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and placed it on a stone slab below. He took that fruit. Seeing him bowed down with gifts, approaching, touching with his hand, knowing it was ripe, he cut the jackfruit stalk. The merchant, having pulled out the jackfruit stick, stood in the place of the ascetic, thinking, "I will eat the tip, having given it," announced the time. Then four arahants, having come, appeared before him. The merchant, seeing them, delighted, having bowed at their feet, having seated them, having trimmed around the stalk of that fruit with a knife, having peeled off and removed the outer layer, juice dripping all around, filled the hollow made by the peeled-off outer layer. The merchant, having filled the bowls with jackfruit juice the color of red arsenic, gave them. Those arahants, as he watched, having risen into the sky, departed. Again he announced the time. Other four arahants came. To them also, having taken the bowls from their hands, having filled them with jackfruit segments the color of gold, he gave. Of those, three elders departed through the sky. The other, named Elder Indagutta, an arahant, wanting to show him that silver, having descended from the mountain above, sat not far from that cave, consuming jackfruit segments. The lay follower, when the elder had gone, having himself eaten the remaining segments, having made a bundle of the rest, taking it, going, seeing the elder, gave water and a branch for washing the bowl. The elder also, having cleared a path from the cave entrance to the road near the carts, said, "Go by this path, lay follower." He, having bowed to the elder, going by that path, reaching the cave entrance, looking around the cave, seeing that heap of silver, having taken a lump of silver, having cut it with a chisel, knowing it was silver, having taken a large lump of slag, having gone to the carts, having parked the carts in a place abundant with grass and water, quickly going to Anuradhapura, having shown it to the king, reported the matter. The king also had him honored appropriately. Thereafter, they brought another message: "In the western part of the city, at a place five yojanas away, on Uruvela Mountain, there are pacāḷa trees mixed with mahāmalaka trees the size of a large amalaka fruit." Stones the size of cartwheels emerged from the sea; fishermen, seeing them, thought, "Truly, royal treasures have arisen!" They piled them up, set a guard, filled their boats, came and showed them to the king, and reported the matter. The king also had them honored appropriately. Then they brought another message: in the northwest corner of the city, seven yojanas away, in a place at the head of the Pelivapi village's tank, on the sandy bank of a ravine, four great gems arose, the size of a young *nisada* tree, four finger-widths long, the color of *ummā* flowers. Then a dog hunter named Matta, wandering there with his dogs, reached that place, saw them, thought, "Truly, royal treasures!" covered them with sand, came and reported to the king. The king also had him honored appropriately. Thus, the king heard of the bricks and other things that had arisen for the stupa that very day; the place where the bricks and silver arose obtained its name from that. The Story of Obtaining Materials for the Stupa 20. Then the king had the gold and other things that had arisen for the stupa brought and piled up in the storehouses; then, when all the materials were complete, on the Visakha full-moon uposatha day, when the Visakha constellation was in ascendancy, he began the ground preparation for the great stupa. The king had the stone stupa established in the stupa place removed, and for the sake of stability, he had the ground dug deeply all around, up to the elephant enclosure, to a depth of one hundred *ratanas*, and after removing the soil, he had the warriors spread jaggery-stones and had them pounded into fine powder with blacksmith's hammers. Then, having had it trampled by great elephants with leather-bound feet, he spread clay like fresh butter on top of the stone pavement. In the place where the water droplets from the sky-river, having fallen three times, spring up and fall in an area of thirty yojanas all around, where self-grown rice arises, that place is always damp, and is called Nintasīsakoḷa, the hungry place. The soil there is very fine, and is called butter-clay. That that Those novices, free from defilements, brought it, and it should be understood that the entire work was done with clay. He had bricks laid over the clay. Over the bricks, fine plastering; over that, kuruvinda stone; over that, an iron net; over that, fragrant mārumba brought by the novices, free from defilements, from the Himalayas; over that, milk stone; over that, eḷika stone; over that, he had a layer of sīla laid. In all the clay work, only butter clay was used. Over the layer of stone, with a mixture of rasodaka and kapittha resin, he had a copper plate laid, eight aṅgulas thick; over that, with oil-pressing manosilā, he had a silver plate laid, seven aṅgulas thick. Thus, the king, having had the ground prepared in every way, on the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight of Āsāḷha, assembled the community of monks and said thus: "Tomorrow, on the full moon uposatha day, under the Uttarāsāḷha constellation, I will lay the auspicious brick for the Great Stupa. Tomorrow, for the raising of the stupa, let the entire Sangha assemble." He had a drum paraded in the city, saying, "Let the great multitude, observing the uposatha, gather at the stupa site, bringing perfumes and garlands." Then he commanded two ministers named Visākhasiri and Devanāma, "You go and decorate the site of the Great Stupa." They went and scattered silver-plate-colored sand all around, scattered parched grain and five kinds of flowers, raised banana archways, placed full pots, tied five-colored flags to jewel-colored bamboo, spread various kinds of fragrant flowers, and decorated the place in various ways. Then the king had the entire city and the road leading to the monastery decorated. At dawn, at the four gates of the city, he placed barbers for shaving, bath attendants for bathing, decorators for ornamentation, various colored cloths, perfumes, garlands, and sweet foods complete with curries and side dishes. All the city dwellers and country folk, having had their beards trimmed as they pleased, having bathed, Having eaten, and adorned with clothes, ornaments, and so on, let them come to the place of the Great Shrine, he ordered the appointed officials to announce. He himself, adorned with all ornaments, having become an observer of the uposatha, together with forty thousand men, protected by ministers, well-decorated and adorned, surrounded by dancing women like celestial nymphs, pleasing the great multitude with his own glorious prosperity like the king of gods surrounded by a host of gods, while various musical instruments were playing, in the afternoon, he approached the place of the Great Stupa. He had eight thousand cloths placed, tied together, for the sake of the Great Shrine. He had piles of cloth made on the four sides, and he had oil, honey, sugar, molasses, and so on, placed there. Then many monks came from various countries, from Rajagaha, from all around, the Elder Indagutta by name, came through the air with eighty thousand monks, likewise from the Isipatana Deer Park in Bārāṇasī, the Elder Dhammasena by name, twelve thousand monks. From the Jetavana Monastery in Sāvatthī, the Elder Piyadassi by name, sixty thousand monks, from the Great Wood in Vesālī, the Elder Buddharakkhita, eighteen thousand monks, from the Ghositārāma in Kosambī, the Elder Mahādhammarakkhita, thirty thousand monks. From the Dakkhinagiri Great Monastery in Ujjeni, the Elder Dhammarakkhita, forty thousand monks, from the Asokārāma in Pāṭaliputta, the Elder Mittiṇṇa, one hundred and sixty thousand monks, from the Gandhāra country, the Elder Attinna by name, two hundred and eighty thousand monks. From Mahāpallava Bhoga, the Elder Mahādeva, four hundred and sixty thousand monks, from the city of Alasanda in the Yona country, the Yona Elder Dhammarakkhita, thirty thousand monks. From the Viñjhāṭavi-vivattaniya hermitage, the Elder Uttara, eighty thousand monks. From the Mahābodhimaṇḍa Monastery, the Elder Cittagutta, thirty thousand monks, from Vanavāsibhoga, Caṇdagutta Thera with eighty thousand monks. Suribhagutta Thera from Kelasa Mahavihara, came through the air with ninety-six thousand. "Of the monks dwelling in the island, And of those who came from elsewhere, all, The number and extent, Was not spoken of by the ancients; Of the assembled monks, In that entire gathering, Only the arahants were said to be, Ninety-six crores." Then the Sangha, like a surrounding coral railing, stood in the open space in the middle of the king, without jostling one another. On the eastern side, a Thera named Buddharakkhita, an arahant, stood with five hundred arahants similar to himself. Similarly, on the southern, western, and northern sides, Theras named Dhammarakkhita, Saṅgharakkhita, and Ānaṇda, arahants, stood with five hundred arahants similar to themselves. A Thera named Piyadassi, an arahant, stood with a large Sangha of monks in the northeast corner. The king, upon entering the midst of the Sangha, thought, "If the Cetiya work being done by me is completed without interruption, may the Theras named Buddharakkhita, Cammarakkhita, Saṅgharakkhita, and Ānaṇda stand on the eastern, southern, western, and northern sides with five hundred monks similar to themselves, and may the Thera named Piyadassi stand in the northeast corner with the Sangha of monks." The Theras, knowing the king's intention, stood accordingly. Siddhattha Thera, however, surrounded by these eleven Theras: Maṅgala, Sumana, Paduma, Sīvali, Caṇdagutta, Sūriyagutta, Iṇdagutta, Sāgara, Cittasena, Jayasena, and Acala, stood facing east, having placed a full pot in front.