nāga-yakṣiṇī-buddha-local-deities-and-local-buddhism-at-ajanta

8/23/2019 Nga-Yaki-Buddha-Local-Deities-and-Local-Buddhism-at-Ajanta

1/42

Nga, Yaki, Buddha: Local Deities and Local Buddhism at AjantaAuthor(s): Richard S. CohenSource: History of Religions, Vol. 37, No. 4 (May, 1998), pp. 360-400Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3176402

Accessed: 31/05/2010 22:05

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toHistory

of Religions.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3176402?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpresshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpresshttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3176402?origin=JSTOR-pdf


2/42

Richard S. Cohen NAGA, YAKSINI,BUDDHA:LOCAL DEITIES ANDLOCAL BUDDHISMAT AJANTA

INTRODUCTION: AN ELECTRONICDISCUSSION ON SPIRIT CULTSAND BUDDHISM

Several years ago, Dr. William Bodiford sent a message to the electronicdiscussion group Buddha-Iposing the following questions: "Is the wor-ship of local spiritcults an essentialpartof Buddhist traditions n Asia?-Or, in other words-Are there any Buddhist traditions in which localspiritcults do NOT play a majorrole?"1Bodiford'spost generateda par-ticularlystimulatingthreadof discussion. Indeed,the fact thatthis threadcontinued vigorously for the next month and one-half-through Christ-mas and the New Year,as well as the start of a new semester-testifiesto the salient importanceof Bodiford'squery.The parametersof discus-sion were quickly set; every term came underscrutiny.Did Bodifordposeone question or two? Did Bodiford really intend to suggest that localspirit cults are essential to Buddhist traditions?Might such cults be sim-ply normal, but contingent, partsof Buddhist traditions?What did Bod-iford meanby "tradition"?What defines a spiritcult? What arethe criteriafor determiningwhether a spiritcult does or does not play a "majorrole"?

1Posted by William Bodiford, associate professor, University of California, Los An-geles, to [email protected] on December 16, 1994. Messages to electronicdistribution lists, like Buddha-i, are an informal medium of exchange between scholars.There is no expectation on the partof participants n these discussions that their observa-tions andopinions are,or shouldbe, finely crafted and suitable for publication.Forthis rea-son, the following account of the discussion inspired by Bodiford'spost will be generalizedand impressionistic. I will neither name names nor cite direct quotations.? 1998 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.0018-2710/98/3704-0003$02.00


3/42

History of ReligionsWhen participantsceased problematizingthe terms of Bodiford'spostand attemptedto respond to it, they showed a strikingreluctance to an-

swer him in the affirmative.A significant proportionwere unwilling evento entertainthe notion that local spirit cults may be as integral to Bud-dhist traditions in Asia as, for instance, the four noble truths. This re-sponse surprisedme, thoughit should not have. After all, Bodifordpostedhis query to Buddha-l precisely because, in his words, "most scholarlyaccounts of Buddhistlife seem to eitherignore Buddhistworshipof localdeities, dismissing it as 'folk religion,' or treat it as an example of syn-cretism."Presumably,they do so because they do not find such deities ortheir cults essential. Although nearly all respondents acknowledged thatcults for local spirits are normal parts of Buddhist traditions in Asia,there was nevertheless broad agreement that such cults are contingent,culturalaccretionsto the religion, not necessarily identifiable with "Bud-dhism" as such.Bodiford's inquiry inspired so vibrant and sustained a discussion be-cause its ramifications spiral beyond the lack of scholarship on spiritcults, folk religion, or syncretism-though these are lacunaethatmust befilled-to issues of central importfor any scholarly study of Buddhism.Where do we locate Buddhism? What is normatively Buddhist? Almostno participant n the discussion was comfortable with Bodiford's use ofthe word "essential";yet, almost every post attemptedto pinpoint crite-ria for delimiting normative Buddhism.Typically,these criteriadescribeda two-tier model, distinguishinga "true"Buddhism,founded in pure phi-losophy, the Buddha'sexact attitude,or the confrontingof essentialisms,from a "lesser" Buddhism that involves supernaturalpowers, the worshipof spirits or deities, ordinaryfolk, and indigenous beliefs. Scholars whodivided Buddhism thus tended to representthe upper tier as normative,sociologically as well as ideologically, by associating it with the commu-nity of monks.There also were a few discussants who problematizedBodiford's sug-gestion that local spirit cults may be conceived as essential to Buddhisttraditions in Asia, while refraining from positing universalized criteriafor normativity. This is the position I take myself. In my reading, "lo-cal,"not "essential," s the most important erm in Bodiford'spost. In seek-ing a universally generalizableBuddhism,scholars have ignored "place."One aspiringto escape fromnormativedefinitionsmay find, however, thatplace, locality, provides a powerful category for analytic reconstructionsof Buddhism.Place sets the idiosyncraticand indigenous on parwith thetranslocal and universal, the here and there with the everywhere.This article will explore how a scholar of Indian Buddhismmight takeplace seriously as a groundfor interpretation.How does Buddhism cometo be of a place? The answer that follows may be understood as a play

361


4/42

Naga, Yaksini,Buddhaon Peter Brown's dictum that "the supernaturalbecomes the depositoryof the objectified values of the group."2That is, the "supernatural"salways emplaced for no better reason than thatpeople live, work, study,meditate, and worship in places; if the term "Buddhism" s to be mean-ingful, it must be connected to people, to Buddhists,who lived their livesas Buddhists in places.In this case, the category place will be treatedin terms of locale. Inparticular,my subjectis Buddhism as located at the Ajantacaves, a fifth-century C.E. rock-cut monastic "village" in western India renowned forits paintings, sculptures, and inscriptions. What deities lived at this lo-cale? How were the deities emplaced within Ajanta'smonastic architec-tures? What do these deities' locations tell us about the constitution ofAjanta'sBuddhistcommunityand its values? How might cultic activitiesfor the deities located at Ajantabe viewed as contributing o a local Bud-dhism, Buddhismas a religion of place? My analysis will weave togetherfour discursive threads.The firstof these threads s the explication of thetheoretical assumptions that lead me to treat Buddhism in its local for-mation at Ajanta.The second thread s the actual materialevidence fromthe Ajantacaves themselves, which includes paintings, sculptures,archi-tecturalforms, andepigraphs.This Ajantamaterialwill be set in broadercontexts through my final two threads. The third is a consideration ofmodels of patronagethat had an impact on local community formation;the fourth,a consideration of the political pressuresthat fostered the de-velopment of Ajanta as a site for patronageas well as for the establish-ment of a local community.The local deities to be considered below will include a ndga king,the yaksini Hariti, andthe Buddha himself. The inclusion of the Buddhaon this list, as a deity of place, may be surprising.However, it is a prob-lematic conceit that the Buddhawas a purely translocalreligious figure,whose significance may be recovered exclusively through literary anddoctrinal sources. For this site's patrons, visitors, and community, theBuddha at Ajantawas a translocaldivinity with a specifically local iden-tity, just as the Great Goddess is Vaisno Devi at her temple on MountTrikft3or Siva is Acalesvara in his temple at Tiuvarir.4As I shall show,at Ajantathe Buddha became of this place throughhis association withand resolution of indigenous and uniquely local problems. Though innirvana, this Buddha was nevertheless present and active in the world.

2 PeterBrown, "Society and the Supernatural:A Medieval Change," n his Society andthe Holy in Late Antiquity (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,1992), p. 318.3 Kathleen M. Erndl, Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddess of Northwest India inMyth,Ritual, and Symbols (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).4 David Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the SouthIndian Saiva Tradition Princeton,N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1980), p. 50.

362


5/42

History of ReligionsAs the satgha's head, this localized Buddha, in turn,groundedthe Bud-dhist satigha's participation in local social relations. Social relationsnecessarily involve interactionsamong humanbeings. Within the contextof Asian Buddhism, social relations almost invariably involve nagas,yaksinis, and the Buddha as well. At Ajantathis was certainly the case.

THE DOMESTICATIONOF AN "ANTISOCIAL RELIGION"As I noted above, scholars who responded negatively to Bodiford'sque-ries often did so through recourse to a two-tier model, distinguishingindigenous religious cultures from a translocal Buddhist norm. EdwardConze, rememberedas much for the strengthof his opinions as that ofhis scholarship, elucidated this model with characteristicaplomb. First,Conze divided Buddhism into two opposing forms: "Much of what hasbeen handed down as 'Buddhism' is not due to the exercise of wisdom,butto the social conditions in which the Buddhistcommunityexisted....One must throughout distinguish the exotic curiosities from the essen-tials of holy life."5Second, Conze associated these two forms of "Bud-dhism" with sociological and historical realities: "The monks are theBuddhist elite. They are the only Buddhists in the proper sense of theword."6Here, proper Buddhists are individuals who reject indigenousacculturation. This transition occurs ritually when, as the stock descrip-tion reads, these individuals "cut off their beards and hair, put on redrobes, and with properfaith follow in renunciationthe Blessed One, whohimself went forth from the home to the homeless life."7 Such Bud-dhists concern themselves little with social relations. Separatedfrom thepressures of family and work, they devote themselves to gaining spiri-tualpower andspiritual nsight leading, ultimately,to absolute social tran-scendence, nirvana.Conversely, to the degree thatan individual does notsegregate himself from the world, and becomes physically or mentallycaught up in mundane, conditional, social interests, he falls away fromthis norm. Sherry Ortnerexplains the logic underlying this model: "Itseems fairly safe to say thatorthodox, canonical Buddhism was ... a re-ligion of antisocial individualism.... There is, then, an a priori logic tothe argumentthat Buddhism, given its premises, will be antagonistic tosocial life."8

5 Edward Conze, Buddhism: Its Essence and Development (New York:HarperTorch-books, 1975), p. 12.6 Ibid., p. 53.7 Raniero Gnoli, ed., The Gilgit Manuscript of the Sayandsanavastu and the Adhika-ranavastu, Being the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Sections of the Vinaya of the Malasarvasti-vadin (Rome: Instituto Italianoper il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1978), p. 15. I have readthe manuscript'sanagarad as dgdrad.8 Sherry B. Ortner,Sherpas through Their Rituals (New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1978), p. 157.

363


6/42

Naga, Yaksini,BuddhaIf one holds that Buddhism is a priori antisocial, it then follows thatsocial involvements are always somehow extrinsic to Buddhismproper.

Buddhism is not a social construction but a discursive constructionofand about the truth.That which is properlyBuddhist is universal, neverlocal; it is preserved in texts, not archaeological sites (except insofar asthey reproduce textual paradigms); it is realized in mental cultivation,not bodily gesture.Yet, as Conze admits,"whereverthe Dharmahas beena living, social reality, Buddhist theory has combined lofty metaphysicswith a willing acceptance of magical and mythological beliefs."9 Simi-larly, Ortner freely acknowledges that for Southeast Asian Buddhism"the a priori argument,predicting conflict between Buddhism and soci-ety from the antisocial premises of the doctrine, simply does not hold";10she attributesthis failure to follow "logic" to "historical facts" and "so-cial structure."1lGiven Ortner'susual acumen, it is surprisingthat shedid not see the tautologous nature of this argument,which measures areligion-a social and culturalformation-against the yardstickof an apriori argumentandthen attributesa mismatchto sociocultural factors. Itis not Southeast Asian Buddhism that is "illogical" but the model thatwould valorize a single strandof Buddhist doctrine, normalize it, andseek a determinatelogic therein. Both Ortnerand Conze make a "stockanthropologicalerror," n the words of C. J. Fuller, when they "convertan indigenous, ideological distinction into an analytic concept, and thenapply it to the empirical evidence to try to divide what is actually unitedby common underlyingthemes and principles."12This, in short, is the matter at stake in Bodiford'squestion:How oughtscholars to conceive of Buddhism as a social and cultural formation,a religion? Ivan Strenski offers a solution with his thesis thatthe "domes-tication"of the Buddhistsahgha was "a fundamental nternalfactorpro-pelling Theravada along the path to a fully social religious status."13Domesticationoccurs, Strenskiwrites, "wheneverthe sangha participateswith the laity in institutions"throughthe mechanism of gift exchange."Above all, the sangha is a ritual receiver of gifts."14The history of thesahgha's dynamicinteractionwith the laity suggests that these two groupsnaturallycame togetherto realize social goals; Buddhistcultures, societ-ies, and civilizations emerge out of this union. In short, by unpacking"domesticationof the sargha" one can account for why Ortner'sa priori

9 Conze, p. 72.10Ortner,p. 159.11Ibid., pp. 159-60.12 C. J. Fuller, The CamphorFlame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (Princeton,N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 27.13Ivan Strenski,"On GeneralizedExchangeand the Domestication of the Sangha,"Man18 (September 1983): 464.14Ibid., pp. 464-65.

364


7/42

History of Religionsargumentdoes not hold for Southeast Asian Buddhism andwhy it makeslittle sense to delimit the participationof Buddhist monks in society asan illegitimate violation of Buddhist "premises."Here is a premise or logic to counter that promoted by Ortner andConze. The logic of domesticationbegins with the empiricalobservationthat one always finds distinct links uniting the sanghawith the laity, andthat this relationship is almost invariably expressed through gestures ofritual giving. By subordinatingdoctrinalapologies for gift giving to the"bare"social fact of its occurrence,one is freed from Ortner'soverdeter-mined premises; the full spectrumof Buddhisthistory and the fluidity ofits local forms become available for consideration within a normalizingdiscourse. One can take account of place. Indeed, whereas social struc-tures cannot credibly be read through the lens of doctrine, by startingwith this empirical social data, we can read Buddhist ideologies, eventhose valorizing the monk as an antisocial individual,throughpatternsofexchange.How does domestication work? Following the lead of Levi-Strauss'sanalysis of kinship, Strenskiproposes that society is synthesized out ofexchange relationships. There are two basic patterns by which individ-uals become bound to one another and to a society through exchange:restrictedexchange andgeneralized exchange. "Restrictedexchange" in-volves what may be called a commercial element: two partiescontractanequitable exchange of goods or services on a reciprocal basis. We shallsee such a mechanismclearly at work at Ajantain the cult of a naga withwhom the monks share their residence: the humansattend to his shrine/home, and in turn he does not strike them dead. Eachpartyfulfills its partof the bargain, and social harmony prevails. For Strenski, relationshipsof reciprocity between monks and the laity (or nagas) are problematicand play only a secondary role in the saigha's domestication. This isbecause, although Strenski rejects the premise that Buddhism is funda-mentally antisocial, he nevertheless tentatively accepts the ideologicalconstructionof the Buddhistmonk as "a paradigmof non-reciprocity."15In light of this "ideal,"Strenskiproposes thatdomestication"bothavoidsthe appearanceand substance of reciprocity and expresses more durableand inclusive patternsof relationship."16 trenski'sanalysis went astrayhere, for, as I shall discuss below, restricted,reciprocalrelationships arefundamental o Buddhismas a religion of place.The second modality of exchange, "generalized exchange," is do-mestication proper; it is not linear but complex in its configuration. InStrenski'swords, generalized exchange "seeks an unbalancedcondition

15Ibid., p. 472.16Ibid., p. 473.

365


8/42

Naga, Yaksini,Buddhabetween exchange partners,which requires repaymentat some unspec-ified time, typically by anothergroupor personthanthe originalreceiverof the first gift: A gives to B who gives to C ... until A finally receiveshis due.... [Generalized exchange] thus links its members in a theoret-ically open system of indebtedness, the momentum of which tends tobuild up social solidarity."17 gain by referenceto Ajanta,so long as themonks attend to the local naga king's needs, he provides steady andplentiful rains, benefiting lay society, which in turnsupportsthe monks.Accordingly, Strenski unpacks the term "domestication"as "the condi-tion of the sangha within a system of generalized exchange. 'Domestica-tion' simply names a process of the sangha's participationin a certainsocial solidarity."18Here I lay a foundation for recovering Ajanta's ocal Buddhism. If, asStrenski claims, "the problem of how domestication came about is...the problemof how Buddhistsociety was formedin the process of ritualgiving"19then "domestication"provides an analytic concept of excep-tional utility.The very natureof the archaeologicalevidence fromAjantacompels this evaluation. What we know of Buddhist life at Ajanta de-rives principally from physical remains that index past acts of giving.Excavatory and decorative work at the site occurredin two phases, thefirst of which lasted from approximately100 B.C.E. to 100 C.E., the sec-ond from circa 462 and 480.20Our knowledge of Ajanta'sBuddhismistied to gifts of monasteries,the wellsprings of Buddhistculture,society,and civilization. The institutionalizationof a Buddhist community atAjanta throughthe establishmentof a monastic"village"sets this sanghain a network of relationships that circulatedobligation as a currencyinthe local sociopolitical economy. The monks' ritual interactionwith localdivinities was one means by which they met the obligations attached,like a lien, to their local residence in magnificentcaves as well to theirmore general residence in a social system. As the mechanism of socialsolidarity, domestication provides a basic model for reconstructingthesocial processes involved in the foundation of a BuddhistcommunityatAjanta.Moreover, it is possible to link this generalized-versus-restricted-exchange distinction to another opposition I play with in this article:translocalversus local. This point can be clarifiedby way of anexample.In the Milindapafiha, he first dilemma King Milinda poses to the monkNagasenabearson the matterof gifts to the Buddha afterhis parinirvana:

17 Ibid., p. 471.18Ibid.19Ibid., p. 470.20 Forthese dates, see WalterM. Spink, "TheArchaeology of Ajanta,"Ars Orientalis21(1991): 67-94. I will discuss Ajanta'shistory at greaterlength below.

366


9/42

History of ReligionsIf the Buddhaaccepts gifts he cannot have passed entirely away.He must still bein union with the world, having his being somewhere in it, in the world, a share-holder in the things of the world;and thereforeany honourpaid to him becomesempty and vain. On the other hand if he be entirely passed away (from life), un-attached to the world, escaped from all existence, then honours would not beoffered to him. For he who is entirely set free accepts no honour, and any actdone to him who accepts it not becomes empty and vain.21In other words, if the Buddha is not transcendentaland translocal, thenhe lacks value as an object of worship, so why attempt to engage theBuddha in an exchange relationship?Yet, if the Buddha is not presentand local, then he cannot enjoy offerings, so why participate with theBuddha in an exchange relationship?Nagasena's response takes the samenormative stance as that embraced by Conze and Ortner.The Buddhais in nirvana;his is the ultimate in antisocial behavior;"the Blessed Oneaccepts no gift."22Nevertheless, Nagasena holds that offerings to theBuddha are efficacious because in this case exchange does not requirereciprocity.The Buddha (or his commemorative caitya) provides an oc-casion, a context, for giving.23 In this way, the Buddha's translocalitydoes not precludehis location within a network of generalized exchange,for such a network works throughthe displacement of presence and thepostponement of profits. The Buddha is like Johnny Appleseed of U.S.folklore: both broadcast seeds over fertile public land and then departedfor points unknown. Even thoughthese individuals are no longer present,the community can still enjoy the fruit of their labors. In fact, if JohnnyAppleseed or the Buddha did not travel to the beyond (obviously theiractions have vastly differentcosmological scopes), they would not havebecome the stuff of legends; their fruits would not be as sweet. Here wesee a linkage between generalized processes of exchange, the founda-tion of generalized community and social structures,and a valorizationof translocality.Such a set of equations may partiallyexplain the appar-ent disjunctionin the field of Buddhist studies between a scholarly inter-est in Buddhist nomos and one in local spiritcults.

21 T.W. Rhys-Davids, trans., The Questions of King Milinda (New York:Dover, 1963),1:144-45.22 Ibid., p. 146.23 One finds a similar question raised in Vasubandhu'sAbhidharmakosa:How can a giftto a caitya be meritorious if there is nobody there to enjoy it? The Kosa explains that agift may be meritorious either because it is directly enjoyed by the recipient or because itis abandoned with no one to receive it and no expectation of recompense (Dwarika DasShastri, ed., Abhidharmako?aand Bh.sya of Acdrya Vasubandhuwith SphiiutrthaCom-mentaryof Acarya YaSomitraVaranasi:BauddhaBharati,1987],p. 747,verse4.121). AdrianMayer points out a similar distinction within Vaisnava devotionalism. Paja is an exchange"madein connection with benefits for the worshiper,"whereas seva is performed"withoutthought of benefit or return" cited in Fuller [n. 12 above], p. 71).

367


10/42

Naga, Yaksini,BuddhaAs networksof generalized exchange find expression in metaphorsoftranslocality, so restricted, reciprocal relationships find expression in

those of place, locality, and presence. Thus, whereas the Milindapafihaset the Buddha'stranslocality as the basis for his absent involvement inacts of ritualexchange, fostering domestication through generalizedex-change, this same text sets the monks' localization as the basis for theirinvolvement in exchange relations, fostering domestication throughre-stricted exchange. Nagasena explains: although it may seem contradic-tory for monks to accept fixed dwellings from the laity, this practice isacceptable because it makes the monks accessible to the laity.24Whetheror not monks willfully intend to enter a restricted exchange relation-ship, their presence functions as the directreciprocationfor the gift of adwelling. Similarly, the following story from the Milasarvastivada vi-naya (MSV) illustrates the importof place andpresencefor restrictedex-change relationships between monks and donors: "The faithful erectedmany monasteries, [but] few monks spent the rains retreatin Sravasti.The [monasteries]stood empty.The benefactorsdid not receive the spir-itualmerit thatcomes from [themonks']use [of theirdonations].Instead,scoundrels took over [the monasteries].The Blessed One said, 'Countall[the monasteries]. Depending upon the calculation, every [monastery]should be used personallyby one, two, three,or four [monks]. [A monk]should pass the morningin one [monastery],[and] should dwell in a dif-ferent [monastery] at mid-day, in another during the afternoon, and in[still] another at night.'"25Certain fruits of giving can only be hadthroughmonks' living presence. In orderto reciprocatethe faithful laityfor theirdonations,and to satisfy their desire for spiritualmerit,the Bud-dha disruptthe monks' own lives, enjoining them to play "musicalmon-asteries."Strenski suggests that such a ploy had no role within orthodoxBuddhist giving founded in generalized exchange, which "liberatesgift-giving from petty calculation... by appearing to be sacrifice."26 acri-fice, giving without a discernible guaranteeof return,is precisely whatthe Buddha's order precludes. According to this tale, donors must un-equivocally know that they will receive their spiritualdue; monks mustdo what is necessary to satisfy the laity. Reciprocation is a normal andproperpartof the monastic life, even at the monks' inconvenience.In addition,despite Strenski'sdevaluationof spiritualmerit as a directreciprocationfor gifts received, one often finds that meritbears a "tangi-ble" fruitand a this-worldlybenefit.The donor of a set of Buddha magesin Ajanta'sCave 22 expresses the immediateresults of giving in a verse

24 Strenski (n. 13 above), p. 473.25 Gnoli, ed., The Gilgit Manuscriptof the Sayanasanavastu(n. 7 above), p. 35.26 Strenski, p. 475.

368


11/42

History of Religionsincluded with this painting:"Those who have an image of the Conquerormade, in this [very life] become possessed of beauty, fortune, and goodqualities;blazing like the sun in their faculties and sense, they become adelight to the eye."27Similarly, the Pali commentary on the Dhamma-pada tells that when King Bimbisara made an offering of robes to theBuddha and community of monks, dedicating the merit from that trans-action to a group of ghosts hauntinghim, those ghosts instantaneouslyand visibly "were clothed in divine raiments."28Again, in the MSV,Sariputradeliberately increases Anathapindada'soy at building the Jeta-vana monastery by telling Anathapindada hat at the same time that heholds a cord to measure the monastery's foundation a golden palacecomes into being in Tusita heaven: the larger the monastery, the largerthe palace.29Restricted exchange, in short, works when the individualsinvolved are mutually present and when the fruits of the exchange areevident to the parties involved. At the most basic level, presence-forexample, the localization of a saiigha in a specific place-is itself thedesired fruit.As a social phenomenon, Buddhism cannot be understoodapartfromits local manifestations, nor solely through its local manifestations.Domestication, the creation of a Buddhist society, works through bothmodes of exchange relationship; both are normal. Nor is this the casesolely for monks. If one is to avoid Fuller's "stock anthropological er-ror,"one must entertain he notion that the Buddha, too, might participatein restrictedexchange relationships,even though he is sometimes repre-sented in doctrinal texts as utterly beyond samsara. In mythologicalterms, to recover a local Buddhism at Ajantaone has to problematizetheMilindapafiha'spronouncementthat the Buddha is absolutely translocaland does not enjoy worship himself. How did Ajanta's patrons,commu-nity of monks, and artisansmake the Buddhapresent and use that pres-ence to address mundane and local concerns? How did the Buddha andhis community of monks gain institutional momentum in a particularplace-Ajanta-through restrictedexchange relationships, and how didthey diffuse that momentumthroughoutthe broadersociety (and indeedthe cosmos) to become domesticated through generalized exchange?

27 I reedited and retranslatedall Ajanta'sinscriptions in my "Setting the Three Jewels:The Complex Cultureof Buddhism at the AjantaCaves"(doctoraldiss., University of Mich-igan, 1995). At times my readings coincide with those previously published; at times Idiverge widely from previous scholars. All translationshere are my own and are based onreconstructionsof the Sanskrit that can be found in appendix A to my "Setting the ThreeJewels."28 John S. Strong, TheExperience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations(Belmont,Calif.: Wadsworth,1995), p. 80.29 Gnoli, ed., The Gilgit Manuscriptof the Sayandsanavastu,p. 24.

369


12/42

Naga, Yaksini, Buddha

I I '

I26

Scale of i1 100 00oo oo 600 600 ,io .oo_900 .ooo feeFIG. 1.-General plan of the Ajanta caves. Source: James Burgess, Reporton the Buddhist Cave Temples and Their Inscriptions (Varanasi: Bharatiya,1975), pl. 14.

A BRIEF DIVERSION: INTRODUCINGAJANTABefore I localize the Buddha at Ajanta or explore the mechanisms ofdomestication as they pertain to patronageat the site, I will set forth,very cursorily, the geophysical and historicocultural environments thathad an impact on Ajanta'sestablishment. Even today the Ajanta cavesare difficult to access. In 1992 a helipad was clearedto expedite the visitof a Japaneseprince;the rest of us ride the bus fromthe nearest rail link,Jalgaon, ninety minutes to the north,or from Aurangabad, hree hourstothe south. In the late fifth century C.E.,when the caves were excavatedinto a sheer scarp overhanging the Waghora River (fig. 1), they wereequally isolated. Archaeological investigations of the district have un-covered no evidence of villages or towns located in the immediatevicin-ity of Ajanta'sthirty-six monasteries, caitya halls, and shrinelets. Thenearest populationcenters to receive sustainedattentionfrom Indian ar-chaeologists would have been a strenuous day's journey from Ajanta:Buldana,approximately hirtymiles to the east, andBhokardan, he same

370


13/42

History of Religionsdistance to the south.30In any event, no evidence links any of Ajanta'srock-cut buildings, or the paintings and sculptures for which they arerenowned, to either Buldana or Bhokardan.Rather,epigraphs found onsite associate Ajanta'svarious patronswith an emperorof the Vakatakadynasty named Harisena, who ruled from the city of Vatsagulma(nowknown as Washim), one hundredlinear miles to the east-southeast ofAjanta (fig. 2).Ajanta's architecture,paintings, sculptures, and epigraphs are repre-sentative of a complex and vibrant form of local Buddhism and providea witness to Buddhism as a constituent of Indiansociety in the late fifthcentury.In actuality, Ajantawas createdin two phases of patronage,thefirst stretching from approximately 100 B.C.E. to 100 C.E., the secondfrom circa 462 to 480; my sole interesthere lies in donors and donationsbelonging to the second phase. All evidence points to these fifth-centurypatronsas being closely affiliatedwith the Harisena.WalterSpink'schro-nology and history of Ajanta binds the caves explicitly to the fortunesand social programof the Vakatakapolity. According to Spink, a Vaka-takaruler named Harisenainherited his father's throne in approximately460 C.E. Almost immediately thereafter "a consortium of the emperor'srichest and most powerful courtiers" hired architects and artisans to re-alize this great project.31These courtiers includedVarahadeva,a ministerof Harisena's,responsible for Cave 16; Buddhabhadra,a noble-become-monk, who tells us that he was "boundin friendshipwith a minister ofthe mighty King of Asmaka over the course of many lifetimes" (else-where I have shown this Asmakanking was likely Harisena),patronizedCave 26; and an unnamed feudatory raja subordinate to Harisena wasresponsible for Caves 17, 18, and 19.32Further,Spink has argued thatAjanta'sCave 1 was the dedication of Harisenahimself,33and that theneighboring Cave 2 may have been patronizedby a close relative, per-haps one of Harisena's wives.34 Approximately twenty years after thesite's efflorescence, circa 480, programmaticwork at Ajanta patronized

30 For a survey of the few archaeological remains from the Buldana district dating toVakatakatimes, see Ramesh ChandraAgrawal, Archaeological Remains in WesternIndia(Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan,1989). For a survey of the few archaeological remains fromBhokardandistrictdating to Viakatakaimes, see ShantaramBhalchandraDeo and RameshShankarGupte, Excavations at Bhokardan(Bhogavardhana) 1973 (Nagpur and Auranga-bad: Nagpur University and MarathwadaUniversity, 1974).31 Spink, "Archaeology of Ajanta,"p. 69.32 ForVarahadeva'snscriptionsee my "Setting the ThreeJewels,"pp. 357-62. ForBud-dhabhadra'snscription see my "Setting the Three Jewels," pp. 378-81. On the identifica-tion of Harisenaas the mighty king of Asmaka referredto in Buddhabhadra'snscription,see my "Setting the ThreeJewels,"pp. 57-62. Forthe Cave 17 inscription see my "Settingthe Three Jewels," pp. 367-71.33 WalterM. Spink, "Ajanta'sChronology: Politics and Patronage," n Kaladarsana, ed.Joanna G. Williams (New Delhi: Oxford and IBH in collaboration with the American In-stitute of Indian Studies, 1981), pp. 119-21.34 WalterM. Spink, personal communication with author, 1989.

371


14/42

.* SUA.. saKarakara:::.. Bb^hatikapadra uvaoaragratamuu:oRUCd OBTk,ER

:: :' C ave sites ssoakakagratdith th Vakataka:;:::::::: URT l urnaraasav at ak ata

l Cave sites asociated with the Vakatakasinme f Harisena

i Sahyadr Range (approximately)FIG.2.-Vakataka India (not to scale). Map generatedby authorusing Micro


15/42

History of Religionsby Vatsagulma's luminaries crashed to a halt with the destruction ofthe Vakatakafamily. Due to the loss of sustained, certainpatronage,themonks soon left this narrow chasm at the head of the WaghoraRiver forpoints unknown.35The following study of localization and domestication of Buddhismat Ajanta will proceed through a number of case studies. First, I willtreat a "local" deity, by investigating the incorporation of a shrine toa naga king, keeper of this Waghorachasm, in Cave 16; here I will setforth a general pattern for localization. The second study will treat a"translocal ocal" deity. Moving into a more "normative"Buddhistspace,both physically and mythologically, I will discuss a pillared chapel ded-icated to Hariti-a yaksini whose personal story was known to all theBuddhist world-excavated inside Cave 2, in the rear wall beside theBuddha shrine. I will show how the displacementof thisyaksini from heroriginal home in Rajagrha, and her relocation within Cave 2, accom-plished both the emplacement of Vkat.aka society within that cave andthe transformationof its resident monks into priests, mediators betweenthe lay and spirit worlds. The third study will explore the Buddha as a"local translocal"deity. At Ajanta, the Buddha was assimilated in bodyand role to Harisena;as a king's principal duty is to maintain the socialand cosmic orders, so Ajanta's local Buddhas fulfilled this task in theplace of Harisena, who lived in distant Vatsagulma. In this way, theseBuddhas'local presence played on translocalvalences of Buddha as theUnexcelled King of Dharma to incorporate Ajanta and its communityinto the Vakataka social world. For the reasons explained above, thesethree studies will not be "completed" by a fourth that treats the Buddhaas a purely translocal deity: such studies are plentiful.Although Ajantais the richest of India's Buddhistarchaeological sitesfor reconstructing a temporally and spatially localized Buddhism, thedata found therein do not speak for themselves. The studies that followare workedout througha readingof the evidence local to Ajantathroughbroaderpatternsof mythology, folklore, and doctrine.My principalliter-ary source for this contextualizing materialwill be the MSV,a patchworkof monastic regulations,jataka tales, sutras, and retellings of the Bud-dha's life well known to Ajanta's community.36I will supplement the

35Although I have accepted the generaloutline of Spink'schronology for Ajanta'sVaka-takaphase, my own reconstructionof Vakatakahistorydiffersradicallyfromthe one Spinkproposes. See my "Problems in the Writingof Ajanta'sHistory:The EpigraphicEvidence,"Indo-IranianJournal 40, no. 2 (April 1997): 125-48, for a discussion of where Spink hasgone wrong in his historical reconstruction,and my "Setting the ThreeJewels,"pp. 63-77,for an alternative,tentative reconstruction.36 On the pros and cons of using the MSV for discussions of Ajanta,see my "Setting theThree Jewels," pp. 122-27.

373


16/42

Naiga, Yaksini,BuddhaMSV with other literatureassociatedwith Ajanta,as well as with the eye-witness accounts of Chinese pilgrims who visited India between the fifthand seventh centuries.

NAGA: LOCALIZINGBUDDHISM IN CAVE 16Cave 16 at Ajanta was a monastic residence dominated by a huge,monolithic representationof Buddha cut in a shrine room in the back.Varahadeva'sdedicatory inscription describes this cave as "a splendiddwelling for the ascetic Indra(i.e., the Buddha) excavated on the finestmountain,home to a ndga king."37Here Varahadevaelucidates two factsof great import: this place became the Buddha'shome after formerlyhaving been the abode of a naga king. Varahadeva'sclaims have twoimportant ramifications for interpretingthe site. First, by designatingCave 16 as the Buddha'sdwelling, Varahadevasuggests that in some asyet unspecified way the Buddhawas "alive" there.Second, this mountainscarp'soriginal inhabitant,its naga king, was renderedhomeless whenthe Vakatakasbegan to institute a Buddhist community at the site. Thendga needed a new place to live. And so, in additionto creatinga homefor Buddha, Varahadeva'sdedicatory inscription tells that he also exca-vated a new dwelling for the naga king located immediately inside thecave's entrance, near river level (figs. 3, 4).38The entryway in front ofthis shrine had no provision for a door: Cave 16's naga king sat as anunblinking guardianover the entrance to this monastery and the Wag-hora River before it.

Nagas play an ambiguousrole in Buddhistmythology. Powerful crea-tures who dwell in a glorious but debased existence undergroundor inrivers, nagas control patterns of fertility and destructionthroughtheirpower over rains, which may be sweetly life-giving or torrentialanddeadly.Nagas' power is distinctly localized, and in Buddhiststories theyprotecttheirturffiercely.Indeed,ndgaswereamongthe Buddha's taunch-est adversaries:soon after the awakening, Sakyamuni proved his powerto a groupof ascetics by spendingthe night in the lair of a fire-breathingnaga andtamingthe beastwithoutcausing it harm.39 imilarly,amongthetales the MSV tells of the Buddha'svisit to India'snorthwest,two involvethe subduingof the nagas ApalalaandGopala;40n both cases, fierce andstormy battles precede the Buddha'sinevitable triumph.Once pacified,however, nagas become the staunchestguardiansof the Buddha andhis

37Ibid., p. 361.38Ibid., p. 362.39Raniero Gnoli, ed., The Gilgit Manuscriptof the Sanghabhedavastu,Being the Sev-enteenth and Last Section of the Vinayaof the Mulasarvistivddin (Rome:InstitutoItalianoper il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1977), 1:217-18.40See John S. Strong, The Legend and Cult of Upagupta: SanskritBuddhismin NorthIndia and SoutheastAsia (Princeton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1992), pp. 26, 28.

374


17/42

History of Religions

FIG. 3.-A view of Cave 16 from across the Waghora River. The naga kingis located ust inside thedoorway lankedby theelephants.Photoby author.

doctrine.Naga king Mucalindaprovided a refuge to the Buddha,when astorm threatenedhis blissful meditation soon after awakening.41The nd-gas in Ramagramaare rememberedas preserving and revering one por-tion of the Buddha'srelics.42 n addition,the MSV tells us that the Buddhaestablished his sutrasamong the nagas.43This latterbelief possibly un-derlies the well-known storyof Nagarjuna's etrievalof the PerfectionofWisdom Sitras from the ndgas, as well as the lesser-known example ofa naga who, having taken the guise of an old monk, preacheda "corruptversion" of theEkottaraagama, a versionpreserved n his wateryworld.44The following tale from the MSV allows a more detailed look at thesubduing of ndgas. Here we meet Asvaka and Punarvasuka, wo nagaswho had been Sakyamuni'sdisciples in their formerbirth. When human,these two were membersof the "gangof six" (sadvdrgika),disciples who41 Gnoli, ed., The Gilgit Manuscript of the Saighabhedavastu, p. 126.42 John S. Strong, The Legend of King Asoka (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University

Press, 1983), p. 219.43Gnoli, ed., The Gilgit Manuscript of the Sayanasanavastu (n. 7 above), p. 24.44S. Bagchi, ed., Mulasarvastivadavinayavastu(Darbhanga,India: Mithila Institute ofPost-GraduateStudies andResearchin SanskritLearning, 1970), 2:86. The same tale is toldin EdwardByles Cowell and R. A. Neil, eds., TheDivydvadana,A Collection of Early Bud-dhist Legends (Delhi: Indological Book House, 1987), p. 329.

375


18/42


FIG.4.-Cave 16's naga king. Photo by author.

caused trouble in the sahgha by violating all rules of propriety. As onemight expect of such students, they blame their benevolent teacher fortheir own failings and vow revenge.[The Blessed One] went to Nandivardhana. n Nandivardhana,King Bhavadeva,along with his courtiers, the candali's seven sons, and the earth-dwellingyaksaswere well established in the Holy Truths.Therewas a great lake in thatplace inwhich Asvaka and Punarvasukahad both been reborn as ndgas. Twelve yearspassed and [Asvaka and Punarvasuka]rose to the [lake's] surface. Angrily, theysaid: "Because the Blessed One didn'tteach us the Dharma,we'renow debased,born as nagas. So, let's destroy his religion."The Blessed One then deliberated:"Because these ndgas, Asvaka and Punarvasuka,are very mighty and have ex-

376


19/42

History of Religionstraordinary owers,they certainlycouldgrindmy teachings o dust aftermyparinirvana." fterconsideringhis[point],he BlessedOnewenttoAsvakaandPunarvasuka.avingapproached,e addressedhem:"Asvaka ndPunarvasuka,there s a teachingknownas 'TheDharma-discoursen four ines.'Learnt well!""A reverendmonk] eachesus theHolyDharma.Who is he?"Wonderinghis,they sank[back nto the lake].Those two realized,"The Blessed One himselftaughtus theDharma, utwe didn't ecognizehim."TheBlessedOne thenfixedhisreflection n the surface of thewater].Againandagain,AsvakaandPunar-vasuka[riseup toward he surface],gaze at the [reflection,] elieve that theBlessedOne remainspresent, ndsink backdown.45The Buddha subdues Asvaka and Punarvasuka n stages. First, he givesthem a Dharma-discourse:a waste of words considering that these twofailed to comprehendhis teachings even when human. Second. Sakya-muniestablishes his definitive presence in these naga's territoryby fixinghis image at the entrance to their lair.In the end, this is not a story aboutthe syncretic appropriationof a lo-cal naga cult into Buddhism. Rather,it tells how Buddhists make use oflocal deities in order to emplace themselves within a local society. TheMSV does not represent Nandivardhana'sking or populace as particu-larly concerned with Asvaka and Punarvasuka. It is the Buddha whoworries about them and Buddhism that needs them. The Buddha entersinto a restricted-exchangerelationship with Asvaka and Punarvasuka,arelationshipbased on presence. The Buddha makes two offerings to thesepowerful creaturesof dim intellect: first,his teachings; second, his body.The Buddha gives the nagas these things so that, as the MSV tells us,they will not destroy his religion out of anger that he passed them by.Under the guise of making restitutionto these ndgas for whatever slightthey felt, the Buddha fixed his presence in thatvery place, corporeallyaswell as dharmically.

Although tantalizing, this text is incomplete: it does not tell us "whathappened next" to Asvaka and Punarvasuka.We do not know whether,in Nandivardhana,a shrine to these nagas coexisted with that of the Bud-dha and, if so, how Asvaka and Punarvasuka would have been inte-grated into monastic life. At Ajanta, a shrine for the ndga king wasplaced within the precincts of Cave 16. What did the institutionalizedpresence of that naga mean for Ajanta'scommunity? The following ac-count from the fifth-centuryChinese pilgrim Fa Hien shows one patternfor a sahgha'sritualinteractionwith a local naga. Here Fa Hien describesa naga cult as it was instituted in a Buddhist monasterywithin the townof Samkas'ya.This local ndga, Fa Hien writes, "is the patronof this bodyof priests. He causes fertilising and seasonable showers of rain to fall45 Derge Kha, 120B4-121A3. I am working with the text as reproduced by the AsianClassics Input Project (ACIP), catalog numberKD0001B.

377


20/42

Naga, Yaksini,Buddhawithin theircountry,andpreservesit fromplagues andcalamities, and socauses the priesthood to dwell in tranquility."46n return for the naga'sgood graces, Samkasya'smonks provide Samkasya'snaga with a chapeland a seat. Every day three monks bring the ndga a religious offering,and once a year they "place in the midst of [the ndga's]lair a copperves-sel full of cream;andthen, fromthe highest to the lowest, they walk pasthim in procession as if to pay him greeting all around."47 his may bewhat Conze meant by an "exotic curiosity."Just as the Buddhagave his presenceto Asvaka andPunarvasuka, im-ilarly, in Fa Hien's story about the goings-on in Samkasya, local monksprovide the naga a place to live and offer it worship in that place. First,the ndga reciprocates in two ways. The ndga supports them. Fa Hienuses a language of direct presence: this snake deity is a patronwho en-ables the monks to dwell in peace. Second, the ndga favors the monksby not harming them. The following story from the MSV-in which alocal monastic community shares its home with several nagas, mistreatsthose ndgas, and is terrorizedby those nagas-helps to clarify this di-mension of the restricted,proximate,natureof the relationshipbetweenmonks and their coresident nagas: "In this case, there is a monasteryestablished in a place inhabited by nagas. In an inappropriatespot, ordwelling, or path to a dwelling, a certain foolish, stupid, undeveloped,andclumsy old [monk]eithershits, coughs phlegm, blows out snot, farts,or scatters befouled bedding about. Enraged, the ndgas stand at thedwelling and at the path to the dwelling, as well as on the promenade,in the courtyard,and at the doorway, and strike down the monks."48 n-sofar as this relationshipworks at the level of restrictedexchange, it isprimarilya matter of promotinglocal harmony.The monks andndga areboth present;the fruits of their interactions are immediate and apparent.In the above examples, one sees thatthe presence of a local naga pre-sents the Buddha and his monks with an opportunityto fix their ownpresence in the same spot. This is what David Shulmanhas called the"phenomenonof localization" within his study of Tamil temple myths.The Buddhists enter into a restricted-exchangerelationshipwith a localndga, who is identified with the earth and with all that is indigenousandunique in the site of the shrineor monastery.49Throughthis relation-ship based on sharedpresence, the Buddhistsestablish their local legiti-macy. The relationship has discernible local effects: nagas, who might

46 Samuel Beal, Si-YuKi: BuddhistRecords of the WesternWorld,Translatedrom theChinese of Hiuen Tsiang(A.D. 629) (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), p. xli.47 Ibid., p. xlii.48 Bagchi, ed., p. 134.49Here I paraphraseShulman'sdefinition of this phenomenon ([n. 4 above], p. 51).

378


21/42

History of Religionsotherwise cause harm, are pacified; Buddhists, who might otherwise bestrangers,are neighbors.

At the same time, Fa Hien's characterizationof the local monastic cultfor the naga in Sarmkasya eveals it to be a paradigmatic example ofgeneralized exchange. The monks propitiatethe naga, who in turn causesa good monsoon, enriching the local laity, which in turn enriches themonks. This is a decentralized and dynamic network of exchange; thecirculation of benefits and obligations from agent to agent constructs aworking society and a domesticated sangha. This is a neat, idealized ex-ample of a generalized exchange relationship. Such a system would, infact, have been open ended and inclusive of, as Strenski observes, "anindefinite numberof members."50If, in Strenski'swords, "domestication" s "the condition of the [Bud-dha or] sangha within a system of [generalized exchange],"then "local-ization" is the condition of the Buddha or saigha within a system ofrestrictedexchange.51And just as generalized patternsof exchange donot occur apartfrom dyadic restrictedinteractions, so the domesticationof a satigha cannot take place unless that sahgha is emplaced within lo-cal society. The interaction of the Buddha or his monks with local spiritsis a primary means by which such localization occurs. To reprise mybroaderprogrammaticagenda:insofar as actual social interactions on thepart of the Buddha or sahgha take the form of restricted as well as ofgeneralized exchange, local data is as essential (to recall Bodiford) astranslocal to the nuanced reconstruction of Buddhist life. An interpreta-tion of Buddhist life at Ajanta's Cave 16 necessitates consideration ofthe ndga shrineexcavated at this monastery'spublic entrance as certainlyas it does considerationof the Buddhadeep within the cave's recess. Forthe Buddhism local to this spot, neither can be valorized as more essen-tial or normal.We do not actually know what anybody did at Cave 16's naga shrine.We do not know how the local monks may have treated this snake king.And we do not know whether local rains were timely and sufficient orwhether floods and epidemics touched the monks' and Vakatakas's ives.Yet, from these various accounts found in the MSV and Fa Hien, exam-ples that could be multiplied, we see a distinctpatternof interaction thatis crucial for reconstructingBuddhist life at Ajanta. Nagas are ambiva-lent and dangerousbeings, each of whom haunts a specific locale. Whenpacified-through the continuing presence of the Buddhain the form ofan image, throughthe performanceof propitiatoryrites by the sargha, orthroughsome othermeans not specified in the stories I cite-these local

50Strenski (n. 13 above), p. 471.51Ibid.

379


22/42

Naga, Yaksini,Buddhadeities become benefactors for the humans who share their locale. Forthe Buddhaor sahgha to have an effective role in the controlof local de-ities, they must themselves become local as well. The same holds trueforVarahadeva'sBuddhain Cave 16, where a dwelling for the ascetic Indrawas incorporatedwith the home of a niga king.

YAKSINI: DISPLACING HARITI AND EMPLACING THE LAITY IN CAVE 2Nagas were not the only local deities whose pacificationby the Buddhaand his sahgha enabled localization and domestication. The followingstory from the MSV shows that this pattern also worked for yaksas,chthonic deities typically associated with terrestrial and human fertil-ity. In this tale, Sakyamuni Buddha visits the northern Indian city ofMathuraat a time when a yaksa named Gardabha ives as "an enemy tofriends, an adversaryto allies, an antagonistto well-wishers, who stealschildren as soon as they are born."52Mathura's aithful Brahmanasandhouseholders implore the Buddha to assist them. Sakyamuniadjudicatestheirgrievance: if these local devotees will construct a monasteryfor thelocal communityof monks and dedicate it in Gardabha's onor,this localyaksa will cause no more harm.53The MSV concludes Gardabha's toryby telling that the faithful of Mathura amed a full twenty-five hundredyaksas throughbuilding twenty-fivehundredBuddhistmonasteries n theirhonor.The people of Mathura do not want to get rid of their yaksas; theypresent themselves as the yaksas' friends and well-wishers. The Ma-thuransaspireto live in harmonywith theirchthonic deities. The Buddhafulfills these lay followers' wishes by masteringthe yaksas and harness-ing their power for social good. In this story, like those told of nagasabove, the Buddha and sahgha become localized insofar as they sharetheir dwellings with the deities who are indigenous and unique to thesites of the monasteries.These restrictedexchange relationshipsbetweenBuddha,monks, andyaksas serve as the bases for the broaderprojectofdomestication, an institutionalizedsocial solidarityinclusive of, at least,monks, lay folk, and local deities.Worship,as performedin India with offerings of food, light, and wa-ter, typically occurs somewhere. In the above story of Gardabha,themonks live in the monastery,but it was constructedfor the yaksa; it wasdedicated to his worship. One may imagine that Gardabhastood some-where inside the monastic precinct receiving devotion, like Cave 16'snaga king. Indeed, the Milindapanihaaccepts the fact that offerings to

52Bagchi, ed., p. 18.53Ibid.

380


23/42

History of Religionsthe Buddha will be made somewhere-at a caitya-even if the Buddhais not there to receive them. The creationof a specific place for the wor-ship of local nagas or yaksas or Buddhas within a Buddhist monasteryis the physical means through which localization occurs. The estab-lishment of a shrine (or monastery) is the precondition for a stable andpredictable restrictedexchange relationshipin which offerings arerecip-rocatedthrough,at the very least, the proximityandpresence of the wor-shiped.Localizationcontributesto domestication:the Buddha and monksare meaningfully placed within a society when whatever is most partic-ular to that society is placed within their monastic space.As a sangha becomes geographically localized throughthe incorpora-tion of a local divinity within its domicile, so a divinity's actualemplace-ment within the monastic plan might suggest its role or function in themechanisms of domestication. Varahadeva's shrine for the naga king,for instance, was excavated within the precincts of his monastery,but itwas placed outside the living quarters,outside the veranda, and outsidethe courtyard,down a flight of stairs,near the river, at the furthest reachfrom the Buddha who lives inside. The placement of this ndga kingtransforms him into a guardian deity for the cave. He falls within theBuddha'ssphere,but his continuing significance has little to do with thatspecific relationship. This is not to say that this naga does not assist inthe localization of Cave 16's Buddha or satgha. Rather,this spatial dy-namic suggests that additional factors may have been at work in the es-tablishment of this monastery. I will explore these factors in the nextsection.A shrine to the yaksini Hariti found inside Ajanta'sCave 2 presents avery different model. Cave 2's Hariti shrine is one of two subsidiarychapels cut into the back wall of the monastery, located on either sideof the entrance to the central Buddha shrine (fig. 5). To the right of theBuddha, the Hariti shrine holds monolithic carved images of Hariti andher consort Panicika fig. 6); murals depicting devotees performing piijawere painted on the side walls (figs. 7, 8). Balancing Hariti's shrine, tothe antechamber's eft, is a chapel holding monolithic images of Pad-manidhi and Safikhanidhi,embodiments of the wealth and power con-trolled by Paficika. These are the only two chapels dedicated to deitiesother than Buddha that were excavated within an Ajanta monastery.Hariti is an insider.Indeed, one difference between Hariti and Cave 16's naga is attribut-able to the fact that Hariti functioned within several semantic contextssimultaneously. Hariti fits the model of an ambivalent local spirit. LikeAsvaka, Punarvasuka,or Gardabha,her conversion story ties her to alocale, Rajagrha,which she firstterrorizes and then protects. Yet, unlike

381


24/42

Naga, Yaksini, BuddhaPlan of Cave II

whereveruddhist monks traveled. Hariti was an upsikd, a lay devotee,

FIG. .theFloor planf Cave2. Source: amesFergusson ndJamesBurgess,TheCaveTemples f India(Delhi:MunshiramManoharlal,988),pl. 44.

theseother figures, Hiriti also became a translocaleity for the Bud-dhists. Shrines to this yaksini were not to be found in Rdjagrhaalone butwherever Buddhist monks traveled. Hdritiwas an upasika,a lay devotee,who accordingto some accounts attainedthe stage of g'rotapatti, herebyentering the direct path to liberation; an early Mahdyfina reatise evencalls Hdriti a "great bodhisattva."54conographically,Hfiriti looks likeany other yaksini; iconologically, her identity was in the eye of the be-54Noel Peri, "Hariti, a Mere-de-Demons,"Bulletinde l'tcole Francaise d'ExtremeOri-ent 17 (1917): 20, 23, 32.

382


25/42


FIG. .-Cave 2: HaritiandPancika.Photocourtesyof LeelaWood.

holder. The possibility that Hariti could be taken primafacie for a localyaksini, a translocalBuddhistprotector,or even a greatbodhisattva,cou-pled with her widespread inclusion within monastic architectures,sug-gests that at some level Hariti may have served to limit local impact onBuddhist life. The apologetic was always available: she looks like a localyaksini, but "really" is not. Yet, at the same time that Hariti may haveinsulated monks from local religious pressures,she also aided in localiz-ing a saigha. In a sense, Haritiwas a portablelocal deity, a ready-made,institutionalized, translocal basis for localization. Cave 16's ndga wastrulyof the place; he deserved worshipeven thoughhe had no direct spa-tial relationshipwith the Buddha inside the cave. By contrast,Hariti wasneitherspecifically local nor specifically translocal;her presence in Bud-dhist monasteries was required by the direct order of the Buddha, andher placement in Cave 2's architecturereflects this relationship.Yet, as Ishall show below, Hariti'spresence inside Cave 2 also broughtthe locallay society right into this monastic home as a permanentresident.The story of Hariti's taming has been recorded throughoutthe Bud-dhist world.55Here I reproducethe version told by the seventh-century

55For the most detailed account of Hariti, see ibid., pp. 1-102. For furtherreferences,see Strong, The Legend and Cult of Upagupta (n. 40 above), p. 303, n. 66.

383


26/42

. -

I e

I7S a.

FIG. .-Painting on Haritishrine'sright wall: a puja for Hariti.Photocourtesyof LeelaWood.

384

A -E

' M1I s * 4 . .i b~~~~~i

.s.I

,

.~~~~~~"O- .


27/42

fl a k ,

f. I^F -- *1 . I\ T"

'1C IR=?/

i

-lt.3 2 r

k ',) '.4

32

FIG.8.-Painting on Hariti shrine's left wall: Hariti grants darsan.Photo courtesy of Leela Wood.

385

I.


28/42


! t i -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FIG.9.-Harit! attacks the Buddha. Photo by author.

Chinese pilgrim I Tsing. Although I Tsing never visited Ajanta, depic-tions of Hariti's conversion sculpted in Cave 2 correspond to the story ashe tells it (figs. 9, 10).At the former birthof this mother, she from some cause or other,made a vow todevour all babes at Rajagrha.In consequence of this wicked vow, she forfeitedher life, and was reborn as a Yakshi; and gave birth to five hundred children.Every day she ate some babes at Rajagrha,and the people informed Buddha ofthis fact. He took and concealed one of her own children, which she called HerBeloved Child. She sought it from place to place, and at last happenedto find itnear the Buddha. "Artthou so sorry,"said the World-honouredOne to her, "forthy lost child, thy beloved? Thou lamentest for only one lost out of five hun-dred; how much more grieved are those who have lost their only one or twochildren on account of thy cruel vow?" Soon converted by the Buddha, she re-ceived the five precepts and became an Upasika. "How shall my five hundredchildren subsist hereafter?" he new convert asked the Buddha. "In every mon-astery,"replied the Buddha, "where Bhikshus dwell, thy family shall partakeofsufficient food, offered by them every day."For this reason, the image of Haritiis found either in the porch or in a corner of the dining-hall of all Indian mon-asteries depicting her as holding a babe in her arms, and round her knees threeor five children. Every day an abundantoffering of food is made before thisimage. Hariti is one of the subjects of the four heavenly kings. She has a power

386


29/42


FIG.10.-Hariti pays homage to the Buddha. Photo by author

of giving wealth. If those who arechildless on account of theirbodily weakness(pray to her for children), making offerings of food, their wish is alwaysfulfilled.56According to the MSV, after Hariti converted she gave her demon chil-dren to Rajagrha's satigha for safekeeping because the other yaksasmocked them for their new religion.57

56 I Tsing, A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practiced in India and the MalayArchipelago,A.D. 671-695, trans.J. Takakusu Delhi: MunshiramManoharlal,1982), p. 37.57 Peri, pp. 13-14. The MSV story continues, telling that when the women of Rajagrhasaw Haritigive her sons to the Buddhist monks they did the same. Later,these women paidcompensation for the children's upkeep and still later "redeemed" their children andbroughtthem home. This is significant for interpreting he shrine in Ajanta'sCave 2, sincethis story warrantsthe incorporationof youngsters into the monastic community, withoutrequiringthat these children become formally ordained. In other words, this is a myth thatchartersBuddhist monasteries to act as schools. One sees precisely this on the base of Cave2's sculpted image of Hariti (seen at the bottom of fig. 6): a school room in which the goodstudentssit in the front of the class, paying attention to theirteacher,and the poor studentshang to the rear of the class, playing with toy rams. Indeed, I Tsingnotes that in India, themonks took on many students, whom they instructed in secular literature;these studentshad to live at their own or theirparents'expense (p. 106). In the same vein, I Tsing presentsthe greatBuddhistmonastic universities at Nalanda and Valabhi as institutions thatprepareyoung men to enter courtly life and advance to a high rank throughthe skills they learntherein (pp. 177-78).

387


30/42

Naga, Yaksini,BuddhaI Tsing traveled to India in order to observe and recordthe ritual lifeof Indian monks so that he might reform the Chinese sahgha. This pil-

grim's discussion of Hariti comes in the midst of a description of theposadha, a biweekly ceremony in which a patronworships the Buddha(sometimes with dancing girls), listens to the Dharma, and feasts thesangha. Though scholars often have viewed the posadha as a preemi-nently monastic occasion, a time for the sahgha's ritual declaration ofmoral purity, I Tsing presents the posadha as the principal occasion atwhich exchange relationshipswere realizedbetween monks andthe laity,coalescing Buddhist communities into a social whole. Indeed,in I Tsing'stelling, the very constitutionof sacredspace for theposadha observanceconstructed a complete cosmos, everyone in his or her place. At theroom's front was placed an offering for the arhats,and perhapsthe Bud-dha and bodhisattvas;following that, the monks were seated in a row inorderof seniority;andfinally,in the hall'srecess, at the lowest end of therow, was placed an offering for the yaksini Hariti.58One may see the posadha as a performative event that created ahierarchyof the sacred, analogically expressed by the spatial dynamicsinstitutedfor the rite. During the posadha ceremony,Haritiwas mappedas the sacred opposite of the Buddha,bodhisattvas,or arhats,who wereplaced at the posadha hall's front. Together with these epitomes ofDharma,she functionedto bracket the ritualspace. Placed between theseantipodes, the monks were defined spatially as mediators between tran-scendental and chthonic powers, between the Buddhist ideal and the alltoo socially real. Like the ideal figures-arhat, bodhisattva, Buddha-who received offerings at a posadha hall's other end, Hariti'spresenceserved as the condition of possibility for the sahgha's domestication:onechaos that made acts of ordering, such as the posadha meal, not onlypossible, but also necessary.The incorporationof ayaksiniin theposadhaceremony served to localize the sahgha being feted; the incorporationofa yaksini specifically in the guise of Hariti ensured that this chthonicpresence fit within a translocal Buddhist cosmos as well. In this way,Hariti fulfilled the structuralrole played by local deities in the localiza-tion of Buddhistsafighaswithout herself necessarilybeing of theplace atwhich the posadha was held.The geographyof ritual in Ajanta'sCave 2 is not isomorphicwith thatof the posadha hall. In the latter, sacrality was constructedthroughthebinary opposition of potential harm and potential perfection, a spacemediatedby the sahgha. In Cave 2, a binary opposition does not obtain,but a complementaritybetween the figures in the side chapels and thecentralBuddha does. Treating his cave's space as a programmaticwhole,

58Ibid., pp. 35-37.

388


31/42

History of Religionsone finds thatno matterwhat the orderor directionof approacha devoteemay have taken to the various icons, the spatially central Buddha neverlost its ritual centrality.Here the yaksas and yaksini in the side chapelsdo not bracket the space so as to delimit a dualist cosmology. Instead,this configurationsuggests a continuous,perhapsfunctional,hierarchyofsacrality.Granted,Hariti'soccasional demonic naturewas recollected forthe worshiperin the little carvings behind her monolithic image (figs. 9,10). Nevertheless, as a presence she is regal, maternal, and eminentlyapproachable. She is in the Buddha's sphere and portrayed as if themonks living at this site have maintainedthe diurnalduties to her and hersons set on them by the Buddha: her icon is the ever-present and un-changing sign of the Buddha'spower andthe saigha's performativesuc-cess. Of course, this incongruity between the certain knowledge thatHariti is potentially deadly and the portrayalof her as benign is the verybasis of her ritual feeding. Even though Hiriti's iconography representsher as a sweetly maternal figure, the surmise that Cave 2's inhabitantswould nevertheless have fed her bespeaks a concern for her ever-presentdemonic appetites, which would returnin the absence of the Buddhistcontrol mechanisms.In point of fact, althoughCave 2's space is configured differentlythanthat of theposadha hall, this shrineemplaces the local monastic commu-nity into the role of mediator between Buddha and deity, as well asbetween deity and laity, identical to the posadha ritual described by ITsing. Here, too, the laity is brought into the picture, quite literally,through murals painted on the shrine'swalls. On the right (fig. 7), onefinds a scene in which laywomen and their children bear offerings toHariti, place them in a pile before her, and then proceed to pay homageat her feet. Although there is a feeling of narrativecontinuity betweenthe sculpturedfigures and those painted next to them on the wall, thereis an artisticdiscrepancy.The sculpted figures are hard,not in substancealone, but also in spirit: they maintain a quasi-iconographic stoninessabsent from the painted figures, which are mannered,yet naturallyindi-vidual. This dynamic interplay of formal and informal figures within acontinuing narrativesequence is particularlyevoked by the nonchalancewith which a languid painted fly-whisk bearer seems about to step intothe sculptureandtake the place of the stolid stone attendantat Paicika'sside.The left wall of this chapel (fig. 8) differs from the right in that thereis no sense of a direct interplay between it and the sculpted figures.Rather,breakingthe flow of action toward the chapel'srear is one disre-spectful woman facing away from the sculpted image of Hariti, lookingout from the shrinejust as Hariti does. Unlike the other figures in thesemurals, this woman'shands appearto be held in positions characteristic

389


32/42

Naiga, Yaksini,Buddhaof a divinity rather than a devotee. Her right hand suggests the varada-mudrd,the gesture of gift giving; the fact that it is also holding a childsuggests the giving of children. Her left hand is in the sri-mudra,signi-fying good fortune, wealth, androyalty,formedby thejoining of the ringfinger and thumb. The frieze's composition also sets this woman apart.By placing her to the extreme right of the groupof four votaries-all ofwhom appearto be in attendanceon her, though in informalposes-theartisthighlights herposition as the focus of the scene. The sense that sheis the center of attention is augmented by the placement of a stylizedmountainscarp directly to her right: she becomes impassable, the actionof this scene having no other direction than toward herself. Finally, shehas two children with her, also heading away from the sculpturalgroup.I would suggest that figure is Hariti herself, slimmed and beautified inaccordwith the mannerednaturalismof these friezes, come to speakwithher constant devotees.If this figure is Hariti, then there is not a spatialbut a temporalconti-nuity between the scenes on the right and left walls of this chapel. Therightwall depicts the performanceof apiij; thus,the paintedfigurespro-ceed toward those in stone. The left wall portraysthe desired outcome ofthat pujd, in which the great yaksini Hariti grants her devotees darsanand satisfies their hopes and desires in accord with their petitions.The fact that these images of lay folk performing a ritual to Haritiwere painted in a place where monks would have been expected to feedher encapsulates in living color the ideological tensions involved inmonastic localization and domestication. The sahgha and the yaksinihave a relationshipbased on restrictedexchange. The monks live withHariti and care for her physical needs; she not only agrees to peaceablycoexist with them, but even gives her children to the monks for safe-keeping according to the MSV.By appeasingthis demoness and accept-ing her children, the monks create a world in which security, health,babies, and ample crops are the norm for every memberof a local soci-ety, regardlessof any individual'spersonalrelationshipwith the sangha.The sahgha become domesticatedin a network of generalized exchange.Cave 2's Hariti shrine is a unique text in that its murals confirmandproblematizethese exchange processes. According to the paintings, it isnot the monks who are in a restrictedexchange relationshipwith Hariti,but the laity. Such is precisely the ideal outcome of the monastic ritual.The restricted exchange relationship between the monks and Haritishould bring lay society "into the picture";the generalized exchangeramificationsof this monastic cult should work as if the local laity per-formed a successful pujd for Hariti. Indeed, in a sense the emplacementof this safigha within local society could not have been complete werethe laity not explicitly implicated in the worship. Hariti is a translocal

390


33/42

History of ReligionsBuddhist yaksini. By placing lay society inside Hariti'schapel, throughthe paintings of local laity performing her pujd, she was transformedinto a particular ocal deity. The Buddhist monks become meaningfullyplaced within the local society as the society becomes visibly emplacedas a presence within the monastic space. Merely by living in the pres-ence of Hariti, who lived in the presence of Buddha, Cave 2's monkswere performativelytransformed nto priests, intermediariesbetween thehuman and spirit worlds.

BUDDHA: AJANTA IN THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE OF VAKATAKA INDIALocalization is one moment in the domesticationof a sahgha. A Buddhaor community of monks becomes localized by entering into a restrictedexchange relationshipwith a divinity intimately associated with a place;this relationship can be read, in part, through its expression within amonastery'sarchitecturalplan. The relationshipworks in both directions:an indigenous deity, such as a naga, is pacified by the Buddha'scontinu-ing presence;for the local community,the Buddha himself is bound withthe identity and characteristicsof the ndga as well. Buddhists do bringcertain translocal, generalizable values into a local economy of belief,but those values become coin only insofar as they are converted into acurrencywhose exchange is accepted in that locale. This process of con-version, in turn, symbolically emplaces society at large within the mo-nastic precincts: this is domestication. As we have seen, Cave 2's Haritichapel is a remarkabletext through which to illustrate the processes oflocalization and domestication at Ajanta. In the present section, I willtreat the Buddha at Ajanta. How did this figure enter into a restrictedexchange relationshipwith Ajanta'spatrons?What roles did Buddhaplaywithin the generalized structuresof Vakatakasociety? What was it aboutAjanta'sBuddhas' locations and presence that induced members of theVakatakacourt to create magnificent homes for them, monasteries "al-most measureless and inconceivable to the mean-spirited," n the wordsof Cave 17's donor?59The model presentedabove suggests that the localization of Cave 2'sBuddha within the ideological and ritual structures of Vakataka Indiawould have been intimately associated with Hariti'sspecific place withinthose same structures.Accordingly,I will return o Hariti. As a translocalBuddhistdivinity, Haritiperformedmany of the roles and took on manyof the symbolic values associated with indigenous deities. As a typical"tooth mother,"Hariti was given local legitimacy at Ajanta throughherspatialrelationshipwith Cave 2's Buddhaand herritualrelationshipwiththe sangha; this in turnvisibly broughtthe laity into the recesses of that

59Cohen, "Setting the Three Jewels" (n. 27 above), p. 371.

391


34/42

Naga, Yaksini,BuddhaBuddha's home. In Vakataka India, however, Hariti had associationsbeyond that of Buddhist divinity or chthonic divinity. Hariti had specialmeaning for the luminaries in Vatsagulmaresponsible for major patron-age at Ajanta.Consideredan ancestorof the VakatakaemperorHarisena,Haritiwas significant in the VatsagulmaVakatakas'conception of them-selves as a royal family.Harisena was the last known monarchfrom the Vakatakas,a lineageof kings who ruled large swaths of central India following the dissolu-tion of the Satavahanaempire in the mid-thirdcentury. Epigraphicandpuranic sources alike name Vindhyasaktias the family progenitor;60 isson, Pravarasena , was deemed the greatestof the Vakatakas.FollowingPravarasenaI, the Vakataka family split into two collateral lines: onebased in Nandivardhana;61he other in Vatsagulma.Six generationsandabout two hundred years after Pravarasena I, Harisena took on theVatsagulma Vakataka mantle. As a token of PravarasenaI's glory, hisdescendants in Vatsagulmabestowed the epithet Hdritiputraon him;62theircousins in Nandivardhanadid not. The association of Pravarasenawith Hariti was an important symbolic means by which the VatsagulmaVakatakasdistinguishedthemselves from the NandivardhanaVakatakas.Haritiputratranslatesliterally as "the son of Hariti."There is no cer-tainty whetherHaritlputrawas intended as a matronymic,a literalgene-alogical claim, or even an evocative epithet for military prowess, sinceHariti'sfive hundredsons form the bulwarkof the yaksa army.No medi-eval Indian king ever called himself a Hdritlputra.Rather, this epithetwas typically given to the founder of a royal dynasty or used to char-acterize the lineage as a whole. Nevertheless, beyond being a Buddhistdivinity and a local yaksinl, Hariti seems to have functionedfor the Vat-sagulma Vakatakasin particularas a clan deity. Writingon village god-desses, Fuller observes that a significantproportionof such figures "aretutelary deities of specific social units .. whose boundaries define thespatial extent of their powers."63Hariti'sspecific social unit would havebeen the Vatsagulma Vakatakaruling family; her domain, coextensivewith Harisena'sown.

60 For epigraphic sources, see ibid., p. 361; P.V. Parabrahma astry, "HyderabadPlatesof VakatakaDevasena, Year5,"Journalof theEpigraphicalSociety of India 13 (1986): 71-75; KrishnaMohanShrimali,AgrarianStructure n CentralIndia and theNorthernDeccan(c. A.D. 300-500): A Studyin Vakdtaka nscriptions (Delhi: MunshiramManoharlal, 1987),pp. 82-83. Forpuranic sources, see FrederickEden Pargiter,The Purana Textof the Dy-nasties of the Kali Age (Varanasi:ChowkhambaSanskrit Series Office, 1962), pp. 48, 50,72-73.61 This is not the Nandivardhana n which Agvakaand Punarvasuka ived.62 Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi, The Inscriptions of the Vakatakas,Corpus InscriptionumIndicarum,vol. 5 (Oocatamund:GovernmentEpigraphist or India, 1963), p. 96; Shrimali,p. 82; Sastry,p. 74.63 Fuller (n. 12 above), p. 43.

392


35/42

History of ReligionsMonastic rituals for Hariti at Ajanta would have introduced thesatgha into a generalized, structuralsystem of exchange. Within the lo-

calized context of Vakataka concerns, however, this ritual also wouldhave served as a basis for political legitimation, reinforcing whateverclaims Harisena'sfamily made based on its association-genealogical ormetaphoric-with this yaksini. Such legitimation is a matter of bothrestricted and generalized exchange. Throughthe ritual appeasementofHariti, Ajanta'ssahgha, located near the Vakatakakingdom's geograph-ical periphery,ritually straddledthe one-hundred-miledistance, in directservice to King Harisena'spolitical center;the establishmentof a monas-tic "village" at Ajanta served to legitimate and strengthen Harisena'sreign throughouthis kingdom.Given this expandedunderstandingof Hariti'ssignificance at Ajanta-a site intimately tied to the fortunes and social plan of the VatsagulmaVakatakas-one can better grasp the Buddha's local significance. Cer-tainly as the guru of this Vakatakaancestor, Buddha earned the utmostreverence. But Ajanta'sBuddhas were not merely figures from the past.In a remarkable study, Gregory Schopen has demonstrated that stoneBuddhas, such as those found in the recesses of Ajanta's Caves 2 and16, "were actually thought to live in these establishments."64 ndeed,"the Buddha was considered to be the legal head of the group, and...both the Buddha and the monastic community were thought to reside inthe same monastery."65As the leader of a monastic community whoserituals to Hariti legitimated Harisena's reign, the Buddha localized atAjantacan be likened to a rajawhose "troops"were musteredin the ser-vice of Harisena.This may be more than mere metaphor.Eighty percent of the monkswho left literaryrecords of their presence at Ajanta refer to themselvesby the epithet Sakyabhiksu.66I have shown elsewhere that this term,in its most fundamental meaning, identifies an individual as a memberof Sakyamuni'sown family: Sakyabhiksusare bhiksus who are Sakyas.67And one finds within the MSV that Sakyamuni'srelationship with hisclan members was conceptualized throughroyal ideologies and martialmetaphors.Had Siddharthabecome a universal emperor, it was argued,the Sikyas would have been his army and followed him into war. TheSakyas' obligations to and relationship with Siddhartha did not alter

64 GregorySchopen, "The Buddha as an Owner of Propertyand PermanentResident inMedieval Indian Monasteries,"Journal of Indian Philosophy 18 (1990): 203.65Ibid., p. 191.66See my "Settingthe ThreeJewels,"pp. 191-269, for a discussion of the evidence con-cerning the use of Sakyabhiksu at Ajanta and a fuller interpretation of this epithet'ssignificance.67 As is the case with the VatsagulmaVgkatakas'use of Hdritiputrafor PravarasenaI,one cannot determinewhether the use of Sakyabhiksu s meant literally or metaphorically.

393


36/42

Naga, Yaksini,Buddhawhen he instead became the Unsurpassed King of Dharma.The Sakyaswere still bound to follow Sakyamuni,but now as monks.68Indeed, theMSV's ordination formula highlights the Buddha's kingship over theSakyas: "I follow in renunciation the Blessed One, Tathagata,Arhat,Complete and Perfect Buddha Sakyamuni, the Lion of the Sakyas, theOverlordof the Sakyas."69n turn,by reason of blood alone, Sakyaswereentitled to be ordained as monks immediately, without the customaryfour-monthprobationaryperiod.70Eighty percent of the Ajanta monkswhose identity we know represented hemselves as Sdakyabhiksus: em-bers of Sakyamuni's amily andby extension the "army"of this Dharma-king. Buddha became localized in Cave 2 throughhis relationshipswithHariti. As the head of a family association, a clan, which maintained arighteous orderthroughits interactionswith the VatsagulmaVakatakas'own clan deity, this Buddhaperformedas vital a service to Harisena asany military ally.In Cave 16, as well, the Buddha's local significance was intimatelybound up with an attempt to legitimate Vakataka control over Ajantathrough a local play on Buddhahood's translocal royal valences. Herethe Buddha was not emplaced in the role of Harisena'sfamily memberor ally. Rather,Cave 16's Buddhawas a double of Harisenahimself. Tograsp the role Cave 16's Buddha played as lord over Ajanta, one mustconsider the historicopolitical context surroundingpatronageat the site.Epigraphic records show that Harisena'sfamily colonized an empirethat centeredon Vatsagulma,but also stretchedto the south, to Nanded71and later Bidar.72Harisena seems to have set his ambitions even wider:he created an empire stretching from the Arabian Sea to the Bay ofBengal, accordingto one readingof Varahadeva'sCave 16 inscription.73This hyperbole is certainly suspect. Nevertheless, though the precise ex-tent of Harisena'sempire cannot be certified, we do know that Harisenabegan to colonize new lands early in his reign. A copperplate nscriptionfound in Thalner, on the north bank of the TaptiRiver, records that inthe thirdyear of Harisena'sreign he donatedfive villages to a numberof

68 Gnoli, ed., The Gilgit Manuscriptof the Sahghabhedavastu(n. 39 above), p. 200.69 Anukul ChandraBanerjee, Buddhist Vinaya Texts in Sanskrit:PratimoksaSutra andBhiksukarmavdkyaCalcutta:WorldPress, 1977), p. 60.70 Derge Ka I, 150B6-50B7 (ACIP catalog number KD001A; n. 45 above). See alsoI. B. Horner, trans., The Book of Discipline (Vinaya-Pitaka),vol. 4, Mahavagga (London:Pali Text Society, 1982), pp. 85-89.71 Mirashi, The Inscriptions of the Vdakitakas, p. 94-100.72Sastry (n. 60 above).73Varahadeva tells that Harisena had some relationship with the lands between theBay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea: Kuntala,Avanti, Kalifiga, Kosala, Trikuta,Lata, andAndhra.Unfortunately,Varihadeva'sinscriptionis damagedhere, and the verb thatdelim-its this relationship has been lost. Despite this uncertainty,however, it is probable thatVarahadeva'sverse is a digvijaya praSasti, a celebration of territorialconquest. See my"Problemsin the Writingof Ajanta'sHistory"(n. 35 above) for a moredetailed discussionof this problem.

394


37/42

History of ReligionsBrahmanas with the permission of Gomikaraja.74 There are a number ofinteresting and puzzling details to the Thalner grant, none more so thanthe question of Gomikaraja's identity and role in the Thalner region. Butwhoever Gomikaraja may have been, it is clear that Harisena was con-cerned to consolidate this outlying area into his, Harisena's, not Gomi-karaja's, political center at Vatsagulma. The granting of land and villagesto Brahmana settlers is a well-attested means for the cultural, ritualis-tic, and bureaucratic incorporation of newly acquired territory into apolity. Vakataka grants to Brahmanas typically fostered the colonizationof farmlands necessary for an agricultural surplus to support the Vaka-taka court.75 The names of two of the villages Harisena donated,Kamsakarakagrama (village of bronze workers) and Suvarnakaragrama(village of goldsmiths) suggest that artisanship and trade were also cru-cial to Vatsagulma's prosperity. Located in an area with ready access tothe sea, this western colony's settlers could receive and process raw ma-terials, sending their profits back to Vatsagulma in the form of taxes.76Struck in the third year of Harisena's reign, the Thalner grant datesto approximately the same year that, according to Spink's chronology,members of the Vakataka court initiated patronage of the caves atAjanta, Ghatotkaca, and Banoti. In Vakataka times, Ajanta lay on a routethat led from Vatsagulma to Harisena's Tapti River communities and outto the sea at the ancient port cities of Surat and Bharuch. Ajanta wasa crucial stage on this route. In Vakataka times, as now, Ajanta was thepass in the Sahyadri range favored by caravans, merchants, armies, andmonks for crossing down from the Deccan plateau to the Tapti River val-ley (or

nāga-yakṣiṇī-buddha-local-deities-and-local-buddhism-at-ajanta

Documents