No. 28.— 1884.] first fifty jAtakas. 



135 



(plate LXXIV.) is a fine example of this subject. In the 

 same series (plate XCL, fig. 4) we have both the conception 

 of Maya Devi and the birth of Buddha. (See Fergusson's 

 Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 131, 195, and 212.) In the 

 Lahore Museum are several sculptures illustrating the birth 

 of Buddha, with Maya Devi in the Lumbini grove, standing 

 under the Sal tree, and holding one of the branches — she 

 leans on her half-sister Mayapati for support on the left, 

 and on the right Brahma receives the infant Buddha as he 

 springs from his mother's side. (Lahore Sculptures, 210, 

 220, 261, 268, 281.) Amongst the quaintest of the early 

 Buddhist legends (Nidana-katha, Davids, p. 86) is that 

 relating to the headdress of Buddha. When he started on his 

 great pilgrimage he cut off his hair, which, with his turban, 

 he threw away. It was caught by Sakra and enshrined 

 in the Tavatimsa heaven, and in the Bharhut sculptures 

 (plate XVI., fig. 1) the shrine is shown with the label 

 Sudammd Deva Saba Bhagavato chudd maho [not ' the grand 

 headdress of Buddha in the assembly hall of the Devas,' 

 as General Cunningham renders it, but] 6 the hall of the 

 assembly of the gods at the time of the festival of the head- 

 dress of the Blessed one' ; and to place beyond all doubt that it 

 is a shrine in the heavens of the Devas, the palace in which it 

 is is labelled Vejayamto pdsado (' the palace of the Victorious^) 

 i.e., Indra, which was the abode of the DeVas in the Tava- 

 timsa heavens. We may close for the present our selections 

 from illustrations of the legends of Buddha prior to the 

 period when he lived and taught as the great Teacher, by 

 some account of the sculptures and pictures representing 

 the last great struggle between good and evil, when Sakya 

 Muni finally overcame the assaults of Mara — the evil-one — 

 and was triumphant over the temptations of the world, the 

 flesh, and the devil. The account of it given in the Intro- 

 duction to the Jatakas tells how the evil-one brought up 

 army after army, and failed again and again. Time will not 

 permit to read it to-night (Davids' translation, pp. 96 — 101). 

 No illustration of this great scene has been found at Bhar- 

 hut, but it forms the subject of one of the most important 

 sculptures at Ajanta in Cave XXVI. (Cave Temples of India, 

 plate LI.) Below, Mara stands erect on the left, bow and 

 arrow in hand, with his daughters in the middle trying in 



