Long narrative scrolls such as this excellent example were displayed on special occasions on the walls of Buddhist monasteries in order to emphasize moralistic parables appropriate for a particular religious celebration. The story would be read to the assembly, who then would follow the narrative as it was illustrated on the scroll. This scroll depicts the parable of the Golden Horn (Sringabheri Avadana) and origins of the lakshachaitya, a rite in which 100,000 stupas or reliquary monuments are dedicated.
Avadanas (Buddhist parables) are tales of "noteworthy deeds" and constitute an important class of Sanskrit Buddhist literature. The general theme of these stories is to show that bad deeds produce bad results and good deeds bear good fruits. Buddhists are not supposed to take life; people who follow the occupation of hunting and who take the lives of animals, either for necessity or pleasure, are held to merit a rebirth suitable for the pain and suffering that they have caused as is demonstrated by the actions and subsequent fate of the king in this story. Good actions have the ability to cancel and mitigate the effects of bad actions, after appropriate repentance, as evidenced by his virtuous queen.
The lakshachaitya rite is an annual Buddhist ritual observed in Nepal. "One day before the end of the month of Sravana, there is the worship consisting of the performance of the lakshachaitya rite, the consignment of the model chaityas to the river, the sounding of the ‘horn drum’ and the serving of a meal to one’s caste fellows." Originally, 100,000 chaityas would be fashioned out of sand or clay and then consigned to a body of water. Today the ritual is usually observed through the painting of chaityas on cloth scrolls that are then kept to commemorate the undertaking.
The Story of the Golden Horn
"In the town of Shashiprabha there reigned a king named Sinhaketu. His wife Sulakshana, was greatly devoted to him, and frequently begged and prayed that he should abstain from hunting. The king did not listen to her advice, and on his death, was born a buffalo. His wife was born in a Brahman family, and, through her previous virtuous deeds, remembered the history of her former life. Knowing the buffalo to be her husband, she followed him everywhere. Once she prayed to the Lord to retrieve her husband from his brutal condition, and the Lord advised her what to do. One day the buffalo was destroyed and eaten by wild beasts, and a few bones and the horns were all that were left behind. The faithful wife cast the bones into the river, brought water in the horns to wash the spot where the buffalo had fallen, and, washing the spot, buried whatever fragments she found and the horns, and erected a chaitya, reliquary or memorial mound, over them with river sand. For thirty days successively she worshipped the chaitya with the utmost reverence and devotion. On the twenty-first day a crystal chaitya came down from heaven, and entered the sandy one. The place became surrounded by a moat and seven successive lines of ramparts. The horns were changed into gold. Within this crystal chaitya a chamber became manifest, and from the golden horns within it came out a handsome young man, Dharmashila, who took the woman by the hand, and claimed her as his wife. He was subsequently elected by the people king of the country, when he assumed the name Bhadrashringi, and his devoted wife was known by the name of Rupavati."
(Quoted from R. Mitra, The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal (1882, Reprint ed.: Calcutta: Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1971), pp. 225-226.)
