Cave 17

- Saddanta

Found also in the oldest cave at Ajanta, the painting has beautiful illustrations of wildlife in the forest scenes.

Ṣaḍdanta is a virtuous six-tusked elephant whose first-wife grows jealous of the affection Ṣaḍdanta holds for the second-wife. She commits suicide and is reborn as a queen. She fakes illness and asks the king to get her a medicine made from a six-tusk elephant. Hunters are commissioned to find Ṣaḍdanta who upon realising that his tusks can save a life, plucks them out and hands them to the hunter. Upon seeing the tusks, the queen is overcome with remorse and collapses.