20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



It had daises (vcyaddi)^ 1)uilt in it, and was revercntiall)- adorned witli a 

 coating of dry cow-dung, and bore figures of the five-fingered hand painted in 

 go'sirsa sandal, fresh red sandal, and Dardara Sandal. There was in it great 

 store of ritual pitchers. On (? beside, or above) its doorways were ritual jars 

 (vandaraghadc) and well-fashioned arches (toranc). Broad rounded long- 

 drooping masses of bunches of fresh sweet-smelling blossoms of the five colours 

 scattered therein. It smelt pleasantly with the glimmering reek of kalaguru, 

 fine kundurnkka, and iuriikka (incenses),'' and was odorous with sweet-smelling 

 fine scents, a very incense-wafer. It was haunted by actors, dancers, rope- 

 walkers, wrestlers, boxers, jesters, jumpers, reciters, ballad-singers, story-tellers, 

 pole dancers, picturei-showmen {mahkhc) i^ pipers, lute-players, and minstrels. 



.... This sanctuary was encompassed round about by a great wood In 



this wood was a broad mid-space. Therein, it is related, was a great and fine 

 Asoka-tree. It had its roots pure with kusa and vikusa grass Under- 

 neath this fine Asoka-tree, somewhat close to its trunk, was, it is related, a large 

 dais of ( ? resting upon) earthen blocks (pudhavlsild pattac). It (the dais) 



^ I'eyaddi: an earthen or stone slab altar for the reception of offerings is the 

 essential part of a shrine. Sometimes a symbol is placed on it. Later, when 

 images come into general use, it becomes the asana (seat or throne) or pit ha 

 (pedestal) of the figure. Altars are generally plain and smooth; but beautifully 

 ornamented examples are known, particularly one, Jaina, from the Kaiikali Tila, 

 Mathura (Smith, Jaina sttipa of Mathura, pi. XXII), and the outer vajrasana, 

 Buddhist, at Bodhgaya (Cunningham, Mahabodhi, pi. XIII), both of pre- 

 Kusana date. 



In the Uvasagadasao, 164 (Hoernle, p. 107) the altar is called a masonry 

 platform {pudhavl-sUa-pattae ^ Sanskrit prthvi-sila-patfaka or pattaya, of. 

 the sild pattaain of the Malavikagnimitra, III, 79) ; Hoernle discusser the terms 

 at some length. Pudhavlsild might mean laterite. The words tahkitc-manco 

 are used in the Pali Yakkha Suttas, and rendered stone couch, but " altar " 

 would be better. 



^ The five fingered hand design is mentioned also elsewhere ; e. g., Mahavainsa, 

 XXXII, 4 (pancdngiilikd pantikd). Perhaps a five-foliate palmette would have 

 been thus designated. 



* Picture-showmen ; probably those who exhibited scrolls (yainapata) illus- 

 trating the rewards of good and bad actions, to be realized in a future life. In 

 the Jaina Bhagavatl Siltra, XV, i, there is mentioned the heresiarch Gosale 

 Maiikhaliputte, whose second name refers" to his father's trade as a viankha 

 (cf. Hoernle, Uvasagadasdo, pp. 108, 121, notes 253, 273 and Appendix, p. i). 

 Patafijali, Malidbhdsya, in, 2, 11 1, refers to the exhibition of paintings of the 

 Krsna Lila, and to the use of the historical present in verbal explanation of 

 them; see Liiders, Sitz. k. Ak. Wiss., Berlin, 1916, pp. 698 ff. ; also Keith, A. B.. 

 The Sanskrit drama (but Keith's rejection of the spoken explanation is probably 

 mistaken). In Visakhadatta's Mudrardksasa, Act. i, Canakya's spy adopts the 

 disguise of an exhibitor of yainapata (Prakrit, jamapadaam). Cf. tlie modern 

 Javanese Wayang Beber (Groeneveldt, W. P., Notes on the Malay Archipelago 

 and Malacca, compiled from Chinese sources, Batavia, 1876; Krom, N. J., in Ars 

 Asiatica, VIII, pi. LIX, and the similar Siamese exhibitions cited by Kram- 

 risch, Visnudharmottaram, Calcutta, 1924, p. 5, from the Siamese Sdratha 

 Pakdsini, pt. II, p. 398). 



