The Great Miracle at Cravasti
PLATE XXI
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I. Simple sketch made from plate 38 of Mr. J. Griffith's great publication, The Paintings in the Buddhist Cave-temples of Ajanta (London, 1891, in folio), I (cf. pl. 39 and p. 31, or Burgess, Notes R. T. Aj. p. 49, § 4). The original is a very much damaged fresco, decorating the bottom part of the archway of the principal nave of Cave IX, towards the back and to the right, at the spot marked F on the plan published by Mr. Griffiths, ibid., pl. 36.
In the middle Buddha is seated in the European fashion, leaning against a cushion, on the traditional throne, the back of which is formed of superposed animals, and the front legs carved in the shape of lions (simhasana). His hands are joined in the altitude of teaching, while at the same time he holds with the left the hem of his monastic cloak. His feet rest on a lotus. On his right and left, in the first row, two other Buddhas, likewise sheltered under parasols and with their feet resting on lotuses, stand with one hip projecting and turn towards the central character. Their right hands make the gesture of charity; their left hands are turned back to hold up the hems of their robes.
On both sides of the throne of Buddha, and behind, two persons in grand lay costume -- gods or Bodhisattvas -- hold fly-flappers in their right hands. Above the group hang garlands. (Cf. above, pp. 164-5).
II. PI. XXI, 2, was taken from a photograph brought back by M. Ed. Chavahnes from his last mission to China (1907-1908), and first appeared in the Bulletin du Comite de I'Asie francaise, April 1908, fig. 5. From the inscriptions M. chavannes dates the execution of the original in the Vth century of our era, under the dynasty of the Northern Wei. In its present state the group consists only of the remains of a seated Buddha, and another standing on his left. Both are of gigantic size, as may be judged from the man placed between them. The attendant one, draped to the neck, like the Gandhara images, makes with his right hand the gesture intimating absence of fear. The splendour of their tejas covers the whole rocky wall with a tracery of tongues ot flame; from this background stand out nimbuses and aureoles in the form of circular or elliptical bands bearing a quantity of small figures of Buddha seated in the Indian manner in the attitude of meditation. Above the head of the acolyte a group of two little Buddhas, side by side in the same niche, seems to materialize what we are told by the texts (cf. above, p. 157) of the conversations of the Master with his magic double, or with his colleague in another world-system, the Buddha Prabhutarama (Lotus de la bonne Lot, trans. Burnouf, pp. 151-2, etc.), who once came into ours to pay him a solemn visit. (Cf. above, p. 166.)
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