No. 28.— 1884.] first fifty jAtakas. 



137 



become the purchaser for a layer of kotis' (See Guilders' 

 Notes in The Academy for 28th November, 1874, p. 586, and 

 for 5th December, 1874, p. 612.,) The story, as we have it, 

 was therefore extant, in the same words as we read it to-day, 

 as early as the third century before Christ. 



Scenes from the Jatakas themselves are found in all the 

 sculptures from Bharhut downwards : they are found in 

 the frescoes at Ajanta, everywhere on the walls of the 

 temples in Ceylon ; and Fa-hian, who visited Ceylon in A.D. 

 405, relates that he was present when the tooth-relic was 

 carried in the annual procession from Anuradhapura to 

 Mihintale, a distance of nearly eight miles, and that on these 

 occasions both sides of the road were hung with paintings 

 of the 500 different births of Buddha, painted in different 

 colours and " executed with such care as to appear living." 

 (Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 82.) 



There are, unfortunately, very few of the first fifty Jatakas, 

 with which we are specially dealing at present, which can 

 be identified by the numerous Buddhist scenes at Bharhut. 

 (See plate XXV., fig. 1.) A medallion is inscribed Puw- 

 sathabho ddnam Miga Jatakam-- pillar gift of Pushya': the 

 Deer-birth.' Buddha was born as a deer eleven times. \ I am 

 as yet unable to identify this sculpture. Davids says it is 

 the Nigrodha Miga Jataka (No. 12), with which I am unable 

 to identify it. 



The Jataka labelled the Hamsa Jataka or € Goose-birth 5 is 

 clearly the Nacca Jakata (No. 32, plate XXVII., p. 11) or 

 the Dancing Peacock. The story is that, the royal goose sum- 

 moned all the birds for his daughter to choose a husband. 

 She chose the peacock, who in his vanity began to dance 9 

 spreading out his tail, which so much shocked the royal- 

 goose that he broke off the match and married his daughter 

 to a young goose, his nephew. The sculpture shows only 

 the goose and the peacock with outspread tail. In this 

 instance, it will be noted, that the name of the Jataka 

 inscribed on the sculpture is not the name in the books ; 

 but the identity of the Jataka is undoubted. It would be 

 interesting to ascertain when the popular name changed. 



The story of Makha Deva (Jataka 9) is told on the coping 

 stone from Bharhut shown in plate XLVIIL, fig. 2., and 

 labelled Maghd Deviya Jdtakam — c the Magna De wa birth. ' It 



