National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

crest, now lost in the general obscurity of that part of the picture. Standing at her

right side is a small nude male figure, seeming with outstretched arms and up-

lifted   p

lifted foot to be trying to climb up her hip and to be impatiently pleading for her

assistance towards his ambition. From the rectangular stone-edged tank or lake

with its graceful lotus flowers issues a canal or river similarly bordered; and

along the near bank can be seen two or more dappled horses trotting towards the

left. Above the saddle of the right-most horse appear the head and shoulders of

a man. Whether he is in the stream, as Stein believed, or sitting on the horse is

not clear, although the saddle seems to be empty. Farther to the left is the upper

part of a duck, and beyond, in the same direction near another dappled horse or

riding it, is another man. Whether it is the repetition of the same person and

horse illustrating successive incidents in a legend is a problem at present un-

solved.

Stein considered that there was evidence in the picture itself and in certain

surviving traces of local tradition, indicating the probability of its illustrating a

legend current at the time of the visit of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsüan-

tsang in the 7th century A.D. As recorded by Hsüan-tsang the story tells of the

sacrifice of a great officer of state in the interests of the people's welfare. A local

stream, upon which irrigation depended, having ceased to flow the king asked

advice of an Arhat (Buddhist priest) as to the cause and remedy of the trouble. The

Arhat recommended propitiation of the `dragon' (Näga) dwelling in the stream by

sacrifice. This being done, a woman emerged from the water and explained that

the flow of the stream had failed owing to the death of her husband—the Nága.

She, the Nágini, said that matters would be righted if she were given a minister

of noble birth in marriage. Whereupon a great officer of state offered himself as

the sacrifice on condition that the king should found a convent. This was agreed to,

and the minister, mounted on a steed, entered the water and disappeared. The

stream resumed its flow and, shortly after, the horse reappeared bearing on his

back a great drum of sandalwood within which was a letter to the king asking

that the drum might be hung to the south-east of the city where it would sound

an alarm at the approach of an enemy. Neither Stein nor I could find the drum

in thep icture but it may have become obscured in the general deterioration of the

surface. If thep icture is a record of the legend the little man beside the Nágini would represent the minister of noble birth, his size being appropriate to his

relative importance.

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