The Story of the Lineage — Introduction to the Jataka, Translated from the Pali by T. W. Rhys Davids

The Nidanakatha ("Story of the Lineage" or "Connected Narrative") is the introductory discourse to the Jataka commentary, the great collection of the Buddha's birth stories preserved in the Pali Canon. It is divided into three epochs: the Distant Epoch (Durenidana), which begins four incalculable ages ago when the ascetic Sumedha first resolved to become a Buddha at the feet of Dipankara, and traces the Bodhisatta's career through twenty-four successive Buddhas and the fulfilment of the Ten Perfections; the Middle Epoch (Avidure Nidana), which narrates the Bodhisatta's final descent from Tusita heaven, his birth as Siddhartha Gotama, the Great Renunciation, the defeat of Mara, and the attainment of Awakening; and the Proximate Epoch (Santike Nidana), which covers the historical Buddha's ministry from the first sermon at Benares to the establishment of the great monasteries at Rajagaha and Savatthi.

The Nidanakatha is one of the most important texts in Theravada Buddhism for understanding how the tradition conceives of the Buddha's path across cosmic time — not as a single lifetime's achievement, but as the culmination of aeons of selfless striving. The accounts of the Ten Perfections and the twenty-four Buddhas provided here form the doctrinal foundation for the entire Jataka collection.

This translation is by T. W. Rhys Davids (1843–1922), the pioneering Pali scholar who founded the Pali Text Society. It was first published in 1880 as part of Buddhist Birth Stories. The present text incorporates revisions and notes from the 2023 edition at SuttaCentral, which draws on the work of multiple scholars including Rhys Davids and subsequent translators.

I The Distant Epoch

[The Story of Sumedha]

Tradition tells us that four asaṅkheyyas An asaṅkheyya is a period of vast duration, lit. an incalculable. and a hundred thousand cycles ago there was a city called Amaravatī. In this city there dwelt a brahmin named Sumedha, of good family on both sides, on the father’s and the [1.3] mother’s side, of pure conception for seven generations back, by birth unreproached and respected, a man comely, well-favoured and amiable, and endowed with remarkable beauty. He followed his brahminical studies without engaging in any other pursuit.

His parents died while he was still young. A minister of state, who acted as steward of his property, bringing forth the roll-book of his estate, threw open the stores filled with gold and silver, gems and pearls, and other valuables, and said: “So much, young man, belonged to your mother, so much to your father, so much to your grandparents and great-grandparents,” and pointing out to him the property inherited through seven generations, he bade him guard it carefully. The wise Sumedha thought to himself, “After amassing all this wealth my parents and ancestors when they went to another world took not a farthing with them, can it be right that I should make it an object to take my wealth with me when I go?” And informing the king of his intention, he caused proclamation to be made Lit. “caused the drums to be beat.” in the city, gave largess to the people, and embraced the ascetic life.

To make this matter clear the Story of Sumedha must here be related. This story, though given in full in the Buddhavaṁsa, from its being in a metrical form, is not very easy to understand. I will therefore relate it with sentences at intervals explaining the metrical construction.

Four asaṅkheyyas and a hundred thousand cycles ago there was a city called Amaravatī or Amara, resounding with the ten city cries, concerning which it is said in Buddhavaṁsa, {1.3}

12. “Four asaṅkheyyas and a hundred thousand cycles ago

There was a city called Amara, beautiful and pleasant,

Resounding with the ten cries, abounding in food and drink.” Here a gloss in the text enumerates the whole ten cries. [1.4]

Then follows a verse of Buddhavaṁsa, enumerating some of these cries,

13. “The trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, (the sound of) drums, trumpets, and chariots,

And viands and drinks were cried, with the invitation: Eat and drink.”

It goes on to say,

14. “A city supplied with every requisite, engaged in every sort of industry,

Possessing the seven precious things, thronged with dwellers of many races.”

The abode of devout men, like the prosperous city of the Devas.

15. “In the city of Amaravatī dwelt a brahmin named Sumedha,

Whose hoard was many tens of millions, blest with much wealth and store;

16. Studious, knowing the Mantras, versed in the three Vedas,

Teacher of the science of divination and of the traditions and observances of his caste.”

Now one day the wise Sumedha, having retired to the splendid upper apartment of his house, seated himself cross-legged, and started thinking. “Oh! Wise man, The Bodhisatta is frequently called paṇḍita, e.g. sasapaṇḍito (Five Jāt. 52), Rāmapaṇḍito (Dasaratha Jāt. 1). grievous is rebirth in a new existence, and the dissolution of the body in each successive place where we are reborn. I am subject to birth, to decay, to disease, to death – it is right, being such, that I should strive to attain the great deathless Nibbāna, which is tranquil, and free from birth, and decay, and sickness, and grief and joy; surely there must be a road that leads to Nibbāna and releases man from existence.”

Accordingly it is said,

17. “Seated in seclusion, I then thought as follows:

Grievous is rebirth and the breaking up of the body.

18. I am subject to birth, to decay, to disease,

Therefore will I seek Nibbāna, free from decay and death, and secure.

19. Let me leave this perishable body, this pestilent congregation of vapours,

And depart without desires and without wants. {1.4}

20. There is, there must be a road, it cannot but be:

I will seek this road, that I may obtain release from existence.” [1.5]

Further he reasoned thus, “For as in this world there is pleasure as the correlative of pain, so where there is existence there must be its opposite the cessation of existence; and as where there is heat there is also cold which neutralizes it, so there must be a Nibbāna Lit. “Extinction.” that extinguishes (the fires of) lust and the other passions; and as in opposition to a bad and evil condition there is a good and blameless one, so where there is evil birth there must also be Nibbāna, called the birthless, because it puts an end to all rebirth.”

Therefore it is said,

21. “As where there is suffering there is also bliss,

So where there is existence we must look for non-existence.

22. And as where there is heat there is also cold,

So where there is the threefold fire of passion extinction must be sought.

23. And as coexistent with evil there is also good,

Even so where there is birth Mr. Fausböll points out to me that in tividhaggi and jāti we have Vedic abbreviations. the cessation of birth should be sought.”

Again he reasoned thus, “Just as a man who has fallen into a heap of filth, if he beholds afar off a great pond covered with lotuses of five colours, ought to seek that pond, saying, ‘By what way shall I arrive there?’ But if he does not seek it the fault is not that of the pond; even so where there is the lake of the great deathless Nibbāna for the washing of the defilement of sin, if it is not sought it is not the fault of the lake. And just as a man who is surrounded by robbers, if when there is a way of escape he does not fly it is not the fault of the way but of the man; even so when there is a blessed road loading to Nibbāna for the man who is encompassed and held fast by sin, its not being sought is not the fault of the road but of the person. And as a man who is oppressed with sickness, there being a physician who can heal his disease, if he does not get [1.6] cured by going to the physician that is no fault of the physician; even so if a man who is oppressed by the disease of sin seeks not a spiritual guide who is at hand and knows the road which puts an end to sin, the fault lies with him and not with the sin-destroying teacher.”

Therefore it is said,

24. “As a man fallen among filth, beholding a brimming lake,

If he seek not that lake, the fault is not in the lake;

25. So when there exists a lake of Nibbāna that washes the stains of sin,

If a man seek not that lake, the fault is not in the lake of Nibbāna. {1.5}

26. As a man beset with foes, there being a way of escape,

If he flee not away, the fault is not with the road;

27. So when there is a way of bliss, if a man beset with sin

Seek not that road, the fault is not in the way of bliss.

28. And as one who is diseased, there being a physician at hand,

If he bid him not heal the disease, the fault is not in the healer:

29. So if a man who is sick and oppressed with defilements

Seek not the spiritual teacher, the fault is not in the teacher.”

And again he argued, “As a man fond of adornment, throwing off a corpse bound to his shoulders, goes away rejoicing, so must I, throwing off this perishable body, and freed from all desires, enter the city of Nibbāna. And as men and women depositing filth on a dungheap do not gather it in the fold or skirt of their garments, but loathing it, throw it away, feeling no desire for it; so shall I also cast off this perishable body without regret, and enter the deathless city of Nibbāna. And as seamen abandon without regret an unseaworthy ship and escape, so will I also, leaving this body, which distils corruption from its nine festering apertures, enter without regret the city of Nibbāna. And as a man carrying various sorts of jewels, and going on the same road with a band of robbers, out of fear of losing his jewels withdraws from them and gains a safe road; even so this impure body is like a jewel-plundering robber, if I set my affections thereon the precious spiritual jewel of the sublime path of holiness will be lost to me, therefore [1.7] ought I to enter the city of Nibbāna, forsaking this robber-like body.”

Therefore it is said,

30. “As a man might with loathing shake off a corpse bound upon his shoulders,

And depart secure, independent, master of himself;

31. Even so let me depart, regretting nothing, wanting nothing,

Leaving this perishable body, this collection of many foul vapours.

32. And as men and women deposit filth upon a dungheap,

And depart regretting nothing, wanting nothing,

33. So will I depart, leaving this body filled with foul vapours,

As one leaves a cesspool after depositing ordure there.

34. And as the owners forsake the rotten bark that is shattered and leaking,

And depart without regret or longing, {1.6}

35. So shall I go, leaving this body with its nine apertures ever running,

As its owners desert the broken ship.

36. And as a man carrying wares, walking with robbers,

Seeing danger of losing his wares, parts company with the robbers and gets him gone,

37. Even so is this body like a mighty robber –

Leaving it I will depart through fear of losing good.”

Having thus in nine similes pondered upon the advantages connected with retirement from the world, the wise Sumedha gave away at his own house, as aforesaid, an immense hoard of treasure to the indigent and wayfarers and sufferers, and kept open house. And renouncing all pleasures, both material and sensual, departing from the city of Amara, away from the world in the Himālayas he made himself a hermitage near the mountain called Dhammaka, and built a hut and a perambulation hall free from the five defects which are hindrances (to meditation). And with a view to obtain the power residing in the Super Knowledges, which are characterized by the eight causal qualities described in the words beginning, “With a mind thus tranquillised, [purified and cleansed, unblemished, free from impurities, malleable, workable, established and having gained imperturbability]” Evaṁ samāhite citte parisuddhe pariyodāte anaṅgaṇe vigatūpakkilese mudubhūte kammaniye ṭhite ānejjappatte ñāṇadassanāya cittaṁ abhinīharati (Sāmaññaphalasutta, [DN 2] see Lotus, p. 476, line 14). he embraced in that [1.8] hermitage the ascetic life of a Sage, casting off the cloak with its nine disadvantages, and wearing the garment of bark with its twelve advantages. And when he had thus given up the world, forsaking this hut, crowded with eight drawbacks, he repaired to the foot of a tree with its ten advantages, and rejecting all sorts of grain lived constantly upon wild fruits. And strenuously exerting himself both in sitting and in standing and in walking, within a week he became the possessor of the eight Attainments and the five Super Knowledges; and so, in accordance with his prayer, he attained the might of the Super Knowledges.

Therefore it is said,

38. “Having pondered thus I gave many thousand millions of wealth

To rich and poor, and made my way to the Himālayas.

39. Not far from the Himālayas is the mountain called Dhammaka,

Here I made an excellent hermitage, and built with care a leafy hut.

40. There I built a cloister, free from five defects,

Possessed of the eight good qualities, and attained the strength of the Super Knowledges.

41. Then I threw off the cloak possessed of the nine faults,

And put on the raiment of bark possessed of the twelve advantages.

42. I left the hut, crowded with the eight drawbacks,

And went to the foot of the tree, which is possessed of ten advantages. Mr. Fausböll writes to me that guṇe for guṇehi must be viewed as an old Pali form originating in the Sanskrit guṇaih.

43. Wholly did I reject the grain that is sown and planted,

And partook of the constant fruits of the earth, possessed of many advantages. {1.7}

44. Then I strenuously strove, in sitting, in standing, and in walking,

And within seven days attained the strength of the Super Knowledges.” Here follow four pages of later commentary or gloss, which I leave untranslated [in fact throughout the translation the gloss, amounting to perhaps 20-25% of the text, was left untranslated]. {1.10}

Now while the ascetic Sumedha, having thus attained the strength of the Super Knowledges, was living in the bliss of the (eight) Attainments, the teacher Dīpaṅkara appeared in the world. At the moment of his conception, of his birth, of his attainment of Buddhahood, of his preaching his first discourse, the whole universe [1.9] of ten thousand worlds {1.11} trembled, shook and quaked, and gave forth a mighty sound, and the thirty-two prognostics showed themselves. But the ascetic Sumedha, living in the bliss of the Attainments, neither heard that sound nor beheld those signs.

Therefore it is said,

45. “Thus when I had attained the consummation, while I was subject to the dispensation,

The Conqueror named Dīpaṅkara, chief of the universe, appeared.

46. At his conception, at his birth, at his Buddhahood, at his preaching,

I saw not the four signs, plunged as I was in the delight of Absorption.”

At that time Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, accompanied by a hundred thousand saints, wandering his way from place to place, reached the city of Ramma, and took up his residence in the great monastery of Sudassana. And the dwellers of the city of Ramma heard it said: “Dīpaṅkara, lord of ascetics, having become a supreme Buddha, and set on foot the wheel of the Dhamma, wandering his way from place to place, has come to the town of Ramma, and dwells at the great monastery of Sudassana.” And taking with them ghee and butter and other medicinal requisites and clothes and raiment, and bearing perfumes and garlands and other offerings in their hands, their minds bent towards the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha, inclining towards them, hanging upon them, they approached the teacher and worshipped him, and presenting the perfumes and other offerings, sat down on one side. And having heard his preaching of the Dhamma, and invited him for the next day, they rose from their seats and departed. And on the next day, having prepared almsgiving for the poor, and having decked out the town, they repaired the road by which the One with Ten Powers was to come, throwing earth in the places that were worn away by water and thereby levelling the surface, and scattering sand that looked like strips of silver. And they sprinkled fragrant roots and flowers, and raised aloft flags and banners of many-coloured cloths, and set up banana [1.10] arches and rows of brimming jars.

Then the ascetic Sumedha, ascending from his hermitage, and proceeding through the air till he was above those men, and beholding the joyous multitude, exclaimed, “What can be the reason?” Alighting, he stood on one side and questioned the people, “Tell me, why are you adorning this road?”

Therefore it is said,

47. “In the region of the border districts, having invited the Tathāgata,

With joyful hearts they are clearing the road by which he should come.

48. And I at that time leaving my hermitage,

Rustling my barken tunic, departed through the air.

49. And seeing an excited multitude joyous and delighted,

Descending from the air I straightway asked the men, {1.12}

50. The people are excited, joyous and happy,

For whom is the road being cleared, the path, the way of his coming?”

And the men replied, “Lord Sumedha, do you not know? Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, having attained supreme Awakening, and set rolling the Dhamma wheel, travelling from place to place, has reached our town, and dwells at the great monastery Sudassana; we have invited the Fortunate One, and are making ready for the fortunate Buddha the road by which he is to come.” And the ascetic Sumedha thought: “The very sound of the word Buddha is rarely met with in the world, much more the actual appearance of One with Ten Powers; it behoves me to join those men in clearing the road.” He said therefore to the men, “If you are clearing this road for the Buddha, assign to me a piece of ground, I will clear the ground in company with you.” They consented, said: “It is well,” and perceiving the ascetic Sumedha to be possessed of Supernormal Power, they fixed upon a swampy piece of ground, and assigned it to him, saying: “Prepare this spot.” Sumedha, his heart filled with joy of which the Buddha was the cause, thought within himself, “I am able to prepare [1.11] this piece of ground by my Supernormal Power, but if so prepared it will give me no satisfaction; this day it behoves me to perform menial duties,” and fetching earth he threw it upon the spot.

But ere the ground could be cleared by him – with a train of a hundred thousand miracle-working saints endowed with the six Super Knowledges, while Devas offered celestial wreaths and perfumes, while celestial hymns rang forth, and men paid their homage with earthly perfumes and with flowers and other offerings, Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, with all a Buddha’s transcendant majesty, like a lion rousing himself to seek his prey on the Vermilion plain, came down into the road all decked and made ready for him.

Then the ascetic Sumedha – as the One with Ten Powers with unblenching eyes approached along the road prepared for him, beholding that form endowed with the perfection of beauty, adorned with the thirty-two characteristics of a great man, and marked with the eighty minor marks, attended by a halo of a fathom’s depth, and sending forth in streams the six-hued Buddha-rays, linked in pairs of different colours, and wreathed like the varied lightnings that flash in the gem-studded vault of heaven – exclaimed, “This day it behoves me to make sacrifice of my life for the One with Ten Powers: let not the Blessed one walk in the mire – nay, let him advance with his four hundred thousand saints trampling on my body as if walking upon a bridge of jewelled planks, this deed will long be for my good and my happiness.” So saying, he loosed his hair, and {1.13} spreading in the inky mire his ascetic’s skin mantle, roll of matted hair and garment of bark, he lay down in the mire like a bridge of jewelled planks.

Therefore it is said,

51. “Questioned by me they replied, ‘An incomparable Buddha is born into the world,

The Conqueror named Dīpaṅkara, lord of the universe,

For him the road is cleared, the way, the path of his coming.’ [1.12 ]

52. When I heard the name of Buddha joy sprang up forthwith within me,

Repeating, ‘a Buddha, a Buddha!’ I gave utterance to my joy.

53. Standing there I pondered, joyful and excited,

Here I will sow the seed, may the happy moment not pass away.

54. ‘If you clear a path for the Buddha, assign to me a place,

I also will clear the road, the way, the path of his coming.’

55. Then they gave me a piece of ground to clear the pathway;

Then repeating within me, ‘a Buddha, a Buddha!’ I cleared the road.

56. But ere my portion was cleared, Dīpaṅkara the great sage,

The Conqueror, entered the road with four hundred thousand saints like himself,

Possessed of the six Super Knowledges, pure from all taint of wrong.

57. On every side men rose to receive him, many drums sent forth their music,

Men and Devas were overjoyed, shouting forth their applause.

58. Devas look upon men, men upon Devas,

And both with clasped hands upraised approach the Tathāgata.

59. Devas with celestial music, men with earthly music,

Both sending forth their strains approach the Tathāgata.

60. Devas floating in the air sprinkle down in all directions

Celestial Erythrina flowers, lotuses and coral flowers.

61. Men standing on the ground throw upwards in all directions

Champac and Salaḷa flowers, Kadamba and fragrant Mesua, PunNāga, and Ketaka.

62. Then I loosed my hair, and spreading in the mire

Bark robe and mantle of skin, lay prone upon my face.

63. Let the Buddha advance with his disciples, treading upon me;

Let him not tread in the mire, it will be for my blessing.”

And as he lay in the mire, again beholding the Buddha-majesty of Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, with his unblenching gaze, he thought as follows, “Were I willing, I could enter the city of Ramma as a novice in the priesthood, after having destroyed all human passions; {1.14} but why should I disguise myself The following is what I take to be the meaning of this passage: “If I chose I could at once enter the Buddhist priesthood, and by the practice of ecstatic meditation (Jhāna) free myself from human passion, and become an Arahat or saint. I should then at death at once attain Nibbāna and cease to exist. But this would be a selfish course to pursue, for thus I should benefit myself only. Why should I thus slip unobserved and in the humble garb of a monk into Nibbāna? Nay, let me rather qualify myself to become a Buddha, and so save others as well as myself.” This is the great Act of Renunciation by which the Bodhisattva, when Nirvāṇa was within his grasp, preferred to endure ages of heroic trials in the exercise of the Pāramitā, that he might be enabled to become a Buddha, and so redeem mankind. See D’Alwis’s Introduction to Kacchāyana’s Grammar, p. vi. to attain Nibbāna after the destruction [1.13] of human passion? Let me rather, like Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, having risen to the supreme Awakening, enable mankind to enter the Ship of the Dhamma and so carry them across the Ocean of Existence, and when this is done afterwards attain Nibbāna; this indeed it is right that I should do.” Then having enumerated the eight conditions (necessary to the attainment of Buddhahood), and having made the resolution to become Buddha, he laid himself down.

Therefore it is said,

64. “As I lay upon the ground this was the thought of my heart,

‘If I wished it I might this day destroy within me all human passions.

65. But why should I in disguise arrive at the knowledge of the Dhamma?

I will attain omniscience and become a Buddha, and (save) men and Devas.

66. Why should I cross the ocean resolute but alone?

I will attain omniscience, and enable men and Devas to cross.

67. By this resolution of mine, I, a man of resolution,

Will attain omniscience, and save men and Devas,

68. Cutting off the stream of transmigration, annihilating the three forms of existence,

Embarking in the ship of the Dhamma, I will carry across with me men and Devas.” What follows from yasmā to nipajji belongs to a later commentary. I resume the translation with p. 15, line 11.

[Wherefore [This line and the following verse were omitted by Rhys Davids.] wishing for Buddhahood (he said):

69. “Conditioned by being a human being and male, meeting a teacher,

Going-forth, being endowed with virtue, aspiration and wholesome desire,

Resolve, with these eight things combined he will succeed.”] {1.15}

And the blessed Dīpaṅkara having reached the spot stood close by the ascetic Sumedha’s head. And opening his eyes possessed of the five kinds of grace as one opens a jewelled window, and beholding the ascetic Sumedha lying in the mire, thought to himself, “This ascetic who lies here has formed the resolution to be a Buddha; will his prayer be fulfilled or not?” And casting forward his prescient gaze into the future, and considering, he perceived that four asaṅkheyyas and a hundred thousand aeons from that time he would become a Buddha named Gotama. And standing there in the midst of the assembly he delivered this prophecy, “Do you see this austere ascetic lying in the mire?” “Yes, Lord,” they answered. [1.14] “This man lies here having made the resolution to become a Buddha, his prayer will be answered; at the end of four asaṅkheyyas and a hundred thousand cycles hence he will become a Buddha named Gotama, and in that birth the city Kapilavatthu will be his residence, queen Māyā will be his mother, king Suddhodana his father, his chief disciple will be thera Upatissa, his second disciple thera Kolita, the Buddha’s servitor will be Ānanda, his chief female disciple the nun Khemā, the second the nun Uppalavaṇṇā. When he attains to years of ripe knowledge, having retired from the world and made the great exertion, having received at the foot of a banyan tree a meal of rice milk, and partaken of it by the banks of the Nerañjarā, having ascended the throne of Awakening, he will, at the foot of an Assattha tree, attain Supreme Buddhahood.”

Therefore it is said,

70. “Dīpaṅkara, knower of all worlds, receiver of offerings,

Standing by that which pillowed my head, spoke these words:

71. ‘See ye this austere ascetic with his matted hair,

Countless ages hence he will be a Buddha in this world. {1.16}

72. Lo, the Tathāgata departing from pleasant Kapila,

Having fought the great fight, performed all manner of austerities.

73. Having sat at the foot of the Ajapāla tree, the Tathāgata there received milk rice,

Shall approach the Nerañjarā river.

74. Having received the milk rice on the banks of the Nerañjarā, the Conqueror

Shall come by a fair road prepared for him to the foot of the Bodhi tree.

75. Then, unrivalled and glorious, reverentially saluting the throne of Awakening,

At the foot of an Assattha tree he shall attain Buddhahood.

76. The mother that bears him shall be called Māyā,

His father will be Suddhodana, he himself will be Gotama.

77. His chief disciples will be Upatissa and Kolita,

Void of human passion, freed from desire, calm-minded and tranquil.

78. The servitor Ānanda will attend upon the Conqueror,

Khemā and Uppalavaṇṇā will be his chief female disciples,

79. Void of human passion, freed from desire, calm-minded and tranquil.

The sacred tree of this Buddha is called the Assattha.” [1.15]

The ascetic Sumedha, exclaiming, “My prayer, it seems, will be accomplished,” was filled with happiness. The multitudes, hearing the words of Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, were joyous and delighted, exclaiming, “The ascetic Sumedha, it seems, is a Buddha seed, a tender shoot that will grow up into a Buddha.” For thus they thought: “As a man fording a river, if he is unable to cross to the ford opposite him, crosses to a ford lower down the stream, even so we, if in the dispensation of Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, fail to attain the paths and their fruition, yet when you shall become Buddha we shall be enabled in thy presence to make the paths and their fruition our own,” – and so they recorded their prayer (for future assurance).

The Buddha Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, having praised the Bodhisatta, and made an offering to him of eight handfuls of flowers, reverentially saluted him and departed. And the Arahats, also, four hundred thousand in number, having made offerings to the Bodhisatta of perfumes and garlands, reverentially saluted him and departed. And the Devas and men having made the same offerings, and bowed down to him, went their way.

And the Bodhisatta, when all had retired, rising from his seat and exclaiming, “I will investigate the Perfections,” sat himself down cross-legged on a heap of flowers. And as the Bodhisatta sat thus, the Devas in all the ten thousand worlds assembling shouted applause. “Venerable ascetic Sumedha,” they said, “all the auguries which have manifested themselves when former Bodhisattas seated themselves cross-legged, saying, ‘We will investigate the Perfections,’ – all these this day have appeared: assuredly you shall become Buddha. {1.17} This we know, to whom these omens appear, he surely will become a Buddha; do you make a strenuous effort and exert thyself.” With these words they lauded the Bodhisatta with varied praises.

Therefore it is said, [1.16]

80. “Hearing these words of the incomparable Sage,

Devas and men delighted, exclaimed, ‘This is a seed of a Buddha.’

81. A great clamour arises, men and Devas in ten thousand worlds

Clap their hands, and laugh, and make obeisance with clasped hands.

82. ‘Should we fail,’ they say, ‘in this Buddha’s dispensation,

Yet in time to come we shall stand before him.

83. As men crossing a river, if they fail to reach the opposite ford,

Gaining the lower ford cross the great river,

84. Even so we all, if we lose this Buddha,

In time to come shall stand before him.’

85. The world-knowing Dīpaṅkara, the receiver of offerings,

Having celebrated my meritorious act, went his way. Lit. “raised his right foot (to depart).”

86. All the disciples of the Buddha that were present saluted me with reverence,

Men, Nāgas, and Gandhabbas bowed down to me and departed.

87. When the lord of the world with his following had passed beyond my sight,

Then glad, with gladsome heart, I rose up from my seat.

88. Joyful I am with a great joy, glad with a great gladness;

Flooded with rapture then I seated myself cross-legged.

89. And even as thus I sat I thought within myself,

‘I am subject to Absorption, I have mastered the Super Knowledges.

90. In a thousand worlds there are no sages that rival me,

Unrivalled in Supernormal Powers I have reached this bliss.’

91. When thus they beheld me sitting, Lit. “at my sitting cross-legged.” the dwellers of the ten thousand worlds

Raised a mighty shout, ‘Surely you will be a Buddha!

92. The omens Mr. Fausböll writes that yaṁ is a mistake of the copyist for yā = yāni. beheld in former ages when the Bodhisatta sat cross-legged,

The same are beheld this day.

93. Cold is dispelled and heat ceases,

This day these things are seen – verily you will be a Buddha.

94. A thousand worlds are stilled and silent,

So are they seen today – verily you will be a Buddha. {1.18}

95. The mighty winds blow not, the rivers cease to flow,

These things are seen today – verily you will be a Buddha.

96. All flowers blossom on land and sea,

This day they all have bloomed – verily you will be a Buddha.

97. All creepers and trees are laden with fruit,

This day they all bear fruit – verily you will be a Buddha.

98. Gems sparkle in earth and sky,

This day all gems do glitter – verily you will be a Buddha. [1.17]

99. Music earthly and celestial sounds,

Both these today send forth their strains – verily you will be a Buddha.

100. Flowers of every hue rain down from the sky,

This day they are seen – verily you will be a Buddha.

101. The mighty ocean bends itself, ten thousand worlds are shaken,

This day they both send up their roar – verily you will be a Buddha.

102. In hell the fires of ten thousand worlds die out,

This day these fires are quenched – verily you will be a Buddha.

103. Unclouded is the sun and all the stars are seen,

These things are seen today – verily you will be a Buddha.

104. Though no water fell in rain, vegetation burst forth from the earth,

This day vegetation springs from the earth – verily you will be a Buddha.

105. The constellations are all aglow, and the lunar mansions in the vault of heaven,

Visākhā is in conjunction with the moon – verily you will be a Buddha.

106. Those creatures that dwell in holes and caves depart each from his lair,

This day these lairs are forsaken – verily you will be a Buddha.

107. There is no discontent among mortals, but they are filled with contentment,

This day all are content – verily you will be a Buddha.

108. Then diseases are dispelled and hunger ceases,

This day these things are seen – verily you will be a Buddha.

109. Then desire wastes away, hate and ignorance perish,

This day all these are dispelled – verily you will be a Buddha.

110. No danger then comes near; this day this thing is seen,

By this sign we know it – verily you will become a Buddha.

111. No dust flies abroad; this day this thing is seen,

By this sign we know it – verily you will be a Buddha.

112. All noisome odours flee away, celestial fragrance breathes around,

Such fragrance breathes this day – verily you will be a Buddha. {1.19}

113. All the Devas are manifested, the formless only excepted,

This day they all are seen – verily you will be a Buddha.

114. All the hells become visible,

These all are seen this day – verily you will be a Buddha.

115. Then walls, and doors, and rocks are no impediment,

This day they have melted into air, Or, “have risen into the air”? – verily you will be a Buddha.

116. At that moment death and birth do not take place,

This day these things are seen – verily you will be a Buddha.

117. Do you make a strenuous effort, hold not back, go forward,

This thing we know – verily you will be a Buddha.’ ” [1.18]

And the Bodhisatta, having heard the words of Dīpaṅkara, the One with Ten Powers, and of the Devas in ten thousand worlds, filled with immeasurable resolution, thought thus within himself, “The Buddhas are beings whose word cannot fail; there is no deviation from truth in their speech. For as the fall of a clod thrown into the air, as the death of a mortal, as the sunrise at dawn, as a lion’s roaring when he leaves his lair, as the delivery of a woman with child, as these things are sure and certain – even so the word of the Buddhas is sure and cannot fail, verily I shall become a Buddha.”

Therefore it is said,

118. “Having heard the words of Buddha and of the Devas of ten thousand worlds,

Glad, joyous, delighted, I then thought thus within myself:

119. ‘The Buddhas speak not doubtful words, the Conquerors speak not vain words,

There is no falsehood in the Buddhas – verily I shall become a Buddha.

120. As a clod cast into the air does surely fall to the ground,

So the word of the glorious Buddhas is sure and everlasting.

121. As the death of all mortals is sure and constant,

So the word of the glorious Buddhas is sure and everlasting.

122. As the rising of the sun is certain when night has faded,

So the word of the glorious Buddhas is sure and everlasting.

123. As the roaring of a lion who has left his den is certain,

So the word of the glorious Buddhas is sure and everlasting.

124. As the delivery of women with child is certain,

So the word of the glorious Buddhas is sure and everlasting.’ ”

And having thus made the resolution, “I shall surely become Buddha,” with a view to investigating the conditions that constitute a Buddha, exclaiming, “Where are the conditions that make the Buddha, {1.20} are they found above or below, in the principal or the minor directions?” investigating successively the principles of all things, and beholding the first Perfection of Generosity [Dāna], practised and followed by former Bodhisattas, he thus admonished his own soul, “Wise Sumedha, from this time forth [1.19] you must fulfil the perfection of Generosity; for as a water-jar overturned discharges the water so that none remains, and cannot recover it, even so if you, indifferent to wealth and fame, and wife and child, and goods great and small, give away to all who come and ask everything that they require till nought remains, you will sit at the foot of the Bodhi tree and become a Buddha.” With these words he strenuously resolved to attain the first perfection of Generosity.

Therefore it is said,

125. “Come, I will search the Buddha-making conditions, this way and that,

Above and below, in all the ten directions, as far as the principles of things extend.

126. Then, as I made my search, I beheld the first Perfection of Generosity,

The high road followed by former sages.

127. ‘Do you strenuously taking it upon thyself advance

To this first Perfection of Generosity, if you will attain Buddhahood.

128. As a brimming water-jar, overturned by any one,

Discharges entirely all the water, and retains none within,

129. Even so, when you see any that ask, great, small, and middling,

Do you give away all in alms, as the water-jar overthrown.’ ”

But considering further, “There must be beside this other conditions that make a Buddha,” and beholding the second Perfection of Virtue [Sīla], he thought thus, “O wise Sumedha, from this day forth may you fulfil the perfection of Virtue; for as the Yak, regardless of his life, guards his bushy tail, even so you will become a Buddha, if from this day forward regardless of your life you keep the moral precepts.” And he strenuously resolved to attain the second perfection of Virtue.

Therefore it is said,

130. “For the conditions of a Buddha cannot be so few,

Let me investigate the other conditions that bring Buddhahood to maturity.

131. Then investigating I beheld the second Perfection of Virtue

Practised and followed by former sages. [1.20]

132. ‘This second one do you strenuously undertake,

And reach the Perfection of Virtue if you would attain Buddhahood.

133. And as the Yak cow, when her tail has got entangled in anything,

Then and there awaits death, and will not injure her tail, Viz., I suppose, by dragging it forcibly away. This metaphor, which to us appears wanting in dignity, is a favourite one with the Hindus. The tail of the Yak or Tibetan ox (Bos Grunniens) is a beautiful object, and one of the insignia of Hindu royalty. {1.21}

134. So also do you, having fulfilled the moral precepts in the four stages,

Ever guard Virtue as the Yak guards her tail.’ ”

But considering further, “These cannot be the only Buddha-making conditions,” and beholding the third Perfection of Renunciation [Nekkhamma], he thought thus, “O wise Sumedha, may you henceforth fulfil the perfection of Renunciation; for as a man long the denizen of a prison feels no love for it, but is discontented, and wishes to live there no more, even so do you, likening all births to a prison-house, discontented with all births, and anxious to get rid of them, set thy face toward renunciation, thus will you become Buddha.” And he strenuously made the resolution to attain the third perfection of Renunciation.

Therefore it is said,

135. “For the conditions that make a Buddha cannot be so few,

I will investigate others, the conditions that bring Buddhahood to maturity.

136. Investigating then I beheld the third Perfection of Renunciation

Practised and followed by former sages.

137. ‘This third one do you strenuously undertake,

And reach the Perfection of Renunciation, if you would attain Buddhahood.

138. As a man long a denizen of the house of bonds, oppressed with suffering,

Feels no pleasure therein, but rather longs for release,

139. Even so do you look upon all births as prison-houses,

Set thy face toward Renunciation, to obtain release from Existence.’ ”

But considering further, “These cannot be the only Buddha-making conditions,” and beholding the fourth Perfection of Wisdom [Paññā], he thought thus, “O wise Sumedha, [1.21] do you from this day forth fulfil the perfection of Wisdom, avoiding no subject of knowledge, great, small, or middling, Lit. “not avoiding anything among things great, small, and middling.” do you approach all wise men and ask them questions; for as the mendicant on his begging rounds, avoiding none of the families, great and small, that he frequents, After kiñci understand kulaṁ, as will be seen from v. 143. and wandering for alms from place to place, speedily gets food to support him, even so will you, approaching all wise men, and asking them questions, become a Buddha.” And he strenuously resolved to attain the fourth perfection of Wisdom.

Therefore it is said,

140. “For the conditions that make a Buddha cannot be so few,

I will investigate the other conditions that bring Buddhahood to maturity.

141. Investigating then I beheld the fourth Perfection of Wisdom

Practised and followed by former sages.

142. ‘This fourth do you strenuously undertake,

And reach the Perfection of Wisdom, if you would attain Buddhahood. {1.22}

143. And as a monk on his begging rounds avoids no families,

Either small, or great, or middling, and so obtains subsistence,

144. Even so you, constantly questioning wise men,

And reaching the Perfection of Wisdom, will attain supreme Buddhahood.’ ”

But considering further, “These cannot be the only Buddha-making conditions,” and seeing the fifth Perfection of Effort [Viriya], he thought thus, “O wise Sumedha, do you from this day forth fulfil the perfection of Exertion. As the lion, the king of beasts, in every action Lit. in all postures, walking, standing, etc. strenuously makes an effort himself, so if you in all existences and in all your acts are strenuous in effort, and not a laggard, you will become a Buddha.” And he made a firm resolve to attain the fifth perfection of Effort.

Therefore it is said, [1.22]

145. “For the conditions of a Buddha cannot be so few,

I will investigate the other conditions which bring Buddhahood to maturity.

146. Investigating then I beheld the fifth Perfection of Effort

Practised and followed by former sages.

147. ‘This fifth do you strenuously undertake,

And reach the Perfection of Effort, if you would attain Buddhahood.

148. As the lion, king of beasts, in lying, standing and walking,

Is no laggard, but ever of resolute heart,

149. Even so do you also in every existence strenuously exert thyself,

And reaching the Perfection of Effort, you will attain the supreme Buddhahood.’ ”

But considering further, “These cannot be the only Buddha-making conditions,” and beholding the sixth Perfection of Patience [Khanti], he thought to himself, “O wise Sumedha, do you from this time forth fulfil the perfection of forbearance; be you patient in praise and in reproach. And as when men throw things pure or foul upon the earth, the earth does not feel either desire or repulsion towards them, but suffers them, endures them and acquiesces in them, even so you also, if you are patient in praise and reproach, will become a Buddha.” And he strenuously resolved to attain the sixth perfection of Patience.

Therefore it is said,

150. “For the conditions of a Buddha cannot be so few,

I will seek other conditions also which bring about Buddhahood.

151. And seeking then I beheld the sixth Perfection of Patience

Practised and followed by former Buddhas.

152. ‘Having strenuously taken up this sixth Perfection,

Then with unwavering mind you will attain supreme Buddhahood. {1.23}

153. And as the earth endures all that is thrown upon it,

Whether things pure or impure, and feels neither anger nor pity,

154. Even so enduring the praises and reproaches of all men,

Going on to perfect Patience, you will attain supreme Buddhahood.’ ”

But further considering, “These cannot be the only conditions that make a Buddha,” and beholding the seventh Perfection of Truth [Sacca], he thought thus within [1.23] himself, “O wise Sumedha, from this time forth do you fulfil the perfection of Truth; though the thunderbolt descend upon your head, do you never under the influence of desire and other passions utter a conscious lie, for the sake of wealth or any other advantage. And as the planet Venus at all seasons pursues her own course, nor ever goes on another course forsaking her own, even so, if you forsake not truth and utter no lie, you will become a Buddha.” And he strenuously turned his mind to the seventh perfection of Truth.

Therefore it is said,

155. “For these are not all the conditions of a Buddha,

I will seek other conditions which bring about Buddhahood.

156. Seeking then I beheld the seventh Perfection of Truth

Practised and followed by former Buddhas.

157. ‘Having strenuously taken upon thyself this seventh Perfection,

Then free from duplicity of speech you will attain supreme Buddhahood.

158. And as the planet Venus, balanced in all her times and seasons,

In the world of men and Devas, departs not from her path,

159. Even so do you not depart from the course of truth, Lit. depart from your course in the matter of truthful things.

Advancing to the Perfection of Truth, you will attain supreme Buddhahood.’ ”

But further considering, “These cannot be the only conditions that make a Buddha,” and beholding the eighth Perfection of Determination [Adhiṭṭhāna], he thought thus within himself, “O wise Sumedha, do you from this time forth fulfil the perfection of Determination; whatsoever you resolve be you unshaken in that resolution. For as a mountain, the wind beating upon it in all directions, trembles not, moves not, but stands in its place, even so you, if unswerving in thy resolution, will become a Buddha.” And he strenuously resolved to attain the eighth perfection of Determination.

Therefore it is said,

160. “For these are not all the conditions of a Buddha,

I will seek out other conditions that bring about Buddhahood. [1.24] {1.24}

161. Seeking then I beheld the eighth Perfection of Determination

Practised and followed by former Buddhas.

162. ‘Do you resolutely take upon thyself this eighth Perfection,

Then you being immovable will attain supreme Buddhahood.

163. And as the rocky mountain, immovable, firmly based,

Is unshaken by many winds, and stands in its own place,

164. Even so do you also remain ever immovable in resolution,

Advancing to the Perfection of Resolution, you will attain supreme Buddhahood.’ ”

But further considering, “These cannot be the only conditions that make a Buddha,” and beholding the ninth Perfection of Loving-Kindness [Mettā], he thought thus within himself, “O wise Sumedha, do you from this time forth fulfil the perfection of Loving-Kindness, may you be of one mind towards friends and foes. And as water fills with its refreshing coolness good men and bad alike, Lit. having made its coldness exactly alike for bad people and good people, pervades them. even so, if you are of one mind in friendly feeling towards all mortals, you will become a Buddha.” And he strenuously resolved to attain the ninth perfection of Loving-Kindness.

Therefore it is said,

165. “For these are not all the conditions of a Buddha,

I will seek out other conditions that bring about Buddhahood.

166. Seeking I beheld the ninth Perfection of Loving-Kindness

Practised and followed by former Buddhas.

167. ‘Do you, taking resolutely upon thyself this ninth Perfection,

Become unrivalled in kindness, if you will become a Buddha.

168. And as water fills with its coolness

Good men and bad alike, and carries off all impurity,

169. Even so do you look with friendship alike on the evil and the good,

Advancing to the Perfection of Loving-Kindness, you will attain supreme Buddhahood.’ ”

But further considering, “These cannot be the only conditions that make a Buddha,” and beholding the tenth Perfection of Equanimity [Upekkhā], he thought thus within himself, “O wise Sumedha, from this time do you fulfil the [1.25] perfection of Equanimity, be you of equal mind in prosperity and adversity. And as the earth is indifferent when things pure or impure are cast upon it, even so, if you are indifferent in prosperity and adversity, you will become a Buddha.” And he strenuously resolved to attain the tenth perfection of Equanimity.

Therefore it is said, {1.25}

170. “For these cannot be all the conditions of a Buddha,

I will seek other conditions that bring about Buddhahood.

171. Seeking then I beheld the tenth Perfection of Equanimity

Practised and followed by former Buddhas.

172. ‘If you take resolutely upon thyself this tenth Perfection,

Becoming well-balanced and firm, you will attain supreme Buddhahood.

173. And as the earth is indifferent to pure and impure things cast upon her,

To both alike, and is free from anger and favour,

174. Even so do you ever be evenly-balanced in joy and grief,

Advancing to the Perfection of Equanimity, you will attain supreme Buddhahood.’ ”

Then he thought: “These are the only conditions in this world that, bringing Buddhahood to perfection and constituting a Buddha, have to be fulfilled by Bodhisattas; beside the Ten Perfections there are no others. And these Ten Perfections are neither in the heaven above nor in the earth below, nor are they to be found in the east or the other quarters, but reside in my heart of flesh.” Having thus realized that the Perfections were established in his heart, having strenuously resolved to keep them all, grasping them again and again, he mastered them forwards and backwards; i.e. alternately from the first to the tenth and from the tenth to the first. taking them at the end he went backward to the beginning, taking them at the beginning he placed them at the end, i.e. put the first last. taking them at the middle he carried them to the two ends, taking them at both ends he carried them to the middle. [1.26]

Repeating, “The Perfections are the sacrifice of limbs, the Lesser Perfections are the sacrifice of property, the Unlimited Perfections are the sacrifice of life,” he mastered them as the Perfections, the Lesser Perfections and the Unlimited Perfections – like one who converts two kindred oils into one, Vijesinha. or like one who, using Mount Meru for his churning-rod, churns the great Cakkavāla ocean. And as he grasped again and again the Ten Perfections, by the power of his piety this earth, four nahutas and eight hundred thousand leagues in breadth, like a bundle of reeds trodden by an elephant, or a sugar-mill in motion, uttering a mighty roar, trembled, shook and quaked, and spun round like a potter’s wheel or the wheel of an oil-mill.

Therefore it is said,

175. “These are all the conditions in the world that bring Buddhahood to perfection:

Beyond these are no others, therein do you stand fast.

176. While he grasped these conditions natural and intrinsic, Vijesinha writes to me, “Natural and intrinsic virtues. The Sinhalese gloss says: paramārthavū rasasahitavū lakṣaṇa-œti nohot svabhāvalakṣaṇa hā sarvadharmasādhāraṇalakṣaṇa-œti. In the latter case it would mean, having the quality of conformity with all laws.”

By the power of his piety the earth of ten thousand worlds quaked.

177. The earth swayed and thundered like a sugar-mill at work,

Like the wheel of an oil-mill so shakes the earth.” {1.26}

And while the earth was trembling the people of Ramma, unable to endure it, like great Sāl trees overthrown by the wind that blows at the end of a cycle, fell swooning here and there, while waterpots and other vessels, revolving like a jar on a potter’s wheel, struck against each other and were dashed and ground to pieces. The multitudes in fear and trembling approaching the Teacher said: “Tell us, Fortunate One, is this turmoil caused by dragons, or is it caused by either bhūtas, or Yakkhas, or by Devas? for this we know not, but truly this whole multitude is grievously afflicted. Does [1.27] this portend evil to the world or good? tell us the cause of it.” The Teacher hearing their words said: “Fear not, nor be troubled, there is no danger to you from this. The wise Sumedha, concerning whom I predicted this day, ‘Hereafter he will be a Buddha named Gotama,’ is now mastering the Perfections, and while he masters them and turns them about, by the power of his piety the whole ten thousand worlds with one accord quake and thunder,” Therefore it is said,

178. “All the multitude that was there in attendance on the Buddha,

Trembling, fell swooning there upon the ground.

179. Many thousands of waterpots and many hundred jars

Were crushed and pounded there and dashed against each other.

180. Excited, trembling, terrified, confused, their senses disordered,

The multitudes assembling, approached the Buddha,

181. Say, will it be good or evil to the world?

The whole world is afflicted, ward off this (danger), Omniscient One.

182. Then the Great Sage Dīpaṅkara enjoined upon them,

Be confident, be not afraid at this earthquaking:

183. He concerning whom I predicted this day, ‘He will be a Buddha in this world,’

The same is investigating the time-honoured Conditions followed by the Buddhas.

184. Therefore while he is investigating fully these Conditions, the groundwork of a Buddha,

The earth of ten thousand worlds is shaken in the world of men and of Devas.”

And the people hearing the Tathāgata’s words, joyful and delighted, taking with them garlands, perfumes and unguents, left the city of Ramma, and went to the Bodhisatta. And having offered their flowers and other presents, and bowing to him and respectfully saluting him, they returned to the city of Ramma. And the Bodhisatta, having made a strenuous exertion and resolve, rose from the seat on which he sat.

Therefore it is said, {1.27}

185. “Having heard the Buddha’s word, their minds were straightway calmed,

All of them approaching me again paid me their homage. [1.28]

186. Having taken upon me the Perfections of a Buddha, having made firm my resolve,

Having bowed to Dīpaṅkara, I rose from my seat.”

And as the Bodhisatta rose from his seat, the Devas in all the ten thousand worlds having assembled and offered him garlands and perfumes, uttered these and other words of praise and blessing, “Venerable ascetic Sumedha, this day you have made a mighty resolve at the feet of Dīpaṅkara Buddha, may you fulfil it without let or hindrance: fear not nor be dismayed, may not the slightest sickness visit your frame, quickly exercise the Perfections and attain supreme Buddhahood. As the flowering and fruit-bearing trees bring forth flowers and fruit in due season, so do you also, not letting the right season pass by, quickly reach the supreme knowledge of a Buddha.” And thus having spoken, they returned each one to his celestial home.

Then the Bodhisatta, having received the homage of the Devas, made a strenuous exertion and resolve, saying: “Having fulfilled the Ten Perfections, at the end of four asaṅkheyyas and a hundred thousand cycles I shall become a Buddha.” And rising into the air he returned to Himavanta.

Therefore it is said,

187. “As he rose from his seat both Devas and men

Sprinkle him with celestial and earthly flowers.

188. Both Devas and men pronounce their blessing,

A great prayer you have made, may you obtain it according to your wish.

189. May all dangers be averted, may every sickness vanish,

May you have no hindrance – quickly reach the supreme knowledge of a Buddha.

190. As when the season is come the flowering trees do blossom,

Even so do you, O mighty One, blossom with the wisdom of a Buddha.

191. As all the Buddhas have fulfilled the Ten Perfections,

Even so do you, O mighty One, fulfil the Ten Perfections.

192. As all the Buddhas are enlightened on the throne of knowledge,

Even so do you, O mighty One, receive Awakening in the wisdom of a Buddha. [1.29]

193. As all the Buddhas have established the supremacy of the Dhamma,

Even so do you, O mighty One, establish the supremacy of the Dhamma.

194. As the moon on the mid-day of the month shines in her purity,

Even so do you, with thy mind at the full, shine in ten thousand worlds. {1.28}

195. As the sun released by Rāhu glows fervently in his heat,

Even so, having redeemed mankind, do you shine in all thy majesty.

196. As all the rivers find their way to the great ocean,

Even so may the worlds of men and Devas take refuge in thee.

197. The Bodhisatta extolled with these praises, taking on himself the ten Conditions,

Commencing to fulfil these Conditions, entered the forest.

End of the Story of Sumedha

[Buddha Dīpaṅkara]

And the people of the city of Ramma, having returned to the city, kept open house to the monastics with the Buddha at their head. The Teacher having preached the Dhamma to them, and established them in the three Refuges and so on, departing from the city of Ramma, living thereafter his allotted span of life, having fulfilled all the duties of a Buddha, in due course attained Nibbāna in that element of annihilation in which no trace of existence remains. On this subject all that need be said can be learned from the narrative in the Buddhavaṁsa, for it is said in that work,

198. “Then they, having entertained the chief of the world with his monastics,

Took refuge in the Teacher Dīpaṅkara.

199. Some the Tathāgata established in the refuges,

Some in the five precepts, others in the ten precepts.

200. To some he gives the four glorious fruits of the ascetic life,

On some he bestows those peerless qualities the analytical knowledges.

201. To some the Lord of men grants the eight sublime Attainments,

On some he bestows the three knowledges and the six Super Knowledges.

202. In this order Vijesinha says, “In that order, viz. in the Saraṇāgamana first, then in the Pañcasīla, then in the Dasasīla, and so on.” the Great Sage exhorts the multitude.

Therewith the dispensation of the world’s Protector was spread wide abroad. [1.30]

203. He of the mighty jaw, of the broad shoulder, Dīpaṅkara by name,

Procured the salvation of many men, warded off from them future punishment.

204. Beholding persons ripe for salvation, reaching them in an instant,

Even at a distance of four hundred thousand leagues, the Great Sage awakened them (to the knowledge of the truth).

205. At the first conversion the Buddha converted a thousand millions.

At the second the Protector converted a hundred thousand.

206. When the Buddha preached the truth in the Deva world,

There took place a third conversion of nine hundred millions. {1.29}

207. The Teacher Dīpaṅkara had three assemblies,

The first was a meeting of a million millions.

208. Again when the Conqueror went into seclusion at Nārada peak,

A thousand million spotless Arahats met together.

209. When the Mighty One dwelt on the lofty rock Sudassana,

Then the Sage surrounded himself with nine hundred thousand millions.

210. At that time I was an ascetic wearing matted hair, a man of austere penances,

Moving through the air, accomplished in the five Super Knowledges.

211. The (simultaneous) conversion of tens of thousands, of twenties of thousands, took place,

Of ones and twos the conversions were beyond computation. Lit. “arithmetically innumerable.”

212. Then did the pure dispensation of Dīpaṅkara Buddha become widely spread,

Known to many men prosperous and flourishing.

213. Four hundred thousand saints, possessed of the six Super Knowledges, endowed with psychic powers,

Ever attend upon Dīpaṅkara, knower of the three worlds.

214. Blameworthy are all they who at that time leave the human existence,

Not having obtained final sanctity, still imperfect in knowledge.

215. The word of Buddha shines in the world of men and Devas, made to blossom by Arahats such as these,

Freed from human passion, void of all taint (of sin).

216. The city of Dīpaṅkara Buddha was called Rammavatī,

The khattiya Sumedha was his father, Sumedhā his mother.

217. Sumaṅgala and Tissa were his chief disciples,

And Sāgata was the servitor of Dīpaṅkara Buddha.

218. Nandā and Sunandā were his chief female disciples.

The Bodhi tree of this Buddha is called the Pipphali. [The Asvattha, or Indian Fig tree].

219. Eighty cubits in height the Great Sage Dīpaṅkara

Shone conspicuous as a Deodar pine, or as a noble Sāl tree in full bloom. [1.31]

220. A hundred thousand years was the age of this Great Sage,

And so long as he was living on earth he brought many men to salvation.

221. Having made the Dhamma to flourish, having saved great multitudes of men,

Having flamed like a mass of fire, he died together with his disciples.

222. And all these powers, this glory, these jewel-wheels on his feet,

All is wholly gone – are not all existing things vanity! {1.30}

223. After Dīpaṅkara was the leader named Koṇḍañña,

Of infinite powers, of boundless renown, immeasurable, unrivalled.”

[Buddha Koṇḍañña]

Next to the Dīpaṅkara Buddha, after the lapse of one asaṅkheyya, the Teacher Koṇḍañña appeared.

He also had three assemblies of saints,

at the first assembly there were a million millions,

at the second ten thousand millions,

at the third nine hundred millions.

At that time the Bodhisatta, having been born as a Universal Monarch named Vijitāvī, kept open house to the monastics with the Buddha at their head, in number a million of millions. The Teacher having predicted of the Bodhisatta, “He will become a Buddha,” preached the Dhamma. He having heard the Teacher’s preaching gave up his kingdom and became a Buddhist monk. Having mastered the Three Baskets, The three divisions of the Buddhist Scriptures [i.e. the Tipiṭaka]. having obtained the five Super Knowledges, and having practised without failure the Absorptions, he was reborn in the Brahma Realms.

The city of Koṇḍañña Buddha was Rammavatī,

the khattiya Sunanda was his father,

his mother was queen Sujātā,

Bhadda and Subhadda were his two chief disciples,

Anuruddha was his servitor,

Tissā and Upatissā his chief female disciples,

his Bodhi tree was the beautiful Sāla,

his body was eighty-eight cubits high,

and the duration of his life was a hundred thousand years.

[Buddha Maṅgala]

After him, at the end of one asaṅkheyya, in one and the same cycle four Buddhas were born, Maṅgala, Sumana, Revata and Sobhita.

Maṅgala Buddha had three assemblies of saints,

of these at the first there were [1.32] a million million priests,

at the second ten thousand millions,

at the third nine hundred millions.

It is related that a step-brother of his, prince Ānanda, accompanied by an assembly of nine hundred millions, went to the Teacher to hear him preach the Dhamma. The Teacher gave a discourse dealing successively with his various doctrines, and Ānanda and his whole retinue attained Arahatship together with the analytical knowledges.

The Teacher looking back upon the meritorious works done by these men of family in former existences, and perceiving that they had enough merit to acquire the robe and bowl by Supernormal Powers, stretching forth his right hand exclaimed, “Come, priests.” The formula by which a Buddha admits a layman to the priesthood. Then straightaway all of them having become equipped with obtained robes and bowls by Supernormal Powers, and perfect in decorum, Vijesinha. as if they were elders of sixty years standing, paid homage to the Teacher and attended upon him. This was his third assembly of saints.

Whereas with other Buddhas a light shone from their bodies to the distance of eighty cubits on every side, it was not so with this Buddha, but the light from his body permanently filled ten thousand worlds, and trees, earth, mountains, seas and all other things, not excepting even pots and pans and such-like articles, became as it were overspread with a film of gold. The duration of his life was ninety thousand years, and during the whole of this period the sun, moon and other heavenly bodies could not shine by their own light, and there was no distinction between night and day. By day all living beings {1.31} went about in the light of the Buddha as if in the light of the sun, and men ascertained the limits of night and day only by the flowers that blossomed in the evening and by the birds and other animals that uttered their cries in the morning. If I am asked, “What, do not other Buddhas also possess this power?” I reply, “Certainly [1.33] they do,” for they might at will fill with their lustre ten thousand worlds or more. But in accordance with a prayer made by him in a former existence, the lustre of Maṅgala Buddha permanently filled ten thousand worlds, just as the lustre of the others permanently extended to the distance of a fathom. Lit. “like the fathom-light of the others, so the personal lustre of Maṅgala Buddha remained constantly pervading ten thousand worlds.”

The story is that when he was performing the duties of a Bodhisatta, i.e. the Pāramitā. being in an existence corresponding to the Vessantara existence, i.e. his last birth before attaining Buddhahood. he dwelt with his wife and children on a mountain like the Vaṅka mountain (of the Vessantarajātaka). One day a demon named Kharadāṭhika, This name means “sharp-fanged.” hearing of the Bodhisatta’s inclination to giving, approached him in the guise of a brahmin, and asked the Bodhisatta for his two children. The Bodhisatta, exclaiming, “I give my children to the brahmin,” cheerfully and joyfully gave up both the children, thereby causing the ocean-girt earth to quake. In approval of his act of faith. The demon, standing by the bench at the end of the cloistered walk, while the Bodhisatta looked on, devoured the children like a bunch of roots. Not a particle of sorrow Lit. “no grief as big as the tip of a hair.” arose in the Bodhisatta as he looked on the demon, and saw his mouth as soon as he opened it disgorging streams of blood like flames of fire, nay, a great joy and satisfaction welled within him as he thought: “My gift was well given.” And he put up the prayer, “By the merit of this deed may rays of light one day issue from me in this very way.” In consequence of this prayer of his it was that the rays emitted from his body when he became Buddha filled so vast a space.

There was also another deed done by him in a former existence. It is related that, when a Bodhisatta, having visited the relic shrine of a Buddha, he exclaimed, “I [1.34] ought to sacrifice my life for this Buddha,” and having wrapped round the whole of his body in the same way that torches are wrapped, and having filled with clarified butter a golden vessel with jewelled wick-holders, worth a hundred thousand pieces, he lit therein a thousand wicks, and having set fire to the whole of his body beginning with his head, he spent the whole night in circumambulating the shrine. And as he thus strove till dawn not the root of a hair of his head was even heated, ’twas as one enters the calyx of a lotus, for the Truth guards him who guards himself.

Therefore has the Fortunate One said,

224. “Dhamma verily protects him who walks according thereto,

Dhamma rightly followed brings happiness.

This blessing is then in rightly following the Dhamma,

The righteous man goes not to a state of punishment.” [Ed: Thag 303.] {1.32}

And through the merit of this work also the bodily lustre of this Buddha constantly extended through ten thousand worlds. At this time our Bodhisatta, Viz. Gotama Bodhisatta. having been born as the brahmin Suruci, approached the Teacher with the view of inviting him to his house, and having heard his sweet discourse, said: “Lord, take your meal with me tomorrow.” “Brahmin, how many monks do you wish for?” “Nay but how many monks have you in your escort?” At that time was the Teacher’s first assembly, and accordingly he replied, “A million millions.” “Lord, bring them all with you and come and take your meal at my house.” The Teacher consented.

The brahmin having invited them for the next day, on his way home thought to himself, “I am perfectly well able to supply [1.35] all these monks with broth and rice and clothes and such-like necessaries, but how can there be room for them to sit down?” This thought of his caused the marble throne of the King of the Devas, three hundred and thirty-six thousand leagues away, to become warm. When a good man is in difficulty, Sakka is apprised of it by his marble throne becoming warm. Sakka exclaiming, “Who wishes to bring me down from my abode?” and looking down with the divine eye beheld the Bodhisatta, and said: “The brahmin Suruci having invited the clergy with the Buddha at their head is perplexed for room to seat them, it behoves me also to go there and obtain a share of his merit.” And having miraculously assumed the form of a carpenter, axe in hand he appeared before the Bodhisatta and said: “Has any one got a job to be done for hire?” The Bodhisatta seeing him said: “What sort of work can you do?” “There’s no art that I do not know; any house or hall that anybody orders me to build, I’ll build it for him.” “Very well, I’ve got a job to be done.” “What is it, sir?” “I’ve invited a million million priests for tomorrow, will you build a hall to seat them all?” “I’ll build one with pleasure if you’ve the means of paying me.” “I have, my good man.” “Very well, I’ll build it.” And he went and began looking out for a site.

There was a spot some fifty leagues in extent Lit. twelve or thirteen yojanas; a yojana is four leagues. as level as a Meditation Object circle. Used in absorption, jhāna, meditation. Sakka fixed his eyes upon it, while he thought to himself, “Let a hall made of the seven precious stones rise up over such and such an extent of ground.” Immediately the edifice bursting through the ground rose up. The golden pillars of this hall had silver capitals, The Pali word for the capital of a column is ghaṭaka, “little pot.” the silver pillars had golden capitals, the gem pillars had coral capitals, the coral pillars had gem capitals, while those pillars which were made of all the [1.36] seven precious stones had capitals of the same. Next he said: “Let the hall have hanging wreaths of little bells at intervals,” and looked again. The instant he looked a fringe of bells hung down, whose musical tinkling, as they were stirred by a gentle breeze, was like a symphony of the five sorts of instruments, or as when the heavenly choirs are going on. He thought: “Let there be hanging garlands of perfumes and flowers,” and there the garlands hung. He thought: “Let seats and benches for a million million {1.33} monks rise up through the earth,” and straightaway they appeared. He thought: “Let water vessels rise up at each corner of the building,” and the water vessels arose. Having by his effected all this, he went to the brahmin and said: “Come, sir, look at your hall, and pay me my wages.”

The Bodhisatta went and looked at the hall, and as he looked his whole frame was thrilled in every part with fivefold joy. And as he gazed on the hall he thought thus within himself, “This hall was not wrought by mortal hands, but surely through my good intention, my good action, the palace of Sakka became hot, and hence this hall must have been built by the King of the Devas Sakka; it is not right that in such a hall as this I should give alms for a single day, I will give alms for a whole week.” For the gift of external goods, however great, cannot give satisfaction to the Bodhisattas, but the Bodhisattas feel joy at their self-renunciation when they sever the crowned head, put out the henna-anointed eyes, cut out the heart and give it away.

For when our Bodhisatta in the Sivijātaka [Ja 499] gave alms in the middle of his capital, at the four gates of the city, at a daily expenditure of five bushels of gold coins, this liberality failed to arouse within him a feeling of satisfaction at his renunciation. But on the other hand, when the King of the Devas Sakka came to him in the disguise of a brahmin, and asked for his eyes, then indeed, as he took them out and gave them away, laughter rose within him, [1.37] nor did his heart swerve a hair’s breadth from its purpose. And hence we see that as regards generosity the Bodhisattas can have no satiety.

Therefore this Bodhisatta also thinking: “I ought to give alms for seven days to a million million priests,” seated them in that hall, and for a week gave them the alms called gavapāna. According to the gloss printed in the text it is a compound of milk, rice, honey, sugar and clarified butter. Men alone were not able to wait upon them, but the Devas themselves, taking turns with men, waited upon them. A space of fifty leagues or more sufficed not to contain the monks, yet they seated themselves each by his own power. On the last day, having caused the bowls of all the monks to be washed, and filled them with butter clarified and unclarified, honey and molasses, for medicinal use, he gave them back to them, together with the three robes. The robes and cloaks received by novices and ordained priests were worth a hundred thousand.

The Teacher, when he returned thanks, considering, “This man has given such great alms, who can he be?” and perceiving that at the end of two asaṅkheyyas and four thousand cycles he would become a Buddha named Gotama, addressing the Bodhisatta, made this prediction, “After the lapse of such and such a period you will become a Buddha named Gotama.” The Bodhisatta, hearing the prediction, thought, {1.34} “It seems that I am to become a Buddha, what good can a householder’s life do me? I will give up the world,” and, treating all this prosperity like so much drivel, he received ordination at the hands of the Teacher. And having embraced the ascetic life and learned the word of Buddha, and having attained the Super Knowledges and the Attainments, at the end of his life he was reborn in the Brahma Realms.

The city of Maṅgala Buddha was called Uttara,

his father was the khattiya Uttara;

his mother was Uttarā,

Sudeva and Dhammasena were his two chief [1.38] disciples,

Pālita was his servitor,

Sīvalī and Asokā his two chief female disciples.

The Nāga was his Bodhi tree,

his body was eighty-eight cubits high.

When his death took place, after he had lived ninety thousand years, at the same instant ten thousand worlds were involved in darkness, and in all worlds there was a great cry and lamentation of men.

225. “After Koṇḍañña the leader named Maṅgala,

Dispelling darkness in the world, held aloft the torch of truth.”

[Buddha Sumana]

And after the Buddha had died, shrouding in darkness ten thousand worlds, the Teacher named Sumana appeared.

He also had three great assemblies of saints,

at the first assembly the priests were a million millions,

at the second, on the Golden Mountain, ninety million of millions,

at the third eighty million of millions.

At this time the Bodhisatta was the Nāga king Atula, mighty and powerful. And he, hearing that a Buddha had appeared, left the Nāga world, accompanied by his assembled kinsmen, and, making offerings with celestial music to the Buddha, whose retinue was a million million of monastics, and having given great gifts, bestowing upon each two garments of fine cloth, he was established in the Three Refuges. And this Teacher also foretold of him, “One day he will be a Buddha.”

The city of this Buddha was named Khema,

Sudatta was his father,

Sirimā his mother,

Saraṇa and Bhāvitatta his chief disciples,

Udena his servitor,

Soṇā and Upasoṇā his chief female disciples.

The Nāga was his Bodhi tree,

his body was ninety cubits high,

and his age ninety thousand years.

226. “After Maṅgala came the leader named Sumana,

In all things unequalled, the best of all beings.” {1.35}

[Buddha Revata]

After him the Teacher Revata appeared.

He also had [1.39] three assemblies of saints.

At the first assembly the priests were innumerable,

at the second there were a million millions,

so also at the third.

At that time the Bodhisatta having been born as the brahmin Atideva, having heard the Teacher’s preaching, was established in the Three Refuges. And raising his clasped hands to his head, having praised the Teacher’s abandonment of human passion, presented him with a monk’s upper robe. And he also made the prediction, “You will become a Buddha.”

Now the city of this Buddha was called Sudhaññavatī,

his father was the khattiya Vipula,

his mother Vipulā,

Varuṇa and Brahmadeva his chief disciples,

Sambhava his servitor,

Bhaddā and Subhaddā his chief female disciples,

and the Nāga tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was eighty cubits high,

and his age sixty thousand years.

227. “After Sumana came the leader named Revata,

The Conqueror unequalled, incomparable, unmatched, supreme.”

[Buddha Sobhita]

After him appeared the Teacher Sobhita.

He also had three assemblies of saints;

at the first assembly a thousand million monks were present,

at the second nine hundred millions,

at the third eight hundred millions.

At that time the Bodhisatta having been born as the brahmin Ajita, and having heard the Teacher’s preaching, was established in the Three Refuges, and gave a great donation to the monastic Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head. To this man also he prophesied, saying: “Thou will become a Buddha.”

Sudhamma was the name of the city of this Fortunate One,

Sudhamma the king was his father,

Sudhammā his mother,

Asama and Sunetta his chief disciples,

Anoma his servitor,

Nakulā and Sujātā his chief female disciples,

and the Nāga tree his Bodhi tree;

his body was fifty-eight cubits high,

and his age ninety thousand years. [1.40]

228. “After Revata came the leader named Sobhita,

Subdued and mild, unequalled and unrivalled.”

[Buddha Anomadassī]

After him, when an asaṅkheyya had elapsed, three Buddhas were born in one kalpa – Anomadassī, Paduma, and Nārada.

Anomadassī had three assemblies of saints;

at the first eight hundred thousand monks were present,

at the second seven,

at the third six.

At that time the Bodhisatta was a Yakkha chief, mighty and powerful, the lord of many millions of {1.36} millions of Yakkhas. He, hearing that a Buddha had appeared, came and gave a great donation to the monastic Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head. And the Teacher prophesied to him too, saying: “Hereafter you will be a Buddha.”

The city of Anomadassī the Fortunate One was called Candavatī,

Yasava the king was his father,

Yasodharā his mother,

Nisabha and Anoma his chief disciples,

Varuṇa his servitor,

Sundarī and Sumanā his chief female disciples,

the Arjuna tree his Bodhi tree;

his body was fifty-eight cubits high,

his age a hundred thousand years.

229. “After Sobhita came the perfect Buddha – the best of men –

Anomadassī, of infinite fame, glorious, difficult to surpass.”

[Buddha Paduma]

After him appeared the Teacher named Paduma.

He too had three assemblies of saints;

at the first assembly a million million monks were present, {1.37}

at the second three hundred thousand,

at the third two hundred thousand of the monks who dwelt at a great grove in the uninhabited forest.

At that time, while the Tathāgata was living in that grove, the Bodhisatta having been born as a lion, saw the Teacher plunged in Absorption, and with trustful heart made obeisance to him, and walking round him with reverence, experienced great joy, and thrice uttered a [1.41] mighty roar. For seven days he laid not aside the bliss arising from the thought of the Buddha, but through joy and gladness, seeking not after prey, he kept in attendance there, offering up his life. When the Teacher, after seven days, aroused himself from his trance, he looked upon the lion and thought: “He will put trust in the monastic Saṅgha and make obeisance to them; let them draw near.” At that very moment the monks drew near, and the lion put faith in the Saṅgha. The Teacher, knowing his thoughts, prophesied, saying: “Hereafter he shall be a Buddha.”

Now the city of Paduma the Fortunate One was called Campaka,

his father was Paduma the king,

his mother Asamā,

Sāla and Upasāla were his chief disciples,

Varuṇa his servitor,

Rāmā and Uparāmā his chief female disciples,

the Trumpet Flower tree his Bodhi tree;

his body was fifty-eight cubits high,

and his age was a hundred thousand years.

230. “After Anomadassī came the perfect Buddha, the best of men,

Paduma by name, unequalled, and without a rival.”

[Buddha Nārada]

After him appeared the Teacher named Nārada.

He also had three assemblies of saints;

at the first assembly a million million monks were present,

at the second ninety million million,

at the third eighty million million.

At that time the Bodhisatta, having taken the vows as a sage, acquired the five Super Knowledges and the eight sublime Attainments, and gave a great donation to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head, making an offering of red sandal wood. And to him also he prophesied, “Hereafter you will be a Buddha.”

The city of this Fortunate One was called Dhaññavati,

his father was Sumedha the warrior,

his mother Anomā,

Bhaddasāla and Jetamitta his chief disciples,

Vāseṭṭha his servitor,

Uttarā and Pagguṇī his chief female disciples,

the great Trumpet Flower [1.42] tree was his Bodhi tree;

his body was eighty-eight cubits high,

and his age was ninety thousand years.

231. “After Paduma came the perfect Buddha, the best of men,

Nārada by name, unequalled, and without a rival.”

[Buddha Padumuttara]

After Nārada the Buddha, a hundred thousand world-cycles ago there appeared in one kalpa only one Buddha called Padumuttara.

He also had three assemblies of saints;

at the first a million million monks were present,

at the second, on the Vebhāra Mountain, nine hundred thousand million,

at the third eight hundred thousand million.

At that time the Bodhisatta, born as the Great Minister of the name of Jaṭila, gave an offering of robes to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head. And to him also he announced, “Hereafter you will be a Buddha.” And at the time of Padumuttara the Fortunate One there were no infidels, but all, men and Devas, took refuge in the Buddha.

His city was called Haṁsavatī,

his father was Ānanda the warrior,

his mother Sujātā,

Devala and Sujāta his chief disciples,

Sumana his servitor,

Amitā and Asamā his chief female disciples,

the Sāla tree his Bodhi tree;

his body was eighty-eight cubits high,

the light from his body extended twelve leagues,

and his age was a hundred thousand years.

232. “After Nārada came the perfect Buddha, the best of men,

Padumuttara by name, the Conqueror unshaken, like the sea.”

[Buddha Sumedha]

After him, when thirty thousand world-cycles had elapsed, two Buddhas, Sumedha and Sujāta, were born in one kalpa.

Sumedha also had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first assembly, in the city Sudassana, a thousand million sinless ones were present,

at the second [1.43] nine hundred,

at the third eight hundred.

At that time the Bodhisatta, born as the brahmin youth named Uttara, lavished {1.38} eight hundred millions of money he had saved in giving a great donation to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head. And he then listened to the Dhamma, and accepted the refuges, and abandoned his home, and took the vows. And to him also the Buddha prophesied, saying: “Hereafter you will be a Buddha.”

The city of Sumedha the Fortunate One was called Sudassana,

Sudatta the king was his father,

Sudattā his mother,

Saraṇa and Sabbakāma his two chief disciples,

Sāgara his servitor,

Rāmā and Surāmā his two chief female disciples,

the great Campaka tree his Bodhi tree;

his body was eighty-eight cubits high,

and his age was ninety thousand years.

233. “After Padumuttara came the leader named Sumedha,

The Sage hard to equal, brilliant in glory, supreme in all the world.”

[Buddha Sujāta]

After him appeared the Teacher Sujāta.

He also had three assemblies of his disciples;

at the first assembly sixty thousand monks were present,

at the second fifty,

at the third forty.

At that time the Bodhisatta was a Universal Monarch; and hearing that a Buddha was born he went to him and heard the Dhamma, and gave to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head, his kingdom of the four continents with its seven treasures, and took the vows under the Teacher. All the dwellers in the land, taking advantage of the birth of a Buddha in their midst, did duty as servants in the monasteries, and continually gave great donations to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head. And to him also the Teacher prophesied.

The city of this Fortunate One was called Sumaṅgala,

Uggata the king was his father,

Pabhāvatī his mother,

Sudassana and [1.44] Deva his chief disciples,

Nārada his servitor,

and Nāgā and Nāgasamālā his chief female disciples,

and the great Bamboo tree his Bodhi tree; this tree, they say, had smaller hollows and thicker wood than ordinary bamboos have, Compare Ja 20 below. and in its mighty upper branches it was as brilliant as a bunch of peacocks’ tails.

The body of this Fortunate One was fifty cubits high,

and his age was ninety thousand years.

234. “In that age, the Maṇḍakalpa, appeared the leader Sujāta,

Mighty jawed and grandly framed, whose measure none can take, and hard to equal.”

[Buddha Piyadassī]

After him, when eighteen hundred world-cycles had elapsed, three Buddhas, Piyadassī, Atthadassī, and Dhammadassī, were born in one kalpa.

Piyadassī also had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first a million million monks were present,

at the second nine hundred million,

at the third eight hundred million.

At that time the Bodhisatta, as a young brahmin called Kassapa, who had thoroughly learned the three Vedas, listened to the Teacher’s preaching of the Dhamma, and built a monastery at a cost of a million million, {1.39} and stood firm in the Refuges and the Precepts. And to him the Teacher prophesied, saying: “After the lapse of eighteen hundred kalpas you will become a Buddha.”

The city of this Fortunate One was called Anoma,

his father was Sudinna the king,

his mother Candā,

Pālita and Sabbadassī his chief disciples,

Sobhita his servitor,

Sujātā and Dhammadinnā his chief female disciples,

and the Priyaṅgu tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was eighty cubits high,

and his age ninety thousand years. [1.45]

235. “After Sujāta came Piyadassī, leader of the world,

Self-taught, hard to match, unequalled, of great glory.”

[Buddha Atthadassī]

After him appeared the Teacher called Atthadassī.

He too had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first nine million eight hundred thousand monks were present,

at the second eight million eight hundred thousand,

and the same number at the third.

At that time the Bodhisatta, as the mighty ascetic Susīma, brought from heaven the sunshade of Mandārava flowers, and offered it to the Teacher, who prophesied also to him.

The city of this Fortunate One was called Sobhita,

Sāgara the king was his father,

Sudassanā his mother,

Santa and Upasanta his chief disciples,

Abhaya his servitor,

Dhammā and Sudhammā his chief female disciples,

and the Campaka his Bodhi tree.

His body was eighty cubits high,

the glory from his body always extended over a league,

and his age was a hundred thousand years.

236. “In the same Maṇḍakalpa Atthadassī, best of men,

Dispelled the thick darkness, and attained supreme Awakening.”

[Buddha Dhammadassī]

After him appeared the Teacher named Dhammadassī.

He too had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first a thousand million monks were present,

at the second seven hundred millions,

at the third eight hundred millions.

At that time the Bodhisatta, as Sakka the King of the Devas, made an offering of sweet-smelling flowers from heaven, and heavenly music. And to him too the Teacher prophesied.

The city of this Fortunate One was called Saraṇa,

his father was Saraṇa the king,

his mother Sunandā,

Paduma and Phussadeva his chief disciples,

Sunetta his servitor,

Khemā and Sabbanāmā his chief female disciples,

and the red Kuravaka tree (called also [1.46] Bimbijāla) his Bodhi tree.

His body was eighty cubits high,

and his age a hundred thousand years.

237. “In the same Maṇḍakalpa the far-famed Dhammadassī

Dispelled the thick darkness, illumined earth and heaven.” {1.40}

[Buddha Siddhattha]

After him, ninety-four world-cycles ago, only one Buddha, by name Siddhattha, appeared in one kalpa.

Of his disciples too there were three assemblies;

at the first assembly a million million monks were present,

at the second nine hundred millions,

at the third eight hundred millions.

At that time the Bodhisatta, as the ascetic Maṅgala of great glory and gifted with the powers derived from the Higher Wisdom, brought a great jambu fruit and presented it to the Tathāgata. The Teacher, having eaten the fruit, prophesied to the Bodhisatta, saying: “Ninety-four kalpas hence you will become a Buddha.”

The city of this Fortunate One was called Vebhāra,

Jayasena the king was his father,

Suphassā his mother,

Sambala and Sumitta his chief disciples,

Revata his servitor,

Sīvalī and Surāmā his chief female disciples,

and the Kaṇikāra tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was sixty cubits high,

and his age a hundred thousand years.

238. “After Dhammadassī, the leader named Siddhattha

Rose like the sun, bringing all darkness to an end.”

[Buddha Tissa]

After him, ninety-two world-cycles ago, two Buddhas, Tissa and Phussa by name, were born in one kalpa.

Tissa the Fortunate One had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first a thousand millions of monks were present,

at the second nine hundred millions,

at the third eight hundred millions.

At that time the Bodhisatta was born as the wealthy and famous warrior-chief Sujāta. When he [1.47] had taken the vows and acquired the wonderful powers of a seer, he heard that a Buddha had been born; and taking a heaven-grown Mandārava lotus, and flowers of the Pāricchattaka tree (which grows in Sakka’s heaven), he offered them to the Tathāgata as he walked in the midst of his disciples, and he spread an awning of flowers in the sky. To him, too, the Teacher prophesied, saying: “Ninety-two kalpas hence you will become a Buddha.”

The city of this Fortunate One was called Khema,

Janasandha the warrior-chief was his father,

Padumā his mother,

the god Brahma and Udaya his chief disciples,

Sambhava his servitor,

Phussā and Sudattā his chief female disciples,

and the Asana tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was sixty cubits high,

and his age a hundred thousand years.

239. “After Siddhattha, Tissa, the unequalled and unrivalled,

Of infinite virtue and glory, was the chief Guide of the world.”

[Buddha Phussa]

After him appeared the Teacher named Phussa.

He too had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first assembly six million monks were present,

at the second five,

at the third three million two hundred thousand.

At that time the Bodhisatta, born as the warrior-chief Vijitāvī, laid aside his kingdom, and, taking the vows under the Teacher, learned the three {1.41} Piṭakas, and preached the Dhamma to the people, and fulfilled the Perfection of Virtue. Comp. pp. 19-20, verses 130-134. And the Buddha prophesied to him in the same manner.

The city of this Fortunate One was called Kāsi (Benares),

Jayasena the king was his father,

Sirimā his mother,

Surakkhita and Dhammasena his chief disciples,

Sabhiya his servitor,

Cālā and Upacālā his chief female disciples, [1.48]

and the Āmalaka tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was fifty-eight cubits high,

and his age ninety thousand years.

240. “In the same Maṇḍakalpa Phussa was the Teacher supreme,

Unequalled, unrivalled, the chief Guide of the world.”

[Buddha Vipassī]

After him, ninety world-cycles ago, appeared the Fortunate One named Vipassī.

He too had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first assembly six million eight hundred thousand monks were present;

in the second one hundred thousand,

in the third eighty thousand.

At that time the Bodhisatta, born as the mighty and powerful snake king Atula, gave to the Fortunate One a golden chair, inlaid with the seven kinds of gems. To him also he prophesied, saying: “Ninety-one world-cycles hence you will become a Buddha.”

The city of this Fortunate One was called Bandhumatī,

Bandhumā the king was his father,

Bandhumatī his mother,

Khandha and Tissa his chief disciples,

Asoka his servitor,

Candā and Candamittā his chief female disciples,

and the Bignonia (or Pāṭali tree) his Bodhi tree.

His body was eighty cubits high,

the effulgence from his body always reached a hundred leagues,

and his age was a hundred thousand years.

241. “After Phussa, the Supreme Buddha, the best of men,

Vipassī by name, the far-seeing, appeared in the world.”

[Buddha Sikhī]

After him, thirty-one world-cycles ago, there were two Buddhas, called Sikhī and Vessabhū.

Sikhī too had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first assembly a hundred thousand monks were present,

at the second eighty thousand,

at the third seventy.

At that time the [1.49] Bodhisatta, born as king Arindama, gave a great donation of robes and other things to the Saṅgha with the Buddha at their head, and offered also a superb elephant, decked with the seven gems and provided with all things suitable. To him too he prophesied, saying: “Thirty-one world-cycles hence you will become a Buddha.”

The city of that Fortunate One was called Aruṇavatī,

Aruṇa the warrior-chief was his father,

Pabhāvatī his mother,

Abhibhū and Sambhava his chief disciples,

Khemaṅkura his servitor,

Makhelā and Padumā his chief female disciples,

and the Puṇḍarīka tree his Bodhi tree. {1.42}

His body was thirty-seven cubits high,

the effulgence from his body reached three leagues,

and his age was thirty-seven thousand years.

242. “After Vipassī came the Supreme Buddha, the best of men,

Sikhī by name, the Conqueror, unequalled and unrivalled.”

[Buddha Vessabhū]

After him appeared the Teacher named Vessabhū.

He also had three assemblies of his saints;

at the first eight million priests were present,

at the second seven,

at the third six.

At that time the Bodhisatta, born as the king Sudassana, gave a great donation of robes and other things to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head. And taking the vows at his hands, he became righteous in conduct, and found great joy in meditating on the Buddha. To him too the Fortunate One prophesied, saying: “Thirty-one world-cycles hence you will be a Buddha.”

The city of this Fortunate One was called Anopama,

Suppatīta the king was his father,

Yasavatī his mother,

Soṇa and Uttara his chief disciples,

Upasanta his servitor,

Dāmā and Sumālā his chief female disciples,

and the Sāl tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was sixty cubits high,

and his age sixty thousand years. [1.50]

243. “In the same Maṇḍakalpa, the Conqueror named Vessabhū,

Unequalled and unrivalled, appeared in the world.”

[Buddha Kakusandha]

After him, in this world-cycle, four Buddhas have appeared – Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, Kassapa, and our [Gotama] Buddha.

Kakusandha the Fortunate One had one assembly,

at which forty thousand monks were present.

At that time the Bodhisatta, as Khema the king, gave a great donation, including robes and bowls, to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head, and having given also collyriums and drugs, he listened to the Dhamma preached by the Teacher, and took the vows. And to him also the Buddha prophesied.

The city of Kakusandha the Fortunate One was called Khema,

Aggidatta the brahmin was his father,

Visākhā the brahmin woman his mother,

Vidhura and Sañjīva his chief disciples,

Buddhija his servitor,

Sāmā and Campakā his chief female disciples,

and the great Sirīsa tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was forty cubits high,

and his age forty thousand years.

244. “After Vessabhū came the perfect Buddha, the best of men,

Kakusandha by name, infinite and hard to equal.” {1.43}

[Buddha Koṇāgamaṇa]

After him appeared the Teacher Koṇāgamaṇa.

Of his disciples too there was one assembly,

at which thirty thousand monks were present.

At that time the Bodhisatta, as Pabbata the king, went, surrounded by his ministers, to the Teacher, and listened to the preaching of the Dhamma. And having given an invitation to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head, he kept up a great donation, giving cloths of silk, and of fine texture, and woven with gold. And he took the vows from the Teacher’s hands. And to him too the Buddha prophesied.

The city of this Fortunate One was called Sobhavatī,

Yaññadatta the brahmin was [1.51] his father,

Uttarā the brahmin woman his mother,

Bhiyyosa and Uttara his chief disciples,

Sotthija his servitor,

Samuddā and Uttarā his chief female disciples,

and the Udumbara tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was twenty cubits high,

and his age was thirty thousand years.

245. “After Kakusandha came the Perfect Buddha, the best of men,

Koṇāgamana by name, Conqueror, chief of the world, supreme among men.”

[Buddha Kassapa]

After him the Teacher named Kassapa appeared in the world.

Of his disciples too there was one assembly,

at which twenty thousand monks were present.

At that time the Bodhisatta, as the brahmin youth Jotipāla, accomplished in the three Vedas, was well known on earth and in heaven as the friend of the potter Ghaṭīkāra. Going with him to the Teacher and hearing the Dhamma, he took the vows; and zealously learning the three Piṭakas, he glorified, by faithfulness in duty and in works of supererogation, the dispensation of the Buddha. And to him too the Buddha prophesied.

The birthplace of the Fortunate One was called Benares,

Brahmadatta the brahmin was his father,

Dhanavatī of the brahmin caste his mother,

Tissa and Bhāradvāja his chief disciples,

Sabbamitta his servitor,

Anuḷā and Uruveḷā his chief female disciples,

and the Nigrodha tree his Bodhi tree.

His body was twenty cubits high,

and his age was twenty thousand years.

246. “After Koṇāgamana came the Perfect Buddha, best of men,

Kassapa by name, that Conqueror, king of Righteousness, and giver of Light.”

Again, in the kalpa in which Dīpaṅkara the Buddha [1.52] appeared, three other Buddhas appeared also. On their part no prophecy was made to the Bodhisatta, {1.44} they are therefore not mentioned here; but in the commentary, in order to mention all the Buddhas from this kalpa, it is said,

247. “Taṇhaṅkara and Medhaṅkara, and Saranaṅkara,

And the perfect Buddha Dīpaṅkara, and Koṇḍañña best of men,

248. And Maṅgala, and Sumana, and Revata, and Sobhita the sage,

Anomadassī, Paduma, Nārada, Padumuttara,

249. And Sumedha, and Sujāta, Piyadassī the famous one,

Atthadassī, Dhammadassī, Siddhattha guide of the world,

250. Tissa, and Phussa the perfect Buddha, Vipassī, Sikhī, Vessabhū,

Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, and Kassapa too the Guide –

251. These were the perfect Buddhas, the sinless ones, the well-controlled;

Appearing like suns, dispelling the thick darkness;

They, and their disciples too, blazed up like flames of fire and went out.”

Thus our Bodhisatta has come down to us through four asaṅkheyyas plus one hundred thousand kalpas, making resolve in the presence of the twenty-four Buddhas, beginning with Dīpaṅkara. Now after Kassapa there is no other Buddha beside the present supreme Buddha. So the Bodhisatta received a prophecy from each of the twenty-four Buddhas, beginning at Dīpaṅkara.

And furthermore in accordance with the saying, [1.53]

“The resolve (to become a Buddha) only succeeds by the combination of eight qualifications: being a man, and of the male sex, and capable of attaining arahatship, association with the Teachers, renunciation of the world, perfection in virtue, acts of self-sacrifice, and earnest determination,”

he combined in himself these eight qualifications. And exerting himself according to the resolve he had made at the feet of Dīpaṅkara, in the words,

“Come, I will search for the Buddha-making conditions, this way and that;” See verse 125, above p. 19.

and beholding the Perfections of Generosity and the rest to be the qualities necessary for the making of a Buddha, according to the words,

“Then, as I made my search, I beheld the first Perfection of Generosity;” See verse 126, above p. 19.

he came down through many births, fulfilling these Perfections, even up to his last appearance as Vessantara. And the rewards which fell to him on his way, as they fall to all the Bodhisattas who have resolved to become Buddhas, are lauded thus:

252. “So the men, perfect in every part, and destined to Buddhahood,

Traverse the long road through thousands of millions of ages.

253. They are not born in hell, nor in the space between the worlds;

They do not become ghosts consumed by hunger, thirst, and want,

And they do not become small animals, even though born to sorrow. {1.45}

254. When born among men they are not blind by birth, [1.54]

They are not hard of hearing, they are not classed among the dumb.

255. They do not become women; among hermaphrodites and eunuchs

They are not found – these men destined to Buddhahood.

256. Free from the deadly sins, everywhere pure-living,

They follow not after vain philosophy, they perceive the workings of karma.

257. Though they dwell in heaven, they are not born into the Unconscious state,

Nor are they destined to rebirth among the Devas in the Pure Abodes. In the four highest of the thirty-one spheres of existence the Devas are unconscious, and the five worlds below these are called the Pure Abodes.

258. Bent upon renunciation, holy in the world and not of it,

They walk as acting for the world’s welfare, fulfilling all perfection.”

[Lives in Which He Fulfilled the Perfections]

While he was thus fulfilling the Perfections, there was no limit to the existences in which he fulfilled the Perfection of Generosity. As, for instance, in the times of the brahmin Akitti [Ja 480], and the brahmin Saṅkha [Ja 442], and the king Dhanañjaya, [There are two births in which a king Dhanañjaya appears, 515 and 545, but it is Ānanda who is identified with this king both times, and neither of them are about generosity.] and Mahāsudassana [Ja 95], [This story does not illustrate generosity, but rather impermanence.] and Mahāgovinda [DN 19], and the king Nimi [Ja 541], [This story does not illustrate generosity, but rather impermanence.] and the prince Canda [Ja 542], [This story does not seem very apt here.] and the merchant Visayha [Ja 340], and the king Sivi [Ja 499], and Vessantara [Ja 547]. So, certainly, in the Jātaka as the Wise Hare [Ja 316], according to the words, All the following verses down to verse 269 are quotations from the Cariyāpiṭaka [this is not quite right, some are found only in the commentary to Cp and other commentaries. This first one is from Cp 1.10.23.]

259. “When I saw one coming for food, I offered my own self,

There is no one like me in giving, such is my Perfection of Generosity” [1.55]

he, offering up his own life, acquired the Supreme Perfection called the Perfection of Generosity.

In like manner there is no limit to the existences – as, for instance, in the times when he was the snake king Sīlava [Ja 72], and the snake king Campeyya [Ja 506], the snake king Bhūridatta [Ja 543], the elephant king Chaddanta [Ja 514], and the prince Alīnasattu [Ja 513], son of king Jayaddisa – in which he fulfilled the Perfection of Virtue. So, certainly, in the Saṅkhapālajātaka [Ja 524], according to the words, [Cp 2.10.7]

260. “Even when piercing me with stakes, and striking me with javelins,

I was not angry with the sons of Bhoja, such is my Perfection of Virtue,”

he, offering up himself, acquired the Supreme Perfection, called the Perfection of Virtue.

In like manner there is no limit to existences – as, for instance, in the times when he was the prince Somanassa [Ja 505], and the prince Hatthipāla [Ja 509], and the wise man Ayoghara [Ja 510] – in which, forsaking his kingdom, he fulfilled the Perfection of Renunciation. So, certainly, in the Cullasutasomajātaka [Ja 525], according to the words, [This verse is found only here and in other commentaries.] {1.46}

261. “The kingdom, which was in my power, like spittle I rejected it,

And, rejecting, cared not for it, such is my Perfection of Renunciation,”

he, renouncing the kingdom for freedom from the ties of attachment, The saṅgas, of which there are five – lust, hate, ignorance, pride, and false doctrine. acquired the Supreme Perfection, called the Perfection of Renunciation.

In like manner, there is no limit to the existences – as, [1.56] for instance, in the times when he was the wise man Vidhura [Ja 545], and the wise man Mahāgovinda [DN 19], and the wise man Kuddāla [Ja 70], and the wise man Araka [Ja 169], [This does not seem apt, as it illustrates loving-kindness, not wisdom.] and the ascetic Bodhi [Ja 528], and the wise man Mahosadha [Ja 546] – in which he fulfilled the Perfection of Wisdom. So, certainly, in the time when he was the wise man Senaka in the Sattubhastajātaka [Ja 402], according to the words, [Only found in the commentaries.]

262. “Searching the matter out by wisdom, I set the brahmin free from pain,

There is no one like me in wisdom; such is my Perfection of Wisdom,”

he, pointing out the snake which had got into the bellows, acquired the Supreme Perfection called the Perfection of Wisdom.

So, certainly, in the Mahājanakajātaka [Ja 539], according to the words, [Only found in the commentaries.]

263. “Out of sight of the shore, in the midst of the waters, all men are as if dead,

There is no other way of thinking; such is my Perfection of Effort,”

he, crossing the Great Ocean, acquired the Supreme Perfection called the Perfection of Effort.

And so in the Khantivādijātaka [Ja 313], according to the words, [Only found in the commentaries.]

264. “Even when he struck me with a sharp axe, as if I were a senseless thing,

I was not angry with the king of Kāsi; such is my Perfection of Patience,”

he, enduring great sorrow as if he were a senseless thing, acquired the Perfection of Patience. [1.57]

And so in the Mahāsutasomajātaka [Ja 537], according to the words, [Only found in the commentaries.]

265. “Guarding the word of Truth, and offering up my life,

I delivered the hundred warriors; such is my Perfection of Truth,”

he, offering up his life, and observing truth, obtained the Perfection of Truth.

And in the Mūgapakkhajātaka [Ja 538], according to the words, [Cp 3.1.6]

266. “Father and mother I hated not, reputation I hated not,

But Omniscience was dear to me, therefore was I resolute in duty,” {1.47}

offering up even his life, and being resolute in duty, he acquired the Perfection of Determination.

And so in the Ekarājajātaka [Ja 303], according to the words, [Cp 3.13.3.]

267. “No man terrifies me, nor am I in fear of any man;

Firm in the power of loving-kindness, in purity I take delight,”

regarding not even his life while attaining to kindness, he acquired the Perfection of Loving-Kindness.

So in the Lomahaṁsajātaka [Ja 94], according to the words, [Cp. 3.15.1]

268. “I lay me down in the cemetery, making a pillow of dead bones:

The village children mocked and praised: to all I was indifferent,”

he was unshaken in equanimity, even when the villagers tried to vex or please him by spitting or by offering [1.58] garlands and perfumes, and thus he acquired the Perfection of Equanimity.

This is a summary only, the account will be found at length in the Cariyāpiṭaka.

Having thus fulfilled the Perfections, in his birth as Vessantara [Ja 547], according to the words, [Cp. 1.9.58.]

269. “This earth, unconscious though she be and ignorant of joy or grief,

E’en she by my free-giving’s mighty power was shaken seven times,”

he performed such mighty acts of virtue as made the earth to shake. And when, in the fullness of time, he had passed away, he reassumed existence in the Tusita heaven.

Thus should be understood the period, called Dūrenidāna, from the Determination at the feet of Dīpaṅkara down to this birth in the City of Delight.

II The Middle Epoch [Rhys Davids headed this Avidūre Nidāna, which is not in keeping with the translation of the other sections. The title used here comes from the opening of the Nidānakathā].

The Proclamation

It was when the Bodhisatta was thus dwelling in the City of Delight, that the so-called ‘Buddha proclamation’ took place. For three such Proclamations take place on earth. These are the three. When they realize that at the end of a hundred thousand years a new dispensation will begin, the Devas called Lokabyūhā, with their hair flying and dishevelled, with weeping faces, wiping away their tears with their hands, clad in red garments, and with their clothes all in disorder, wander among men, and make proclamation, saying,

“Friends, one hundred thousand years from now there will be a new dispensation; this system of worlds will be destroyed; even the mighty ocean {1.48} will dry up; this [1.59] great earth, with Sineru the monarch of mountains, will be burned up and destroyed; and the whole world, up to the realms of the immaterial Devas, will pass away. Therefore, O friends, have loving-kindness, compassion, sympathy, and equanimity, cherish your mothers, support your fathers, honour the elders in your tribes.” This is called the Proclamation of a New Aeon [Kappahalāhalaṁ].

Again, when they realize that at the end of a thousand years an omniscient Buddha will appear on earth, the Deva-guardians of the world go from place to place and make proclamation, saying: “Friends, at the end of a thousand years from this time a Buddha will appear on earth.” This is called the Proclamation of a Buddha [Buddhahalāhalaṁ].

Again, when the Devas realize that at the end of a hundred years a Universal Monarch will appear, they go from place to place and make proclamation, saying: “Friends, at the end of a hundred years from this time a Universal Monarch will appear on earth.” This is called the Proclamation of a Universal Monarch [Cakkavattihalāhalaṁ]. These are the three great proclamations.

When of these three they hear the Buddha-proclamation, the deities of the ten thousand world-systems assemble together; and having ascertained which of then living beings will become the Buddha, they go to him and beseech him to do so, so beseeching him when the first signs appear that his present life is drawing to its close. Accordingly on this occasion they all, with the King of the Devas in each world-system, The names are given in the text; the four Mahārājas, Sakka, Suyāma, Santusita, Paranimittavasavatti, and Mahābrahma. They are the great Devas in the different heavenly seats in each world-system (Cakkavāḷa) of the Buddhist cosmogony. assembled in one world, and going to the future Buddha in the Heaven of Delight, they besought him, saying,

“O Fortunate One, when you were fulfilling the Ten Perfections, you did not do so from a desire for the [1.60] glorious state of a King of the Devas – Sakka, or Māra, or Brahma – or of a mighty king upon earth; you were fulfilling them with the hope of reaching Omniscience for the sake of the Salvation of mankind! Now has the moment come, O Fortunate One, for thy Buddhahood; now has the time, O Fortunate One, arrived!”

The Five Points

But the Great Being, as if he had not granted the prayer of the deities, reflected in succession on the following five important points, viz. the time of his advent; the continent and country where he should appear; the tribe in which he should be born; the mother who should bear him, and the time when her life should be complete.

Of these he first reflected on the time, thinking: “Is this the time or not?” And on this point he thought: “When the duration of human existence is more than a hundred thousand years, the time has not arrived. Why not? Because in such a period men perceive not that living beings are subject to birth, decay, and death; the threefold pearl of the preaching of the Dhamma of the Buddhas is unknown; and when the Buddhas speak of the impermanence of things, of the universality of sorrow, and of the delusion of individuality, people will neither listen nor believe, saying, ‘What is this they talk of?’ At such a time there can be no perception of the truth, and without that the Dhamma it will not lead into the dispensation. That therefore is not the time. Neither is it the right time when the term of human existence is under one hundred years. Why not? Because then defilements are rife among men; and admonition addressed to those defiled finds no place for edification, but like a streak drawn on the water vanishes quickly away. {1.49} That therefore is not the time. When, however, the term of human existence is under a hundred thousand and over a hundred years, that is the proper time.” Now at that time the age of man was one hundred years. [1.61] The Great Being therefore saw that the time of his advent had arrived.

Then reflecting upon the continent, and considering the four great continents with their surrounding islands, In the seas surrounding each continent (Mahādīpa) there are five hundred islands. he thought: “In three of the continents the Buddhas do not – but in Jambudīpa they do – appear,” and thus he decided on the continent.

Then reflecting upon the district, and thinking: “Jambudīpa indeed is large, ten thousand leagues in extent; now in which district of it do the Buddhas appear?” he fixed upon the Middle Country. Majjhima-desa, of which the commentator adds, “This is the country thus spoken of in the Vinaya,” quoting the passage at Mahāvagga, v. 13, 12, which gives the boundaries as follows: “To the east the town Kajaṅgala, and bethatd it Mahāsālā; to the south-east the river Salalavatī; to the south the town Setakaṇṇika; to the west the brahmin town and district Thūṇa; and to the north the Usīraddhaja Mountain.” These are different from the boundaries of the Madhyadeśa of later Brahminical literature, on which see Lassen’s ‘Indische Alterthumskunde,’ vol. i. p. 119 (2nd edition). This sacred land was regarded as the centre of Jambudvīpa; that is, of the then known world – just as the Chinese talk of China as the Middle Country, and as other people have looked on their own capital as the navel or centre of the world, and on their world as the centre of the universe. And calling to mind that the town named Kapilavatthu was in that country, he concluded that he ought to be born in it.

Then reflecting on the tribe, he thought: “The Buddhas are not born in the Vessa caste, nor the Sudda caste; but either in the Brāhmaṇa or in the Khattiya caste, whichever is then held in the highest repute. The Khattiya caste is now predominant, I must be born in it, and Suddhodana the chief shall be my father.” Thus he decided on the tribe.

Then reflecting on the mother, he thought: “The mother of a Buddha is not eager for love, or cunning after drink, but has fulfilled the Perfections for a hundred thousand ages, and from her birth upwards has kept the Five Precepts unbroken. Now this lady Mahāmāyā is [1.62] such a one, she shall be my mother.” And further considering how long her life should last, he foresaw that it would still last ten months and seven days.

Having thus reflected on these five important points, he favoured the deities by granting their prayer, saying: “The time has arrived, dears, for me to become a Buddha.” He then dismissed them with the words, “You may depart,” and attended by the Devas of the heaven of Joy, he entered the grove of Gladness in the City of Delight.

Now in each of the Deva-heavens (Devalokas) there is such a Nandana grove; and there the Devas are wont to remind any one of them who is about to depart of the opportunities he has gained by good deeds done in a former birth, {1.50} saying to him, “When fallen hence, may you be reborn in bliss.” And thus he also, when walking about there, surrounded by Devas reminding him of his acquired merit, departed thence; and was conceived in the womb of queen Mahāmāyā.

The Dream of Mahāmāyā

In order to explain this better, the following is the account in fuller detail. At that time, it is said, the Midsummer festival was proclaimed in the city of Kapilavatthu, and the people were enjoying the feast. During the seven days before the full moon queen Mahāmāyā had taken part in the festivity, as free from intoxication as it was brilliant with garlands and perfumes. On the seventh day she rose early and bathed in perfumed water: and she distributed four hundred thousand pieces in giving great largesse. Decked in her richest attire she partook of the purest food: and vowing to observe the Eight Precepts, she entered her beautiful chamber, and lying on her royal couch she fell asleep and dreamt this dream.

The Four Kings of the gods, the Guardians of the World, lifting her up in her couch, carried her to the Himālayas mountains, and placing her under the Great Sāla tree, seven [1.63] leagues high, on the Crimson Plain, sixty yojanas broad, they stood respectfully aside. Their queens then came toward her, and taking her to the lake of Anotatta, bathed her to free her from human stains; and dressed her in heavenly garments; and anointed her with perfumes; and decked her with heavenly flowers. Not far from there is the Silver Hill, within which is a golden mansion; in it they spread a heavenly couch, with its head towards the east, and on it they laid her down. Then the future Buddha, who had become a superb white elephant, and was wandering on the Golden Hill, not far from there, descended thence, and ascending the Silver Hill, approached her from the north. Holding in his silvery trunk a white lotus flower, and uttering a far-reaching cry, he entered the golden mansion, and thrice doing obeisance to his mother’s couch, he gently struck her right side, and seemed to enter her womb. It is instructive to notice that in later accounts it is soberly related as actual fact that the Bodhisatta entered his mother’s womb as a white elephant: and the Incarnation scene is occasionally so represented in Buddhist sculptures.

Thus was he conceived at the end of the Midsummer festival. And the next day, having awoke from her sleep, she related her dream to the king. The king had sixty-four eminent brahmins summoned, and had costly seats spread on a spot made ready for the state occasion with green leaves and dalbergia flowers, and he had vessels of gold and silver filled with delicate milk-rice compounded with ghee and sweet honey, and covered with gold and silver bowls. This food he gave them, and he satisfied them with gifts of new garments and of tawny cows. And when he had thus satisfied their every desire, he had the dream told to them, and then he asked them, “What will come of it?”

The brahmins said: “Be not anxious, O king! Your queen has conceived: {1.51} and the fruit of her womb will be a male child; it will not be a female child. You will [1.64] have a son. And he, if he adopts a householder’s life, will become a king, a Universal Monarch; but if, leaving his home, he adopt the ascetic life, he will become a Buddha, who will remove from the world the veils of ignorance and sin.”

The Thirty-Two Signs

Now at the moment when the future Buddha made himself incarnate in his mother’s womb, the constituent elements of the ten thousand world-systems quaked, and trembled, and were shaken violently. The Thirty-two Good Omens also were made manifest.

In the ten thousand world-systems an immeasurable light appeared.

The blind received their sight, as if from very longing to behold this his glory.

The deaf heard the noise.

The dumb spake one with another.

The crooked became straight.

The lame walked.

All prisoners were freed from their bonds and chains.

In each hell the fire was extinguished.

The hungry ghosts received food and drink.

The wild animals ceased to be afraid.

The illness of all who were sick was allayed.

All men began to speak kindly.

Horses neighed gently.

Elephants trumpeted gently.

All musical instruments gave forth each its note, though none played upon them.

Bracelets and other ornaments jingled of themselves.

All the heavens became clear.

A cool soft breeze wafted pleasantly for all.

Rain fell out of due season.

Water, welling up from the very earth, overflowed.

The birds forsook their flight on high.

The rivers stayed their waters’ flow.

The waters of the mighty ocean became fresh.

Everywhere the earth was covered with lotuses of every colour.

All flowers blossomed on land and in water.

The trunks, and branches, and creepers of trees were covered with the bloom appropriate to each.

On earth tree-lotuses sprang up by sevens together, breaking even through [1.65] the rocks.

Hanging-lotuses descended from the skies.

[Showers of flowers fell on all sides.

Heavenly music resounded in the sky.]

The ten-thousand world-systems revolved, and rushed as close together as a bunch of gathered flowers; and became as it were a woven wreath of worlds, as sweet-smelling and resplendent as a mass of garlands, or as a sacred altar decked with flowers.

From the moment of the conception, thus brought about, of the future Buddha, four Devaputtas, with swords in their hands, stood guard over the Bodhisatta and his mother, to shield them from all harm. Pure in thought, having reached the highest aim and the highest honour, the mother was happy and unwearied; and she saw the child {1.52} within her as plainly as one could see a thread passed through a transparent gem. I once saw a notice of some medieval frescoes in which the Holy Child was similarly represented as visible within the Virgin’s womb, but have unfortunately mislaid the reference. [The Orthodox icons often show the baby as visible in the womb.] But as a womb in which a future Buddha has dwelt, like a sacred relic shrine, can never be occupied by another; the mother of the Bodhisatta, seven days after his birth, died, and was reborn in the City of Delight.

The Birth

Now other women give birth, some before, some after, the completion of the tenth month, some sitting, and some lying down. Not so the mother of a Bodhisatta. She gives birth to the Bodhisatta, standing, after she has cherished him in her womb for exactly ten months. This is a distinctive quality of the mother of a Bodhisatta.

And queen Mahāmāyā, when she too had thus cherished the Bodhisatta in her womb, like oil in a vessel, for ten months, felt herself far gone with child: and wishing to go to her family home she spake to king Suddhodana, and said: “O king! I wish to go to Devadaha, to the city of my people.” The king, saying: “It is good,” consented, and had the road from Kapilavatthu to Devadaha made plain, and decked [1.66] with arches of plaintain trees, and well-filled waterpots, and flags, and banners. And seating the queen in a golden palanquin carried by a thousand attendants, he sent her away with a great retinue.

Now between the two towns there is a pleasure-grove of Sāl trees belonging to the people of both cities, and called the Lumbini grove. At that time, from the roots to the topmost branches, it was one mass of fruits and flowers; and amidst the blossoms and branches swarms of various-coloured bees, and flocks of birds of different kinds, roamed, warbling sweetly. The whole of the Lumbini grove was like a wood of variegated creepers, or the well-decorated banqueting hall of some mighty king. The queen beholding it was filled with the desire of besporting herself in the Sāl tree grove; and the attendants, carrying the queen, entered the wood. When she came to the monarch Sāl tree of the glade, she wanted to take hold of a branch of it, and the branch bending down, like a reed heated by steam, approached within reach of her hand. Stretching out her hand she took hold of the branch, and then her pains came upon her. The people drawing a curtain round her, retired. Standing, and holding the branch of the Sāl tree, she was delivered.

That very moment the four Suddhāvāsa Mahā Brahma Devas came there bringing a golden net; and receiving the future Buddha on that net, they placed him before his mother, saying: “Be joyful, O lady! A mighty son is born to thee!”

Now other living things, when they leave their mother’s womb, leave it smeared with offensive and impure matter. Not so a Bodhisatta. {1.53} The future Buddha left his mother’s womb like a preacher descending from a Dhamma seat or a man from a ladder, erect, stretching out his hands and feet, unsoiled by any impurities from contact with his mother’s womb, pure and fair, and shining like a gem placed on [1.67] fine muslin of Benares. But though this was so, two showers of water came down from heaven in honour of them and refreshed the Bodhisatta and his mother.

From the hands of the Devas who had received him in the golden net, four kings received him on cloth of antelope skins, soft to the touch, such as are used on occasions of royal state. From their hands men received him on a roll of fine cloth; and on leaving their hands he stood up upon the ground and looked towards the east. Thousands of world-systems became visible to him like a single open space. Men and Devas offering him sweet-smelling garlands, said: “O Great Being, there is no other like thee, how then a greater?” Searching the ten directions (the four points of the compass, the four intermediate points, the zenith and the nadir), and finding no one like himself, he took seven strides, saying: “This is the best direction.” And as he walked the King of the Devas Brahma held over him the white umbrella, and the King of the Devas Suyāma followed him with the fan, and other deities with the other symbols of royalty in their hands. Then stopping at the seventh step, he sent forth his noble voice and shouted the shout of victory, beginning with:

“I am the chief of the world,

I am supreme in the world;

this is my last birth;

henceforth there will be no rebirth for me.”

Now the future Buddha in three births thus uttered his voice immediately on leaving his mother’s womb; in his birth as Mahosadha, in his birth as Vessantara, and in this birth. In the Mahosadha birth the King of the Devas Sakka came to him as he was being born, and placing some fine sandal-wood in his hand, went away. He came out from the womb holding this in his fist. His mother asked him, “What is it you hold, dear, as you come?” He answered, “Medicine, mother!” So because he came holding medicine, they gave him the name of Medicine-child (Osadhadāraka). Taking the medicine they kept [1.68] it in an earthenware waterpot; and it became a drug by which all the sickness of the blind and deaf and others, as many as came, was healed. So the saying sprang up, “This is a powerful drug, this is a powerful drug;” and hence he was called Mahosadha (The Great Medicine Man).

Again, in the Vessantara birth, as he left his mother’s womb, he stretched out his right hand, saying: “But is there anything in the house, mother? I would give a gift.” Then his mother, saying: “You are born, dear, in a wealthy family,” took his hand in hers, {1.54} and placed on it a bag containing a thousand.

Lastly, in this birth he sang the song of victory. Thus the future Buddha in three births uttered his voice as he came out of his mother’s womb. And as at the moment of his conception, so at the moment of his birth, the thirty-two Good Omens were seen.

Now at the very time when our Bodhisatta was born in the Lumbini grove, the lady, the mother of Rāhula, [Ānanda, his future servitor], Channa the attendant, Kāḷudāyi the minister, Kanthaka the royal horse, the great Bodhi tree, and the four vases full of treasure, also came into being. Of these last, one was two miles, one four, one six, and one eight miles in size. These seven are called the Sahajātā, the Connatal Ones. There is some mistake here, as the list contains nine – or if the four treasures count as one, only six – Connatal Ones. I think before Kaḷudāyi we should insert Ānanda, the loving disciple [Rhys-Davids was right about this, and I have included Ānanda’s name in this edition after Rāhula]. The legend is certainly, as to its main features, an early one, for it is also found, in greatly exaggerated and contradictory terms, in the books of Northern Buddhists (Lalitavistara, Foucaux, p. 97, Beal, p. 53, comp. Senart, p. 294).

The people of both towns took the Bodhisatta and went to Kapilavatthu. On that day too, the choirs of Devas in the Tāvatiṁsa heaven were astonished and joyful; and waved their cloaks and rejoiced, saying: “In Kapilavatthu, [1.69] to Suddhodana the king, a son is born, who, seated under the Bodhi tree, will become a Buddha.”

The Predictions

At that time an ascetic named Kāḷa Devala (a confidential adviser of Suddhodana the king, who had passed through the eight Attainments Samāpatti. had eaten his mid-day meal, and had gone to the Tāvatiṁsa heaven, to rest through the heat of the day. While there sitting resting, he saw these Devas, and asked them, “Why are you thus glad at heart and rejoicing? Tell me the reason of it.”

The Devas replied, “Sir, to Suddhodana the king is born a son, who seated under the Bodhi tree will become a Buddha, and will roll the Wheel of Dhamma. Dhammacakkaṁ pavattessati. See my “Buddhism,” p. 45. To us it will be given to see his infinite grace and to hear his word. Therefore it is that we are glad!”

The ascetic, hearing what they said, quickly came down from the Deva world, and entering the king’s house, sat down on the seat set apart for him, and said: “A son they say is born to you, O king! Let me see him.”

The king ordered his son to be clad in splendour and brought in to salute the ascetic. But the future Buddha turned his feet round, and planted them on the matted hair of the ascetic. It was considered among the brahmins a sign of holiness to wear matted or platted hair. This is referred to in the striking Buddhist verse (Dhammapada, v. 394), “What is the use of platted hair, O fool! What of a garment of skins! Your low yearnings are within you, and the outside you make clean!” For in that birth there was no one worthy to be saluted by the Bodhisatta, and if those ignorant ones had placed the head of the future Buddha at the feet of the ascetic, assuredly the ascetic’s head would have split in two. The ascetic rose from his seat, and saying: “It is not right for me to work my own destruction,” he did homage to the Bodhisatta. And the king also seeing this wonder did homage to his own son. [1.70]

Now the ascetic had the power of calling to mind the events of forty aeons (kappas) in the past, and of forty ages in the future. Looking at the marks of future prosperity on the Bodhisatta’s body, he considered with himself, “Will he become a Buddha or not?” And perceiving that he would most certainly become a Buddha, he smiled, saying: “This is a wonderful child.” {1.55} Then reflecting, “Will it be given to me to behold him when he has become a Buddha?” he perceived that it would not. “Dying before that time I shall be reborn in the Formless World; so that while a hundred or perhaps a thousand Buddhas appear among men, I shall not be able to go and be taught by them. And it will not be my good fortune to behold this so wonderful child when he has become a Buddha. Great, indeed, is my loss!” And he wept.

The people seeing this, asked, saying: “Our master just now smiled, and has now begun to weep! Will, sir, any misfortune befall our master’s little one?” “Our master” is here, of course, the sage. It is a pretty piece of politeness, not unfrequent in the Jātakas, to address a stranger as a relation. See below, Ja 3.

“There is no misfortune in him; assuredly he will become a Buddha,” was the reply.

“Why then do you weep?”

“It will not be granted to me,” he said, “to behold so great a man when he has become a Buddha. Great, indeed, is my loss! Bewailing myself, I weep.”

Then reflecting, “Will it be granted or not to any one of my relatives to see him as a Buddha?” He saw it would be granted to his nephew Nālaka. So he went to his sister’s house, and said to her, “Where is your son Nālaka?”

“In the house, brother.”

“Call him,” said he. When he came he said to him, “In the family of Suddhodana the king, dear, a son is [1.71] born, a young Buddha. In thirty-five years he will become a Buddha, and it will be granted you to see him. This very day give up the world!”

Bearing in mind that his uncle was not a man to urge him without a cause, the young man, though born in a family of incalculable wealth, Literally “worth eighty and seven times a koṭi,” both eighty and seven being lucky numbers. straightaway took out of the inner store a yellow suit of clothes and an earthenware pot, and shaved his head and put on the robes. And saying: “I take the vows for the sake of the greatest Being upon earth,” he prostrated himself on the ground and raised his joined hands in adoration towards the Bodhisatta. Then putting the begging bowl in a bag, and carrying it on his shoulder, he went to the Himālayas mountains, and lived the life of a monastic.

When the Tathāgata had attained to complete Awakening, Nālaka went to him and heard the way of salvation. Literally, “and caused him to declare, ‘The way of salvation for Nālaka.’ ” [See Snp 3.11, Nālakasutta]. Tathāgata, “gone, or come, in like manner; subject to the fate of all men,” is an adjective applied originally to all mortals, but afterwards used as a favourite epithet of Gotama. Childers compares the use of ‘Son of Man.’ He then returned to the Himālayas, and reached Arahatship. And when he had lived seven months longer as a pilgrim along the most excellent Path, he passed away when standing near a Golden Hill, by that final extinction in which no part or power of man remains. Anupādisesāya Nibbānadhātuyā parinibbāyi. In the translator’s “Buddhism,” p. 113, an analysis of this phrase will be found.

Now on the fifth day they bathed the Bodhisatta’s head, saying: “Let us perform the rite of choosing a name for him.” So they perfumed the king’s house with four kinds of odours, and decked it with Dalbergia flowers, and made ready rice well cooked in milk. Then they sent for one hundred and eight brahmins who had mastered the three Vedas, and seated them in the king’s house, and gave them the pleasant food to eat, {1.56} and did [1.72] them great honour, and asked them to recognize the signs of what the child should be.

Among them:

270. “Rāma, and Dhaja, and Lakkhaṇa, and Mantī,

Koṇḍañña and Bhoja, Suyāma and Sudatta,

These eight brahmins then were there,

Their senses all subdued; and they declared the mantra.”

Now these eight brahmins were recognizers of signs; it was by them that the dream on the night of conception had been interpreted. Seven of them holding up two fingers prophesied in the alternative, saying: “If a man having such marks should remain a householder, he becomes a Universal Monarch; but if he takes the vows, he becomes a Buddha.” And, so saying, they declared all the glory and power of a Cakkavatti king.

But the youngest of all of them, a young brahmin whose family name was Koṇḍañña, beholding the perfection of the auspicious marks on the Bodhisatta, raised up one finger only, and prophesied without ambiguity, and said: “There is no sign of his remaining amidst the cares of household life. Verily, he will become a Buddha, and remove the veil from the world.”

This man already, under former Buddhas, had made a deep resolve of holiness, and had now reached his last birth. Therefore it was that he surpassed the other seven in wisdom; that he perceived how the Bodhisatta would only be subject to this one life; and that, raising only one finger, he so prophesied, saying: “The lot of one possessed of these marks will not be cast amidst the cares of household life. Verily he will become a Buddha!”

Now those brahmins went home, and addressed their [1.73] sons, saying: “We are old, beloved ones; whether or not we shall live to see the son of Suddhodana the king after he has gained omniscience, do you, when he has gained omniscience, take the vows according to his dispensation.” And after they all seven had lived out their span of life, they passed away and were reborn according to their deeds.

But the young brahmin Koṇḍañña was free from disease; and for the sake of the wisdom of the Great Being he left all that he had and made the Great Renunciation. And coming in due course to Uruvelā, he thought: “Behold how pleasant is this place! How suitable for the exertions of a young man desirous of striving.” So he took up his residence there.

And when he heard that the Great Being had taken the vows, he went to the sons of those brahmins, and said to them, “Siddhattha the prince has taken the vows. Assuredly he will become a Buddha. If your fathers were in health they would today leave their homes, and take the vows: and now, if you should so desire, come, I will take the vows in imitation of him.” But all of them were not able to agree {1.57} with one accord; three did not give up the world; the other four made Koṇḍañña the brahmin their leader, and took the vows. It was those five who came to be called “the Company of the Five elders.”

Then the king asked, “After seeing what, will my son forsake the world?”

“The four omens,” was the reply.

“Which four?”

“A man worn out by age, a, sick man, a dead body, and a monk.”

The king thought: “From this time let no such things come near my son. There is no good of my son’s becoming a Buddha. I should like to see my son exercising rule and sovereignty over the four great [1.74] continents and the two thousand islands that surround them; and walking, as it were, in the vault of heaven, surrounded by an innumerable retinue.” Literally: ‘a retinue thirty-six leagues in circumference,’ where ‘thirty-six’ is a mere sacred number. Then, so saying, he placed guards two miles apart in the four directions to prevent men of those four kinds coming to the sight of his son.

That day also, of eighty thousand clansmen assembled in the festival hall, each one dedicated a son, saying: “Whether this child becomes a Buddha or a king, we give each a son; so that if he shall become a Buddha, he shall live attended and honoured by Khattiya monks, and if he shall become a king, he shall live attended and honoured by Khattiya nobles.” Khattiya was the warrior caste. And the king appointed nurses of great beauty, and free from every fault, for the Bodhisatta. So the Bodhisatta grew up in great splendour and surrounded by an innumerable retinue.

The Ploughing Festival

Now one day the king held the so-called Ploughing Festival. On that day they ornamented the town like a palace of the gods. All the slaves and servants, in new garments and crowned with sweet-smelling garlands, assembled in the king’s house. For the king’s work a thousand ploughs were yoked. On this occasion one hundred and eight minus one were, with their oxen-reins and cross-bars, ornamented with silver. But the plough for the king to use was ornamented with red gold; and so also the horns and reins and goads of the oxen.

The king, leaving his house with a great retinue, took his son and went to the spot. There there was a Jambu tree thick with leaves and giving a dense shade. Under it the king had the child’s couch laid out; and over the couch a canopy spread inlaid with stars of gold, and round it a curtain hung. Then leaving a guard there, the king, clad in splendour and attended by his ministers, went away to plough. [1.75]

At such a time the king takes hold of a golden plough, the attendant ministers one hundred and eight minus one silver ploughs, and the peasants the rest of the ploughs. Holding them they plough this way and that way. The king goes from one side to the other, and comes from the other back again.

On this occasion {1.58} the king had great success; and the nurses seated round the Bodhisatta, thinking: “Let us go to see the king’s glory,” came out from within the curtain, and went away. The future Buddha, looking all round, and seeing no one, got up quickly, seated himself cross-legged, and holding his breath, sank into the first Absorption. Jhāna, a state of religious meditation. A full explanation is given in the translator’s “Buddhism,” pp. 174-176.

The nurses, engaged in preparing various kinds of food, delayed a little. The shadows of the other trees turned round, but that of the Jambu tree remained steady and circular in form. The nurses, remembering their young master was alone, hurriedly raised the curtain and returned inside. Seeing the Bodhisatta sitting cross-legged, and that miracle of the shadow, they went and told the king, saying: “O king! The prince is seated in such and such a manner; and while the shadows of the other trees have turned, that of the Jambu tree is fixed in a circle!”

And the king went hurriedly and saw that miracle, and did homage to his son, saying: “This, Beloved One, is the second homage paid to thee!”

Siddhattha’s Youth

But the Bodhisatta in due course grew to manhood. And the king had three mansions made, suitable for the three seasons, one nine stories high, one seven stories high, and one five stories high; and he provided him with forty thousand dancing girls. So the Bodhisatta, surrounded by well-dressed dancing girls, like a god surrounded by troops of Accharā, and attended by musical instruments which played of themselves, lived, as the seasons changed, [1.76] in each of these mansions in enjoyment of great majesty. And the mother of Rāhula was his principal queen.

While he was thus in the enjoyment of great prosperity the following talk sprang up in the public assembly of his clansmen, “Siddhattha lives devoted to pleasure; not one thing does he learn; if war should break out, what would he do?”

The king sent for the future Buddha, and said to him, “Your relations, Beloved One, say that you learn nothing, and are given up to pleasure: now what do you think you should do about this?”

“O king! There is no art it is necessary for me to learn. Send the crier round the city, that I may show my skill. Seven days from now I will show my kindred what I can do.”

The king did so. The Bodhisatta assembled those so skilled in archery that they could split even a hair, and shoot as quick as lightning; and then, in the midst of the people, he showed his relatives his twelvefold skill, and how unsurpassed he was by other masters of the bow. A gloss adds, “This should be understood as is related at full in the Sarabhaṅgajātaka [Ja 522].” So the assembly of his clansmen doubted no longer.

The Four Omens

Now one day the future Buddha, wanting to go to his pleasure ground, told his charioteer to harness his chariot. The latter accordingly decked the gloriously beautiful chariot with all its trappings, and harnessed to it {1.59} four state horses of the Sindhi breed, and white as the leaves of the white lotus flower. And he informed the Bodhisatta. So the Bodhisatta ascended the chariot, resplendent like a mansion in the skies, and went towards the garden.

The Devatās thought: “The time for young Siddhattha to attain Awakening is near, let us show him the omens.” And they did so by making a Devaputta represent a man wasted by age, with decayed teeth [1.77] and grey hair, bent and broken down in body, and with a stick in his hand. But he was only visible to the future Buddha and his charioteer.

Then the Bodhisatta asked his charioteer, as is told in the Mahāpadāna, [DN 14, but there said concerning the prince Vipassī.] “What kind of man is this, whose very hair is not as that of other men?” When he heard his servant’s answer, he said: “Shame then be to life! Since the decay of every living being is notorious!” and with agitated heart he turned back at that very spot and re-entered his palace.

The king asked, “Why does my son turn back so hurriedly?”

“He has seen an old man,” they said; “and having seen an old man, he will forsake the world.”

“By this you ruin me,” exclaimed the king; “quickly get ready concerts and plays to be performed before my son. So long as he continues in the enjoyment of pleasure, he will not turn his thoughts to forsaking the world!” Then increasing the guards, he placed them at each point of the compass, at intervals of half a league.

Again, one day, when the future Buddha, as he was going to his pleasure ground, saw a sick man represented by the gods, he made the same inquiry as before; and then, with agitated heart, turned back and re-entered his palace. The king also made the same inquiry, and gave the same orders as before; and again increasing the guard, placed them all round at a distance of three-quarters of a league.

Once more, when the future Buddha, as he was going to his pleasure ground, saw a dead man represented by the gods, he made the same inquiry as before; and then, with agitated heart, turned back and re-entered his palace. The king also made the same inquiry, and gave the same orders as before; and again increasing the guard, placed them all round at a distance of a league. [1.78]

Once again, when the future Buddha, as he was going to his pleasure ground, he saw one who had abandoned the world, carefully and decently clad, he asked his charioteer, “Friend, what kind of man is that?” As at that time there was no Buddha at all in the world, the charioteer understood neither what a mendicant was nor what were his distinguishing characteristics; but nevertheless, inspired by the gods, he said: “That is one who has gone forth,” and described the advantages of renouncing the world. And that day the future Buddha, cherishing the thought of renouncing the world, went on to his pleasure ground. The repeaters of the Dīghanikāya, The members of the Buddhist Saṅgha were in the habit of selecting some book or books of the Buddhist Scriptures, which it was their especial duty to learn by heart, repeat to their pupils, study, expound, and preach from. Thus the Dīghanikāya, or collection of long treatises, had a special school of “repeaters” (bhāṇakā) to itself. however, say that he saw all four Omens on the same day, and then went to his pleasure ground.

There he enjoyed himself during the day and bathed in the beautiful lake; and at sunset seated himself on the royal resting stone to be robed. Now his attendants brought robes of different colours, and various kinds of ornaments, and garlands, and perfumes, and ointments, and stood around him.

At that moment the throne on which Sakka was seated became warm. At critical moments in the lives of persons of importance in the religious legends of Buddhist India, the seat of the great Deva Sakka becomes warm. Fearful of losing his temporary bliss, he then descends himself, or sends Vissakamma, the Buddhist Vulcan, to act as a deus ex machina, and put things straight. {1.60} And thinking to himself, “Who is it now who wants me to descend from hence?” He perceived that the time for the adornment of the future Buddha had come. And he said to Vissakamma, “Friend Vissakamma, the young noble Siddhattha, today, at midnight, will carry out the Great Renunciation. This is the last time he will be clad in splendour. Go to the pleasure ground and adorn him with heavenly array.”

By the power which Devas have, he accordingly, [1.79] that very moment, drew near in the likeness of the royal barber; and taking from the barber’s hand the material for the turban, he arranged it round the Bodhisatta’s head. At the touch of his hand the Bodhisatta knew, “This is no man, it is a Devaputta.” When the first round of the turban was put on, there arose, by the appearance of the jewelry on the diadem, a thousand folds; when the turban was wrapped the second time round, a thousand folds arose again; when ten times, ten thousand folds appeared. How so many folds could seem to rise on so small a head is beyond imagination; for in size the largest of them were as the flower of the Black Priyaṅgu creeper, and the rest even as Kutumbaka blossoms. And the head of the future Buddha became like a Kuyyaka flower in full bloom.

And when he was arrayed in all his splendour – the musicians while exhibiting each one his peculiar skill, the brahmins honouring him with words of joy and victory, and the men of lower castes with festive cries and shouts of praise; he ascended his superbly decorated carriage.

At that time Suddhodana the king, who had heard that the mother of Rāhula had brought forth a son, sent a message, saying: “Make known my joy to my son!” The future Buddha, hearing this, said: “An impediment has come into being, a bond has come into being.” When the king asked, “What did my son say?” and heard that saying; he gave command, “From henceforth let Rāhula (impediment) be my grandson’s name.” But the Bodhisatta, riding in his splendid chariot, entered the town with great magnificence and exceeding glory.

Kisā Gotamī

At that time a noble virgin, Kisā Gotamī by name, had gone to the flat roof of the upper story of her palace, and she beheld the beauty and majesty of the Bodhisatta as he was proceeding through the city. Pleased and delighted at the sight, she burst forth into this exalted utterance: [1.80]

271. “Blessed indeed is that mother,

Blessed indeed is that father,

Blessed indeed is that wife,

Who owns this Lord so glorious!” {1.61}

Hearing this, the Bodhisatta thought to himself, “On catching sight of such a one the heart of his mother is made happy, the heart of his father is made happy, the heart of his wife is made happy! This is all she says. But by what can every heart attain to lasting happiness and peace?” And to him whose mind was estranged from defilements the answer came, “When the fire of lust is gone out, then peace is gained; when the fires of hatred and delusion are gone out, then peace is gained; when the troubles of mind, arising from pride, credulity, and all other sins, have ceased, then peace is gained! Sweet is the lesson this singer makes me hear, for the Nibbāna of Peace is that which I have been trying to find out. This very day I will break away from household cares! I will renounce the world! I will follow only after Nibbāna itself!” The force of this passage is due to the fullness of meaning which, to the Buddhist, the words Nibbuta and Nibbāna convey. No words in Western languages cover exactly the same ground, or connote the same ideas. To explain them fully to any one unfamiliar with Indian modes of thought would be difficult anywhere, and impossible in a note; but their meaning is pretty clear from the above sentences. Where in them, in the song, the words blessed, happy, peace, and the words gone out, ceased, occur, Nibbuta stands in the original in one or other of its two meanings; where in them the words Nirvāṇa, Nirvāṇa of Peace occur, Nibbāna stands in the original. Nirvāṇa is a lasting state of happiness and peace, to be reached here on earth by the extinction of the ‘fires’ and ‘troubles’ mentioned in this passage.

Then loosing from his neck a string of pearls worth a hundred thousand, he sent it to Kisā Gotamī as a teacher’s fee. Delighted at this, she thought: “Prince Siddhattha has fallen in love with me, and has sent me a present.” But the Bodhisatta, on entering his palace in great splendour, reclined on a couch of state.

The Great Renunciation

Thereupon women clad in beautiful array, skilful in [1.81] dance and song, and lovely as Devakaññā, brought their musical instruments, and ranging themselves in order, danced, and sang, and played delightfully. But the Bodhisatta, his heart being estranged from defilements, took no pleasure in the spectacle, and fell asleep.

And the women, saying: “He, for whose sake we were performing, is gone to sleep? Why should we play any longer?” laid aside the instruments they held, and lay down to sleep. The lamps fed with sweet-smelling oil were just burning out. The Bodhisatta, waking up, sat cross-legged on the couch, and saw them with their stage properties laid aside and sleeping – some foaming at the mouth, some grinding their teeth, some yawning, some muttering in their sleep, some gaping, and some with their dress in disorder – plainly revealed as mere horrible sources of mental distress.

Seeing this woeful change in their appearance, he became more and more disgusted with sensual desires. To him that magnificent apartment, as splendid as Sakka’s residence in heaven, began to seem like a charnel-house full of loathsome corpses. Life, whether in the worlds subject to passion, or in the worlds of form, or in the formless worlds, seemed to him like staying in a house that had become the prey of devouring flames. Literally, “The three bhavas seemed like houses on fire.” The three Bhavas are Existence in the Kāmaloka, and the Rūpaloka and the Arūpaloka respectively: that is, existence in the worlds whose inhabitants are subject to passion, have material forms, and have immaterial forms respectively. An exalted utterance broke from him, “It all oppresses me! It is intolerable!” and his mind turned ardently to the state of those who have renounced the world. Resolving that very day to accomplish the Great Renunciation, he rose from his couch, went to the door and called out, “Who is there?” {1.62} Channa, who had been sleeping with his head on the threshold, answered, “It is I, sir, Channa.” [1.82] Then said he, “I am resolved today to accomplish the Great Renunciation – saddle me a horse.”

So Channa went to the stable-yard, and entering the stables saw by the light of the lamps the mighty steed Kanthaka, standing at a pleasant spot under a canopy of cloth, beautified with a pattern of jasmine flowers. “This is the very one I ought to saddle today,” thought he; and he saddled Kanthaka.

Even while he was being saddled the horse knew, “He is saddling me so tightly, and not as on other days for such rides as those to the pleasure grounds, because my master is today about to carry out the Great Renunciation.” Then, glad at heart, he neighed a mighty neigh; and the sound thereof would have penetrated over all the town, had not the gods stopped the sound, and let no one hear it.

Now after the Bodhisatta had sent Channa on this errand, he thought: “I will just look at my son.” And rising from his couch he went to the apartments of Rāhula’s mother, and opened her chamber door. At that moment a lamp, fed with sweet-smelling oil, was burning dimly in the inner chamber. The mother of Rāhula was asleep on a bed strewn with many jasmine flowers, Literally, “about an ammaṇa (i.e. five or six bushels) of the large jasmine and the Arabian jasmine.” and resting her hand on the head of her son. Stopping with his foot on the threshold, the Bodhisatta thought: “If I lift her hand to take my son, she will awake; and that will prevent my going away. I will come back and see him when I have become a Buddha.” And he left the palace.

Now what is said in the Jātaka commentary, “At that time Rāhula was seven days old,” is not found in the other commentaries. Therefore the view given above should be accepted. The Jātaka Commentary here referred to is, no doubt, the older commentary in Elu, or old Sinhalese, on which the present work is based.

And when the Bodhisatta had left the palace, he went to his horse, and said: “My good Kanthaka, do you save me this [1.83] once tonight; so that I, having become a Buddha by your help, shall save the world of men, and that of Devas too.” Then leaping up, he seated himself on Kanthaka’s back.

Kanthaka was eighteen cubits in length from the nape of his neck, and of proportionate height; he was strong and fleet, and white all over like a clean chank shell. If he should neigh or paw the ground, the sound would penetrate through all the town. Therefore the Devas so muffled the sound of his neighing that none could hear it; and placed, at each step, the palms of their hands under his feet.

The Bodhisatta rode on the mighty back of the mighty steed; told Channa {1.63} to catch hold of its tail, and arrived at midnight at the great gate of the city.

Now the king thinking: “In that way the Bodhisatta will not be able at any time to open the city gate and get away,” had placed a thousand men at each of the two gates to stop him. The Bodhisatta was mighty and strong according to the measure of elephants as ten thousand million elephants, and according to the measure of men as a million million men. He thought: “If the door does not open, sitting on Kanthaka’s back with Channa holding his tail, I will press Kanthaka with my thighs, and jumping over the city rampart, eighteen cubits high, I will get away!” Channa thought: “If the door is not opened, I will take my master on my neck, and putting my right hand round Kanthaka’s girth, I will hold him close to my waist, and so leap over the rampart and get away!” Kanthaka thought: “If the door is not opened, I will spring up with my master seated as he is on my back, and Channa holding by my tail, and will leap over the rampart and get away!” And if the door had not been opened, verily one or other of those three would have accomplished that whereof he had thought. But the Deva residing at the gate opened it.

At that moment Māra came there with the intention [1.84] of stopping the Bodhisatta; and standing in the air, he exclaimed, “Depart not, O my lord! In seven days from now the Wheel Jewel will appear, and will make you sovereign over the four continents and the two thousand adjacent isles. Stop, O my lord!”

“Who are you?” said he.

“I am Vasavatti,” was the reply.

“Māra! Well do I know that the Wheel Jewel would appear to me; but it is not sovereignty that I desire. I will become a Buddha, and make the ten thousand world-systems shout for joy.”

Then thought Māra to himself, “Now, from this time forth, whenever a thought of lust or anger or malice shall arise within you, I will get to know of it.” And he followed him, ever watching for some slip, as closely as a shadow which never leaves its object.

But the future Buddha, making light of the kingdom of the world, thus within his reach – casting it away as one would saliva – left the city with great honour on the full-moon day of Āsāḷha, when the moon was in the Uttarāsāḷha lunar mansion (i.e. on the Full Moon day in July). And when he had left the city a desire sprang up within him to gaze upon it; and the instant he did so the broad earth revolved like a potter’s wheel, and was stayed: saying as it were to him, “O Great Being, there is no need for you to stop in order to fulfil your wish.” So the Bodhisatta, with his face towards the city, gazed at it; and he fixed at that place a spot for the Kanthaka-Nivattana Cetiya (that is, The Shrine of Kanthaka’s Staying – a Stūpa afterwards built where this miracle was believed to have happened). And keeping Kanthaka in the direction in which he was going, {1.64} he went on with great honour and exceeding glory.

For then, they say, Devas in front of him carried sixty thousand torches, and behind him too, and on his right hand, and on his left. And while some deities, undefined [1.85] on the edge of the horizon, held torches aloft; other deities, and the Nāgas, and Supaṇṇas, and other superhuman beings, bore him company – doing homage with heavenly perfumes, and garlands, and sandal-wood powder, and incense. And the whole sky was full of Paricchātaka flowers from Sakka’s heaven, as with the pouring rain when thick clouds gather. Heavenly songs floated around; and on every side thousands of musical instruments sounded, as when the thunder roars in the midst of the sea, or the great ocean heaves against the boundaries of the world!

Advancing in this pomp and glory, the Bodhisatta, in that one night, passed beyond three kingdoms, and arrived, at the end of thirty leagues, at the bank of the river called Anomā. But why could not the horse go still further? It was not through want of power: for he could go from one edge of the round world to the other, as easily as one could step across the circumference of a wheel lying on its side; and doing this in the forenoon, he could return and eat the food prepared for him. But on this occasion he was constantly delayed by having to drag himself along, and break his way through the mass of garlands and flowers, cast down from heaven in such profusion by the Devas, and the Nāgas, and the Supaṇṇas, that his very flanks were hid. Hence it was that he only got over thirty leagues.

Now the Bodhisatta, stopping at the river side, asked Channa, “What is this river called?”

“Its name, my lord, is Anomā.”

“And so also our renunciation of the world shall be called Anomā (Illustrious),” said he; and signalling to his horse, by pressing it with his heel, the horse sprang over the river, five or six hundred yards in breadth, and stood on the opposite bank.

The Bodhisatta, getting down from the horse’s back, stood on the sandy beach, extending there like a sheet of silver, [1.86] and said to Channa, “Good Channa, do you now go back, taking my ornaments and Kanthaka. I am going to become an ascetic.”

“But I also, my lord, will become an ascetic.”

“You cannot be allowed to renounce the world, you must go back,” he said. Three times he refused this request of Channa’s; and he delivered over to him both the ornaments and Kanthaka.

Then he thought: “These locks of mine are not suited for a mendicant. Now it is not right for any one else to cut the hair of a future Buddha, so I will cut them off myself with my sword.” Then, taking his sword in his right hand, and holding the plaited tresses, together with the diadem on them, with his left, he cut them off. So his hair was thus reduced to two inches in length, and curling from the right, it lay close to his head. It remained that length as long as he lived, and the beard the same. There was no need at all to shave either hair or beard any more. {1.65}

The Bodhisatta, saying to himself, “If I am to become a Buddha, let it stand in the air; if not, let it fall to the ground;” threw the hair and diadem together as he held them towards the sky. The plaited hair and the jewelled turban went a league off and stopped in the air. The King of the Devas Sakka caught sight of it with his divine eye, and receiving it into a jewel casket, a league high, he placed it in the Tāvatiṁsa heaven, in the Jewel Cetiya.

272. “Cutting off his hair, with pleasant perfumes sweet,

The foremost person cast it to the sky.

The thousand-eyed one, Sakka, the sky god,

Received it humbly in a golden casket.”

Again the Bodhisatta thought: “This my raiment of Benares muslin is not suitable for a mendicant.” Now the Deva Ghaṭikāra, who had formerly been his friend in the time of Kassapa, the One with Ten Powers, was led by his [1.87] friendship, which had not grown old in that long interval, to think, “Today my friend is accomplishing the Great Renunciation, I will go and provide him with the requisites of a mendicant.”

273. “The three robes, and the alms bowl,

Razor, needle, and girdle,

And a water strainer – these eight

Are the wealth of the monk devout.”

Taking these eight requisites of a mendicant, he gave them to him. The Bodhisatta dressed himself in the outward signs of an Arahat, and adopted the sacred garb of Renunciation; and he enjoined upon Channa to go and, in his name, assure his parents of his safety. And Channa did homage to the Bodhisatta reverently, and departed.

Now Kanthaka stood listening to the Bodhisatta as he talked with Channa. And thinking: “From this time forth I shall never see my master more!” he was unable to bear his grief. And going out of their sight, he died of a broken heart; and was reborn in the Tāvatiṁsa heaven as a Devaputta, with the name of Kanthaka. So far the sorrow of Channa had been but single; now torn with the second sorrow of Kanthaka’s death, he returned, weeping and bewailing, to the city.

Meeting King Bimbisāra

But the Bodhisatta, having renounced the world, spent seven days in a mango grove called Anūpiya, nearby that spot, in the joy of going forth. {1.66} Then he went on foot in one day to Rājagaha, a distance of thirty leagues, The word rendered league is yojana, said by Childers (Dictionary, s.v.) to be twelve miles, but really only between seven and eight miles. See my Ancient Coins and Measures, pp. 16, 17. The thirty yojanas here mentioned, together with the thirty from Kapilavatthu to the river Anomā, make together sixty, or four hundred and fifty miles from Kapilavastu to Rājagaha, which is far too much for the direct distance. There is here, I think, an undesigned coincidence between Northern and Southern accounts; for the Lalitavistara (Chap. xvi. at the commencement) makes the Bodhisatta go to Rājagaha via Vesāli, and this would make the total distance exactly sixty yojanas. [1.88] and entering the city, begged his food from door to door. The whole city at the sight of his beauty was thrown into commotion, like that other Rājagaha by the entrance of Dhanapālaka, or like heaven itself by the entrance of the Ruler of the Gods.

The guards went to the king and said, describing him, “O king! Such and such a being is begging through the town. We cannot tell whether he is a god, or a man, or a Nāga, or a Supaṇṇa, These are the superhuman Nāgas and Supaṇṇas, who were supposed, like the Devas, to be able to assume the appearance of men. or what he is.”

The king, watching the Great Being from his palace, became full of wonder, and gave orders to his guards, saying: “Go, my men, and see. If it is an Amanussa, it will disappear as soon as it leaves the city; if a god, it will depart through the air; if a Nāga, it will dive into the earth; if a man, it will eat the food just as it is.”

But the Great Being collected scraps of food. And when he perceived there was enough to support him, he left the city by the gate at which he had entered. And seating himself, facing towards the east, under the shadow of the Paṇḍava rock, he began to eat his meal. His stomach, however, turned, and made as if it would come out of his mouth. Then, though distressed by that revolting food, for in that birth he had never even beheld such food with his eyes, he himself admonished himself, saying: “Siddhattha, it is true you were born in a family where food and drink were easily obtainable, into a state of life where your food was perfumed third-season’s rice, with various curries of the finest kinds. But ever since you saw one clad in a mendicant’s garb, you have been thinking, ‘When shall I become like him, and live by begging my food? Would that time were come!’ And now that you have left all for that very purpose, what is this that you are doing?” And overcoming his feelings, he ate the food. [1.89]

The king’s men saw this, and went and told him what had happened. Hearing what his messengers said, the king quickly left the city, and approaching the Bodhisatta, was so pleased at the mere sight of his dignity and grace, that he offered him all his kingdom.

The Bodhisatta said: “In me, O king, there is no desire after wealth or defilements. It is in the hope of attaining to complete Awakening that I have left all.” And when the king gained not his consent, though he asked it in many ways, he said: “Assuredly you will become a Buddha! Deign at least after thy Buddhahood to come to my kingdom first.”

This is here concisely stated; but the full account, beginning, “I sing the Renunciation, how the Wise One renounced the world,” will be found by referring to the Pabbajjāsutta [Snp 3.1.] and its commentary.

The Great Struggle

And the Bodhisatta, granting the king’s request, went forward on his way. And joining himself to Āḷāra Kāḷāma, and to Uddaka, son of Rāma, he acquired their systems of Absorption. But when he saw that that was not the way to wisdom, he {1.67} left off applying himself to the realization of that system of Attainment. Samāpatti. And with the intention of carrying out the Great Struggle, and showing his might and resolution to gods and men, he went to Uruvelā. And saying: “Pleasant, indeed, is this spot!” he took up his residence there, and devoted himself to the Great Struggle. The Great Struggle played a great part in the Buddhist system of moral training; it was the wrestling with the flesh by which a true Buddhist overcame delusion and defilement, and attained to Nibbāna. It is best explained by its fourfold division into 1. Mastery over the passions. 2. Suppression of defiled thoughts. 3. Meditation on the seven kinds of Wisdom (Bodhi-aṅgā, see ‘Buddhism’ p. 173); and 4. Fixed attention, the power of preventing the mind from wandering. It is also called Sammappadhāna, Right Effort, and forms the subject of the Mahāpadhānasutta, in the Dīghanikāya [DN 14]. The system was, of course, not worked out at the time here referred to; but throughout the chronicle the biographer ascribes to Gotama, from the beginning, a knowledge of the whole Buddhist theory as afterwards elaborated. For to our author that theory had no development, it was Eternal and Immutable Truth already revealed by innumerable previous Buddhas. [1.90]

And those five mendicants, Koṇḍañña and the rest, begging their way through villages, market towns, and royal cities, met with the Bodhisatta there. And for six years they stayed by him and served him, while he was carrying out the Great Struggle, with different kinds of service, such as sweeping out the hermitage, and so on; thinking the while, “Now he will become a Buddha! Now he will become a Buddha!”

Now the Bodhisatta thought: “I will perform the uttermost penance.” And he brought himself to live on one seed of the oil plant, or one grain of rice, and even to fast entirely; but the Devas gathered the sap of life and infused it into him through the pores of his skin. By this fasting, however, he became as thin as a skeleton; the colour of his body, once fair as gold, became dark; and the Thirty-two signs of a Great Being disappeared. And one day, when walking up and down, plunged in intense meditation, he was overcome by severe pain; and he fainted, and fell.

Then certain of the Devas began to say, “The ascetic Gotama is dead.” But others said: “Such is the condition of Arahats (saints).” And those who thought he was dead went and told Suddhodana the king, saying: “Your son is dead.”

“Did he die after becoming a Buddha, or before?”

“He was unable to attain to Buddhahood, and fell down and died in the midst of the Great Struggle.”

When the king heard this, he refused to credit it, saying: “I do not believe it. My son could never die without attaining to Wisdom!”

If you ask, “Why did not the king believe it?” it was because he had seen the miracles at the foot of the Jambu tree, and on the day when Kāḷa Devala had been compelled to do homage to the Bodhisatta.

And the Bodhisatta recovered consciousness again, and stood up. And the Devas went and told the king, “Your [1.91] son, O king, is well.” And the king said: “I knew my son was not dead.”

And the Great Being’s six years’ penance became noised abroad, as when the sound of a great bell is heard in the sky. But he perceived that penance was not the way to Wisdom; and begging through the villages and towns, he collected ordinary material food, and lived upon it. And the Thirty-two signs of a Great Being appeared again upon him, and his body became fair in colour, like unto gold.

Then the five attendant mendicants thought: “This man has not been able, even by six years’ penance, to attain Omniscience; {1.68} how can he do so now, when he goes begging through the villages, and takes material food? He is altogether lost in the Struggle. To think of getting spiritual advantage from him is like a man, who wants to bathe his head, thinking of using a dew-drop. What is to be got from him?” And leaving the Great Being, they took each his robes and begging bowl, and went eighteen leagues away, and entered Isipatana. A suburb of Benares, famous for its schools of learning.

The Lady Sujātā

Now at that time, at Uruvelā, in the village Senāni, there was a girl named Sujātā, born in the house of Senāni the landowner, who, when she had grown up, prayed to a Nigrodha tree, saying: “If I am married into a family of equal rank, and have a son for my firstborn child, then I will spend every year a hundred thousand on an offering to thee.” And this her prayer took effect.

And in order to make her offering, on the full-moon day of the month of May, in the sixth year of the Great Being’s penance, she had driven in front of her a thousand cows into a meadow of rich grass. With their milk she had fed five hundred cows, with theirs two hundred and fifty, and so on down to eight. Thus aspiring after quantity, and sweetness, and strength, she did what is called, “Working the milk in and in.” [1.92]

And early on the full-moon day in the month of May, thinking: “Now I will make the offering,” she rose up in the morning early and milked those eight cows. Of their own accord the calves kept away from the cows’ udders, and as soon as the new vessels were placed ready, streams of milk poured into them. Seeing this miracle, Sujātā, with her own hands, took the milk and poured it into new pans; and with her own hands made the fire and began to cook it. When that rice-milk was boiling, huge bubbles rising, turned to the right and ran round together; not a drop fell or was lost; not the least smoke rose from the fireplace.

At that time the four guardian Devas of the world came from the four points of the compass, and kept watch by the fireplace. The King of the Devas Brahma held over it a canopy of state. The King of the Devas Sakka put the sticks together and lighted the fire. By their divine power the gods, gathering so much of the sap of life as would suffice for the support of all the men and Devas of the four continents, and their circumjacent two thousand isles – as easily as a man crushing the honey-comb formed round a stick would take the honey – they infused it into the milk-rice. At other times the gods infused the sap of life into each mouthful of rice as he took it; but on the day of his Buddhahood, and on the day of his Death, they infused it into the very vessel-full of rice itself.

Sujātā, {1.69} seeing that so many wonders appeared to her on this one day, said to her slave girl Puṇṇā, “Friend Puṇṇā! Very gracious is our god today! Never before have I seen such a wonder. Go at once and keep watch by the holy place.” “Very good, my lady,” replied she; and ran and hastened to the foot of the tree.

Now the Bodhisatta had seen that night five dreams, and on considering their purport he had drawn the conclusion, “Verily this day I shall become a Buddha.” And at the end of the night he washed and dressed himself, and [1.93] waiting till the time should come to go round begging his food, he went early, and sat at the foot of that tree, lighting it all up with his glory.

And Puṇṇā coming there saw the Bodhisatta sitting at the foot of the tree and lighting up all the region of the east; and she saw the whole tree in colour like gold from the rays issuing from his body. And she thought: “Today our god, descending from the tree, is seated to receive our offering in his own hand.” And excited with joy, she returned quickly, and announced this to Sujātā. Sujātā, delighted at the news, gave her all the ornaments befitting a daughter, saying: “Today, from this time forth, be you to me in the place of an elder daughter!”

And since, on the day of attaining Buddhahood, it is proper to receive a golden vessel worth a hundred thousand, she conceived the idea, “We will put the milk-rice into a vessel of gold.” And sending for a vessel of gold worth a hundred thousand, she poured out the well-cooked food to put it therein. All the milk-rice flowed into the vessel, like water from a lotus leaf, and filled the vessel full. Taking it she covered it with a golden dish, and wrapped it in a cloth. And adorning herself in all her splendour, she put the vessel on her head, and went with great dignity to the Nigrodha tree. Seeing the Bodhisatta, she was filled with exceeding joy, taking him for the tree-god; and advanced, bowing, from the spot where she saw him. Taking the vessel from her head, she uncovered it; and fetching sweet-scented water in a golden vase, she approached the Bodhisatta, and stood by.

The earthenware pot given him by the Deva Ghaṭikāra, which had never till then left him, disappeared at that moment. Not seeing his pot, the Bodhisatta stretched out his right hand, and took the water. Sujātā placed the vessel, with the milk-rice in it, in the hand of the Great Being. The Great Being looked at her. Pointing to the food, she said: “O, my lord! Accept [1.94] what I have offered thee, and depart whithersoever seems good to you.” And adding, “May there arise to you {1.70} as much joy as has come to me!” she went away, valuing her golden vessel, worth a hundred thousand, at no more than a dried leaf.

The Bodhi Tree

But the Bodhisatta rising from his seat, and leaving the tree on the right hand, took the vessel and went to the bank of the Nerañjarā river, down into which on the day of their complete Awakening so many thousand Bodhisattas had gone. The name of that bathing place is the Supatiṭṭhita ferry. Putting the vessel on the bank, he descended into the river and bathed.

And having dressed himself again in the garb of the Arahats worn by so many thousand Buddhas, he sat down with his face to the east; and dividing the rice into forty-nine balls of the size of so many single-seeded Palmyra fruits, he ate all that sweet milk-rice without any water. The fruit of the Palmyra (Borassus Flabelliformis) has always three seeds. I do not understand the allusion to a one-seeded Palmyra. Now that was the only food he had for forty-nine days, during the seven times seven days he spent, after he became a Buddha, at the foot of the Bodhi Tree. During all that time he had no other food; he did not bathe; nor wash his teeth; nor feel the cravings of nature. He lived on the joy arising from the Absorptions, on the joy arising from the Path, on the joy arising from the Fruit thereof.

But when he had finished eating that milk-rice, he took the golden vessel, and said: “If I shall be able today to become a Buddha, let this pot go up the stream; if not, let it go down the stream!” and he threw it into the water. And it went, in spite of the stream, eighty cubits up the river in the middle of the stream, all the way as quickly as a fleet horse. And diving into a whirlpool it went to the palace of Kāḷa Nāgarāja (the Black Nāga king); and striking against the bowls from which the three previous [1.95] Buddhas had eaten, it made them sound ‘click! Click!’ and remained stationary as the lowest of them. Kāḷa, the snake-king, hearing the noise, exclaimed, “Yesterday a Buddha arose, now today another has arisen;” and he continued to praise him in many hundred verses.

But the Bodhisatta spent the heat of the day in a grove of sāla trees in full bloom on the bank of the river. And in the evening, when the flowers droop on the stalks, he proceeded, like a lion when it is roused, towards the Bodhi Tree, along a path five or six hundred yards wide, decked by the gods. The Nāgas, and Yakkhas, and Supaṇṇas, The Yakkhas are characterized throughout the Jātaka stories by their cannibalism; the female Yakkhas as sirens luring men on to destruction. They are invisible till they assume human shape; but even then can be recognized by their red eyes. That the Ceylon aborigines are called Yakkhas in the Mahāvaṁsa probably results from a tradition of their cannibalism. On the others, see above, p. 88. and other superhuman beings, offered him sweet-smelling flowers from heaven, and sang heavenly songs. The ten thousand world-systems became filled with perfumes and garlands and shouts of approval.

At that time there came from the opposite direction a grass-cutter named Sotthiya, carrying grass; and recognizing the Great Being, he gave him eight bundles of grass. The Bodhisatta took the grass; {1.71} and ascending the rising ground round the Bodhi tree, he stood at the south of it, looking towards the north. At that moment the southern horizon seemed to descend below the level of the lowest hell, and the northern horizon mounting up seemed to reach above the highest heaven.

The Bodhisatta, saying: “This cannot, I think, be the right place for attaining Buddhahood,” turned round it, keeping it on the right hand; and went to the western side, and stood facing the east. Then the western horizon seemed to descend beneath the lowest hell, and the eastern horizon to ascend above the highest heaven; and to him, where he was standing, the earth seemed [1.96] to bend up and down like a great cart wheel lying on its axis when its circumference is trodden on.

The Bodhisatta, saying: “This cannot, I think, be the right place for attaining Buddhahood,” turned round it, keeping it on the right hand; and went to the northern side, and stood facing the south. Then the northern horizon seemed to descend beneath the lowest hell, and the southern horizon to ascend above the highest heaven.

The Bodhisatta, saying: “This cannot, I think, be the right place for attaining Buddhahood,” turned round it, keeping it on the right hand; and went to the western side, and stood facing towards the east. Now in the east is the place where all the Buddhas have sat cross-legged; and that place neither trembles nor shakes.

The Great Being, perceiving, “This is the steadfast spot chosen by all the Buddhas, the spot for the throwing down of the defilements,” took hold of the grass by one end, and scattered it there. And immediately there was a seat fourteen cubits long. For those blades of grass arranged themselves in such a form as would be beyond the power of even the ablest painter or carver to design.

The Bodhisatta turning his back upon the trunk of the Bodhi tree, and with his face towards the east, made the firm resolve, “My skin, indeed, and nerves, and bones, may become arid, and the very blood in my body may dry up; but till I attain to complete insight, this seat I will not leave!” And he sat himself down in a cross-legged position, firm and immovable, as if welded with a hundred thunderbolts.

Overcoming Māra

At that time the Devaputta Māra, thinking: “Siddhattha the prince wants to free himself from my dominion. I will not let him get free yet!” went to the hosts of his Devas, and told the news. And sounding the drum, called “Māra’s War-cry,” he led forth the army of Māra.

That army of Māra stretches twelve leagues before him, [1.97] twelve leagues to right and left of him, behind him it reaches to the rocky limits of the world, above him it is nine leagues in height; and the sound of its war-cry is heard, {1.72} twelve leagues away, even as the sound of an earthquake.

Then Māra, the Devaputta, mounted his elephant, two hundred and fifty leagues high, named, Girimekhala. And he created for himself a thousand arms, and seized all kinds of weapons. And of the remainder, too, of the army of Māra, no two took the same weapon; but assuming various colours and various forms, they went on to overwhelm the Great Being.

But the Devas of the ten thousand world-systems continued speaking the praises of the Great Being. Sakka, the king of the Devas, stood there blowing his trumpet Vijayuttara. Now that trumpet is a hundred and twenty cubits long, and can itself cause the wind to enter, and thus itself give forth a sound which will resound for four months, when it becomes still. Mahākāḷa, the king of the Nāgas, stood there uttering his praises in many hundred verses. The King of the Devas Mahābrahma stood there, holding over him the white canopy of state. But as the army approached and surrounded the seat under the Bodhi tree, not one of the Devas was able to stay, and they fled each one from the spot where the army met them. Kāla, the king of the Nāgas, dived into the earth, and went to Mañjerika, the palace of the Nāgas, five hundred leagues in length, and lay down, covering his face with his hands. Sakka, taking the Vijayuttara trumpet on his back, stopped on the rocky verge of the world. Mahābrahma, putting the white canopy of state on to the summit of the rocks at the end of the earth, went to the Brahma Realm. Not a single deity was able to keep his place. The Great Being sat there alone.

But Māra said to his host, “Friends! There is no other man like Siddhattha, the son of Suddhodana. We cannot [1.98] give him battle face to face. Let us attack him from behind!” The Great Being looked round on three sides, and saw that all the gods had fled, and their place was empty. Then beholding the hosts of Māra coming thick upon him from the north, he thought: “Against me alone this mighty host is putting forth all its energy and strength. No father is here, nor mother, nor brother, nor any other relative to help me. But those ten cardinal virtues have long been to me as retainers fed from my store. So, making the virtues my shield, I must strike this host with the sword of virtue, and thus overwhelm it!” And so he sat meditating on the Ten Perfections. His acquisition of the Ten Perfections, or Cardinal Virtues, is described above, pp. 54-58.

Then Māra the Devaputta, saying: “Thus will I drive away Siddhattha,” caused a whirlwind to blow. And immediately such winds rushed together from the four corners of the earth as could have torn down the peaks of mountains half a league, two leagues, {1.73} three leagues high – could have rooted up the shrubs and trees of the forest – and could have made of the towns and villages around one heap of ruins. But through the majesty of the goodness of the Great Being, they reached him with their power gone, and even the hem of his robe they were unable to shake.

Then saying: “I will overwhelm him with water and so slay him,” he caused a mighty rain to fall. And the clouds gathered, overspreading one another by hundreds and by thousands, and poured forth rain; and by the violence of the torrents the earth was saturated; and a great flood, overtopping the trees of the forest, approached the Great Being. But it was not able to wet on his robe even the space where a dew-drop might fall.

Then he caused a storm of rocks to fall. And mighty, mighty, mountain peaks came through the air, spitting [1.99] forth fire and smoke. But as they reached the Great Being, they changed into bouquets of heavenly flowers.

Then he raised a storm of deadly weapons. And they came – one-edged, and two-edged swords, and spears, and arrows – smoking and flaming through the sky. But as they reached the Great Being, they became flowers from heaven.

Then he raised a storm of charcoal. But the embers, though they came through the sky as red as red Kiṁsuka flowers, were scattered at the feet of the future Buddha as heavenly flowers.

Then he raised a storm of ashes; and the ashes came through the air exceeding hot, and in colour like fire; but they fell at the feet of the future Buddha as the dust of sandal-wood.

Then he raised a storm of sand; and the sand, exceeding fine, came smoking and flaming through the air; but it fell at the feet of the future Buddha as heavenly flowers.

Then he raised a storm of mud. And the mud came smoking and flaming through the air; but it fell at the feet of the future Buddha as heavenly perfume.

Then saying: “By this I will terrify Siddhattha, and drive him away!” he brought on a thick darkness. And the darkness became fourfold: but when it reached the future Buddha, it disappeared as darkness does before the brightness of the sun.

Thus was Māra unable by these nine – the wind, and the rain, and the rocks, and the weapons, and the charcoal, and the ashes, and the sand, and the mud, and the darkness – to drive away the future Buddha. So he called on his host, and said: “Why stand you still? Seize, or slay, or drive away this prince!” And himself mounted Girimekhala, and seated on his back, he approached the future Buddha, and cried out, “Get up, Siddhattha, from that seat! It does not belong to thee! It is meant for me!” [1.100]

The Great Being listened to his words, and said: “Māra! It is not by you that the Ten Perfections have been fulfilled, nor the lesser Perfections, nor the higher Perfections. It is not you who have sacrificed yourself in the five great Acts of Self-renunciation, who have diligently sought after Knowledge, and the Welfare of the World, and the attainment of Awakening. This seat does not belong to thee, {1.74} it is to me that it belongs.”

Then the enraged Māra, unable to endure the vehemence of his anger, cast at the Great Being that Sceptre-javelin of his, the barb of which was in shape as a wheel. But it became a garland of flowers, and remained as a canopy over him, whose mind was bent upon good.

Now at other times, when that Wicked One throws his Sceptre-javelin, it cleaves asunder a pillar of solid rock as if it were the tender shoot of a bamboo. When, however, it thus turned into a garland-canopy, all the host of Māra shouted, “Now he shall rise from his seat and flee!” and they hurled at him huge masses of rock. But these too fell on the ground as bouquets at the feet of him whose mind was bent upon good!

And the Devas stood on the edge of the rocks that encircle the world; and stretching forwards in amazement, they looked on, saying: “Lost! Lost is Siddhattha the prince, the glorious and beautiful! What can he do to save himself!”

Then the Great Being exclaimed, “I have reached the throne on which sit the Buddhas-to-be when they are perfect in all goodness, on that day when they shall reach Awakening.”

And he said to Māra, standing there before him, “Māra, who is witness that you have given alms?”

And Māra stretched forth his hand to the hosts of his followers, and said: “So many are my witnesses.”

And that moment there arose a shout as the sound of [1.101] an earthquake from the hosts of the Evil One, saying: “I am his witness! I am his witness!”

Then the Tempter addressed the Great Being, and said: “Siddhattha! Who is witness that you have given alms?”

And the Great Being answered, “You have living witnesses that you have given alms: and I have in this place no living witness at all. But not counting the alms I have given in other births, let this great and solid earth, unconscious though it be, be witness of the seven hundredfold great alms I gave when I was born as Vessantara!”

And withdrawing his right hand from beneath his robe, he stretched it forth towards the earth, and said: “Are you, or are you not witness of the seven hundredfold great gift I gave in my birth as Vessantara?”

And the great Earth uttered a voice, saying: “I am witness to thee of that!” overwhelming as it were the hosts of the Evil One as with the shout of hundreds of thousands of foes.

Then the mighty elephantGirimekhala, as he realized what the generosity of Vessantara had been, fell down on his knees before the Great Being. And the army of Māra fled this way and that way, so that not even two were left together: throwing off their clothes and their turbans, they fled, each one straight on before him.

But the heavenly hosts, when they saw that the army of Māra had fled, {1.75} cried out, “Māra is overcome! Siddhattha the prince has prevailed! Come, let us honour the Victor!” And the Nāgas, and the Supaṇṇas, and the Devas, and the Brahmas, each urging his comrades on, went up to the Great Being at the Bodhi tree’s foot, and as they came,

274. “At the Bodhi tree’s foot the Nāga bands

Shouted, for joy that the Sage had won;

‘The Glorious Buddha – he has prevailed!

And Māra the wicked is overthrown!’ [1.102]

275. At the Bodhi tree’s foot the Supaṇṇas

Shouted, for joy that the Sage had won;

‘The Glorious Buddha – he has prevailed!

And Māra the wicked is overthrown!’

276. At the Bodhi tree’s foot the Deva hosts

Shouted, for joy that the Sage had won;

‘The Glorious Buddha – he has prevailed!

And Māra the wicked is overthrown!’

277. At the Bodhi tree’s foot the Brahma Gods

Shouted, for joy that the Sage had won;

‘The Glorious Buddha – he has prevailed!

And Māra the wicked is overthrown!’ ”

The other gods, too, in the ten thousand world-systems, offered garlands and perfumes and uttered his praises aloud.

The Awakening

It was while the sun was still above the horizon, that the Great Being thus put to flight the army of the Evil One. Then, while the Bodhi tree paid him homage, as it were, by its shoots like sprigs of red coral falling over his robe, he acquired in the first watch of the night the Knowledge of the Past Lives, in the middle watch the Divine Eye, and in the third watch the Knowledge of the Chain of Causation which leads out. Pubbenivāsañāṇa, Dibbacakkhu, and Paṭiccasamuppāda.

Now on his thus revolving this way and that way, and tracing backwards and forwards, and thoroughly realizing the twelvefold Chain of Causation, the ten thousand world-systems quaked twelve times even to their ocean boundaries. And again, when the Great Being, making the ten thousand world-systems to shout for joy, attained at break of day to complete Omniscience, {1.76} the whole ten thousand world-systems became glorious as on a festive day. The streamers of the flags and banners raised on the edge of the rocky boundary to the east of the world [1.103] reached to the very west; and so those on the west and north, and south, reached to the east, and south, and north; while in like manner those of flags and banners on the surface of the earth reached to the highest heaven, and those of flags and banners in heaven swept down upon the earth. Throughout the universe flowering trees put forth their blossoms, and fruit-bearing trees were loaded with clusters of fruit; the trunks and branches of trees, and even the creepers, were covered with bloom; lotus wreaths hung from the sky; and lilies by sevens sprang, one above another, even from the very rocks. The ten thousand world-systems as they revolved seemed like a mass of loosened wreaths, or like a nosegay tastefully arranged: and the great voids between them, the hells whose darkness the rays of seven suns had never been able to disperse, became filled with light. The waters of the Great Ocean became sweet, down to its profoundest depths; and the rivers were stayed in their course. The blind from birth received their sight; the deaf from birth heard sound; the lame from birth could use their feet; and chains and bonds were loosed, and fell away. Compare the Thirty-two Good Omens at the Buddha’s Birth, above, p. 64.

It was thus in surpassing glory and honour, and with many wonders happening around, that he attained Omniscience, and uttered this exalted utterance, uttered by all the unvanquished Buddhas.

278. “Long have I wandered

Through many births:

Seeking thus long, in vain,

The maker of this house

Hard to bear is birth again and again. [1.104]

Found is the maker of this house.

No longer will you make a house for me:

Broken are all thy beams.

Thy ridge-pole shattered!

Into unmade my mind has now past:

The end of cravings has been reached at last!” The train of thought is explained at length in my “Buddhism,” pp. 100-112. Shortly, it amounts to this. The Unconscious has no pain: without Consciousness, Individuality, there would be no pain. What gives men Consciousness? It is due to a grasping, craving, sinful condition of heart. The absence of these cravings is Nibbāna. Having reached Nibbāna, Consciousness endures but for a time (until the body dies), and it will then no longer be renewed. The beams of sin, the ridge-pole of care, give to the house of individuality its seeming strength: but in the peace of Nibbāna they have passed away. The Bodisatta is now Buddha: he has reached Nibbāna: he has solved the great mystery; the jewel of salvation sought through so many ages has been found at last; and the long, long struggle is over. The following is Spence Hardy’s literal translation given in his “Manual of Buddhism,” p. 180, where similar versions by Gogerly and Turnour will be found: but they scarcely seem to me to express the inner meaning of these difficult and beautiful verses: Through many different births I have run (to me not having found), Seeking the architect of the desire resembling house, Painful are repeated births! O house-builder! I have seen (thee). Again a house thou canst not build for me. I have broken thy rafters, Thy central support is destroyed. To Nirvāṇa my mind has gone. I have arrived at the extinction of evil-desire. The figure of the house is found also in Manu (vi. 79-81); in the “Lalitavistara” (p. 107 of Foucaux’s Gya Tcher Rol Pa); and in the Ādi Granth (Trumpp, pp. 215, 216, 471). The last passage is as follows: A storm of divine knowledge has come! The shutters of delusion all are blown away – are there no longer; The posts of double-mindedness are broken down; the ridge-pole of spiritual blindness is shattered; The roof of craving has fallen on the ground; the vessel of folly has burst! [1.105] {1.77}

Thus beginning [This final sentence was omitted by Rhys Davids from his translation.] with the Tusita heaven up to the attainment of Omniscience in the circle of the Bodhi tree, that is the extent of what is known as the Middle Epoch.

Santikenidānakathā

III The Proximate or Last Epoch See above, p. 2. A similar explanation is here repeated in a gloss.

The Seven Weeks

Now while he was still seated there, after he had uttered the exalted utterance, the Fortunate One thought: “It is in order to attain to this throne of triumph that I have undergone successive births for so long a time, Literally for four asaṅkheyyas and a hundred thousand kappas. that I severed my crowned head from my neck and gave it away, that I tore out my darkened eyes and my heart’s flesh and gave them away, that I gave away to serve others such sons as Jāli the prince, and such daughters as Kaṇhājinā the princess, and such wives as Maddī the queen. This seat is a throne of triumph to me, and a throne of glory; while seated on it my aims have been fulfilled: I will not leave it, yet.” And he sat there absorbed in many thoughts Anekakoṭisatasahassā samāpattiyo samāpajjanto. for those seven days referred to in the text, beginning, “And then the Fortunate One sat motionless for seven days, realizing the bliss of Nibbāna.”

Now certain of the Devas began to doubt, thinking: “There must be something more Siddhattha has to do this day, for he still lingers seated there.” The Teacher, knowing their thoughts, and to appease their doubts, rose into the air, and performed the twin miracle. [It means producing water and fire simultaneously.] A gloss here adds that the Buddha performed a similar miracle on three other occasions.

And the Teacher having thus by this miracle dispelled the Devas’ doubts, stood a little to the north-east of the [1.106] throne, thinking: “It was on that throne that I attained omniscience.” And he thus spent seven days gazing steadfastly at the spot where he had gained the result of the deeds of virtue fulfilled through such countless years. And that spot became known as the Cetiya of the Steadfast Gaze.

Then he created between the throne and the spot where he had stood a cloistered walk, {1.78} and he spent seven days walking up and down in that jewelled cloister which stretched from east to west. And that spot became known as the Cetiya of the Jewelled Cloister.

But for the fourth week the Devas created to the north-west of the Bodhi tree a house of gems; and he spent the week seated there cross-legged, and thinking out the Abhidhamma Piṭaka both book by book and generally in respect of the origin of all things as therein explained.

(But the Abhidhammikas The monks whose duty it is to learn by heart, repeat, and commentate upon the seven books in the Abhidhammapiṭaka. say that House of Gems here means either a mansion built of the seven kinds of jewels, or the place where the seven books were thought out: and as they give these two explanations of the passage, both should be accepted as correct.)

Having thus spent four weeks close to the Bodhi tree, he went, in the fifth week, to the Shepherd’s Nigrodha tree: and sat there meditating on the Dhamma, and enjoying the sweetness of freedom. Vimutti. Perhaps the clause should be rendered: Realizing the sweet sense of salvation gained, and the Dhamma may be used in contradistinction to Abhidharma of the rest of the Scriptures.

Māra’s Daughters

Now at that time the Deva Māra thought to himself, “So long a time have I followed this man seeking some fault in him, and find no sin in him; and now, indeed, he is beyond my power.” And overcome with sorrow he sat down on the highway, and as he thought of the following sixteen things he drew sixteen lines on the ground. Thinking: “I did not attain, as he did, to the Perfection of [1.107] Generosity; therefore I have not become like him,” he drew one line. Then thinking: “I did not attain, as he did, to the Perfections of Virtue, and Renunciation, and Wisdom, and Effort, and Patience, and Truth, and Determination, and Loving-Kindness, and Equanimity; On these Ten Perfections, see above, pp. 15-18, and pp. 54-58. therefore I have not become like him,” he drew nine more lines. Then thinking: “I did not attain the Ten Perfections, the conditions precedent to the acquisition of the extraordinary knowledge of objects of sense, and therefore I have not become like him,” he drew the eleventh line. Then thinking: “I did not attain to the Ten Perfections, the conditions precedent to the acquisition of the extraordinary knowledge of inclinations and dispositions, of the attainment of compassion, of the twin miracle, of the removal of hindrances, and of omniscience; therefore I have not become like him,” he drew the five other lines. And so he sat on the highway, drawing sixteen lines for these sixteen thoughts.

At that time Craving, Discontent, and Lust, Taṇhā, Aratī, and Ragā. the three daughters of Māra, could not find their father, and were looking for him, wondering where he could be. And when they saw him, sad at heart, writing on the ground, they went up to him, and asked, “Why, dear, are you sad and sorrowful?”

And he answered, “Beloved, this Great Ascetict is escaping from my power. Long have I watched, but in vain, to find some fault in him. Therefore it is that I am sad and sorrowful.” {1.79}

“Be that as it may,” replied they, “think not so. We will subject him to our influence, and come back bringing him captive with us.”

“Beloved,” said he, “you cannot by any means bring him under your influence; he stands firm in faith, unwavering.” [1.108]

“But we are women,” was the reply; “this moment we will bring him bound by the allurements of passion. Do you not be so grieved.”

So they approached the Fortunate One, and said: “O, ascetic, upon thee we humbly wait!”

But the Fortunate One neither paid any attention to their words, nor raised his eyes to look at them. He sat plunged in the joy of freedom, with a mind made free by the complete extinction of attachment.

Then the daughters of Māra considered with themselves, “Various are men’s tastes. Some fall in love with virgins, some with young women, some with mature women, some with older women. We will tempt him in various forms.” So each of them assumed the appearance of a hundred women – virgins, women who had never had a child, or only once, or only twice, middle-aged women, older women – and six times they went up to the Fortunate One, and professed themselves his humble handmaidens; and to that even the Fortunate One paid no attention, since he was made free by the complete extinction of attachment.

Now, some teachers say that when the Fortunate One saw them approaching in the form of elderly women, he commanded, saying: “Let these women remain just as they are, with broken teeth and bald heads.” This should not be believed, for the Teacher does not issue such wrong commands.

But the Fortunate One said: “Depart! Why strive thus? Such things might be done in the presence of men who linger in the paths of attachment; but the Tathāgata has put away lust, have put away ill-will, have put away ignorance.” And he admonished them in those two verses from the Chapter on the Buddha in the Dhamma Verses:

280. “No one can e’er disturb his self-control

Whose inward victories, once gained, are never lost. [1.109]

That Buddha, whose range is endless –

How can you allure him to his fall?

281. He who has no ensnaring, venomous desire;

No craving wants to lead him aught astray:

That Buddha, whose range is endless –

How can you allure him to his fall?” Dhp 179, 180.

And thus these women, confessing that he had spoken truth when he had said that the Fortunate One was not by any means to be led away by any unholy desire, {1.80} returned to their father.

But the Fortunate One, when he had spent a week at that spot, went on to the Mucalinda tree. There he spent a week, Mucalinda, the Nāga king, when a storm arose, shielding him with seven folds of his hood, so that the Fortunate One enjoyed the bliss of salvation as if he had been resting in a pleasant chamber, remote from all disturbance.

Thence he went away to a Rājāyatana tree, and there also sat down enjoying the bliss of salvation.

And so seven weeks passed away, during which he experienced no bodily wants, but fed on the joy of Absorption, the joy of the Paths, and the joy of the Fruit thereof (that is, of Nibbāna). See “Buddhism,” pp. 108-110.

Now, as he sat there on the last day of the seven weeks – the forty-ninth day – he felt a desire to bathe his face. And Sakka, the King of the Devas, brought a fruit of the Myrobalan tree, and gave him to eat. And Sakka, too, provided a tooth-cleanser of the thorns of the snake-creeper, and water to bathe his face. And the Teacher [1.110] used the tooth-cleanser, and bathed his face, and sat him down there at the foot of the tree.

Tapassu and Bhalluka

At that time two merchants, Tapassu and Bhalluka by name, were travelling from Orissa to Central India Ukkala to Majjhimadesa. The latter included all the Buddhist Holy Land from the modern Patnā to Allahabād [Prayog]. See above, p. 61, note. with five hundred carts. And a Deva, a blood relation of theirs, stopped their carts, and moved their hearts to offer food to the Teacher. And they took a rice cake, and a honey cake, and went up to the Teacher, and said: “O, Fortunate One! Have compassion for us, and accept this food.”

Now, on the day when he had received the sweet rice-milk, his bowl had disappeared; See above, p. 93. so the Fortunate One thought: “The Tathāgatas never receive food in their hands. How shall I take it?” Then the four Guardian Devas knew his thought, and, coming from the four corners of heaven, they brought bowls made of sapphire. And the Fortunate One accepted them. Then they brought four other bowls, made of jet; and the Fortunate One, out of kindness to the four Devaputtas, received the four, and, placing them one above another, commanded, saying: “Let them become one.” And the four closed up into one of medium size, becoming visible only as lines round the mouth of it. The Fortunate One received the food into that new-created bowl, and ate it, and gave thanks.

The two brothers took refuge in the Buddha, and the Dhamma, {1.81} and became professed disciples. Then, when they asked him, saying: “Lord, bestow upon us something to which we may pay reverence,” with his own right hand he tore from his head, and gave to them, the hair-relics. And they built a Cetiya in their own city, and placed the relics within it. We have here an interesting instance of the growth of legend to authenticate and add glory to local relics, of which other instances will be found in “Buddhism,” p. 195. The ancient form of this legend, as found here, must have arisen when the relics were still in Orissa. Both the Burmese and Ceylonese now claim to possess them. The former say that the two merchants were Burmese, and that the Cetiya above referred to is the celebrated sanctuary of Shooay Dagob [i.e. Shwedagon] (Bigandet, p. 101, 2nd ed.). The latter say that the Cetiya was in Orissa, and that the hair-relics were brought thence to Ceylon in 490 A.D., in the manner related in the Kesadhātuvaṁsa, and referred to in the Mahāvaṁsa. (See verses 43-56 of my edition of the 39th chapter of the Mahāvaṁsa in the JRAS 1875.) The legend in the text is found in an ancient inscription on the great bell at Rangoon (Hough’s version in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi.; comp. Hardy, M.B. p. 183; Beal, Romantic Legend) p. 240. [1.111]

Deciding to Teach

But the Perfectly Enlightened One rose up thence, and returned to the Shepherd’s Nigrodha tree, and sat down at its foot. And no sooner was he seated there, considering the depth of the Dhamma which he had gained, than there arose in his mind a doubt (felt by each of the Buddhas as he became aware of his having arrived at Dhamma) that he had not that kind of ability necessary to explain that Dhamma to others.

Then the great Ruler of the Brahma Realms, exclaiming, “Alas, the world is lost! Alas, the world will be altogether lost!” brought with him the rulers and great Devas of the heavens in tens of thousands of world-systems, and went up to the Teacher, and said: “O Fortunate One, may you proclaim the Truth! Proclaim the Truth, O Fortunate One!” and in other words of like purport begged from him the preaching of the Dhamma.

Then the Teacher granted his request. And considering to whom he should first reveal the Dhamma, thought at first of Āḷāra, his former teacher, as one who would quickly comprehend it. But, on further reflection, he perceived that Āḷāra had been dead seven days. So he fixed on Uddaka, but perceived that he too had died that very evening. Then he thought of the five mendicants, how faithfully they had served him for a time; and casting about in his mind where they then might be, he perceived they were at the Deer-forest in Benares. And he determined, saying: “There I will go to inaugurate the Wheel [1.112] of Righteousness.” But he delayed a few days, begging his daily food in the neighbourhood of the Bodhi tree, with the intention of going to Benares on the full-moon day of the month of July.

And at dawn of the fourteenth day of the month, when the night had passed away, he took his robe and his bowl; and had gone eighteen leagues, just half way, when he met the Naked Ascetic Upaka. And he announced to him how he had become a Buddha; and on the evening of that day he arrived at the hermitage near Benares. Isipatana, the hermitage in the Deer-forest close to Benares. See above, p. 91.

The five mendicants, seeing already from afar the Tathāgata coming, said one to another, “Friend, here comes the mendicant Gotama. He has turned his back to a free use of the necessities of life, and has recovered roundness of form, acuteness of sense, and beauty of complexion. We ought to pay him no reverence; but as he is, after all, of a good family, he deserves the honour of a seat. So we will simply prepare a seat for him.”

The Fortunate One, casting about in his mind (by the power that he had of knowing what was going on in the thoughts of all beings) as to what they were thinking, knew their thoughts. Then, concentrating {1.82} that feeling of his loving-kindness which was able to pervade generally all beings in earth and heaven, he directed it specially towards them. And the sense of his loving-kindness diffused itself through their hearts; and as he came nearer and nearer, unable any longer to adhere to their resolve, they rose from their seats, and bowed down before him, and welcomed him with every mark of reverence and respect. But, not knowing that he had become a Buddha, they addressed him, in everything they said, either by name, or as “Friend.” Then the Fortunate One announced to them his Buddhahood, saying: “O mendicants, address not a Tathāgata by his name, or as ‘friend.’ [1.113] I, O mendicants, am a Tathāgata, clear in insight, as those who have gone before.” Tathāgato Sammāsambuddho.

Then, seated on the place prepared for him, and surrounded by myriads of Devas, he addressed the five attendant elders, just as the moon was passing out of conjunction with the lunar mansion in June, and taught them in that discourse which Set Rolling the Wheel of Righteousness.

Of the five elders, Koṇḍañña the Believer So called from his action on this occasion. See above, pp. 72, 73. gained in knowledge as the discourse went on; and as it concluded, he, with myriads of Devas, had arrived at the Fruit of the First Path. That is, became free from the delusion of self, from doubt, and from belief in the efficacy of rites and ceremonies. “Buddhism,” pp. 95, 108. And the Teacher, who remained there for the rainy season, sat in the monastery the next day, when the other four had gone on almsround, talking to Vappa: and Vappa that morning attained to the Fruit of the First Path. And, in a similar manner, Bhaddiya on the next day, and Mahānāma on the next, and Assajī on the next, attained to the Fruit of the First Path. And, on the fifth day, he called all five to his side, and preached to them the discourse On the Non-existence of the Self; and at the end of that discourse all the five elders attained to Nibbāna.

The Early Dispensation

Then the Teacher perceived that Yasa, a young man of good family, was capable of entering the Paths. And at night-time, as he was going away, having left his home in weariness of the world, the Teacher called him, saying: “Follow me, Yasa!” and on that very night he attained to the Fruit of the First Path, and on the next day to Arahatship. And he received also the other fifty-four, his companions, into the order, with the formula, “Come bhikkhus!” and caused them to attain to Arahatship.

Now when there were thus in the world sixty-one persons who had become Arahats, the Teacher, after the rainy season [1.114] and the Feast with which it closes were over, sent out the sixty in different directions, with the words, “Go forth, O mendicants, preaching and teaching.” And himself going towards Uruvelā, overcame at the Kappāsiya forest, half way there, the thirty young Bhaddavaggiya nobles. Of these the least advanced entered the First, and the most advanced the Third Path: and he received them all into the Saṅgha with the formula, “Come, monks!” And sending them also forth into the regions round about, he himself went on to Uruvelā.

The Kassapa Brothers

There he overcame, by performing three thousand five hundred miracles, the three brahmin ascetics, brothers – Uruvelā Kassapa and the rest – who had one thousand disciples. And he received them into the Saṅgha with the formula, “Come, monks!” and established them in Arahatship by his discourse, when they were seated on the Gayāsīsa hill, “On the Lessons to be drawn from Fire.” And attended by these thousand Arahats, he went to the grove called the Palm-grove, nearby Rājagaha, with the object of redeeming the promise he had made to Bimbisāra the king. See above p. 89. {1.83}

When the king heard from the keeper of the grove the saying: “The Teacher is come,” he went to the Teacher, attended by innumerable priests and nobles, and fell down at the feet of the Tathāgata – those sacred feet, which bore on their surface the mystic figure of the sacred wheel, and gave forth a halo of light like a canopy of cloth of gold. Then he and his retinue respectfully took their seats on one side.

Now the question occurred to those priests and nobles, “How is it, then? Has the Great Ascetic entered as a student in the spiritual life under Uruvelā Kassapa, or Uruvelā Kassapa under the Great Ascetic?” And the Fortunate One, becoming aware of their thus doubting within themselves, addressed the elder in the verse – [1.115]

282. “What have you seen, O dweller in Uruvelā,

That you have abandoned the Fire God, counting thyself poor?

I ask thee, Kassapa, the meaning of this thing:

How is it you have given up the sacrifice of fire?”

And the elder, perceiving what the Fortunate One intended, replied in the verse –

283. “Some men rely on sights, and sounds, and taste,

Others on sensual women, and some on sacrifice;

But this, I see, is dross so long as attachment remains.

Therefore I find no charm in sacrifices great or small.”

And in order to make known his discipleship he bowed his head to the Tathāgata’s feet, saying: “The Fortunate One is my teacher, and I am the disciple!” And seven times he rose into the air up to the height of one, two, three, and so on, up to the height of seven palm trees; and descending again, he saluted the Tathāgata, and respectfully took a seat aside. Seeing that wonder, the multitude praised the Teacher, saying: “Ah! How great is the power of the Buddhas! Even so mighty an infidel as this has thought him worthy! Even Uruvelā Kassapa has broken through the net of delusion, and has yielded to the Tathāgata!”

But the Fortunate One said: “Not only now have I overcome Uruvelā Kassapa; in former ages, too, he was conquered by me.” And he uttered in that connexion the Mahānāradakassapajātaka [Ja 544], and proclaimed the Four Truths. And the king of Magadha, with nearly all his retinue, attained to the Fruit of the First Path, and the rest became lay disciples (without entering the Paths). Upāsaka; that is, those who have taken the Three Refuges and the vow to keep the Five Commandments (“Buddhism,” pp. 139, 160). [1.116] {1.84}

The Entry into Rājagaha

And the king still sitting near the Teacher told him of the five wishes he had had; and then, confessing his faith, he invited the Fortunate One for the next day, and rising from his side, departed with respectful salutation.

The next day all the men who dwelt in Rājagaha, eighteen billions in number, both those who had already seen the Tathāgata, and those who had not, came out early from Rājagaha to the Grove of Reeds to see the Tathāgata. The road, six miles long, could not contain them. The whole of the Grove of Reeds became like a basket packed quite full. The multitude, beholding the exceeding beauty of the Tathāgata, could not contain their delight. Vaṇṇabhū was it called (that is, the Place of Praise), for at such spots all the greater and lesser characteristics of a Buddha, and the glorious beauty of his person, are fated to be sung. There was not room for even a single mendicant to get out on the road, or in the grove, so crowded was it with the multitude gazing at the beautiful form of the Being endowed with the Ten Powers.

So that day they say the throne of Sakka felt hot, to warn him that the Fortunate One might be deprived of nourishment, which should not be. And, on consideration, he understood the reason; and he took the form of a young brahmin, and descended in front of the Buddha, and made way for him, singing the praises of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha. And he walked in front, magnifying the Teacher in these verses:

284. “He whose passions are subdued has come to Rājagaha

Glorious as Siṅgī gold – the Fortunate One;

And with him those who once were mere ascetics,

Now all subdued in heart and freed from sin. [1.117]

285. He who is free from defilements has come to Rājagaha

Glorious as Siṅgī gold – the Fortunate One;

And with him those who once were mere ascetics,

Now freed from sin and saved.

286. He who has crossed the flood Tiṇṇo, crossed the ocean of transmigration. has come to Rājagaha

Glorious as Siṅgī gold – the Fortunate One;

And with him those who once were mere ascetics,

But now crossed o’er the flood and freed from sin.

287. He whose dwelling and whose wisdom are tenfold;

He who has seen and gained ten precious things; That is, the Four Paths, the Four Fruits thereof, Nibbāna, and the Dhamma.

Attended by ten hundred as a retinue –

The Fortunate One – has come to Rājagaha.”

The multitude, seeing the beauty of the young brahmin, thought: “This young brahmin is exceeding fair, and yet we have never yet beheld him.” And they said: “Whence comes the young brahmin, or whose son is he?” And the young brahmin, hearing what they said, answered in the verse,

288. “He who is wise, and all subdued in heart,

The Buddha, the unequalled among men,

The Arahat, the most happy upon earth! –

His servant am I.”

Then the Teacher entered upon the path thus made free by the great Deva, {1.85} and entered Rājagaha attended by a [1.118] thousand mendicants. The king gave a great donation to the Saṅgha with the Buddha at their head; and had water brought, bright as gems, and scented with flowers, in a golden goblet. And he poured the water over the hand of the One with Ten Powers, in token of the presentation of the Bamboo Grove, saying: “I, my lord, cannot live without the Three Jewels (the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha). In season and out of season I would visit the Fortunate One. Now the Grove of Reeds is far away; but this Grove of mine, called the Bamboo Grove, is close by, is easy of resort, and is a fit dwelling-place for a Buddha. Let the Fortunate One accept it from me!”

At the acceptance of this monastery the broad earth shook, as if it said: “Now the dispensation of the Buddha has taken root!” For in all Jambudīpa there is no dwelling-place, save the Bamboo Grove, whose acceptance caused the earth to shake: and in Ceylon there is no dwelling-place, save the Great Vihāra, whose acceptance caused the earth to shake.

And when the Teacher had accepted the Bamboo Grove monastery, and had given thanks for it, he rose from his seat and went, surrounded by the members of the Saṅgha, to the Bamboo Grove.

Sāriputta and Moggallāna

Now at that time two ascetics, named Sāriputta and Moggallāna, were living near Rājagaha, seeking after salvation. Of these, Sāriputta, seeing the elder Assaji on his begging round, was pleasurably impressed by him, and waited on him, and heard from him the verse beginning,

“Whatever things are produced from causes. The celebrated verse here referred to has been found inscribed several times in the ruins of the great Cetiya at Isipatana, and facsimiles are given in Cunningham’s Archeological Reports, plate xxxiv. vol. i. p. 123. The text is given by Burnouf in the Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 523; and in the Mahāvagga, pp. 40, 41. [I include here the complete verse.]

Their cause the Tathāgata has told,

And also that which is their cessation -

Such is the Great Ascetic’s doctrine.”

And he attained to the blessings which result from conversion; [1.119] and repeated that verse to his companion Moggallāna the ascetic. And he, too, attained to the blessings which first result from conversion. And each of them left Sañjaya, Their then teacher. and with his attendants took orders under the Teacher. Of these two, Moggallāna attained Arahatship in seven days, and Sāriputta the elder in half a month. And the Teacher appointed these two to the office of his chief disciples; and on the day on which Sāriputta the elder attained Arahatship, he held the so-called Council of the Disciples. Or perhaps, “He formed the Corporation of the Disciples,” that is, the Order of Mendicants. [The word used is Sāvakasannipāta, which is the Assembly of Disciples. This was the First Assembly. For the Assemblies of other Buddhas see above, in the Distant Epoch.]

The Return to Kapilavatthu

Now while the Tathāgata was dwelling there in the Bamboo Grove, Suddhodana the king heard that his son, who for six years had devoted himself to works of self-mortification, had attained to Complete Awakening, had Set Rolling the noble Dhamma Wheel, and was then dwelling at the Bamboo Grove near Rājagaha. So he said to a certain courtier, “Look you, sir; take a thousand men as a retinue, and go to Rājagaha, and say in my name, ‘Your father, Suddhodana the king, desires to see you;’ and bring my son here.”

And he respectfully accepted the king’s command with the reply, “So be it, O king!” and went quickly with a thousand followers the sixty leagues distance, and sat down amongst the disciples of the One with Ten Powers, and at the hour of instruction entered the Vihāra. And thinking: “Let the king’s message stay awhile,” he stood just beyond the disciples and listened to the discourse. And as he so stood {1.86} he attained to Arahatship, with his whole retinue, and asked to be admitted to the Saṅgha. And the Fortunate One stretched forth his hand and said: “Come, monk.” And all of them that moment appeared there, with robes and bowls created by Supernormal Powers, like elders of a hundred years’ standing. [1.120]

Now from the time when they attain Arahatship the Arahats become indifferent to worldly things: so he did not deliver the king’s message to the Sage. The king, seeing that neither did his messenger return, nor was any message received from him, called another courtier in the same manner as before, and sent him. And he went, and in the same manner attained Arahatship with his followers, and remained silent. Then the king in the same manner sent nine courtiers each with a retinue of a thousand men. And they all, neglecting what they had to do, stayed away there in silence.

And when the king found no one who would come and bring even a message, he thought: “Not one of these brings back, for my sake, even a message from the One with Ten Powers: who will then carry out what I say?” And searching among all his people he thought of Kāḷudāyī. For he was in everything serviceable to the king – intimate with him, and trustworthy. He was born on the same day as the future Buddha, and had been his playfellow and companion.

So the king said to him, “Friend Kāḷudāyī, as I wanted to see my son, I sent nine times a thousand men; but there is not one of them who has either come back or sent a message. Now the end of my life is not far off, and I desire to see my son before I die. Can you help me to see my son?”

“I can, O king!” was the reply, “if I am allowed to become a recluse.”

“My friend,” said the king, “become a recluse or not as you will, but help me to see my son!”

And he respectfully received the king’s message, with the words, “So be it, O king!” and went to Rājagaha; and stood at the edge of the disciples at the time of the Teacher’s instruction, and heard the gospel, and attained Arahatship with his followers, and was received into the Saṅgha.

The Teacher spent the first Rains Retreat after he had become [1.121] Buddha at Isipatana; and when it was over went to Uruvelā and stayed there three months and overcame the three brothers who were ascetics. And on the full-moon day of the month of January, he went to Rājagaha with a retinue of a thousand mendicants, and there he dwelt two months. Thus five months had elapsed since he left Benares, the cold season was past, and seven or eight days since the arrival of Udāyī, the elder.

And on the full-moon day of March Udāyī thought: “The cold season is past; the spring has come; men raise their crops and set out on their journeys; the earth is covered with fresh grass; the woods are full of flowers; the roads are fit to walk on; now is the time for the Sage to show favour to his family.” And going to the Fortunate One, he praised travelling in sixty verses, that the One with Ten Powers might revisit his native town. {1.87}

289. “Red are the trees with blossoms bright,

They give no shade to him who seeks for fruit;

Brilliant they seem as glowing fires.

The very season’s full, O Great Hero, of delights.

290. ’Tis not too hot; ’tis not too cold;

There’s plenty now of all good things;

The earth is clad with verdure green,

Fit is the time, O Great Sage!”

Then the Teacher said to him, “But why, Udāyī, do you sing the pleasures of travelling with so sweet a voice?”

“My lord!” was the reply, “your father is anxious to see you once more; will you not show favour to your relations?”

“ ’Tis well said, Udāyī! I will do so. Tell the Saṅgha that they shall fulfil the duty laid on all its members of journeying from place to place.”

Kāḷudāyī accordingly told the brethren. And the Fortunate One, attended by twenty thousand mendicants free [1.122] from pollutants – ten thousand from the upper classes in Magadha and Aṅga, and ten thousand from the upper classes in Kapilavatthu – started from Rājagaha, and travelled a league a day; going slowly with the intention of reaching Kapilavatthu, sixty leagues from Rājagaha, in two months.

And the elder, thinking: “I will let the king know that the Fortunate One has started,” rose into the air and appeared in the king’s house. The king was glad to see the elder, made him sit down on a splendid couch, filled a bowl with the delicious food made ready for himself, and gave to him. Then the elder rose up, and made as if he would go away.

“Sit down and eat,” said the king.

“I will rejoin the Teacher, and eat then,” said he.

“Where is the Teacher now?” asked the king.

“He has set out on his journey, attended by twenty thousand mendicants, to see you, O king!” said he.

The king, glad at heart, said: “Do you eat this; and until my son has arrived at this town, provide him with food from here.”

The elder agreed; and the king waited on him, and then had the bowl cleansed with perfumed chunam, and filled with the best of food, and placed it in the elder’s hand, saying: “Give it to the Tathāgata.”

And the elder, in the sight of all, threw the bowl into the air, and himself rising up into the sky, took the food again, and placed it in the hand of the Teacher.

The Teacher ate it. Every day the elder brought him food in the same manner. So the Teacher himself was fed, even on the journey, from the king’s table. The elder, day by day, when he had finished his meal, told the king, “Today the Fortunate One has come so far, today so far.” {1.88} And by talking of the high character of the Buddha, he made all the king’s family delighted with the Teacher, even before they saw him. On that account the Fortunate [1.123] One gave him pre-eminence, saying: “Pre-eminent, O monks, among all those of my disciples who were pleasing to families, was Kāḷudāyī.”

Meeting with the Sākyas

The Sākyas, as they sat talking of the prospect of seeing their distinguished relative, considered what place he could stay in; and deciding that the Nigrodha Grove would be a pleasant residence, they made everything ready there. And with flowers in their hands they went out to meet him; and sending in front the little children, and the boys and girls of the village, and then the young men and maidens of the royal family; they themselves, decked of their own accord with sweet-smelling flowers and chunam, came close behind, conducting the Fortunate One to the Nigrodha Grove. There the Fortunate One sat down on the Buddha’s throne prepared for him, surrounded by twenty thousand Arahats.

The Sākyas are proud by nature, and stubborn in their pride. Thinking: “Siddhattha is younger than we are, standing to us in the relation of younger brother, or nephew, or son, or grandson,” they said to the little children and the young people, “Do you bow down before him, we will seat ourselves behind you.” The Fortunate One, when they had thus taken their seats, perceived what they meant; and thinking: “My relations pay me no reverence; come now, I must force them to do so,” he gained spiritual power based on Absorption, and rising into the air as if shaking off the dust of his feet upon them, he performed a miracle like unto that double miracle at the foot of the Gaṇḍamba tree. See above, p. 105. Dhp-a, p. 334, has a different account of the miracle performed on this occasion. It says he made a jewelled terrace (ratanacaṅkama) in the sky, and walking up and down in it, preached the Dhamma.

The king, seeing that miracle, said: “O Fortunate One! When you were presented to Kāḷa Devala to do obeisance to him on the day on which you were born, and I saw your feet turn round and place themselves on the [1.124] brahmin’s head, I did obeisance to you. That was my first obeisance. When you were seated on your couch in the shade of the Jambu tree on the day of the ploughing festival, I saw how the shadow over you did not turn, and I bowed down at your feet. That was my second obeisance. Now, seeing this unprecedented miracle, I bow down at your feet. This is my third obeisance.”

Then, when the king did obeisance to him, there was not a single Sākya who was able to refrain from bowing down before the Fortunate One; and all of them did obeisance.

So the Fortunate One, having compelled his relatives to bow down before him, descended from the sky, and sat down on the seat prepared for him. And when the Fortunate One was seated, the assembly of his relatives yielded him pre-eminence; and all sat there at peace in their hearts.

Then a thunder-cloud poured forth a shower of rain, and the copper-coloured water went away rumbling beneath the earth. He who wished to get wet, did get wet; but not even a drop fell on the body of him who did not wish to get wet. And all seeing it became filled with astonishment, and said one to another, “Lo! What miracle! Lo! What wonder!” {1.89}

But the Teacher said: “Not only now did a shower of rain fall upon me in the assembly of my relations, formerly also this happened.” And in this connexion he pronounced the story of his birth as Vessantara [Ja 547].

When they had heard his discourse they rose up, and paid reverence to him, and went away. Not one of them, either the king or any of his ministers, asked him on leaving, “Tomorrow accept your meal of us.”

The Lineage of the Buddhas

So on the next day the Teacher, attended by twenty thousand mendicants, entered Kapilavatthu to beg. Then also no one came to him or invited him to his house, or took his bowl. The Fortunate One, standing at the gate, [1.125] considered, “How then did the former Buddhas go on their begging rounds in their native town? Did they go direct to the houses of the kings, or did they go for alms from house to house?” Then, not finding that any of the Buddhas had gone direct, he thought: “I, too, must accept this descent and tradition as my own; so shall my disciples in future, learning of me, fulfil the duty of collecting their daily food.” And beginning at the first house, he went for alms from house to house.

At the rumour that the young chief Siddhattha was going for alms from door to door, the windows in the two-storied and three-storied houses were thrown open, and the multitude was transfixed at the sight. And the lady, the mother of Rāhula, thought: “My lord, who used to go to and fro in this very town with gilded palanquin and every sign of royal pomp, now with a potsherd in his hand begs his food from door to door, with shaven hair and beard, and clad in yellow robes. Is this becoming?” And she opened the window, and looked at the Fortunate One; and she beheld him glorious with the unequalled majesty of a Buddha, distinguished with the thirty-two characteristic signs and the eighty lesser marks of a Great Being, and lighting up the street of the city with a halo resplendent with many colours, proceeding to a fathom’s length all round his person.

And she announced it to the king, saying: “Your son is going for alms from door to door;” and she magnified him with the eight verses on, “The lion among Men,” beginning:

291. “Glossy and dark and soft and curly is his hair;

Spotless and fair as the sun is his forehead;

Well-proportioned and prominent and delicate is his nose;

Around him is diffused a network of rays;

The lion among Men!” [1.126]

The king was deeply agitated; and he departed instantly, gathering up his robe in his hand, and went quickly and stood before the Fortunate One, and said: “Why, Teacher, do you put us to shame? Why do you go begging for your food? Do you think it impossible to provide a meal for so many monks?” {1.90}

“This is our custom, O king!” was the reply.

“Not so, venerable sir, our descent is from the royal race of the Great Elected; Mahāsammata, the first king among men. and amongst them all not one chief has ever begged his daily food.”

“This succession of kings is your descent, O king! But mine is the succession of the Buddhas, from Dīpaṅkara and Koṇḍañña and the rest down to Kassapa. These, and an uncountable number of thousands of other Buddhas, have begged their daily food, and lived on alms.” And standing in the middle of the street he uttered the verse:

292. “Rise up, and loiter not!

Follow after a holy life!

Who follows virtue rests in bliss,

Both in this world and in the next.”

And when the verse was finished the king attained to the Fruit of the First, and then, on hearing the following verse, to the Fruit of the Second Path –

293. “Follow after a holy life!

Follow not after wrong!

Who follows virtue rests in bliss,

Both in this world and in the next.”

And when he heard the story of the birth as Dhammapāla, [Ja 447 Dhammapālajātaka.] he attained to the Fruit of the Third Path. And just as he was dying, seated on the royal couch under the white canopy of state, he attained to [1.127] Arahatship. The king never practised in solitude the Great Struggle. See above, p. 89.

Now as soon as he had realized the fruit of Stream-Entry, he took the Buddha’s bowl, and conducted the Fortunate One and his retinue to the palace, and served them with savoury food, both hard and soft. And when the meal was over, all the women of the household came and did obeisance to the Fortunate One, except only the mother of Rāhula.

Family Members

But she, though she told her attendants to go and salute their lord, stayed behind, saying: “If I am of any value in his eyes, my lord will himself come to me; and when he has come I will pay him reverence.”

And the Fortunate One, giving his bowl to the king to carry, went with his two chief disciples to the apartments of the daughter of the king, saying: “The king’s daughter shall in no wise be rebuked, howsoever she may be pleased to welcome me.” And he sat down on the seat prepared for him.

And she came quickly and held him by his ankles, and laid her head on his feet, and so did obeisance to him, even as she had intended. And the king told of the fullness of her love for the Fortunate One, and of her goodness of heart, saying: “When my daughter heard, O Teacher, that you had put on the yellow robes, {1.91} from that time forth she dressed only in yellow. When she heard of your taking but one meal a day, she adopted the same custom. When she heard that you renounced the use of elevated couches, she slept on a mat spread on the floor. When she heard you had given up the use of garlands and unguents, she also used them no more. And when her relatives sent a message, saying, ‘Let us take care of you,’ she paid them no attention at all. Such is my daughter’s goodness of heart, O Fortunate One!” [1.128]

“ ’Tis no wonder, O king!” was the reply, “that she should watch over herself now that she has you for a protector, and that her wisdom is mature; formerly, even when wandering among the mountains without a protector, and when her wisdom was not mature, she watched over herself.” And he told the story of the Kinnarijātaka [Ja 485]; and rose from his seat, and went away.

On the next day the festivals of the coronation, and of the housewarming, and of the marriage of Nanda, the king’s son, were being celebrated all together. But the Buddha went to his house, and gave him his bowl to carry; and with the object of making him abandon the world, he wished him true happiness; and then, rising from his seat, departed. And (the bride) Janapada Kalyāṇī, seeing the young man go away, gazed wonderingly at him, and cried out, “My Lord, whither go you so quickly?” But he, not venturing to say to the Fortunate One, “Take your bowl,” followed him even unto the monastery. And the Fortunate One received him, unwilling though he was, into the Saṅgha.

It was on the third day after he reached Kapilapura that the Fortunate One ordained Nanda. On the second day the mother of Rāhula arrayed the boy in his best, and sent him to the Fortunate One, saying: “Look, dear, at that monk, attended by twenty thousand monks, and glorious in appearance as the great Deva Brahma! That is your father. He had certain great treasures, which we have not seen since he abandoned his home. Go now, and ask for your inheritance, saying, ‘Father, I am your son. When I am crowned, I shall become a king over all the earth. I have need of the treasure. Give me the treasure; for a son is heir to his father’s property.’ ”

The boy went up to the Fortunate One, and gained the love of his father, and stood there glad and joyful, saying, [1.129] “Happy, O monk, is thy shadow!” and adding many other words befitting his position. When the Fortunate One had ended his meal, and had given thanks, he rose from his seat, and went away. And the child followed the Fortunate One, saying: “O monk! Give me my inheritance! Give me my inheritance!”

And the Fortunate One prevented him not. And the disciples, being with the Fortunate One, ventured not to stop him. And so he went with the Fortunate One even up to the grove. Then the Fortunate One thought: “This wealth, this property of his father’s, which he is asking for, perishes in the using, and brings vexation with it! I will give him the sevenfold wealth of the Arahats which I obtained under the Bodhi tree, and make him the heir of a spiritual inheritance!” And he said to Sāriputta, “Well, then, {1.92} Sāriputta, receive Rāhula into the Saṅgha.”

But when the child had been taken into the Saṅgha the king grieved exceedingly. And he was unable to bear his grief, and made it known to the Fortunate One, and asked of him a boon, saying: “If you so please, O Teacher, let not the Fortunate One receive a son into the Saṅgha without the leave of his father and mother.” And the Fortunate One granted the boon.

And the next day, as he sat in the king’s house after his meal was over, the king, sitting respectfully by him, said: “Teacher! When you were practising austerities, a Deva came to me, and said, ‘Your son is dead!’ And I believed him not, and rejected what he said, answering, ’My son will not die without attaining Buddhahood!’”

And he replied, saying: “Why should you now have believed? When formerly, though they showed you my bones and said your son was dead, you did not believe them.” And in that connexion he told the story of his birth as the Great Dhammapāla. [Ja 447 Mahādhammapālajātaka]. See above, p. 126. [This is a repetition of what was said before, owing to poor editing by the compiler.] And when the story was ended, the king attained to the Fruit of the [1.130] Third Path. And so the Fortunate One established his father in the Three Fruits; and he returned to Rājagaha attended by the company of the brethren, and resided at the Cool Grove.

Anāthapiṇḍika and Jetavana

At that time the householder Anāthapiṇḍika, bringing merchandise in five hundred carts, went to the house of a trader in Rājagaha, his intimate friend, and there heard that a Fortunate Buddha had arisen. And very early in the morning he went to the Teacher, the door being opened by the power of a Deva, and heard the Dhamma and became converted. And on the next day he gave a great donation to the Saṅgha, with the Buddha at their head, and received a promise from the Teacher that he would come to Sāvatthi.

Then along the road, forty-five leagues in length, he built resting-places at every league, at an expenditure of a hundred thousand for each. And he bought the Grove called Jetavana for eighteen koṭis of gold pieces, laying them side by side over the ground, and erected there a new building. In the midst thereof he made a pleasant room for the One with Ten Powers, and around it separately constructed dwellings for the eighty elders, and other residences with single and double walls, and long halls and open roofs, ornamented with ducks and quails; and ponds also he made, and terraces to walk on by day and by night.

And so having constructed a delightful residence on a pleasant spot, at an expense of eighteen koṭis, he sent a message to the Sage that he should come.

The Teacher, hearing the messenger’s words, left Rājagaha attended by a great multitude of monks, and in due course arrived at the city of Sāvatthi. Then the wealthy merchant decorated the monastery; and on the day on which the Tathāgata should arrive at Jetavana he arrayed his son in splendour, and sent him on with five hundred youths in festival attire. And he and his retinue, holding five hundred flags resplendent with cloth of five different [1.131] colours, {1.93} appeared before the One with Ten Powers. And behind him Mahāsubhaddā and Cullasubhaddā, the two daughters of the merchant, went forth with five hundred damsels carrying waterpots full of water. And behind them, decked with all her ornaments, the merchant’s wife went forth, with five hundred matrons carrying vessels full of food. And behind them all the great merchant himself, clad in new robes, with five hundred traders also dressed in new robes, went out to meet the Fortunate One.

The Fortunate One, sending this retinue of lay disciples in front, and attended by the great multitude of monks, entered Jetavana with the infinite grace and unequalled majesty of a Buddha, making the spaces of the grove bright with the halo from his person, as if they were sprinkled with gold-dust.

Then Anāthapiṇḍika asked him, “How, my Lord, shall I deal with this monastery?”

“O householder,” was the reply, “give it then to the monastic Saṅgha, whether now present or hereafter to arrive.”

And the great merchant, saying: “So be it, my Lord,” brought a golden vessel, and poured water over the hand of the One with Ten Powers, and dedicated the monastery, saying: “I give this Jetavana to the monastic Saṅgha with the Buddha at their head, and to all from every direction now present or hereafter to come.” This formula has been constantly found in rock inscriptions in India and Ceylon over the ancient cave-dwellings of Buddhist hermits.

And the Teacher accepted the Vihāra, and giving thanks, pointed out the advantages of monasteries, saying:

294. “Cold they ward, off, and heat;

So also beasts of prey,

And creeping things, and gnats,

And rains in the cold season.

And when the dreaded heat and winds

Arise, they ward them off. [1.132]

295. To give to monks a dwelling-place,

Wherein in safety and in peace

To think till insight grows clear,

The Buddha calls a worthy deed.

296. Let therefore a wise man,

Regarding his own welfare,

Have pleasant monasteries built,

And lodge there learned men.

297. Let him with cheerful gaze

Give food to them, and drink,

And clothes, and dwelling-places

To the upright in mind. {1.94}

298. Then they shall preach to him the Dhamma –

The Dhamma, dispelling every grief –

Which Dhamma, when here a man understands,

He has no more pollutants, and dies away!”

Anāthapiṇḍika began the dedication festival from the second day. The festival held at the dedication of Visākhā’s building ended in four months, but Anāthapiṇḍika’s dedication festival lasted nine months. At the festival, too, eighteen koṭis were spent; so on that one monastery he spent wealth amounting to fifty-four koṭis.

Long ago, too, in the time of the Blessed Buddha Vipassī, a merchant named Punabbasu Mitta bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built a monastery there a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Sikhī, a merchant named Sirivaḍḍha bought that very spot by standing golden ploughshares over it, and built there a monastery three-quarters of a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Vessabhū, a merchant named Sotthiya bought that very spot by laying golden elephant feet along it, and built a monastery there half a league in length. And in the [1.133] time of the Blessed Buddha Kakusandha, a merchant named Accuta also bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built there a monastery a quarter of a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Koṇāgamana, a merchant named Ugga bought that very spot by laying golden turtles over it, and built there a monastery half a league in length. And in the time of the Blessed Buddha Kassapa, a merchant named Sumaṅgala bought that very spot by laying golden bricks over it, and built there a monastery sixty acres in extent.

And in the time of our Fortunate One, Anāthapiṇḍika the merchant bought that very spot by laying golden coins over it, and built there a monastery thirty acres in extent. For that spot is a place which not one of all the Buddhas has deserted. And so the Fortunate One lived in that spot from the attainment of omniscience under the Bodhi tree till his death. This is the Proximate Epoch. And now we will tell the stories of his births.

Colophon

The Nidanakatha is the gateway to the Jataka — the great collection of the Buddha's birth stories. It establishes the cosmological and doctrinal framework within which the five hundred and forty-seven individual tales are to be understood, tracing the Bodhisatta's path from his first vow to the historical ministry of Gotama Buddha.

This text is from Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, first published 1880, with revisions drawing on the work of subsequent Pali scholars. The digital text was prepared from the SuttaCentral edition.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

Related Jataka texts in the Good Work Library: Sasa Jataka (the hare's self-sacrifice — one of the most beloved tales from the collection) · Vessantara Jataka (the crown jewel — the Bodhisatta's final birth story and supreme act of generosity).

Related life-of-the-Buddha texts in the Good Work Library: Buddhacarita (Aśvaghoṣa's Sanskrit epic — the earliest complete biography of the Buddha in any language, covering the same life from birth to Parinirvāṇa).

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