Monika Zin
Institut fuer Indologie und Tibetologie, der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Muenchen
Considering the existence of 35 representations from the Amaravati School of sculptures, the narrative of king Māndhātar can safely be declared the most popular jātaka of the region. In addition there are at least half as many representations of an unidentified cakravartin king surrounded by his seven jewels – some of them old reliefs from Jaggayapetta and Kanganhalli – which might also show Māndhātar, and possibly a further dozen depictions of apparently related topics whose textual basis is lost.
With regard to the frequency of occurrences, only the most popular scenes from the life of the Buddha can be compared to the theme of Māndhātar. This gives rise to questions about the meaning of the cakravartin topos and ideology for the region and also for early Buddhism in general.
The paper will examine various representations of cakravartins from the Amaravati region on the basis of literary traditions and through analysis of representations of historical kings on the stupa slabs at Kanganhalli. Particular focus will be laid on the relation of the cakravartins’ representations to the life-story of the Buddha (the story of Māndhātar is depicted next to the representation of the Bodhisatva in the Tuṣita heaven; a cakravartin is shown in the scene of leaving of Kapilavastu), and on their relation to early Buddhist understanding of kingship.
(Presented in the International Conference – Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond, 9-11 August 2010, Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University with support from The Thailand Research Fund (TRF), in co-operation with Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Institute of Asian Studies, The Confucius Institute, Chulalongkorn University and l’École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO))