17. The queen relates her dream and asks for its
interpretation
With hands clasped in a sembah and bent head, the king entered and looking at Maya who showed no sign of pride or presumption (said unto her): "Say, what am I so do for thee, what matter is this ? Speak! " And the queen answered him: "Like unto snow and silver, exceeding the glory of sun and moon, with stately pace and well-built, with six tusks and noble, his limbs as firm as diamonds and full of beauty, a splendid elephant has entered my womb. Discover the meaning thereof.... It will be well, o prince, to send swiftly for the brahmans who can expound the veda's and interpret dreams and who know the rules of astronomy; let them come and reveal the truth of my dream, if it may bring me happiness or if it might foretell evil to our race." (56 : 9; 57: 1).
In the middle of the relief sit the king and queen (the latter kneeling) in a pendapa, each on a throne and turning towards one another; the queen makes a sembah and is certainly asking that the interpreters of dreams may be sent for. On both sides of the pendapa are the attendants in a sitting and a standing row; on the right, among others, the queen's women with garlands, left, the men attendants of the king, bearing garments and jewels. In the last group notice those in the foreground who wear no headdress; the seated one has his hair done up brahman-fashion in a twist, of the standing one facing us no hair is to be seen; also the figure next to him wears an unusual headdress in the shape of a diadem at the back of his head. All three have a moustache and do not look like ordinary attendants; probably they are brahmans. For the rest, the attendants on both sides carry the usual objects.
Perhaps this scene is also depicted at Amaravah i); but it is possible that there a later conversation is intended, one that takes place before the journey to Lumbini and is not represented at Barabudur. It is a court scene; the king sitting in the centre on a large throne, the queen adorned by a nimbus on a separate seat at his right hand. Courtiers are sitting on seats, male and female attendants stand round them. The fact that at Barabudur the story of the dream is given but not the conversation before the journey to Lumbim, proves that the first conversation was considered the most important, and makes it probable, that at Amaravati the same conversation may be intended as on relief no. 17 at Barabudur. At Ajanta this scene is given twice
and at Pagan it is also found.