F O L I O S 6 – 7 ( P. 21 )
d. The white-robed brahmins make their prophecies. At the Burmese court it was customary for brahmin astrologers to examine a child’s hand and predict its future.
PRINCE SIDDHATTHA’S BIRTH AND THE BRAHMINS’ PROPHECY a, upper. Queen Mahamaya stands in a curtained enclosure to give birth, her right hand holding a branch of the sala tree and her left hand draped around the shoulder of a kneeling woman who holds the queen’s waist. The kneeling woman is traditionally held to be the queen’s sister, Pajapati, who becomes the Bodhisatta’s foster mother when the queen dies seven days after the baby’s birth.
F O L I O S 8 – 9 ( P. 2 3 )
THE PLOUGHING CEREMONY AND THE PRINCE’S MARRIAGE a, upper. King Suddhodana’s white elephant is especially significant, revered as representing the Buddha’s conception and previous incarnation; possession of one was highly prized by Burmese and Thai monarchs.
b, upper. Outside the enclosure in front of a woven screen background, the baby (depicted like a small golden Buddha image) is passed from the hands of Brahmas to the guardian gods and from them to men. The Buddha-to-be is thus ministered to by three levels of beings. When taking his first seven steps, he is shown full size in white robes with a white umbrella held over him, with four gods making obeisance and two more (c, upper) coming down to do the same.
a, lower. The meditating child Bodhisatta is depicted under a tree in a low, cloth-canopied gilded seat, with his father, the king, paying reverence. b, upper. Prince Siddhattha, holding a black parabaik (folding book), faces his tutor, whose wife kneels behind, with banana trees in fruit and bud in the background.
a–b, lower. The procession and palanquin bearing Queen Mahamaya on her way to (and from) Lumbini grove. Two white umbrellas are held above the tiered roofs of the palanquin (litter) in the procession, which is headed by guards and the royal ministers. Burney’s notes describe the palanquin as “such as is now in use by the King and Queen of Ava.”
b, lower. The ploughing ceremony. The king’s plough and the yoke and horns of the bullocks drawing it are gilded. c–d, upper. The prince, as befits a scion of the warrior class, displays his skills in archery, using a gilded naga-headed bow. The elephants lined up to attend the display of martial arts are, together with the king’s elephant (a), depicted in a most accomplished manner. The stippling of the face, trunk, and ears of the gray elephants is characteristic of most Burmese elephant paintings.
c. The infant is presented by the king to the brown-robed sage Kaladevala, who is depicted twice, smiling and (behind) weeping as he realizes he will not live to see the child attain Enlightenment. The infant’s placing its feet upon the head of the sage indicates its superiority, as it is a mark or respect to place one’s head at the feet of one’s superior.
c–d, lower. The prince and his bride, wearing a high-crowned headdress, join hands in marriage. Behind them on an inner (eastern) doorpost hang green coconuts and bananas, which are offerings to
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