Back to the library

A Manual of Budhism, In Its Modern Development, K. Spence Hardy, 1880 - Complete Book

English

He then told them, that when he took the bowl from the hand of Budha, Janapadakaly^ni looked after him, and told him, to return without delay, and that it was the princess who was the cause of his sorrow. This being kno^n to G(5tama, he euquired whether she were beautiful ; and * This account appears in the Sanlinduri J^taka ; the Tarious births of the princes, after the formation of the wish, were related by Budha at length. VII. LEGENDS OF g6TAMA BUDHA. 211 Nanda described her person in the most glowing terms. The sage thought to destroy the fire of this passion hy the water of nirwana, and asked him if there was no one more beautifnl than Janapadakalydni. "No ;" was the reply, ** not in all Jambndwipa." Badha then enquired if he wished to see one that was more beau- tifnl, but he thought that this was not possible ; so the sage took him by the hand, and by the power of irdhi conveyed him to the world of Sekra. As they were going, he caused the withered body of an old female ape, burnt in the preparing of some forest- land for cultivation, to appear, and asked the priest if he saw it ; who said that he did. On arriving at the d6wa-16ka, he com- manded 500 of the principal dewis of Sekra to come into his presence ; and then enquired whether they or the princess were the most beautiful. Nanda replied, that in comparison to them his betrothed was like the burnt ape. When Budha again asked whether he would like to possess one of those beautifal d^wis, he demanded in what way this could be brought about ; and being informed that he might secure one by being obedient to the precepts, he set himself to their strict observance. By this means he was induced to keep the precepts, and in a little time became a rahat. On the seventh day after the arrival of Budha at Kapilawastu, Yasodhara-dewi arrayed Bdhula, now seven years old, in all the splendor of a prince, and said to him, '* This priest, whose appear- ance is so glorious, so that he looks like Maha Brahma, is your father ; he possesses four great mines of wealth ; since he went away, I have not seen them ; go to him, and entreat him to put you in possession of these mines, and of the seven treasures of the chakrawartti ; the son ought to inherit the property of his father." Bihula replied, " I know of no father but the king, Sudh6dana ; who is my father ?" The princess took him in her arms, and from the window pointed to Budha, who was at that time at the palace, partaking of food, and said that the priest he saw there was his father. Hahula then went to Budha, and looking up in his face, said without fear, and with much affection, " My father ;*' and he further said, " Priest, your shadow is a place of privilege." When Budha had finished his repast, and given his blessing, he went away from the palace, followed by Bdhula, who asked to be placed in possession of the property named by his mother. None of the people did anything to prevent him, nor did Budha himself. The p 2 212 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. princess saw from the window that the child followed his father, and began to be fearfnl lest he shonld admit him to the priest- hood, as he had done Nanda ; at the thought of this, she wept. Bahnla had great merit, from having been the obedient son of Budha, when B6dhisat, in many births ; and when he learnt that he was to be admitted to the priesthood, he was greatly pleased, thinking that now he conld receive the inheritance. Budha then said to Seriyut, " My son asks his inheritance ; I am not willing* to give him that, which is connected with the sorrows of existence ; I had rather give him the inheritance of the priest- hood ; the benefit arising from this does not perish." At the command of Budha, he was then admitted by Seriyut. When the king heard of what had been done, he was excessively grieved, and went to Budha to complain that he had in the same way lost his own two sons, Sidhdrtta and Nanda, and now his grandson was taken from him, who had ever been regarded by him as a son since the father became an ascetic ; and he obtained a promise from Budha that henceforth he would ordain no one without the consent of his parents. The king also reminded him that he had not believed the report brought to him by the d6wi that he was dead, immediately previous to his reception of the Budhaship. In return, Budha repeated the Dharmmapdla Jdtaka, and informed him that in a former birth he was not willing to acknowledge his death, even when shewn one of his bones. By this discourse the king's sorrow was allayed, and he was enabled to enter the third path. Some time afterwards he became a rahat ; and when on his royal couch, he attained nirwdna. 13. Budha visits the Island of Geylon, In the ninth month after G6tama had received the Budhaship, he visited Ceylon. On the bank of the Mahawaluka river,* near which place he arrived, there was a garden called Mahandga (in Bintenne),t three yojanas in length and two in breadth. At * This river, now commonly called Mahaweli, is the largest in CejloD. Its source is near Nuwartflija, and its main branch falls in the baj of Trincomalee. Near Kandy it is spanned by a bridge of one arch, the timbers of which are of sandal wood, 205 feet in span. In 1832 it was explored by K. Brooke, Esq., under the direction of the colonial goTemment, who published an interesting account of the surrey. t This place is now called Myungana. According to Forbes, it is still a place of pilgrimage. VII. LEGENDS OF g6tAMA BUDHA. 213 tHis time the garden was the seat of a great commotioii) as two armies of yak^ were fighting in it, with each other. Q6tama approached them over the air, and made a loader noise than thej did, which put them in fear. He then cansed a great darkness, hj means of a rain-clond ; and when he afterwards dispersed the darkness, he appeared to them in the skj, aad put them to still greater terror by sending forth a volume of smoke from his body. After this he assumed the appearance of a moon. When the yakds had seen these wonders, they gave him, at his own request, permission to alight, and to occupy as much space as could be covered by a carpet of skin ; but when lie had descended to the ground, he caused pillars of fire to arise at each of the four comers of the carpet ; and the fire extended itself on all sides, driving the yakis before it, until they had no place in which to remain but the sea-shore. The rock, or island, Oiri, then approached, and the yak^ took refuge upon it, after ^which it returned to its original position. In a moment, all the dewas of the air, the rocks, and the trees, and of Samastakdta, assembled in his presence, and made to him an offering of fbwers. To this assembly G(5tama delivered a discourse, by means of which numberless d^was entered the path sowdn ; and before his departure he gave to Sumana, the principal dewa of Samasta- kdta, a lock of his hair as a relic, that it might become an object of worship. After going three times round the whole island in a moment, he returned to Uruwela. The dewa Sumana made a dagoba of emeralds for the lock of hair he had received, seven cubits high, at the place where Budha first alighted. After the dissolution of G6tama, Sarabhu, a disciple of Seriyut, brought hither the thorax bone of the sage, and deposited it in the same place, which he covered with another d^oba, twelve cubits high, This was again covered by Chtila- bhaya, brother of Dewinanpiyatissa, with a ddgoba of brick, thirty cubits high ; and lastly, Dnttagamini encased the whole with another dagoba, which, with the golden tower at its summit, was eighty cubits high. The second journey of Gdtama to Ceylon was on this wise. In the fifth year after he became Budha, there was a dispute, in I^Agadwipa,* between the two nigs, kings, Chulodana and • Thii mut have been an Uland connected with Ceylon, probably at its 214 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. Mahddana, relative to a throne of gems ; and as war Had been declared, two vast armies of nagas were assembled, in whiofa. there were thirty kelas of ndgas from the rock Wedunna,* twenty kelas from K89lani,t or Kalydna, and thirty kelas from the n4ga island Mani ; being in all eighty kelas, some from the waters and others from the rocks. They were armed with. swords, spears, darts, shields, bows, crowbars, maces, clubs, and other weapons.