63:

Kapota Jataka510

Rksapati J ataka

Sadurakarna Jataka

Samcarin Jataka

Sanjali Avadana

Sasa Jataka511

Tittira Jataka512

Mahasattva Jataka513

Kumtura 79:

Candraprabha Jataka

Karashar (seventh to eighth centuries)514

Shikshin 5 A:

Mahasattva Jataka

Dunhuang, from Mogao 17 Tang dynasty, mid- to la te eighth century)

Banner: Color on silk. Paradise of Sakyamuni, with illustrations

of episodes from the Baoen jing. Right hand panel from top to

bottom.

Sujati Jataka516

Dunhuang, from Mogao 17 Tang dynasty, la te eighth mid- ninth century)

Banner: Left hand panel from bottom to top.

Sujati Jataka516

509 Chugoku sekkutsu, Kum tura, PI. 77 and (narration) Yaldiz 1987, p. 77f.

510 Ibid., PI 163.

5t1 Ibid. , PI. 161.

512 Ibid., PI. 159 and text) Cowelll969 (1895), no. 37 and Chavannes 1962 (1905-1935 , no. 481.

513 Ibid., PI. 145.

514 Gies and Cohen (1995 , p. 225 and PI 170.

515 Whitfield, R. 1982-1985, The Art of Central Asia. Vol. I, PI. 8 Fig. 22 and p. 300.

516 Ibid., Vol. I, PI. 11, Figs. 34 35 and p. 307. Cf., Wu, Hung 1992, p. 52fT. Reborn in Pa radise: A Case

165



RONOLOGICAL C ATALOGUE

Tenth century

Dunhuang (Five Dynasties A. D. 907-969):

Mogao 72:

Mahasattva Ja taka

Twelveth and thirteenth cen turies

Baodingshan (between A D. 1177 1249)517

Buddha Skakyamuni Repays His Parents Kindness with great

Skillful means (relieD:

Mahasattva J ataka

Sujata ( Subhuti ) Jataka

Sama ( Shyama ) Jataka

Study of Dunhuang Sutra Painting a nd its Religious, Ritual an d Artistic Context.

517 Howa rd 2001, pp. 33 35 a nd Figs. 34 39. (Published after the text and Alphabetical Catalog were ready

for print ing.)

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174



G LOSSARY

mahadvastu. Canonical(?) Buddhist text. Contains the Dipankara Jataka as does

the Divyavadana.

makara. A mythological creature, like a crocodile. The primal life source.

ming-oi. Caves. A thousand houses in the local (Turkish) language.

mudra. abhaya: gesture of protection, absence of fear.

anjali: gesture of respect and salutation in which the two handsare held together near the chest, palms touching.

bhumisparsa: Earth-touching ges tu re.

dharmacakre: (dharma: law, dharmacakra : Law-wheel ).

dhyana: meditation. One or both hands placed in the lap, palms

upward.

varada: gi t bestowing (palm held open to the viewer).

vitarka: a gesture of discourse or discussion.

padmasana. A lotus throne or one with a lotus flower base. Al so the lotus position,which may equally be called vajrasana. Cf.: asana

paramita. Virtue. The six virtues of Mahayana Buddhism are: dana: generosity ,sila: observance of prohibitions, ksanti: patience, virya: steadfa stness , dhyana:

contemplation and prajna: wisdom. In Theravada Buddhism there are ten.

pradakshina. Circumambulation.

pralambapadasana. Also known as bhadrasana and paryankasana. The Wes tern

Position or European pose.''

saddharma. Saddharma Pundarika. The ''Lotus of the Good Law ; one of the first

great books of Mahayana literature, containing the essence of the doctrine of

the Great Vehicle.

sanghati. The monastic robe worn by the Buddha and members of the Order.

sanzang. Three baskets in Chinese, i.e. the Chinese version of the Tripitaka.

simhasana. A lion throne. Cf.: asana.

stupa. From Prakrit) thupa =sepulchral mound

sutra. ''Thread. A short text or doctrine consisting of aphoristic thoughts or ru les

threaded together into a sequence. In Buddhism, all sutras are considered torepresent the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha.

theravada. The Pali term for the Sanskrit sthaviravada, the speech of the elders.

A form of Buddhism of the so-called Hinayana category.

177



G LO ARY

tipitaka. The Pali form ofTripitaka . It is the version used by the Theravada schoolof Buddhism.

tripitaka. Three baskets in Sanskrit. The collection of sacred Buddhist writings.The pitaka (baskets) are: 1) sutras, preachings of the Buddha, 2) vinayas,

rules of monastic discipline and 3) texts of explanation of the teachings ofBuddha theabhidharma or abhidhamma which not all schools have).

triratna. The Three Jewels of Buddhism, i e. the Buddha, the dharma, and the

monastic community (samgha).

tschamara. Flywhisk.

Tusita Heaven. Maitreya Bodhisattva was reborn in the Tusita Heaven , and iswaiting there until his descent to earth to preside over the Ketumati Paradise.

urna. One of the auspicious marks of the body manifested as a whorl of hair or a

circle or protuberance between the eyebrows. It is one of thelaksanas (luckysigns) of a Buddha and is characteristic of other exalted beings, such as

makasattva Bodhisattvas.

usnisa. A knot of hair, origionally probably a turban knot, atop the head of a male

figure; indicative of princely heritage.

and: Protuberance on head of the Buddha emblematic of his

more than mortal knowledge and consciousness .

vajrasana. The Diamond or Adamantive Seat under the Tree of Enlightenment.

Also the sitting posture under it: i.e., in meditation , cross-legged with the

soles of the feet turned upwards. Cf.: asana.

varadamudra. Gift bestowing mudra (palm held open to the viewer). Cf.: mudra .

vedika. The railing around a stupa.

vinaya. Part two of the Tripitaka. The texts regarding monastic rules. Some texts,such as the Mahavastu, call themselves vinayas but are really a collection oflegends. Cf. Gronbold 1984, p. 12f.).

vrksadevata. A tree goddess.

yaksa. A male nature spirit. Feminin: yaksis oryaksini.

yajftopavita. The sacred thread crossing from the left shoulder to the right side of the

body.

178



LIST OF PLATES517 (with Picture Sources)

Map of India and Western China. From: Lee 1982, p. 14.

Part One: North Central India

1.2.2 Sanchi , Padakusalamanava Jataka. Ca. 100 B. C. From: Dehijia 1996, p.

81. Photograph by K B. Agrawala.

1.3.2.39 Bharhut, Nalinka Jataka. Ca. 100-80 B. C. From: Cunningham 1998(1879), ( lsi-Singe-Jataka ) PI. XXVI, no. 7.

1.3.2.54 Bharhut Vessantara Jataka. Ca. 100-80 B. C. From: Klimburg-Salter

1995, PI. 48.

1.4.2.1 Sanchi I, Chaddanta Jataka (detail). Early A D. the first century. From:

Dehejia 1996, PI. 7 pp. 46-47.

1.4.2.2 Sancbi I, Mahakapi Jataka. Early A D. the first century. From: Nagar

1993, PL 12.

1.4.2.5 Sanchi I, Vessantara Jataka (detail). Early A D. the first century. From:

Dehejia 1996, PL 1, p. 36.

1.5.2.5 Mathura, Padakusalamanava Jataka. No date. From: Joshi 1966, PI. 16.

Part Two: Gandhara

2.2.1 Gandhara (Karamar), Chanddanta Jataka. A D. 260-300. From: Kurita 1990,

vol. 11 p. 27 4.

2.2.2 Gandhara, Dipankara Jataka. A D. the second or third century. From:

Klimburg-Salter 1995, p. 175.

2.2.3 Gandhara Mahasattva Jataka. No date. From: Kurita 1990, vol. 11 p. 310.

2.2.6 Gandhara Nalinika Jataka. A D. the second or third century. From: Kurita

1990, vol. 11 PI. 854, p. 279.

5 17With the Table of Contents numbers. Cf. Literature Cited for t he publishers and the Chinese and Ja panese

ti tles.

179



L IS l OF P TES

2.2.8 Gandhara , Sivi Jataka. No date. From: Kurita 1990, vol. II, PI. 847, p. 277.

2.2.9 Gandhara, Vessantara Jataka. A. D. the third or fourth century. From: Gies

and Cohen (ed.) 1995, Pl. 167, p. 223.

2.5.1 Gandhara, King Suddhodhana Syakamuni Buddha s father) and the inter-

pretation of Maya s dream. No date. From: Foucher 1905, p. 299.

Part Three: Kizil

3.1.2 Kizil 77, Cowherd Nanda. A. D. the fifth or early sixth century (C 14 date A. D.

406-425). From: Yaldiz 1987, PI. Ill. Cf. Yaldiz, M, et al, 2000, p. 193f., where the

Cowherd Nanda, now restored, has been reunited with a preaching Buddha.

3.2.2 Kizil 38, Byi1ingirali Jataka. A. D. 310 - 80 (C14 date of the Buddha on the

Dragon Boot from this cave: A. D. 419-535). From: Chugoku sekkutsu, Kizil, vol. I, PI.

131.

3.2.3 Kizil 8, Candraprabha Jataka. A. D. 465 - 65 . From: Tan , Shutong a nd An ,

Chunyang 1981, Shinkyo no hekiga Murals ofXinjiang), vol. I, PI. 39.

3.2.12 Kizil 47, Mahasattva Jataka. A. D. 350 - 60. From: Tan , Shutong and An ,


3.2.17 Kizil 17, Ruru Jataka. A. D. 465 - 65. From : Tan , Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981, Shinkyo no hekiga (Murals ofXinjiang , vol. I, PI. 68.

3.2.18 Kizil 8, Sama Jataka. A. D. 685 - 65. From: Tan , Shutong and An,

Chunyang 1981, Shinkyo no hekiga Murals ofXinjiang), vol. I, PI. 30 .

3.2.24 Kizil 17, Sivi Jataka. A. D. 465 - 65. From: Chugoku sekkutsu: Kizil, vol. I,

PI. 67.

3.2.25 Kizil 8, Sujata Jataka. A. D. 685 65. From : Tan, Shutong and An,


3.2.28 Kizil 8, Vessantara Jataka. A. D. 685 - 65. From: Tan , Shutong and An ,

Chunyang 1981, Shinkyo no hekiga Murals of Xinjiang), vol. I, PI. 37.

3.4.1 Kizil17, Maitreya. A. D. 465 - 65. From: Chugoku se kkuts u , Kizil, vol. I, Pl.

56.

3.5 Kizil 171, Rhombic mountain landscape. A. D. 395 65. From: Chugoku

sekkutsu: Kizil , vol. Ill , PI. 2.

3.5.1 Tumshuk, Vessantara Jataka. A. D. the sixth or ear ly seventh century. From:

180



INDEX

abstraction•••• •••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2

accessibility

Achaemenid

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architecture •••••••••••••••••••••• 20, 43 55 , 65f, 67f, 76f, 78 81 84, 88, 90, 96f, 100, 105, 108

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Baodingshan

barrel vault

...........................QQ 43ff, 47, 59, 75

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Begram

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lL 17ff.

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blood-thirsty

Bodh-Gaya

114f

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bodhi •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••• •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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Borobudor ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• ••••• •••• •••• ................................................5',2,, _8. '2'

Canon ·········································································· ........................................ 13 29cartouches ..........................................................................................................82, 86, ill5

Confucianism ...........................................................................................................61 112

converting ••••••••••••••••••••••••••......... ................................................................................108•copmg ••••••••••••••••• • ••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••.

•••• • •••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ......................38orinthian capitals

cosmological

creux-relief'

.........................................................................................................63, 65, 67

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Damamuka Sutra ••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 53

Daoism •••••••• • •• • • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • ••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • 74

Daoist elements . . . . . .. Dasabodhisattuppattikatha ............................................................................................

185



I NDEX

Der Weise und der Tor • 53f, QQ 70f, 71

····•··•··•··•· · ··············•····•··•·••··•··················•·•·•••·• ·•·••·· ··••·•·•·········evendra

Dharmaraksa

.........................4 0

•••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ..............57 109

Dharmas .•.••.•••••.•.•.•.••.•••.•..••••..••..••..•..•••.••.•.•..•....•..•.•••••••••.• .••.•..•••..•..•..•.•••••••.•.... .......•... l{}

didactic •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••• • •••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

l l 20, 23, 26, 28, 31f, iQ.. 1 2 1.6. 56f, 58ff, 63f, 67, 75, 77f, 102, 108, 112f, 116ff

Dipankara

dogmatism

donor

·····••···•··••·•····•·••············•··••·•·••··················································..........................37f

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••• ••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••57

...........•.•.....•................ .•..........•... . ......... ............................................. .....................21

Dragon Pipal Tree

Duldur aqur

......... .............. ........................................................ .... ......................66f

.....................................................................................................................

Epthalites ...................... ............ ........................................ ............. ................................... 3_3

Faxian ••••••••••••• •••••••• •••• ••••••• • •• •••••••••••• •••••••• •• ••••••••••••••• •••• ••••• .......................... ..... ......... ........33

first council ··················•···················· ··············· ·· ·· ············•···· ········· ············· ·········••••• 1.4fourth council ·•••••••··•··•·····•·•·····•·•··•·•·····················•······•·······•······•·········•··•••··••·••••·••••••••••·

•

genesis ............ .................................................................... .............. .... ......... .. ...13, 62, 115

guanfo visualization of the Buddha)

guanjing visualization of a sutra)

guanxiang sutra paintings)

7

• 117

• • 115

Hadda • •• • • • ..... ...................................................................... .34 6

hapatic tactile)

Hinayana

Hindu Kush

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• .........................48

............................................................... ............. ........................................15 28

... .................................. .... ....................... .................. ...............................43

••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••• ••••••••••••ndogermanic

Indo Iranian style •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••• ••••••••••••• •• • •••••••••••••••••••••

59

49

48

influences........... ....................... ....................... ........ .... ...................

27, 43f, 46f, 60f, 87, 88•• • • ••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• . .. .....................21nsc riptions

Iranian ........................................................................................ ......................................48

1vory ... . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. 17, 26

••••••••••••••••••• •••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• ••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••• •• ...................11, 12ataka

Jatakamala • •• • •• • • • • • • •• • • •• • • • • • • • 52

Jingbian sutra illustrations)

Jiangjing sutra lectures)

Juqu Mahayana library

•••• •• • •• • •• • • • •• •••• 115f

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••• •••• 5

•.....•.........•........... .... ... . .. .•....••.... .. .•. .. .. .....• ..... ... . .•.•........ .. .. .. . ... . .

186



Kakrak

Kaniska

INDEX

. 0 ••• ••• ••••• ••• ••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••• ••• 0 . . . 0 . 0 0 0 • ••••• • • 0 ••••••• ••• .86

• ••••••••• ••••••••••••• ••••• 0 0 0 ••••••••••••• •••••• • 0 •••••• ••• •••••11. 3.3

. . .. . ... .. . ..... . ..... ...•...•.•..•.....•........ . ... . .. . . ....................•.••.••.••••apisi

Kashgar

32

• • 0 ••••• ••••• 0 ••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• • • •• 49

Khora Bhor t Pass •••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Khuddakanikaya • • • •• • • 12

Kothan ••••••••• ••• • ••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••• • •••••••• •• •••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••

• •• • • 57, 108ffumarajiva

Kumtura • • • • • •• • • 47

Kushan s ... a2

Leitfaden • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••• •••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ........... 1 3

• •• • • •• • • • • • • • • .............. 7.6omasa Rishi

Lotus Sutra . . . .....................•••••...•.•.••••.•••................. .. . .....•.. ru 109f

. . ozenge

Lu tou • • • • • • • • • • T

Mahayana • • •• •• •• • • • • • • • •

••••••••••••••••••••••••••..... 13 l Q 28f, 30 32, 44f, 51, 57, §Q. 62ff, 6 9 IQ 7ft. 84, 108f, 113 115

Maitr eya ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

.. ........... ...... . 29f, ;H. 44f, 48, 50, 58ff, 63ff, 66ff, 6 9 IQ 77f, b 98f, 107ff, 110f, 113

Manusi .............................................................................................................................29

Mathura ... ... ..... ... ... ....... ..... ..... .................... ................ ....... ............... 21

Maurya ..................................................................................................................... . 14f, 21merit ....... ............. .......... .... ........... ... ..... ...... ............ ................. ......... . ...........................112Muzart 44

nar ra tive •• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 16, 57, 6.4 84, 90, 100, 107f, 112, 113f, 115, 11 7

Nirvana .. .il )

Oxus ....... .................................................... ......................................................................35

Padakusalamanava •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

pagoda

Paitava

• • • ........................................8.0

••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• .....................3.8

• • •• • • • •• • • •• • • • • ••aramitas

patronage

Pauca tan tra

.57' 113, 1l5

• • • ..32

•••••••••••••••••••••• . . .

pilgrims

Pinyin

Pisaci

•• ••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.••••.•.••••••..........•...............•.... . . .....................•••.•••••

• • • • • • 13

• • • • • • • • • • 12

prac tical suggestions

previous lives••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••1l2

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187



I NDEX

Pseudo-Tocharer ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• 0 ••••• •• 49

Pure Land ·······························•·•·····•········· ····································································· 1 lj

rhomboid ........................................................................................................... ...............

Sakra Devendra the god Indra) . . ••••••••• 0 •••••••4·0 71. 73, 96, L06

Sarnat •••••••••••••••••••••••• •• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 16

san zang

Sanchi 11

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• •••••••••• •••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••12

•• • • • • • •• ... .. ll., M 15

see Sravasti•••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••arvas ivadas

Sassanian civilization •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••........... .......56

Sassonien kings •• • • ••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••• • •••••••• ........ ........29

shaman •••••••• • •• ••••••• • •• •••• • •• • • •• • • ••••• • •••••••••••• •••••••••• • •• • •• ...... ............................................... 111

Shotarak ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••.............................................. 3_8:: tc _;

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sutras

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... .. .. ....... ........................... ............. 51 , 58, 63 75, 99ff, 101ff, 104, 108f, 113f, 116f

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Tushita heaven ............................................... aQ, 1.4 57ff, 60 , Qa. 67 ru . 7 8 M 110

utility ........................................................ ...... .................... .. .. ....... . ........... .. .. ............. . ....

Vairocana • • • • 86f,

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Viryaparamita (virtues of energy) .. 70, 75, 83

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void or vacuum

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Xuanzang

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bell didactic_narration jataka iconography in dunhuang

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