180 



On the Ruins of Buddha Gay a. 



[No. 2, 



the figure of a human foot surrounded by two dragons. It was 

 brought from a temple in Burmah where it used to be worshipped as 

 a representation of Buddha's foot. It is 7-J- ft. long by 3 ft. 6 inches in 

 breadth, and has on it a great number of mystical marks. On the 

 centre of each toe there is a figure of a conch-shell and a concentric 

 line under it. A conch occurs also at the heel. On the centre of the 

 sole, there is a circular figure with innumerable radii, standing evident- 

 ly for the wheel with a thousand spokes described above. Around 

 this wheel are arranged, in three tiers, one hundred and ei^ht com- 

 partments bearing representations of temples, houses, forests, rivers 

 men in different attitudes, birds and beasts of various kinds — mostly 

 imaginary, leaves and flowers, magical figures and other objects unin- 

 telligible to me. But I do not find the counterparts of these objects 

 in the foot-marks at Buddha Gaya. There the figures are, it is true 

 included within a circle, but it has no wheel of a thousand spokes. 

 Its prevailing emblems are more Hindu than Buddhistical. The lotus, 

 the swastika, the fish and the discus are identically what has been assign- 

 ed to Vishnu's feet in the Brahminical shastras. Thus in the Skanda 

 Purana I find the marks on. Vishnu's feet are enumerated at 19, in- 

 cluding, 1 a crescent, 2 a water jar, 3 a triangle, 4 a bow, 5 the sky, 

 6 the foot-mark of cattle, 7 a fish, 8 a conch, 9 an octagon, 10 a 

 swastika, 11 an umbrella, 12 a discus, 13 a grain of barley, 14 an 

 elephant goad (ankus,) 15 a flag, 16 a thunderbolt, 17 a jambu fruit, 

 18 an upright line, and 19 a lotus, of which the first eight belong to 

 the left and the rest to the right foot. # Biswanatha Chakravartti, in 

 his gloss on the Bhagavat Pnrana (10th book), has given the marks 

 appropriate to the foot of Badha which include, 1 an umbrella, 2 a wheel, 

 3 a. flag, 4 a creeper, 5 a flower, 6 a bracelet, 7 a lotus, 8 an upright 

 line, 9 an elephant goad, (ankus) 10 a crescent, 11 a grain of barley, 

 12 a javelin, 13 a club, 14 a car, 15 an altar, 16 an earring, 17 a fish, 

 18 a hill, and 19 a conch.f The first eleven of these belong to the 



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