28. The birth of the Bodhisattva

 

Now when queen Maya had entered the Lumbini.-park, and had descended from that splendid carriage, surrounded by human and divine women, she moved from one tree to the other, from one thicket into another, looking at one tree after the other, and came gradually to the place where that great plaksa, jewel of all great trees, grew. Thereupon the plaksa-tree, moved by the power of the Bodhisattva's glory, bowed down and saluted her. Queen Maya stretched out her right arm like a flash of lightning in the air, laid hold of a branch of the plaksa and stood there without any effort gazing up to heaven with her mouth slightly open. At that moment appeared 60.000.000 apsaras of the Kamavacara gods and formed a train to serve queen Maya. Attended by such miracles the Bodhisattva formerly had entered the mother's womb; now he appeared, at the end of ten full months, out of his mother's right side, in possession of memory and knowledge, unsullied by the impurity of the mother's womb. At the same moment came Cakra, the king of the gods, and Brahma Sahapati and stood before him. With the greatest respect they received the Bodhisattva in a divine ka,cika-garment, recognising him in all his limbs and parts of his body, and knowing him. Immediately at his birth the Bodhisattva descended to the ground. As soon as the Bodhisattva, the Great Being, touched it a great lotus appeared splittingopen the great earth. Nanda and Upananda, the naga-kings, showing the upper part of themselves in the air, caused two streams of water to appear both hot and cold and bathed the Bodhisattva. It was Cakra, Brahma and the Guardians of the world, 1 with many more hundred thousands of the gods sons, who bathed the Bodhisattva directly after birth, sprinkled him with all sorts of perfumed water and strewed him with blossoms; fly-whisks appeared in the air and an umbrella adorned with jewels. He placed himself on the lotus and looked towards the four winds.

 

Without any man's help the Bodhisattva took seven steps to the East (and said): "Behold I shall be the first of all dharma's who are the roots of Salvation". And as he walked the divine white large umbrella and the two magnificent fans moved above him in the air unsupported. At every spot where the Bodhisattva set his foot sprung up lotuses. And he took seven steps to the South etc. (82: 14; 83: 3, 12, 19; 84: 15).

 

It is certainly remarkable that while everywhere else the sculptors of the Barabudur do not hesitate when the text allows, to spend a new relief on scenes that are very similar, they have here chosen to combine the three important events, the birth, the bathing and the seven steps, into one panel. In the middle of the relief the plaksa-tree is designed, shaded by an umbrella and decorated with hanging strings of jewels. On the right is the queen with attendants; the birth was just taken place as is shown by her standing in the prescribed attitude; the right arm raised and holding a branch of the tree. One attendant supports her left arm, a second kneels before her with a water-jug, a third is behind her with some four other of her women. To the left of the plaksatree, the bathing is ingeniously combined with the seven steps. Here seven lotuses have sprouted up, strangely enough out of the familiar, but here quite misplaced, jewel pots. On two of these flowers the Bodhisattva sets his foot; thus the seven lotuses that sprout up under his seven footsteps are clearly indicated. At the same time, above his head floats a cloud from which streams of water and flowers pour down on to him.

 

Here the Bodhisattva has already reached the stature of a growing youth, and wears besides the usual dress of high-born boys the crescent ornament behind his head. On the left of the scene is a row of gods, standing, among whom is no figure that can be distinguished as Cakra or Brahma, and a row of kneeling women, with high headdress, thus no servants but probably the apsaras mentioned at the birth. They have some objects in their hands, but this part of the relief istoo damaged for us to see what they are.

 

We can see plainly that to make a whole of all this, the sculptor has had to sacrifice a good deal. At the birth-scene, the new-born infant himself, and the two gods who fold him in the cloth are missing; the two naga-kings are not present at the bath, though they are responsible for the water. There was no room either for the large lotus on which the Bodhisattva rested before the seven steps were taken and the umbrella and the two fly-whisks are not given at all.

 

Deviations of this sort are very extraordinary when it concerns such an important incident as the birth of the Bodhisattva, for we should imagine both the Bodhisattva and the two gods who receive him, to be so deeply-rooted in the tradition that it was impossible to leave them out of the picture. This is the more striking because in other Indian art, all three, or at least the new-born infant and one of the gods, appear, and while, in other respects, the Barabudur sculptor so evidently adheres to the existing tradition, even where the text omitted the particular in question: for example, the presence, known also in Gandhara art I), of the standing woman who supports the young mother, and that of the attendant holding a water jug. In connection with my remarks on No 13 it is noticeable that at Amaravati too the child is sometimes left out and the two gods Cakra and Brahma are replaced by four gods all alike, who nevertheless hold a cloth and are therefore not reduced to the role of spectator, like the five divine persons on the Barabudur scenes). Also as regards the placing of these three incidents on one relief, theJavan artist is not as original as might be thought, examples of two, the birth and seven steps, are known in Gandhara; and when we see there j ust below the Bodhisattva coming out of Maya's side, another image of him making the seven steps, the Barabudur scene is surely to be preferred, that represents the child only once. Even with the lotuses the Javan sculptor has not been original for this is to be found in Magadha, but the way in which they are shown is a vast improvement on that of his colleague in Hindustan who piles the lotuses stupidly on top of one another; the most sensible way is the later Tibetan manner of placing the lotuses in a cross towards the points of the compass. Finally it is curious that neither does the bath incident exactly imitate the Indian examples. As above quoted, the text describes first that the naga's let the streams of water fall and afterwards Cakra,Brahmaand other gods pour out theirwaterand flowers. It is known that the Gandhara art adheres to thelatter and shews the bath being performed by the gods, while the later Indian art prefers to give it to the naga's. On Barabudur there are no naga's, nor either any signs of the two gods who pour water over the Bodhisattva in Gandhara. There is nothing to be seen but the gods as spectators who have no hand in the bathing, though perhaps the shower of blossoms may be an indication that the sculptor intended the bath by the gods, not the naga's, the flowers being mentioned in the text only for the gods. The impression of the whole is, that in spite of being bound by text and tradition, the artist of the Barabudur exhibits a surprising amount of originality.

 

In other Buddhist art as well, the birth of Cakyamuni remains a favorite subject, in that of Sanchi, Sarnath, Ajanta, Cambodia, Pagan, the Indian miniatures, the Serindian, the elder Chinese, the later Tibetan art. As Barabudur by the singular combination of three incidents is so exceptional, there is no reason for comparing with the other examples. With all the variations, one chief thing has remained the same: the tree and the queen holding it with one hand (later always the right, in the older art sometimes the left hand) in the middle, with her attendants on her left side and the gods on her right; if necessary the two groups are reduced to one representative for each. As for the rest, this scheme could be combined in various ways with whatever text was followed by the sculptor.