Sanchi Stupa 1: Saddanta Jataka

INDIA, Madhya Pradesh, Sanchi

The relief is featured on the back of the middle crossbar on the southern gateway at Sanchi Stupa 1.
The Saddanta Jataka concerns a former birth of the Buddha as a white elephant king with six tusks. One of his two consorts, on her death, is reborn as a human being who marries a king. She requests the king to bring her the tusks of her former husband for some imagined slight in her past life, thus exacting her revenge.
Four scenes from the start of the story are carved in mid-relief on the crossbar of a stupa gateway and proceed from left to right. The first two are separated from the later two by a banyan tree. The first scene depicts the elephant king with one of his consorts in a lotus pool. Two elephant attendants stand above, one holding a parasol and the other a whisk. The second scene is contiguous and shows the herd in a forest, with the king and his consort facing each other next to the banyan. Other elephants above them reach up their trunks to pluck the leaves.
The king advances accompanied by his attendants in the third scene. An elephant at the front of the procession is carrying a jug, symbolizing the king’s generosity. The last scene shows the elephant king facing in the opposite direction beneath a fruit tree. A hunter hides behind another tree with bow and arrow in hand taking aim.