Dinesh Wagle on Nepali Society

The book says:

Images of the adult elephants, two little ones, a monkey and a partridge.

The monuments, sculptures, images and the like, found in Mahabalipuram generally denote the Hindu religion. Some scholars believe that an an extension, this sculpture denotes the Buddhist religion. The tales about the previous lives of Gautama, the Buddha, are called Jataka Stories. This monument narrates one of the Jataka storeis.

According to the story, once there arose a dispute among the three- the elephant, the monkey and the partridge- as to who is senior by age. They tried to settle the issue by the relationship to a banyan tree. The elephant said he remembered it as a bush, the monkey remembered it as a sapling, where as the partridge said that he had voided the seed of the tree long ago and so, he is the senior most!