65. The Great Departure
And the four Great Kings, after entering the royal palace Ad.akavat~, spoke to the great assemblage of yaksa's: "To-day, o worthy ones, shall the Bodhisattva make his departure, this he must do while the feet of his excellent horse are held fast by you".
All the earth trembled in six kinds of ways, when risen from his couch, he mounted that excellent king of horses, resembling the circle of the full moon. The Guardians of the world placed their hands, stainless as the pure lily, beneath the excellent horse. Cakra and Brahma went before, both strewing the way. A pure immaculate radiance shone out from him and the earth was illuminated; all those beings doomed to destruction, gained rest and happiness and were no longer subject to the torments of the klec,a's. Flowers were strewn and thousands of musical instruments sounded, gods and asura's praised him. After making the circuit of the excellent city, keeping their right side towards it, they proceeded, all filled with joy.
When this Bodhisattva, lord of the world, departed, the apsarasglorified him as he passed through the air: "Behold he must be highly honored, he who is the great field of virtue, the field of those who strive after virtue, the giver of the fruit of immortality". (202: 13;222: 1 ;223:7).
In the procession of the Bodhisattva's Mahabhiniskramana through the air, two figures of gods are in front, one carrying an umbrella, while flowers fall upon him from above. These are most likely Qakra and Brahma showing the way. Then comes the Bodhisattva himself squatting on his horse whose hoofs are put two and two on lotus-cushions supported by three floating figures, the first one in any case a yaksa to judge by his hairdressing. It is yaksa's who, according to the first passage of the text quoted above—a passage that appears a good bit earlier in the text than the description of the journey—support the hoofs of Kanthaka. It appears that the Lalitavistara~ here contradicts itself; not only in the two passages quoted, but also later on when Chandaka tells the tale of the journey, he mentions twice that it was the four Guardians of the world who did this service (233: 14 and 236: 14). Chandaka follows his master with the sword under his arm as on the preceding relief, he has hold of the horse's tail. Then comes the company of gods.
in two rows one above the other, some with fly-whisks and flowers in their hand. Though not very easily distinguished, several persons below on the right, seem to be women, therefore apsaras; the clouds sketched under this last group and quite to the left, indicate that the procession is moving through the air. Take notice of the tree on the right growing on a rise with the rays of light coming from its side towards the Bodhisattva; a means of strewing the radiance, the text speaks of, which he spreads over the earth.
Comparison with other representations of the Great Departure is specially noticeable for what Barabudur does not depict of details to be found elsewhere. The figure armed with a bow, to be seen on the Gandhara-reliefs, who is most probably Mara, is not here, but then at this moment he is not playing any part in the Lalitavistara. And we can look in vain for the godess of the city of Kapilavastu who appears elsewhere and who, the text says, brought a farewell greeting to the Bodhisattva (222: 9 etc.). I will here mention also that his companion Vairapan. i who is of such importance on the Gandhara-reliefs and makes his first appearance at the departure without leaving the Bodhisattva after that, is quite unknown on the Barabudur.
The representation at Sanchi 1) which of course may not depict the Bodhisattva himself, shews a riderless horse coming out of a town, that in spite of it being night and the inhabitants asleep, seems to be crowded with interested spectators. Chandaka holds an umbrella over his invisible master; four gods hold the hoofs of the horse and others accompany the procession. On another relief at Amaravatl
2) we see the horse alone with the umbrella coming out of the gate, with two gods in front and two in the air. The umbrella in this kind of scene has more significance than elsewhere as indicating the presence of a person worthy to be honored, but it also asserts itself on the scenes where the Bodhisattva himself is depicted, in spite of there being no practical use for it at that time of night. It is usually yaksa's, not gods, who support the horse in Gandhara 3),—we need not notice the instances where they are replaced by one or two women 4)—also at Amaravat~ 5) and Tun-Huang 6); the escort of gods is always present, but there are nowhere two flying in front that should be Qakra and Brahma. Chinese art at Yun-Kang~) gives Okra holding the umbrella; and the Bodhisattva is alone except for the horse-supporters. At Pagan there are two figures with torches flying in front, as well as the gods in the air and at the feet of the horse, Chandaka too holding on by the tail 2).