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times asked if any of them were able to overcome the doubts of Milinda ; but even in this vast assembly no one equal to the task could be found. Then the whole of the rahats, vanishing from the rock, went to the celestial world called Tawutisd, as they perceived that the d6wa Mahasena possessed the requisite quali- fications. On their arrival, they requested that he would receive birth in the world of men ; he alone being able to solve the doubt-s of Milinda, a king who perplexed all with whom he conversed by the subtlety of his questions. This Mahasena was the priest who in a former age struck the novice with a broom. To the request of the rahats, though with some hesitation, he consented, and became the son of a brahman, Sdnuttara, who resided in the village Kajangal^ near the forest of EQmala. The name that he received was Ndgasena ; and as it is fabled that G6tama foretold his appearance 500 years after his own death, he must have been born in the year 43 B.C. From the time of his conception, a Budhist priest, Rdhana, by the appointment of Assagutta, went dailj to the house of his father, with the alms- bowl; though he went six years and nine months without receiving anything further than scorn. When N4gas^na arrived at seven years of age, his father told him that he must now be taught according to the customs of their caste ; and when the son asked what it was that he was to learn, he was informed that he must learn the three Y6das, and many other branches of knowledge. Nagasena was willing to be taught, and a learned brahman was appointed as his preceptor ; but he learnt by heart the whole of the three Y^das lifter once hearing them, and with equal facility gained a knowledge of grammar, history, and the other sciences. He then enquired from his father if there was anything more that he would be required to learn, and was told that there was not. After this, as he was one day near the entrance of the honse, he saw the priest B(5hana approaching ; and as he felt drawn towards him by a secret affection, he went to him and said, " Who are yon, with your shaven head and yellow garments P** The priest replied, ** I am one who has abandoned the world." The youth enquired why he had done so ; and when he was informed, he further asked why his head was shaven, and why he wore garments of that peculiar appear- ance. His curiosity being satisfied upon these points, he enquired if the priest was acquainted with any of the sciences, and was told that he had an ample knowledge of these matters ; but that before he could teach them to the youth, he must receive the permission of his parents to embrace the priesthood. Accord- ingly he went to his parents, and entreated that they would allow him to become a priest, in order that he might learn the sacred sciences which he would become acquainted with in no other way. His parents told him that he might become a priest in order to learn the truths that he wished to know ; but that when he had learnt them, they should expect him to resume his APPENDIX. 535 former state as a laio. He was, therefore, ordained by Bdhana, who at once taught him the Abhidharmma, the most difficult of the three Pitakas. Not long afterwards he thought disrespect- fully of the knowledge of the priest; but having learnt his error, he asked forgiveness ; and Kdhana told him, that in order to receive it, he must go to the court of Milinda, king of Sagal, and answer the questions that he would put. Soon after this appointment he went to the place where Assagutta resided, who sent him to the As6k&rama wihara, near Pelalup (Pataliputra),* where dwelt the priest Dharmmarakshita. This was a distance of one hundred yojanas ; but he went, and there became a rahat. After this he returned, in a moment of time, to Bakkhita, where the rahats had already assembled to congratulate him on the attainment of this great privilege ; and after their respects were paid, they requested that without further delay he would encoun- ter the king of Sdgal, and free him from the darkness in which he was involved. About this time Milinda heard of the fame of the priest Ayupala, and having received permission to visit him, he en- quired why he had become a priest. Ayupala said it was in order that he might attain nirwana. The king then asked if no laic had ever attained that state ; when the priest related to him many instances in which the brahmans of Benares, and others, who were yet laics, had seen nirwana from hearing the dis- courses of ioudha. ** Then," said the king, '' it is evident that the reason you assign is not a sufficient one. You have garments of one colour, no settled habitation, and you deprive yourself of sleep; you must, therefore, in a former birth, have been a robber, and are now reaping the reward of your crimes." Thus the priest was put to silence. It was to the wihara called Sankeyya that Nagils^na repaired, in order that he might meet the king ; and Milinda was informed of his arrival by one of his nobles, Dewamantri. No sooner did he hear the name of the sage, than he began to tremble ; but he went to the wihdra, accompanied by a hundred of the Yon nobles ; and though Ndgasena was in the midst of 80,000 priests, the king knew him at once. The conversations that ensued are detailed at length in the Milinda-prasna ; and the result was, that the doubts of the king were removed, and he became a convert to the Budhist faith. Nagas^na has been identified with Ndgdrjuna, through whose influence the people of Kashmir embraced Budhism, in the time of certain Turushka princes, or Tartars, as mentioned in the Jlaja Tarangini, translated by Professor Wilson. It has been supposed, with much probability, that Sdgal is the * In Sanskrit, Knsama-pura. It is the Palibothra, near the modem Patna, to which Megasthenes was sent hj Seleuciis Nicatoi*, to renew a treaty with SandracottuB, supposed to be the Ohandragupta of the Hindas. 536 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. Sangala of the Greeks, the inhabitants of which resisted Alex- ander in his Indian expedition. After passing the Hydraotis, the Macedonian warriors pursned their waj to Sangala, near which the Kathayans were encamped, npon an eminence fortified by a triple row of chariots. The first attack was nnsucoessfiil ; bnt at the second assault the barrier was forced, and the Katha- yans, after a desperate resistance, retired to Sangala. The city was of great extent, protected on one side by a lake, and strongly fortified ; bnt a breach was soon made, and the place was taken by storm. It is said that 17,000 of the citizens were massacred, and 70,000 made captives, whilst the Macedonians lost only 100 men and 1200 wounded. Soon afterwards Alexander commanded that Sangala should be entirely destroyed ; but if this place be the Sagal of Milinda, it must have arisen from its ashes at a subsequent period, and again become the metropolis of the country. In one of the conversations held with Ndgas^na, the king stated that he was bom at Alasanda,* which he said was 200 yojanas from Sagal.t But this statement is indefinite ; and though the reference is undoubtedly to Alexandria, there were so many cities of this name that we cannot exactly tell what place is intended by the king. We may, however, conclude therefrom that Milinda was not a Hindu, but probably an Asiatic Greek. In the same conversation he stated that £[^bmira, or Cashmire, was only twelve yojanas from S&gal, which agrees well with the position of Sangala. The nobles who accom- panied the king are called Tons, or Yonikas,^ a word which has been considered as synonymous with Yawan, or Ionia. It is said by Tumour that Y<5na, or Yawana, is mentioned in the ancient Pili books, " long anterior to Alexander's invasion ;" but to what books he refers is not apparent, as only 187 years elapsed between the death of Budha and the birth of Alexander ; and it is evident that the Pitakas, in their present form, must have been composed many years subsequently to the events that they relate. The Singhalese authors place the Yon country on the banks of the Nirmmad^, or Nerbudda ; but this is too much to the south of Sangala ; and as the legend in which this statement * It iB stated in the Mahawanso that Alasaddil is the capital of the Yona country.