ON A CONTROVERS I AL BAS- RELI EF F ROM THE

STOPA OF BHARHUT * ( Cunni ngham' s Pl at e XXXI I I 3)

by
CLAUS VOGEL
Marburg
1. Bhar hut Oat. 24 ~ 37' N. and long. 80 ~ 53' E.), 1 t o- day a mi ddl e-si zed
village in t he Na god st at e of Ma dhya Pr adesh cont ai ni ng upwar ds of 200
houses, lies six miles nor t h- east of Unchahr a, t he nearest rai l way st at i on be-
i ng Sat na on t he J ubbul por e- Al l ahabad line. Si t uat ed at t he anci ent
hi ghr oad f r om Uj j ai n t o Pat na, by whi ch t he Gr aeco- Bact r i an ki ng De-
met ri us (c. 200-190 B. C. ) made his rai d i nt o cent ral I ndi a, it is not al t o-
get her unl i kel y t o be i dent i cal wi t h t he Vanas avhaya or Vanasgvat t hi of
t he Suttanipdta, ~ t he Ba pS~' c t g of Pt ol emy, 3 and t he Ba-gu-da or Ba-ku-
da of t he Vinayak.sudrakavastu. 4 At this l ast pl ace, a cert ai n Sa mpa ka is
said t o have bui l t a stQpa f or t he relics ( some hairs, nai l -pari ngs, and
t eet h) gi ven hi m by Buddha in an i l l usory manner bef or e his bani shment
f r om Kapi l a. ~
2. The Stf~pa of Bhar hut , or r at her what little r emai ned of it aft er cen-
turies of vandal i c quar r yi ng, was di scovered by Sir Al exander Cunni ng-
ham in 1873, unear t hed by hi m and his st aff in t he fol l owi ng years, and
r emoved t o t he I ndi an Museum, Cal cut t a, in 1876, where i t is still on dis-
pl ay. Judgi ng f r om Dhanabhf i t i ' s i nscri pt i on on t he east ern gat eway, 6
* It is our pleasant duty to thank Mr. William Fielding Hatton for his readiness to
look through this paper in manuscript and change the phrasing wherever desirable from
the stylistic point of view.
1 IGI, xviii, p. 302. The spelling varies among Barhut, Bharhut, Bhhrhut, Bharaut,
and Bharahata.
v. 1011, also called Tumbavanagara. Cunningham, Stapa, p. 2, refers to a shorter
version of the same legend found in Gurulug6mi's Amavatura and translated by Hardy,
Manual, p. 345 sqq.
Geog. vii 1.69.
Bam-po 8: Narthang Kanjur, 'Dul-ba (Vinaya), vol. tha (10), fol. 149 b 5/6; Peking
Kanjttr, 'Dul-ba (Vinaya), vol. de (101), fol. 88 a 7 [~ Otani Reprint, vol. 44, p. 37].
Cf. Csoma, AR, xx, p. 88.
Cf. Cunningham, Stf~pa, p. 128.
198 CLAUS VOGEL
t he sanct uary was compl et ed "dur i ng t he reign of t he Sufigas" ( Suganam
raje), t hat is t o say, bet ween 185 and 73 B.C. 7
Though vi rt ual l y not hi ng is left of t he stflpa pr oper , its general appear-
ance may be l earned f r om some bas-reliefs f ound among t he sculptures,
all of whi ch present t he same common features, s Accordi ng t o these, t he
hemi spheri cal dome rested on a circular base pr ovi ded wi t h small niches
meant f or lights and ar r anged in pat t erns. I t was encompassed by a great
st one railing and sur mount ed by a fenced square pedestal suppor t i ng a
t wo-st ori ed umbrel l a. St reamers and garl ands were suspended f r om t he
rims of t he latter, large flowers sprang f r om t he t op and bot t om of t he
summi t , and cylindrical ornament s hung in undul at i ng folds r ound t he
whol e structure. By way of compar i son may here be ment i oned t he
Gr eat Stfipa of Sanchi, which, t hough dat i ng f r om a slightly l at er peri od,
has survived in r emar kabl e preservat i on.
The railing t hat encircled t he stfipa had openings t owards t he f our car-
dinal points. I t was t hus divided i nt o f our quadrant s, each consisting of
sixteen pillars j oi ned by t hree cross-bars and covered by massive copi ng-
stones. Fr om t he left side of each ent rance, an L-shaped screen ext ended
f or twice t wo i nt ercol umni at i ons so as t o bl ock t he di rect appr oach. Wi t h
these screens, t he encl osure f or med a gigantic swastika doubtless i nt ended
by t he designer.
3. The bas-relief now t o be discussed belongs t o t he fifteenth pillar of t he
railing' s south-west quadrant . I t is a medal l i on carved f r om red sand-
stone (quarri ed in t he near by Vi ndhya mount ai ns) and measuri ng about
45 cm. in diameter. The pri nci pal figure in t he composi t i on is a supersized
man (supersized, t hat is, with r egar d t o t he el ephant ) sitting on a low-
backed chai r and resting his feet on a sort of ot t oman. He wears t he com-
mon royal headgear, ear-rings, bracelets, and necklace but is uncl ot hed
as far as t he girdled waist. His ri ght ar m hangs straight down by his side,
while his left ar m is ext ended t owards a monkey seated on a t i ny st ool in
front , wi t h t he pal m of t he hand t ur ned upwards and being wor ked by t he
monkey with a short poi nt ed t ool . A second monkey is hol di ng t he func-
t i on end of a huge pincer-like i nst r ument di rect ed at t he man' s l abi onasal
region and secured t o an el ephant by a l ong rope. A t hi rd monkey is
driving a goad i nt o t he back of t he ani mal ' s neck t o make hi m go quickly,
whereas a f our t h is biting his tail and beat i ng hi m wi t h a stick f or t he same
7 Cf. OHI, p. 138. For the question of chronology and the difficulties attendant on it
see Barua, Barhut, i, p. 29 sqq.
s See Cunningham's plates xiii, 2 and xxxi, 1.
A CONTROVERSIAL BAS-RELIEF FROM THE STI~PA OF BHARHUT 201
p u r p o s e . At t he t o p a n d b o t t o m a r e a f i f t h a n d a s i xt h mo n k e y r es pec-
t i vel y p l a y i n g a d r u m a n d b l o wi n g a l a r ge conch. ~
4. Th u s f a r t he pl a i n de s c r i pt i on, whi c h f ol l ows Cu n n i n g h a m' s ac-
c o u n t 1~ b u t l eaves a s i de al l c o n t r o v e r s i a l ma t t e r . Th e que s t i on ar i s es ,
wh a t a r e t he s h o r t p o i n t e d t o o l a n d t he huge pi nc e r - l i ke i n s t r u me n t i n t he
h a n d s o f t he f i r st a n d t he s e c o n d mo n k e y me a n t f or ? An d , i mp l i c i t l y ,
wh a t i s t he s t or y b e h i n d t he p r e s e n t scene?
Cu n n i n g h a m 1~ was t he f i r st t o t a c k l e t hi s p r o b l e m. Ob v i o u s l y i n d u c e d
b y t he f a mi l i a r i ma g e o f a mi l k - t o o t h be i ng p u l l e d b y me a n s o f a t h r e a d
f a s t e n e d t o a d o o r - l a t c h , he s ugge s t e d t h a t t he p i c t u r e was a b o u t a t o o t h
e xt r a c t i on, wi t h t he f i r st mo n k e y c u t t i n g o r p r i c k i n g t he g i a n t ' s h a n d a n d
t he s e c o n d t e n d i n g a p a i r o f d e n t a l f or c e ps , a n d t h a t - j u d g i n g f r o m hi s
st i f f p o s i t i o n - t he p a t i e n t was b o u n d t o hi s s eat wi t h i nvi s i bl e c or ds .
But he was n o t qui t e c o n v i n c e d o f t he t e n a b i l i t y o f hi s i n t e r p r e t a t i o n hi m-
sel f, o b s e r v i n g as he d i d t h a t " t h e f i gur e o f t he g i a n t i s b a d l y d r a wn , a n d
hi s s upi ne l i s t l es s nes s i s s ugges t i ve r a t h e r o f h a v i n g hi s nos e t i c kl e d t h a n
o f h a v i n g a t o o t h vi ol e nt l y t ugge d b y a f or c e ps wo r k e d by a n e l e p h a n t " .
Ne ve r t he l e s s hi s p r o p o s a l me t wi t h a f a v o u r a b l e r e s pons e b o t h i n I n d o -
l o g i c a P 2 a n d e s pe c i a l l y i n me d i c o h i s t o r i c a P ~ ci r cl es.
9 Prof. Heinrich Drerup, Marburg, draws our attention to a black-figure lecythus from
Eretria, made about 480 B.C. and kept in the Nat i onal Museum, Athens, whose front
picture shows a remote similitude to the above scene. The composition centres on a
naked elderly woman bound with her hands and feet to a palm-tree and surrounded by
five satyrs. The woman is characterized by a fat belly, flabby bosom, thin neck, large
head, broad mouth with thick lips and big teeth, flat nose, wall-eyes with long lashes
and bushy brows, as well as short hair. Of the satyrs, four are engaged respectively in
hitting the woman with a pestle, in beating her legs with a scourge, in tugging at her
breasts and burning her abdomen with a torch, and in pulling out her tongue with a
forceps, while a fifth leans on a stick and keeps al oof from the brutal doings of his fel-
low-satyrs. Cf. Mayer, MDAI A, xvi, p. 300 sqq. - Most scholars consider this picture
to represent a satyr-play, and Buschor ( MDAI A, lii, p. 230 sqq.) refers it to the follow-
ing legend transmitted by Pausanias (i 23). I n times of yore, a Greek ship was driven
by adverse winds to the ill-famed Satyr Isles (ZuzuoiSsg), whose inhabitants were in-
capable of speaking, endowed with tails, and possessed of great lewdness; when the
women aboard were molested by these creatures, the sailors exposed to them a bar-
barous female, and "t he satyrs then maltreated her not only as usual but also, in like
manner, on her entire body" (~g xct6Trlv o6v N3pi~stv ~obg Zctx6poug 06 gt6vov
~aS~ozrl~sv ~XX~ Kcd x6 zc~v b~oic0g (s~ta). Although the origins of this legend can-
not be localized, it is interesting to note that three Satyr Isles (Xa~6pc0v vfloot "rgsig)
with tailed inhabitants are mentioned in Ptolemy' s description of transgangetic Indi a
(Geog. vii 2.30).
lo St @a, p. 104 sq.
11 1bid.
~2 Jolly, LO, pp. 218 and 220; Oldenberg, Reden des Buddha, p. xlvi.
~3 Sudhoff, Geschichte, p. 51 ; Proskauer, lconographia, pp. 2 and 176; Geigy, Medai l -
Ion; Mfdler, Osiris, xiii, p. 391; Heinrich, Zahnarzt , p. 13.
202 CLAUS VOGEL
5. Barua,l* who was the next to seek a solution, agreed with Cunning-
ham in thinking that the second monkey was tending a pair of dental
forceps, but doubted if the first was cutting or pricking the giants hand,
and if the patient was bound to his seat. He rather believed that the said
monkey was putting a drawn tooth on the mans palm, which presup-
poses either that the other monkey is engaged in a second extraction, or
that the presentation is polyepisodical, i.e., combining successive events.
The plot he construes to be like this: The Bodhisat, being once born as
a monkey-king, lived with a large number of followers in a forest region.
In roaming about, they entered a woodland which was in [the] possession
of a giant, who was troubled with the pain of [a] toothache. He expressed
his desire to masticate and devour the monkeys, and would let them off
if they could relieve him immediately of the pain by pulling his teeth. It
was no easy task for the monkeys. They under the guidance of their wise
leader managed to get hold of an elephant, whom they led out from a royal
stable, and leading him along in a triumphant procession, brought him
to work the forceps, whereby they pulled the giants teeth.
One can only feel amazed at the confidence with which Barua relates
the present scene to two others found on the rail-bars of the south-west
quadrant15 and concerned with the capture of an elephant by monkeys,
this second elephant appearing by his decoration and the length of his
tusks to be altogether different from the first. No undue stress should,
however, be laid on such absurdities since Barua subsequently16 retracted
his theory, offering as a substitute the implausible explanation, scene of
tickling the nose of a giant by the monkeys. This was certainly not what
Cunningham had meant to say in his above remark, though Barua ex-
pressly refers to him.
6. Baruas work in general and his wholesale endeavour to connect every
sculpture with a text or even a Jltaka in particular were strongly criticized
by Li.iders.l Small wonder therefore that Majumdarl* and Coomara-
swamyls would explore new possibilities in their respective treatises. Dis-
carding the old tooth-extraction idea, they took our bas-relief for a comic
scene in which, to use Majumdars words,
a gigantic looking person is
I4 Barhut, ii, p. 171 sqq.
15 Cunninghams plate xxxiii, 1 and 2.
I8 Barhut, iii, p. 5 and plates p. 6.
I7 Bhcirhut, p. 3 sqq. The medallion at hand was unfortunately left undiscussed by
him.
X8 Guide, i, p. 49.
I9 Sculpture, p. 13.
A CONTROVERSIAL BAS-RELIEF FROM THE STUPA OF BHARHUT 203
bei ng mani cur ed by a monke y bar ber seat ed on a st ool in f r ont of hi m,
while ot her monkeys are t ryi ng t o pul l out a hai r f r om his nost ri l by means
of a pai r of pincers. As t he process evi dent l y requi res gr eat physi cal
st rengt h, t he monkeys have engaged an el ephant t o whose shoul der t he
handl e of t he pi ncers has been fast ened by means of a rope, and a monke y
is t ryi ng t o make t he el ephant move by means of a goad" . Thi s exposi t i on
mar ks a consi derabl e progress as agai nst t he f or mer at t empt s because t he
slight upwa r d tilt of t he i nst r ument and its r ope is i ncompat i bl e wi t h t he
r emoval of a maxi l l ar y t oot h, t he axis of Cunni ngham' s phot ogr aph hav-
i ng been di sl ocat ed f or some unknown reason. 2~
7. The mos t recent and at t he same t i me mos t curi ous i nt er pr et at i on
was pr opounde d by Bobbi o. 21 It s salient charact eri st i cs are briefly as fol -
lows. ~2 Buddha, in one of his previ ous bi rt hs as a monke y king, is suf-
feri ng f r om a t oot hache. The por t r ayal is agai n pol yepi sodi cal . Fi rst
t he pat i ent is numbe d wi t h a mi xt ur e of wine and hemp essence - t ast ed
by t he monke y on t he ext reme ri ght , who is hol di ng t he anaest het i c bot -
tle. Then he is subj ect ed t o a t oot h ext r act i on in t he af or esai d manner .
Fi nal l y t he dr awn t oot h is pl aced on his ext ended left hand. Thi s t oot h,
t he upper l eft canine, has l at er f ound its way i nt o t he f amous Templ e of
t he Toot h at Ka n d y (Ceyl on), where it is still wor shi pped as t he holiest
relic of Buddhi sm.
At t r act i ve t hough Bobbi o' s i nt er pr et at i on ma y seem t o t he l ayman, it
cont ai ns a numbe r of serious mi st akes al r eady uncover ed by Hauser . 2~
To begi n with, it was yet uncus t omar y in t he second cent ur y B.C. (when
t he Stflpa of Bhar hut was erected) t o r epr oduce Buddha ot herwi se t han
by symbol s such as trees, wheels, foot pri nt s, or stOpas; not until t he
Gr aeco- Buddhi st school of Ga ndhgr a reached its acme in t he first cen-
turies of t he Chri st i an era was he given a huma n f or m, wi t h aureol e and
par asol as his c ommone s t at t ri but es. 24 Mor eover , t he alleged anaest het i c
bot t l e recurs in t wo of t he ot her monkey- el ephant scenes t hat have on t he
face of it not hi ng t o do wi t h a medi cal oper at i on; it is in. real i t y a shell
~0 Cf. Hauser, DZZ, xviii, pp. 1154 and 1156. We do not, however, concur with Ma-
jumdar and Hauser in assuming that the instrument here shown is a pair of pincers;
in our opinion, it is a pair of forceps all right (Coomaraswamy calls it a pair of black-
smith's tongs - "tenailles de forgeron"), but with the hinge covered by the monkey's
left hand. For illustrations see Mukhopadhyaya, Instruments, ii, pl. 15.1 and 2.
~1 RAPCD, xiv, p. 294 sqq. and RI S, xvi, p. 779 sqq.
22 See the notices by Wolter, DZ Z , xvi, p. 1202 sq., and by N.N., ZR, lxxi, p. 131 sq.
33 DZZ, xviii, p. 1154 sqq. and S AGMN, xlvii, p. 176 sqq.; cf. Mfdler's notice,
;~IGMN, 1964.
~* Cf. e.g. Waldschmidt, Kunst, i, p. 12 sq.
204 CLAUS VOGEL
at t ached t o t he end of a pi pe, its shrill sound - accompani ed by heavy
dr umbeat s - bei ng doubt l ess meant as art acoust i c st i mul us f or t he ele-
phant . Last but not least, t he t oot h-rel i c in quest i on was never pul l ed
out of Buddha' s mout h, nei t her in his f or mer nor in his t er mi nal exist-
ence, but was pi cked up f r om his ext i nct pyr e and t aken t o K~liflga by a
disciple named Khema, whence it was secretly br ought t o Ceyl on in t he
f our t h cent ury A. D. 25
8. I n defaul t of a sat i sfact ory al t ernat i ve, Haus er adopt ed Ma j umda r ' s
and Cooma r a s wa my' s expl anat i on but conceded t he possi bi l i t y t hat t he
monkeys were not r emovi ng anyt hi ng f r om but r at her t hr ough t he ma n' s
nose, such as f or exampl e an evil spirit. Wi ndi ng up his article, he voi ced
t he hope t hat some f ut ur e st udent of I ndi an ant i qui t y and l i t erat ure (in-
cl udi ng t he legends) woul d be abl e t o solve t he myst ery.
Pr ompt ed by t he current debat e t o i nqui re f ur t her i nt o t he mat t er , we
now t hi nk t o be in a posi t i on t o fulfil this expect at i on. I f we are not mi s-
t aken, t he key t o t he whol e pr obl em lies in a passage of t he Su~rutasam-
hi m (I 27.14) whi ch reads in Sa n s k r i t -
asthivivarapravi.st.am asthivida.st.am vdvag.rhya pdddbhydm, yantren, dpaha-
ret / agakyam cram. vd balavadbhi.h suparig.rMtasya yantren, a grdhayitvd
galyavdrahgam, pravibhujya dhanurgu~air baddhvaikatag cdsya pagcdhgydm
upasamyatasydgvasya vaktrakavike badhnfydt / athainam, kagayd tdd. ayed
yathonnamaya~ giro vegena galyam uddharati / drd. hdn.~ vd vrk.sa~dkhdm
avanamya tasydm, pf~rvavad baddhvoddharet //
in English -
(A forei gn body) t hat has ent ered the bone- cave or is l odged in t he bone
one shall ext i rpat e wi t h a graspi ng i nst r ument aft er l ayi ng hol d ( of t he
bone) wi t h one' s feet. Or, i f this is i mpossi bl e, one shall seize t he pr o-
t r udi ng par t of t he forei gn body wi t h a graspi ng i nst r ument - (the pat i ent )
havi ng been well hugged by st r ong (at t endant s) - , bend (the handl es of t he
graspi ng i nst r ument ) apar t , 26 tie (its j aws) on t he ( pat i ent ) ' s 27 side wi t h
bow-st ri ngs, zs and fast en (its hinge) t o t he snaffle-bit of a horse wedged
2~ The legendary history of Buddha's tooth-relic has been recorded in Dhammakitti's
Dat.hdvarpsa, a five-canto epic of the early thirteenth century A.D. that purports to be
a Pali translation of an Elu (ancient Singhalese) original written by an anonymous au-
thor about the year 310 A.D. For the point in question, see ii, 46-57.
~6 So that its jaws are firmly dosed.
~r The commentator .Dalhana explains, asyeti kalyavato narasya.
2s So that the instrument does not slip off when suddenly pulled.
The pictures in this article are reproduced by courtesy of Mr. R. C. Kar, Superintendent,
Archaeological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta. Copyright by Department of
Archaeology, Government of India. We are indebted to Prof. Paul Hauser, Frankfort,
for placing these pictures at our disposal.
A CONTROVERSIAL BAS-RELIEF FROM THE STUPA OF BHARHUT 207
i n a q u i n t i p a r t i t e ha r ne s s ; 39 t h e n o n e s h a l l b e a t t h e ( h o r s e ) wi t h a wh i p
s o t h a t , r e a r i n g hi s h e a d , h e p u l l s o u t t h e f o r e i g n b o d y wi t h a j e r k . Or
o n e s h a l l de f l e c t t h e t h i c k b r a n c h o f a t r e e , s e c u r e t o i t ( t he h i n g e o f t h e
g r a s p i n g i n s t r u me n t ) a s b e f o r e , a n d ( t hus ) r e mo v e ( t he f o r e i g n b o d y ) .
T h a t t hi s p a s s a g e h a s b e e n i g n o r e d s o f a r c o me s b o t h o f i t s r e mo t e n e s s
a n d e s p e c i a l l y o f i t s mi s t r a n s l a t i o n b y e a r l i e r s c h o l a r s , a l l o f wh o m r e -
g a r d e d gal yavdrahgam i n s t e a d o f y ant r am ( wh i c h mu s t b e i n f e r r e d f r o m
t h e p r e c e d i n g yant rena) as t h e o b j e c t of pr avi bhuj ya, baddhvd, a n d badh-
n~ydt, t r y i n g t o ma k e u p f o r t h e c o n s e q u e n t di f f i cul t i es e i t h e r b y a r b i -
t r a r i l y c h a n g i n g t h e s e n t e n c e - c o n s t r u c t i o n a n d l i b e r a l l y ma k i n g a d d i t i o n s
( Bh i s h a g r a t n a ) , o r b y a s s u mi n g a c o mp l e t e l y i mp r a c t i c a b l e p r o c e d u r e
( Du t t , Mi J l l e r ) . z~ Wh e n u n d e r s t o o d t h e r i g h t wa y , h o we v e r , t h e o p e r a t i o n
29 I f this is a harness consisting of five parts, or one havi ng five loose ends, or one at-
t ached t o t he horse' s four legs and tail, cannot be ascertained. I n medical literature, by
pa~ca~gin is denot ed a bandage t o be applied t o the regi on above the col l ar-bone; cf.
Su~r. I 18.18.
30 For conveni ence' sake, we here append t he respective translations. - Bhishagratna
i, p. 261 : " I n t he case of a shaft (Shalyam) which has pierced i nt o t he cavity of a bone,
t he surgeon shoul d firmly press t he affected bone wi t h his legs, and pull out t he em-
bedded shaft wi t h all his mi ght by gripping i t wi t h a surgical instrument, in failure
whereof a st rong man should be asked t o firmly cat ch hol d of t he patient, and t he Shal-
yam should be pulled out wi t h t he help of a gripping surgical i nst rument as before. As
an alternative, the bot t om of t he shaft should be tied t o t he string of a bow, strung and
fully bent down; and t he Shal yam should be ejected with t he means of a full twang. As
an alternative, a horse should be harnessed in t he fashion known as the Panch/mgi-
var dhanam (lit. bound in t he five parts of t he body), and the end of the Shalyam should
be bent down and tied t o t he bridle. Then t he horse should be so whipped as t o raise its
head first, thus pulling out t he embedded shaft (Shalyam) from its seat of l odgment by
t he j erk of its head. As an alternative, a high and t ough bough of a tree should be low-
ered down and t i ed t o t he bent end of t he shaft as in t he preceding case. The bough
shoul d be t hen let loose, thus pulling out t he shaft (Shalyam) wi t h its reboundi ng
force". - Du t t , p. 123 sq.: " I f the foreign body is i mpact ed in t he canal or the substance
of a bone, t hen t he l i mb or the part shoul d be pressed by the feet and the foreign body
grasped by forceps and extracted. I f i t cannot be extracted in this way, t hen t he pat i ent
or t he part should be firmly held by some st rong people, t he shaft of t he arrow should
be bent by pincers and one end of a bow string tied t o it, t he ot her end being attached
t o t he curb ring in a horse' s mout h. The ani mal should t hen be made t o raise its head,
so t hat t he foreign body may be drawn out in t he act of doi ng so. Or a firm branch of
a tree may be bent, and t he string tied t o it, so t hat t he foreign body may be drawn out
when the branch is let go". - Mtiller, Osiris, xiii, p. 390 sq. : " Ei n in Knochenspal t en ge-
drungenes oder i m Knochen festgebissenes (Aalya) soll man unt er (Anst emmen der)
Fiisse mi t ei nem Fasswerkzeug herausreissen; oder wenn das nicht m6glich, soil man
bei dem, yon kr~iftigen M/innern umfassten (Kranken) den Gri ff des dalya's mi t dem
Fasswerkzeug fest packen, am Ende an ei ne Bogensehne binden und mi t dem ffinf-
gliedrigen Verbande an das Zaumzeug befestigen, welches dem Maul eines Rosses an-
gelegt ist, darauf das (Ross) mi t der Peitsche schlagen, dami t sein Kopf bei auf-
208 CLAUS VOGEL
described here bears a striking resemblance to that of our bas-relief. The
only points of difference are (1) that the patient is not held by attendants
but probably bound to his seat, (2) that the jaws of the forceps are not
tied up with bow-strings but pressed together by a monkey, and (3) that
the instrument is worked not by a horse but by an elephant. Since we do
not maintain that the sculptors of Bharhut borrowed their motive directly
from Sugruta, but rather that they illustrated a manner of surgical treat-
ment common in their day and performed along the same general lines as
taught by Su~ruta, 3~ such lack of harmony carries little weight.
At the best it might be argued that if the present scene were really con-
cerned with the extraction of a foreign body then the foreign body ought
to be visible in the picture, which is not, however, the case. Well-founded
as this objection would be in view of the outspoken partiality shown by
Indian artists for minute detail, we are convinced it can be satisfactorily
obviated by assuming with Maj umdar and Coomaraswamy that the for-
eign body is indeed a nasal hair, and that the whole affair is simply a paro-
dy of Eisenbartian met hodsY The portraiture of the physician and his
assistants as a troop of monkeys would fittingly add to the comic spirit
of the situation.
Nothing remains but to determine what the seated monkey is doing
with the patient' s left hand. As his activity must have some relation to
the central theme, we suggest that he is scratching the man' s palm in or-
der to divert the pain attendant on the operation. In the absence of a
properly developed anaesthesiology, a practice like this - called a revul-
sion in medical nomenclature - was often resorted to by the ancient phy-
sicians. 3z
Niumender Bewegung unter einem Ruck das ~alya herauszieht. Oder man biegt einen
festen Ast yon einem Baume herab und befestigt an ihm wie zuvor (die Bogensehne zurn
Herausreissen)". - A cursory look at these translations already reveals the many in-
accuracies, nay, blunders contained therein.
31 It is noteworthy in this connection that the Sukranitisdra (iv 3.71), which Oppert
(ed. p. viii) ascribes to "the same period which produced the sm.rtis and early epic lit-
erature", and which Venkatasubbiah (Kalds p. 68) regards as "most probably ... earlier
than the 7th century A.D.", reckons "the painless extraction of foreign bodies" (~al-
yag~d.h~h.rti) even among the sixty-four practical arts (kala). Cf. Venkatasubbiah,
Kalas, p. 52, who mistranslates, "extracting buried arrows".
3~ Johann Andreas Eisenbart (1661-1727), German medical quack notorious for his
crude therapy. The fact that a nasal hair is not a foreign body in the strict sense of
the word is insignificant in this connection.
38 Thus, to give but one example, in hyperaemic pulpitis (gitadanta) Vhgbhat.a (As.t.a~ig.
vi 22.11) commends scarifying and cauterizing the ear-laps. Cf. Vogel-Brauer, Stoma,
xvii, p. 129.
A CONTROVERSIAL BAS-RELIEF FROM THE STI~IPA OF BHARHUT 209
BI BLI OGRAPHY
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210 CLAUSVOGEL
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AR
DZZ
IGI
LO
MDAIA
MGMN
OHI
RAPCD
RIS
SAGMN
ZR
Asiatic Researches
Deutsche zahn~rztliche Zeitschrift
Imperial Gazetteer of India
LiGht des Ostens
Mitteilungen des (kaiserlich) deutschen archiiologischen lnstituts. Athenische
Abteilung.
Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften
Vincent Arthur Smith' s Oxford History of lndia.
Revista da Associar Paulista de Cirurgi6es Dentistas
Rivista Italiana di Stomatologia
Sudhoffs Archly fiir Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften
Zahngirztliche Rundschau