1896.} A. E: Oaddy—Ananta Cave. 273 
The Ananta Cave temple had been explored with great care. Hvery 
inch of it had been measured and recorded by men who looked upon it 
as one of the most important caves in Orissa. Some effort, too, had been 
more recently made by Fergusson, who had visited Orissa nearly half a 
century ago, to discover the subject these tympana bore. At his request 
the then Commissioner of Orissa sent Mr. Phillips specially to examine 
this eave and report on these tympana—unsuccessfully evidently, for we 
find Fergusson at last driven to surmise, writing thus in his and Dr. 
Burgess’ book on the caves of India. 
* From our knowledge of the sculpture of the Bharat tope we may 
“safely predicate that in addition to the TREE and the image of SRI 
“the remaining Tympana were filled, one with the representation of a 
“ WHEEL, and the other of a DAGOBA. The last three being prac- 
“ tically the three great objects of worship both here and at Sanchi.” 
- Tam sorry my facts do not substantiate this surmise, The series 
of sculptures on the semicircular tympana begins at the left with the 
apotheosis of the four-tusked elephant, or Gaja-raja, followed by Sarya 
in a quadriga, the worship of Cri, and the tree, thus :— 
fi the fi tie s Wary Cr : —~ 
- Gaja-raja. 4 5 ai hi uadriga. sue Tree. 
We haye here then for the first time the unique lotus- worship 
offered to the lordliest of elephants. The four-tusked one occupies the 
centre, huge but ungainly. The sculptor has set himself the task 
of representing in low relief«every limb and feature of his great 
bulk en face, The left-hand corner of the tympanum bears a sun 
image and a well drawn female elephant, in profile, trailing a lone 
lotus stalk, whose flower she is holding up to the Gaja-raja. A lotus on 
the right of the elephant is held up similarly, but the female elephant is 
wanting. 
In the Museum on a medallion, now on the centre table in the long 
southern gallery, there is a representation of a many-tusked elephant 
Bodhisattva. Here a hunter sent by queen Culla Subhadra. (one 
ef the two queens of the Chadanta elephant in her former life) 
treacherously wounds the elephant king from a pit. Being discovered 
by the six-tusked elephant, the hunter throws a yellow garment over 
himself, but to no purpose. The magnanimous one spares him and 
learns his mission,—to saw off his tusks and carry them to Culla 
Subhadra. Being desired to proceed with his task, he does so with 
difficulty, whereon the king of elephants takes the saw in his trunk, 
completes the severance, and then dies. 
