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At the birth of his son Uttara he left the palace in a chariot drawn by six horses, and after performing the necessary rites of asceticism for the space of eight months, he received the rice-cakes from Wajir^ndraya, and the kusa-grass from Gunasubhadra ; and at the root of the tree called sirisa, or mara, he attained the power of a supreme Budha. Near the city of Benares, he proclaimed the bana to 40,000 disciples. The king Ksh^ma was the BcSdhisat who afterwards became G6tama Bndha ; on hearing the discourses of Kakusanda he resigned his kingdom and embraced the priest- hood. The principal disciples of Kakusanda were Wadhura and Sanjawi; his attendant, Budhajana; his principal female dis- ciples, Sama and Upasama ; his stature 40 cubits ; the rays from his body extended to the distance of 10 yojanas ; and his age was 40,000 years. The name of Kondgamana was received from the circumstance that at the instant of his birth there was a golden shower (kana- kawassan) throughout Jambudwipa. His birth-place was S6dha- wati ; his father, Sanyadatta ; and his mother, IJttar&. He re- mained as a laic for the space of 3000 years, and had 16,000 females in his palace, but Ruchig&trd was his principal queen. At the birth of his son Swarthiwahana he left the palace on his * Pali, bbadda, from bhaddi, excellence. — ^Tumour's Annals. t " There are at Yar&nasi (Benares), according to the dreams of the Bud- hists, 1000 (spiritual) thrones for the 1000 Budhas of this happy age, Bhadra- kalpa, four of whom hare appeared, and the rest are to come hereafter. Shakja, after becoming Budha, when he yisited Yaduiasi, paid respect to the thrones of his three predecessors by circumambulating each oi them, and then he sat down on the fourtli throne. These 1000 Budhaa are de- scribed in the first Tolume of the Do class of the Kagyur. Some wealthy Tibetans delight to keep the images of these 1000 Budhas, made in silTer or other metal, and to pay respect to them." — Csoma ESrosi. IV. THE BUDHAS WHO PRECEDED G<5tAMA. 99 state elephant, with 30,000 followers, all of whom embraced the priesthood. After performing the asetic usages for the space of fonr months, he received the rice-cakes from Aggis6na, and the knsa-grass from Chindnka ; and at the root of the tree called ndnmbnra, or dimbnl, he attained the object of his great exer- tion. G6tama B6dhisat was at this time the monarch Parwata, who made an offering to Kdn^Lgamaoa, and heard him repeat the prediction, " In the present kalpa this indiyidnal will become a supreme Bndha." The principal disciples of K6nd.gamana were Sambahnla and TJttara ; his attendant, Sortthijana ; his principal female disciples, Samnddd and Uttari ; his statnre 30 cubits ; and he was 30,000 years of age when he attained nirwdna. The birth-place of E^japa was Benares ; his father, Brahma- datta ; his mother, Dhammawati ; the period during which he remained a laic, 2000 years ; his queen, Sunanda ; his son Wiji- tasena; his period of asceticism, seven days; the cake-giver, Emasnnanda ; the grass- giver, Somanassa ; aud his sacred tree was the nuga, or baniau. His principal disciples were Tissa and Bhdraddwaja, his attendant, Sarwachitra; and his principal female disciples, UruweU and XJruld. At this time G6tama B6dhisat was the brahman J6tip&la. His stature was 20 cubits ; he had a retinue of 20,000 disciples ; and lived in all 20,000 years. After his body was burnt, the bones still remained in their usual position, presenting the appearance of a perfect skeleton; and the whole of the inhabitants of Jambudwipa assembling together, erected a d^oba over his relics, one yojana in height. (Sadha/nnmaratinakdre) . H 2 V. GOTAMA BODHISAT: HIS VIRTUES AND STATES OF BEING. THB TBK FAHAMItXs. — THE QUALIFICATIOKB AlTD ADYASTA.QVB OP THE b6dHI8AT. — THB FIYB HUITDBBD AKD FIFTY BIBTH8. — THB SUJXtA jXtAKA. — THB APPAKNAKA JATAKA. — THB MUKIKA JATAKA. — THB MAKASA JATAKA. — THB aiTNA JATAKA. — THB TDTDITKA jXtAKA. — THB ASADBI8A JATAKA. — THE WBSSANTAHA JATAKA. A GREAT part of the respect paid to G6tama Budha arises from the supposition that he voluntarily endured, throughout myriads of ages, and in numberless births, the most severe deprivations and afflictions, that he might thereby gain the power to free sentient beings from the misery to which they are exposed under every possible form of existence. It is thought that myriads of ages previous to his reception of the Budhaship, he might have become a rahat, and therefore ceased to exist ; but that of his own free will, he forewent the privilege, and threw himself into the stream of succes- sive existence, for the benefit of the three worlds. There is a class of virtues, called the ten pdramitds, one or other of which is pre-eminently exercised during the whole period in which the Bddhisat prepares himself for the supreme Budha- ship (1). In the discourses that were delivered by G6tama, he occa- sionally referred to the 24 Budhas who immediately preceded him, on which occasions he related the circumstances of his own life at each of these periods. The history of these Budhas has been briefly recorded in the preceding chapter. It was also the custom of Gdtama, when any event of import- ance occurred, to refer to some similar event that had taken place in previous ages, in which the same persons were actors, dwelling more particularly upon the part he himself had taken in the several transactions. From these relations tlie V. GciTAMA b6dhisat: his virtues, etc. 101 work called by the Singhalese Pansiya-panaa-jitaka-potaj-^or the Book of the Five Hundred and Fifty Births, was com- piled. " The work known by this title," says the Rev. D. J. Grogerly (Ceylon Friend, Aug. 1838), " is a PaK commentary on one of the fifteen books belonging to the fifth section of the Siitra Pitaka, or Discourses of Budha, and forms no part therefore of the sacred code ; but according to a decision that the comments are of equal authority with the text, it is regarded as of indisputable authority. There is a Singhalese translation of the greater part of it, which is exceedingly popular, not on account of the peculiar doctrines of Budhism contained in it, for these are but incidentally referred to, but from its being a collection of amusing stories which they believe to be unquestionably true. The copy of the Pali comment now before me is written on olas 29 inches long, having 9 lines on a page, and occupies 1000 leaves or 2000 pages. The text itself is very scarce; my copy was made from one in the possession of the late chief priest of the Matura district, B6willa; it contains 340 pages of 9 lines each, written on olas 23 inches long. It is named J&taka Gr&th&, or Birth Stanzas, although a large proportion of them has no reference (independent of the comment) to any birth, being general maxims or miscellaneous observations. Each of the first one hundred J&takas consists of a single verse of four lines ; but some of the remainder, being histories, are much longer, the last one, or history of king Wessantara, occupjdng 40 pages. The comment comprises — 1. The oc- casion upon which the verse was spoken. 2. A story illus- trating it, affirmed to have been related at the time by Budha, . detailing circumstances which occurred to him and the parties respecting whom the verse was spoken, in a previous birth. 3. A philological explanation of the words and sense of the stanza, the verse or verses being mostly inserted at length. This last is not translated into Singhalese, except partially in the first J&taka, as being unintelligible to the mere Singhalese reader." The Singhalese translation, so far as it extends, appears to 102 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. be a correct and literal rendering of the Pali original. I have read the greater part of it, and brought a copy to England, intending to read the whole, but have not yet found leisure to accomplish the task. Beckoning a page to contain 9 lines, with about 100 letters in each line, it extends to 2400 pages. I have not made much use of it beyond the present chapter. At my request, my native pundit made an analysis of the number of times in which Gr6tama B6dhisat appeared in particular states of existence, as recorded in the J&takas, and the following is the result.