Matakabhatta Jātaka

[Full title: Jātakas and Avadānas in the Amarāvatī Art: Matakabhatta Jātaka]

Story:-

When Brahmadatta was the king of Banaras a learned Brāhmaṇa desired to perform a feast for the dead. He got a sacrificial goat. With the instruction of the father the son took it to the river for sacrifice. The goat remembering of its past deeds cried for freedom from the past misery. At the same time it wept bitterly thinking that the Brāhmaṇa would suffer the same misery by killing it. The goat said to the Brāhmaṇa that in his past life he offered the sacrificial goat to fulfill the feast for the dead. For this sin he had to take the life of a goat to be killed in the same manner. For this sin he had to take birth for four ninety-nine times and the present one being 500^th birth would give him freedom. He wept visualizing the same penalty to be imposed on the Brāhmaṇa for killing him. The Brāhmaṇa then decided not to kill him. But the goat replied that he cannot escape from death that day. The Brāhmaṇa decided to guard him. The moment the goat was set free it reached out its neck to brouse on the leaves on a bush. Soon after that a thunderbolt struck the rock cutting off a mass which hit the goat’s neck and tore it off^[1].

Depiction:-

The jātaka is identified on a dome panel of the Mahācaitya at Amarāvatī preserved in the British Museum. The panel represents the static monoscenic narrative of the jātaka. It shows a princely figure seated in ardhaparyaṅkāsana on a throne with his consort. Below the throne is a dwarf figure. The animal which looks like a ram rather that the goat is shown bending his head. There are women behind the throne observing the scene^[2].

The depiction of this jātaka is also seen on three different panels from Nāgārjunakoṇḍa.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Cowell E.B, 1973, Op.cit, Vol I-II, No. 18, pp 51-53

[2]:

Subrahmanyam, B, Op.cit, pl 28, pl 28a