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adorned with a crown, and carrying fuel ; clotlied in a robe of the d^was, and covered with a garb vile and filthy ; ornamented with pearls, and clothed in rags ; like Brahaspati in wisdom, and utterly ignorant ; have a melodious voice, and be dumb, speaking only by the eyes and hands ; a man with a retinue of females, a female in attendance upon a man ; loved by others, and hated by others ; and he may now be a king who can receive countless gems by the mere clapping of his hands, and now a mendicant, taking a skull from door to door to seek alms." 14. In many births D^wadatta was superior to Bodhisat, which may appear to contradict the assertion that prosperity is the reward of merit and calamity of demerit ; but though he was continually the enemy of B<5dhisat, he was not the enemy of others ; and in the births in which he was king, he did many things that were good, for which he received the due reward. In the course of the sequence of existence the good and the evil are connected together in different relationships, as the stream of the river, in its onward career, meets with and bears on its surface that which is excellent as well as that which is mean ; but though D6wadatta and Budha were thus frequently con nected, in the last birth the former went to hell, and Budha attained nirwana. 15. The king of Sdgal said to Ndgasena, ''It was declared by Budha that Mugalan was the chief of those who possessed the power of irdhi ; and yet it was said on another occasion, that the same Mngalan was assaulted by thieves, who pounded his body with staves, and broke his bones, after which he attained nir- wana; now the one declaration is contrary to the other; if Mugalan had the power of irdhi, he could not have been exposed to the endurance of this calamity." N^as^na : " It is perfectly true that the bones of Mugalan were broken, but it was by means of karma that this was effected." Milinda : " But are not irdhi and karma equally achinteyya, without mind, or beyond thought ; and if so, does it not follow that the irdhi is able to overcome the karma, in the same way as we take one wood*apple to break another with, or one mango to break therewith another fruit of the same kind ? " Nagasena : '* Among things that are achin- teyya one may be more powerful than another. Thus, there are many princes who have authority, but one is more powerful than the rest ; he is the king ; all the others must attend to his com- IX. THE ONTOLOGY OF BUDHISM. 473 mands : in like manner, of all things that ar aohinteyya, karma is the most powerful, whether it be kusala or aknsala, the karaia of merit or of demerit. Again, when a man commits a crime, neither his father, his mother, his relatives, nor his friends can save him from punishment. Why ? Because the will of the king is supreme ; he is more powerful than all ; and it is the same with karma. Again, when a fire breaks out in the forest, and the whole land is in a blaze, the water from manj thousands of vessels would be insufficient to quench it ; and in the same way, nothing can overcome the force of karma. In a former birth, far distant from the last, in which he attained nirw4na, Mugalan was the murderer of his aged parents ; and it was in consequence of this crime that in his last birth a similar calamity was inflicted on him by the thieves." 16. A female, of extremely beautiful appearance, was bom, by the apparitional birth, at the foot of a mango (amba) tree, in a garden belonging to the Lichawi princes, near the city of Wisdla. On account of the place of her birth she was called Ambapdli, and was a courtezan. The cause of her being a courtezan may be learnt from the following narrative. In the thirty-first kalpa previous to the present age, when Sikhi was Budha, Ambap41i was one of his female relatives ; but she renounced the world, and though a member of the royal family became a priestess. One day when going to worship a certain digoba, in company with other priestesses, in the course of their circumambulation of the relic, one of them happened to sneeze, and a part of the mucus, without her perceiving it, fell on the ground. The princess, however, who was next in the order of the procession, saw that the court was defiled, and exclaimed, ''What rude person can have been here P '* Though she did not discover the delinquent, she still abused her, whoever she might be. In consequence of having thus offered an insult to a sacred person, she was next bom in the Am^dya hell, which caused her to wish that when again bom of the race of man, she might receive the apparitional birth. She was afterwards an immense x)eriod in different hells, enduring great pain; was a hundred thousand times a female beggar; and ten thousand times a prostitute ; but in the time of Kasyapa Budha she remained in perfect continence, and was then born a dewi, and after enjoying the pleasures of the d6wa-16ka for the 474 A MANUAL OP BUDHISM. proper period, she was finally born in the garden of the Lichawi princes. The gardener informed the princes that he had found a beaii- tif al female at the foot of a mango tree ; and on hearing this news thej hastened to the place, and were in great amazement at her appearance. Thej all wished to possess her ; but as this was not possible, in order to end the dispute that arose from their conflicting claims, that otherwise appeared to be inter- minable, it was decided that the eldest prince should take her ; after which she was placed in the office of courtezan, and received as a gift the garden in which she had appeared. At this time G6tama went with a large retinae of priests to the Tillage of KdtigdLma, near Wis^a. When the Lichawi princes heard of his arrival, they put on their royal garments, and went to see him. But before their appearance, Ambap41i had gone to pay him her respects. On approaching the sage, she offered him the most profound reverence, and listened with great delight to a discourse that he delivered ; after the conclusion of which she requested that he would next day do her the favour of receiving a repast at her dwelling. In returning home, as the people crowded forward on their way to the wihAra, her chariot came into collision with that of one of the princes ; but she heeded it not, and passed on. When she arrived at her dwelling, she set about the preparation of various kinds of the most deUcious food. The princes, on arriving within a certain distance of the wihira in which Budha was residing, descended from their chariots, and as they approached nearer, reverently bowed themselves. The coming of the princes was perceived by Budha, who, as he noticed the different colours of their garments and ornaments, and the varied splendour of their array, said to his attendant retinue, " Priests, those of you who have not seen the glory of the Tusi dewa-16ka, look at the Lichawi princes ; behold their grandeur, and learn therefrom the magnificence of Tusi." After remaining with the sage some time, listening to his instructions, they requested him to receive an offering at the palace the nezt day, but as he had already accepted the invitation of Ambap&li, he could not comply with their request. From this place he went to Gijjakawdsaya, in the village of Nddika. The next day Ambapdli informed Budha that all was prepared; when the great teacher, accompanied by a retinue of rahats, went to par- IX. THE ONTOLOGY OF BUDHISM. 475 take of the offering. At the conclnsion of the repast, he re- peated the usual benediotion ; and the courtezan, in return, pre- sented the garden to the priesthood, and subsequently erected in it a wih^ra, which she gave to Budha."* She also renounced the world, became a priestess, and attained the state of a rahat. 17. The king of Sdgal said to Ndgas^na, ** There are some persons in the world who present alms, and say at the same time, May this alms-ofPering be a benefit to my relatives who are dead, and have become pr^tas ! Tell me, will their departed relatives receive any benefit from such an ofEering ? ** Nagas6na : " There are some pr^tas who receive a benefit therefrom, and others who will not : those who are bom in any of the 136 hells will derive no benefit from the offering or the rice that is presented ; nor will those who are bom in the d6wa-16kas, or those who are bom as animals. There are four kinds of pr^tas: — 1. Wantdsikds, who live countless ages in great sorrow, eating the most disgust- ing substances. 2.