120 Mr. C. H. Tawney — Mahdhapijdlaka, [AuG. 



Christian era. In Nepal it held its ground for a much longer time. 

 The chaitya having been found with the inscriptions is of undoubtedly 

 the same age, and may date from the ninth century. The mound in 

 which the objects were found would seem to mark the ruined site of a 

 Buddhist's shrine. The chaitya is of bronze, and fairly well preserved ; 

 it is made of three stories, built up in pyi^amidal form, consisting of a 

 high, slightly sloping, square basement, on which rises a tall cylindrical 

 dome, surmounted by a small square turret with projecting roof. See 

 Plat^ III. The whole was originally surmounted by two, or perhaps three, 

 umbrellas of which, however, only the lowermost is preserved. Under 

 this umbrella, attached to its pole, is a minute plate inscribed with the 

 Buddhist creed in (now) illegible characters. The four sides of the turret 

 are adorned with four sitting figures of Buddha, projecting from the walls. 

 Three are in the witnessing and one in the meditating posture. Four 

 other figures are placed round the body of the dome, exactly below the 

 upper figures, within ornamental niches, which are connected with one 

 another with bands and festoons. The basement bears, on each of its 

 four sides, three sitting figures (twelve in all) ; each triad consisting of 

 one male between two female figures. The figures round the dome 

 probably represent Boddhisattvas, while the basement figures appear to 

 be Buddhist devas and saktis. The chaitya, therefore, already re- 

 presents Buddhism in the much depmved Tantrik form, in which it 

 was current in Bengal at the time of its extinction, 



Mr. C. H. Tawney called attention to Plate XXXIII, fig. 4, in 

 •General Cunningham's Bharhut Sculptures, and said, I think that this 

 scene represents the story contained in the 407th Jataka, FausbolFs 

 edition. 



It is called the Mahakapijataka, and the story is as follows : 



When Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisattva was at 

 the head of a troop of eiglity thousand monkeys. They used to eat the 

 fruits of a mango-tree on the banks of the Ganges. The Bodhisattva 

 took particular care to prevent the fruits of one branch that overhung 

 the Ganges, from falling into the river. In spite of all his precautions 

 one fruit came into the hands of king Brahmadatta, when enjoying 

 himself in the Ganges, and he asked the foresters whence it came. 

 They at once said, that the tree that bore this fruit was to be found in 

 the neighbourhood of the Himalayas. The king took them as guides, 

 and with a large retinue, ascended the river in rafts, and after disem- 

 barking, and eating to his fill of the fruits of the tree, he lay down to 

 rest. 



In the niglit the eighty thousand monkeys came and began to 



