a holy Bo-tree enclosed in a square Buddhist railing.

This second compartment is one of the most interesting bas-reliefs at Sánchi. The upper portion represents the dream of Maya the Queen of Suddhodana, Raja of Kapila. She dreamed that she was touched by a Chádanta elephant, which the wise men interpreted as a divine conception. It thus represents the incarnation of the last mortal Buddha, Sákya Sinha.

The lower portion represents the last act in the life of the Prince Siddhartha, before he took the vows of asceticism. It is in fact the last of the "four predictive signs."* On emerging from the city in his chariot, Sákya saw some healthy, wellclad persons wearing the peculiar robe of those dedicated to religion. These are the three ascetics paying their adoration to the Bo-tree.

EASTERN GATE.

LEFT PILLAR-FRONT FACE.

I. Adoration of Symbol of Dharma.-Temple containing the symbol or monogram of Dharma on an altar; over which some fabulous Kinnaras are waving garlands and making offerings. On each side of the temple are two royal or lay

* See the account of the four predictive signs in the second chapter of this work.

personages with hands joined in adoration (see Plate XXXII. for symbols of Dharma).

II. Boat Scene.-Sákya's Nirvána.-A boat is represented on the ocean; containing three persons; one rower, one steersman, and one passenger, all of whom are clad in the costume of the higher ranks of Buddhist ascetics. In the right and left upper corners there are trees; and scattered about in the waters there are lotus flowers, alligators, ducks, and shells. On the shore below are represented four figures also in a religious garb; one with dishevelled hair and uplifted arms; and the others, who wear caps, with hands clasped together in attitudes of devotion. In the right hand corner below is a tree with an altar.*

This scene I have already described in my account of Sákya's death. The passenger is, I think, Sákya Muni, who is represented, after the attainment of Nirvana, or freedom from transmigration, as being wafted over the waters which are said to surround this transitory world. The figures on the shore are a Bhikshu of the lower grade, bewailing the departure of Sákya with dishevelled hair and uplifted arms, which, from the accounts given in the Páli

See Plate XI. of this volume. The manner in which the planks of the boat are secured together is the same as that which is now practised. I have reduced Major Durand's sketch to onehalf size. Numerous shells, ducks, and lotus-flowers have been omitted.

annals, would seem to have been the customary manner of expressing grief at that period. The other figures are Bhikshus who had attained the higher grade of Arahat, and who comforted themselves with the reflection that "all transitory things are perishable." The difference of rank is known by the bare head of the mourner, and the capped heads of the others; a distinction which still prevails in Tibet, where the lower grades Ge-thsul and Chhos-pa invariably go bare-headed, whilst all the Lámas (or higher grades), including the Grand Láma himself, have their heads covered.

III. Prince in chariot leaving Kapila.-Gate and walls of city. Chariot with three persons leaving the city, followed by elephant riders and horsemen, who are represented inside the city. Beyond the walls there are an altar and two royal or lay personages standing before it with hands. joined in adoration. The three figures in the chariot are the king, the driver, and the chaori holder.

This scene probably represents another of the "four predictive signs;" and the figures at the altar may be intended either for the sick or aged persons, whom Sákya met before he became an ascetic.

EASTERN GATE.

LEFT PILLAR-INNER FACE.

I. Kitchen Scene.-To the right is the city gate, and a man carrying a banghy, or small load, sus

pended by ropes from both ends of a pole. Beyond him are two women, naked to the waist; one stooping to fill her water jar from a tank or stream, and the other with a water jar under her left arm. On their right is a male personage, also naked to the waist, his loins and thighs covered in the folds of a dhoti, standing with hands joined in adoration before an altar. On the left of the compartment there is a very lively kitchen scene. A woman, naked to the waist, is husking corn in a large wooden mortar, with a two-handed pestle. A second woman is seated winnowing the corn from the chaff in a flat shovel-shaped basket. A third woman is standing at a four-legged table rolling out chapattis, or unleavened cakes; and a fourth woman is seated grinding spices or condiments on the sil, or "flat stone," with a bánt or round muller. Behind her, seated on the ground, is the Raja, or master of the household; and in the background are two houses with dome-shaped roofs. The lower portion of the compartment is filled with goats, sheep, and oxen.*

This scene is one of the most curious and interesting of all the Sánchi bas-reliefs. Women only are employed in all the domestic occupations: in drawing water, in husking and winnowing the corn, and in

See Plate XV., fig. 2, of this volume, for the kitchen scene, which is copied from one of Lieutenant Maisey's beautiful sketches.

the cooking of food. The last fact is noticed by Quintus Curtius, who, speaking of the Indian king, says: "Women prepare his food." The mortar and two-handed pestle are the same as those in use at the present day in India. The mortar (okhli) is exactly the same as the Greek iyon, and the Roman pila; and the pestle (musar) is the same as the Greek Kóπavov, and the Roman pilum. The primitive method of winnowing represented in the above scene is still used in India; and it recalls one of the blessings of the prophet promised to the children of Israel: "The oxen likewise, and the young asses that ear the ground, shall eat clean provender which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan." Bishop Lowth reads, "winnowed with the van and the sieve." But shovel is the nearest descriptive word in English for the present winnowing-basket, which does not seem to differ, even in the slightest, from the ancient one represented in the bas-relief. II. Worship of the Supreme Buddha as Flame.

Temple with altar inside, and a small vessel filled with fire, behind which a five-headed nága, or snake, forms a canopy. Flames issue from two windows in the roof of the temple. To the left,

viii. 9.-Feminæ epulas parant.

+ Isaiah xxx. 24.

↑ See Plate XXVIII., vol. xvi., Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for a sketch of the roof of this temple. The worship of fire was repudiated by the Buddhists; and one of the principal objects of the assembly of the Third Synod was the expulsion of worshippers of fire from the Vihárs.