55. The Bodhisattva is guarded in his palace

 

On the steps of each palace five hundred men paced continually up and down. And as they stepped up and down, the sound thereof could be heard half a yojana away. Impossible it was for the prince to leave the palace unnoticed. Soothsayers and diviners had declared: "The prince will depart by the Gate of Salvation". Then the king caused great double-doors to be made at the Gate of Salvation; each door opened and closed by five hundred men, the sound of which was carried half a yojana away. There the prince enjoyed the five incomparable kinds of love and the young women were always near him with music, song and dance. (186: 12).

 

The same as on No. 53, the palace of the Bodhisattva, on the right, is enclosed within a palissade that runs first along the bottom edge of the relief and then bends upwards, where a gateway is inserted. In a hall of the palace, the upper edge of which is indicated, the Bodhisattva is sitting with a woman also wearing a halo, of course Gopa. Behind them, right, sit three women and left, stand three more, the front onewith a fly-whisk. Exactly in front of the gateway, outside the palissade, is a porter armed with a sword, showing a beard and hair-*essing like a yaksa (see No. 53). Opposite to him a curious group of sitting and kneeling men; in front, some with rather high headdress, behind, three in very plain clothes; these three and one other wear swords. We might think they are guards, but they look like people who come from outside and ask for admittance. In the background on the left, is an elephant, its mahout with his angku,ca on its back, while nearer the centre three men in fine clothes are standing, one with a large red lotus in his hand; possibly they are gods. It seems to me, something not given in the text is here represented.