This
mural fragment from the left, jam of the entrance to the cella of the
buddhist Shrine V of Bezeklik in the Turfan district (in the
Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region of China) was gathered along with other
piece by Sir Aurel Stein during his third expedition to Central Asia in
1913-1916 and is now houssed in national Museum, New Delhi. F.M. Andrews
has described the fragment in his Catalogue of Wall-paintings from Central Asia and Sistan,
New Delhi, 1933, p. 44 and also in his Album called 'Wall-painting from
Ancient Shrine in Central Asia, recovered by Sir Aurel Stein, London,
1948, p. 79. Thought the treatment of Andrews is quite a detailed one, he
was not able to correctly indentify it.
Therefore, it was thought necessary to restudy the subject for its
indentification. And it may
be interesting to note that Mah¡vastu
Avad¡na helps us a lot in this respect.
As Andrews has described, the fragment in question is the lower part of an ornate buddha jor bodhisattva figure, standing on a lotus and like the other Buddha or Bodhisattva figure, standing on a lotus and like theother Buddha figures from bezeklik, it is clothed in there robes. Two of the robes are trimmed with borders of contrasting colour. An unusual feature is the "the staff, white pleats of the waist girdle... hanging from the edge of the upper robes."
The
figure wears garlands of elabrate design and according Lo Andrews, it
carries a rosary in its right hand. To
its left side is shown a youthful kneeling figure with his hands in
supplicating pose.
The
main figure wears sandals with red-brown soles and green straps. The feet of the subsidiary figure are provided with boot and
it is dressed in a sort of Janghiya and
has a kamarband or girdle 'tied' in bow in front'.
Andrews
feels inclined to indentify the main figure as Bodhisattva Avalokite¿vara-the
compassionate Boddhisattva who is ever ready to listen to the prayers of
his devotees and remove their afflications.
The
suggestions of Andrews are good so far as they go but on a closer
scrutinty they do not seem to he entirely convincing. From
my study of Dipankare story in the Mah¡vastu
Avad¡na, it appears that the main figure is one of the Dipankara
Buddha, the first of the twenty-four Buddhas and the subsidiary figure is
that of Megha (called Sumedha in p¡li version) who met the buddha on his
way to Dip¡vat¢.
The
Mah¡vastu states that Dipankara after gaining enlightenment set
forth to visit Dip¡vat¢, the royal city of his father, King Archimat.
Knowing this, the king and his people made elaborate arrangements
for the reception of the Exalted One.
King also decided to meet Dipafikara and to do him honour.
He met on the way a Brahmin girl called Prakrti who had seven lotus
in her hand. He purchased five lotuses from her and then both proceeded to
worship Dipankara. When they
threw their lotuses on Dipafikara, they remained suspended over his halo. Further, Megha knelt down and spread his rocks of hair as a
carpet so that the Buddha can walk over it. Without soiling his feet.
At that moment there arose in the mind of Megha the idea that he
too would become a Buddha in some future time. Finding
Megha's devotion and knowing his resolve, Dipafikare prophesied that Megha
after innumerable Kalpas woould be horn in Kapilvastu and become a Buddha
andhe would he known as á¡kyamuni Ruddha, the last of the 24 Ruddhas to
alleviate the suffering of humanity.
The
above account throws a considerable light on the subject the mural
fragment, intends to convey. We
have seen that the Buddha in question is profusely garlanded which can be
satisfacotirly explained by fact that, the people of Dip¡vat¢ offered
him heaps of flowers and garlands to honour him Again, the Dipankara
represented in our gragment has sandalled feet.
There is a verse in the Mah¡vastu which as translated by Jones reads as follows.
Dipankara Buddha, Bezekik, Eastern Turkestan, 9th Century A.D. National Museum, New Delhi
"As
soon as the Exalted One puts his golden sandalled right, root, down by
Indra's columa (dhvaja), there
arises, a marvellous noise." Thus the Mah¡vastu
asociates sandals as the footwear of D¢paµkara.
Now
regarding the supplicating figure, it will be appropriate in the light of
the present context, (see the Mah¡vastu translated into English into English by Jones, Vol, p. 19
I) to describe him as Megha. In
Bereklik, Sumedha or Megha is often shown as kneeling and not spreading
his locks of hair before Dipankara. This
is the case with our present kneeling figure by the side of Dipankara.
Thus
form these points of view, the present fragment portrays Dipankara and
Megha, or in other words the Dipankara J¡taka, and not Avalokite¿vara as
presumed by Andews.
Before
we conclude, the only point we have to explain is the presence of a rosary
in the right hand of the main figure of our mural fragment.
We
have seen that it is the presence of rosary on the person of the main
figure that has led Ansrews to identify it as Avalokate¿vara, but we may
mention here that there cannot be any objection for a Buddha figure to
having a rosary, even though it is normally an attribute of a Bodhisattiva,
like Simhan¡da Loke¿vara, Shadakshar¢ Loke¿vara or Sugatisandarsana
Loke¿vara. We know that the
Lamas, the sages and saint use rosay for their prayer.
But there will lbe no anomaly even if it is held also Buddha sho is
considered as a saint.
The
origin of a rosary can be traced to the story of Akshyamati offering a
panel neckless to Avalokitesvara. The
latter after initial objection accepted the gift for the good of
Akshayamati, and other beings, including Devas and N¡gas, etc.
But Avalokite¿vara divided the necklace into two parts; one part
he gave to á¡kyamuni Buddha (this is very singnificant) and the other to
the jewelled st£pa of Prabh£taratna Buddha who became completely extinct
(see the 24th chapter of the Saddharma-pundar¢ka
where the exploits of Avalokite¿vara are described). Thus we see that the rosary can be associated also with a
Buddha.
Regarding
the use of rosary E.D. Saumders observes: "since Kwanon is the
Bodhisattva emanating from the Dyy¡n¢ Buddha Amit¡bha it is natural
that the rosary should constitute also a distinguishing symbol for this
Buddha. Gonda Rainful
establishes an indentification between the Buddha and the Oyadama
(mother bead) because Smida, by a sort of play on words in the reading of
the ideographs, is the mother Kwanon.
Thus the Oyadama is Amida and the power of the State of Compassion (taihi
sammai) characteristic of Kwanon is precisely that virtue which
permits incorporation Nagarahara (i.e. the neighbourhood of Hadda in
Afganistan). The provincial
Gandharan manner found at Shotorak in Afganistan includes stelae which
refelect the colossal scale the other figures, even future á¡kyamuni,
are dwarfed. The connection
with light and fire made explicit by the meaning of his name is underlined
in these Shotorak Buddhas by flames bursting from the shoulders."
And it is from Afganistan that the story of Dipankara Buddha has
travelled to Chinese Turkestan (Alexander sopez, Literary Evidence for
Early Buddhist Art in China pp. 178 and 179) and future east.
