19. The reward of the brahmans

 

When king Cuddhodana heard this from the brahmans, soothsayers, interpreters of tokens, skilled in the explanation of dreams, he rejoiced and was satisfied, glad, gay, cheerful, happy and joyful and refreshedthosebrahmans witha banquet of deliciously-prepared viands, presented them with garments in which he made them attire themselves and dismissed them. (58: 3).

 

The design of this relief is very similar to the last one; the palace on the right, the pendapa of the king in the middle, the brahmans on the left. Here too the king sits with his throne on a dais and below that are two more servants, one of them now armed; behind these a little dog appears. Rather lower than the king sit two other persons also inside the pendapa; a bearded man, his hair done up in a loop, looking like a brahman but holding the folded tray generally carried byservants in attendance, and a very much damaged person in fug dress, according to Pleyte (1.1. p. 33) on the authority of van Kinsbergen's photograph, a woman, of course the queen, though it is difficult to explain why she, now the future mother of the Bodhisattva, is placed lower than her spouse. In the right of the pendapa two more servants and two guards. On the left of the relief in front sits a brahman under a palmtree on a high seat; he holds out his hands to receive a packet, a kind of purse, which also might contain food, that is being handed to him by a standing servant. A second and third brahman are quite on the left, one standing with an umbrella and one sitting who has already received his bag and a folded garment. The rest of the space between those already described and the pendapa is occupied by a fourth brahman standing, and by servants, one carrying a bowl with gifts towards the three brahmans, two others turning towards the king for orders.