The Story of Chaddanta

Once the Bodhisatta was born as the king of Chaddanta elephants. [Chaddanta (literally meaning - having six tusks)]. The body of the elephant king was pure white with red face and feet. He lived in a golden cave (Kanchana-guha) on the bank of a lake. He had two queens, namely, Maha-subhadda and Chulla-subhadda. (M1)


The story of Chaddanta, Amravati
(Image Source: Vidya Dehejia, Early Buddhist Visual Narratives)

Once after bathing in the lake and frolicking in the forest with his queens and attendants he sportingly hit a fully blossomed sal tree. Incidentally, the dry leaves, twigs and red ants from the tree fell on Chullasubhadda but the flowers and the pollen of the tree rained on Maha-subhadda(M2). This made Chulla-subhadda feel insulted and desert her husband (M3). Chaddanta, however, tried to look for her but failed.

In course of time, Chullasubhadda died (M4) and was reborn in a royal family of the Madda kingdom. Later, when she grew up she was married to the king of Varanasi and became his chief consort. Still, she remembered her humiliation in the kingdom of Chaddanta. So, she hatched a plot to get Chaddanta’s tusks cut off; and convinced the Varanasi king to obtain his tusks for her. The king in turn summoned all the hunters of the kingdom and finally assigned the task to Sonuttara.

Nonetheless, it took seven years, seven months and seven days for Sonuttara to find the Chaddantas abode. There he stealthily dug a pit and covered it with dry leaves and twigs. When the elephant passed over it he shot him with a poisoned arrow(M5). The elephant was to charge against him but when he saw Sonuttara clad in a saffron robe of a monk he recoiled and did not harm the hunter. Affected by the victims extreme religiosity the cruel hunters heart changed and he narrated the entire story to the elephant out of sheer respect.

As the hunter was not strong enough to cut off the Chaddantas tusks he himself held the saw in his tusk and cut them off and handed over to the hunter.(M6) The hunter then carried these back to the palace. (M7)

When the chief consort of Varanasi saw the Chaddantas tusks being brought by Sonuttara she fainted and died because she could not bear the shock.


 
In this image the viewers are presented with three episodes and a total of seven moments.

M 1: Chaddanta in the forest, with the identifying regal parasol above him.

M2: Chaddanta presents his chief queen, Maha-subhadda, with the trouble-causing lotus (to the right).

M3: to the left, his offended and jealous junior queen, Culla-subhadda leaves the pond.

M4: Her figure is repeated to the extreme left just beyond the pond, where she is lying

down to die (praying for revenge in a future birth).

The story now moves to the upper zone, where to the far right the artist has depicted his next episode.

M5: Here is the unsuspecting Chaddanta, at whom a hunter (sent by Culla-subhadda reborn as the queen of Benares) aims an arrow from his hideout in a concealed pit.

M6: To the left of the upper zone, the hunter saws off the tusks requested by the queen, while Chaddanta quietly acquiesces.

M7: The final scene chosen by the artist, located at the very top of the medallion, portrays the hunter departing with the tusks.