Note 121 — Chapter IV · RAILS.

The following outline (Woodcut No. 28, on the next page) of one of the bas-reliefs on a pillar at Bharhut may serve to convey an idea of the style of art and of the quaint way in which the stories are there told. On the left, a king with a five-headed snake-hood is represented, kneeling before an altar strewn with flowers, behind which is a tree (Sirisa Accasia?) hung with garlands. Behind him is an inscription to this effect, “Erapatra the Naga Raja worships the Divinity (Bhagavat).” Above him is the great five-headed Naga himself, rising from a lake. To its right a man in the robes of a priest standing up to his middle in the water, and above the Naga a female genius, apparently floating in the air. Below is another Naga Raja, with his quintuple snake-hood, and behind him two females with a single snake at the back of their heads—an arrangement which is universal in all Naga sculpture. They are standing up to their waists in water. If we may depend on the inscription below him, this is Erapatra twice over, and the females his two wives. I should, however, rather be inclined to fancy there were two Naga Rajas represented with their two wives.

This bas-relief is further interesting as being an epitome of my work on ‘Tree and Serpent Worship.’ As expressing in the shortest possible compass nearly all that is said there at length, it will also serve to explain much that is advanced in the following pages. As it is 200 years older than anything that was known when that book was written, it is a confirmation of its theories, as satisfactory as it is complete.