62. The stay in the wilderness, the rescue by Cakra

Most of the relief on the right is taken up by the wilderness. The royal pair are sitting next to each other on the bank of a river flowing through the foreground, there are plenty of fish and a decoration of trees with conventional rocks. A couple of deer on the left, a pair of tigers in a den on the right, indicate the forest scenery. The royal persons still wear royal robes, not very suitable for camping in the forest, but easy for the spectator to see that the chief actors are a prince and princess.

The scene on the left is not as easily identified. The rock and forest decoration is here too, with deer and other creatures in the trees. Cakra stands in the middle with a halo and holding up in the right hand his emblem, the double vajra. In addition, there is his faithful companion Airavata in the left corner with elephant ears and headdress adorned with elephant trunk. On the right is a well-dressed man making a respectful sembah to the king of the gods; we had better look upon this figure as the prince. The episode of the yaksa does not appear at all; if this representation is really principally the same as the story in the Sambula-jataka, then the version followed by the sculptor has ascribed the curing of the leprosy to Okra himself instead of to Sambula's declaration of truth. This is of course not impossible but all evidence is wanting. When we notice the very important differences between text and reliefs even in a tale like the Mandhatravadana, discussed above, in which the chief points have been established with absolute certainty and where a version of the story was available according to the Northern Church, then a difference like the case in question where we have only a Palijataka, need not discourage us very much. I do not mean to say that the deviation is unimportant and the identification is clear; but until the contrary is proved from some new text, I think we may accept the partial recognition here offered.