1. That Arhat is here saluted, who has no counterpart, — who, as bestowing the supreme hap¬ piness, surpasses (Brahman) the Creator, — who, as driving away darkness, vanquishes the sun, — and, as dispelling all burning heat, surpasses the beautiful moon.
2. There was a city, the dwelling-place1 of the great saint Kapila, having its sides surrounded by the beauty of a lofty broad table-land as by a line of clouds, and itself, with its high-soaring palaces 2, immersed in the sky.
3. By its pure and lofty system of government it, as it were, stole the splendour of the clouds of Mount KaiBsa, and while it bore the clouds which came to it through a mistake, it fulfilled the imagina¬ tion which had led them thither 3.
4. In that city, shining with the splendour of gems, darkness like poverty could find no place; 1 I Vastu seems used here for v&stu. They had thought that it was Kailasa.
B 2 THE BUDDHA-iTARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
prosperity shone resplendently, as with a smile, from the joy of dwelling with such surpassingly excellent citizens.
5. With its festive arbours, its arched gateways and pinnacles 1, it was radiant with jewels in every dwelling; and unable to find any other rival in the world, it could only feel emulation with its own houses.
6. There the sun, even although he had retired, was unable to scorn the moon-like faces of its women which put the lotuses to shame, and as if from the access of passion, hurried towards the western ocean to enter the (cooling) water.
7. ‘Yonder Indra has been utterly annihilated by the people when they saw the glories2 acquired by the •Sakyas,’— uttering this scoff, the city strove by its banners with gay-fluttering streamers to wipe away every mark of his existence.
8. After mocking the water-lilies even at night by the moonbeams which rest on its silver pavi¬ lions, — by day it assumed the brightness of the lotuses through the sunbeams falling on its golden palaces.
9. A king, by name Yuddhodana, of the kindred of the sun, anointed to stand at the head of earth’s monarchs, — ruling over the city, adorned it, as a bee-inmate a full-blown lotus 3.
10. The very best of kings with his train ever 1 Or towers? (siwhakar»aiA).
2 For the genitive yajas&m, see Pa«. II, 3. 52 (adhigartha).
s VS is used for iva in.Sirup. Badha, III, 63, IV, 35; Meghad. 82. (Cf. infra, IV, 44.) Pur^dhirS^am seems used adverbially. Cf. the line in Vikramorv. kusum&ny a-rerate sha/padaA Could it mean ‘ as a thought the lotus of the heart?’
3 near him \ — intent on liberality yet devoid of pride 1 2; a sovereign, yet with an ever equal eye thrown,on all 3, — of gentle nature and yet with wide-reaching majesty4.
11. Falling smitten by his arm in the arena of battle, the lordly elephants of his enemies bowed prostrate with their heads pouring forth quantities of pearls as if they were offering handfuls of flowers in homage.
12. Having dispersed his enemies by his pre¬ eminent majesty as the sun disperses the gloom of an eclipse, he illuminated his people on every side, showing them the paths which they were to follow.
1 3. Duty, wealth, and pleasure under his guidance assumed mutually each other’s object, but not the outward dress; yet as if they still vied together they shone all the brighter in the glorious career of their triumphant success.
14. He, the monarch of the.Sakyas, of native pre-eminence, but whose actual pre-eminence was brought about by his numberless councillors of exalted wisdom, shone forth all the more gloriously, like the moon amidst the stars shining with a light like its own 5.
15. To him there was a queen, named M&ya, as if free from all deceit (mdyi) — an effulgence proceeding 1 Also ‘ though the highest of mountains, yet bearing his wings (uncut).’
2 Or if applied to an elephant, ‘not in rut.’
s Or with a double meaning in is a, ‘ though like.Siva, yet with even eyes,’ i. e. not three.
4 Or ‘ like the moon, yet widely burning (like the sun).’
s Or perhaps ‘ shining with undiminished splendour.’ If we read akrz'tanyathabha^ it would run, ‘shining with its light undimmed by the stars.’
4 THE BUDDHA-iTARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
from his effulgence, like the splendour of the sun when it is free from all the influence of darkness, — a chief queen in the united assembly of all queens.
1 6. Like a mother to her subjects, intent on their welfare, — devoted to all worthy of reverence like devotion itself, — shining on her lord’s family like the goddess of prosperity, — she was the most eminent of goddesses to the whole world.
17. Verily the life of women is always darkness, yet when it encountered her, it shone brilliantly; thus the night does not retain its gloom, when it meets with the radiant crescent of the moon.
18. ‘This people, being hard to be roused to wonder in their souls, cannot be influenced by me if I come to them as beyond their senses,’ — so saying, Duty abandoned her own subtile nature and made her form visible.
19. Then falling from the host of beings in the Tushita heaven1, and illumining the three worlds, the most excellent of Bodhisattvas suddenly entered at a thought into her womb, like the Naga-king entering the cave of Nanda.
20. Assuming the form of a huge elephant white like Himalaya, armed with six tusks2, with his face perfumed with flowing ichor, he entered the womb of the queen of king Auddhodana, to destroy the evils of the world.
21. The guardians of the world hastened from heaven to mount watch over the world’s one true ruler; thus the moonbeams, though they shine 1 For tushitat k&y&t, cf. tushite devanik&ya upapannd, Divyavad. p. 83; and tushitakayika, Lalitav. p. 142.
* Cf. the Pali Maddanto, and the Lalitav. sharfdanta.
5 everywhere, are especially bright on Mount Kai- l&sa.
22. Miyi also, holding him in her womb, like a line of clouds holding a lightning-flash, relieved the people around her from the sufferings of poverty by raining showers of gifts.
23. Then one day by the king’s permission the queen, having a great longing in her mind, went with the inmates of the gynaeceum into the garden Lumbini.
24. As the queen supported herself by a bough which hung laden with a weight of flowers, the Bodhisattva suddenly came forth, cleaving open her womb.
25. 1 At that time the constellation Pushya was auspicious, and from the side of the queen, who was purified by her vow, her son was born for the welfare of the world, without pain and without illness.
26. Like the sun bursting from a cloud in the morning, — so he too, when he was born from his mother’s womb, made the world bright like gold, bursting forth with his rays which dispelled the darkness.
27. As soon as he was born the thousand-eyed (Indra) well-pleased took him gently, bright like a golden pillar; and two pure streams of water fell down from heaven upon his head with piles of Man dira flowers.
28. Carried about by the chief suras, and delighting them with the rays that streamed from his body, he 1 From this point the Tibetan and Chinese versions agree more or less closely with the Sanskrit text.
6 THE BUDDHA-KARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
surpassed in beauty the new moon as it rests on a mass of evening clouds.
29. As was Aurva’s birth from the thigh x, and Przthu’s from the hand1 2, and Mandhatrz’s, who was like Indra himself, from the forehead 3, and Kakshi- vat’s from the upper end of the arm 4 5, — thus too was his birth (miraculous).
30. Having thus in due time issued from the womb, he shone as if he had come down from heaven, he who had not been born in the natural way, — he who was born full of wisdom, not foolish,— as if his mind had been purified by countless aeons of contemplation.
31. With glory, fortitude, and beauty he shone like the young sun descended upon the earth; when he was gazed at, though of such surpassing bright¬ ness, he attracted all eyes like the moon.
32. With the radiant splendour of his limbs he extinguished like the sun the splendour of the lamps; with his beautiful hue as of precious gold he illu¬ minated all the quarters of space.
33. Unflurried, with the lotus-sign in high relief6, far-striding, set down with a stamp, — seven such firm footsteps did he then take, — he who was like the constellation of the seven rz’shis.
34. ‘ I am born for supreme knowledge, for the welfare of the wrorld, — thus this is my last birth,’ — 3 According to the Mahabh. Ill, 1. 10450, he was bom from his father’s left side, but cf. Vishwu Pur. IV, 2.
4 The MSS. vary between hhug&msa. and bhu^awsa; we might conjecture bhu^agradejit, but bhu^awjadej'at is the only reading in V, 56. Beal I, 10 has ‘ the armpit.’
7 thus did he of lion gait, gazing at the four quarters, utter a voice full of auspicious meaning.
35. Two streams of water bursting from heaven, bright as the moon’s rays, having the power of heat and cold, fell down upon that peerless one’s benign head to give refreshment to his body.
36. His body lay on a bed with a royal canopy and a frame shining with gold, and supported by feet of lapis lazuli, and in his honour the yaksha- lords stood round guarding him with golden lotuses in their hands.
37. The gods in homage to the son of M£iy&, with their heads bowed at his majesty, held up a white umbrella in the sky and muttered the highest blessings on his supreme wisdom.
38. The great dragons 1 in their great thirst for the Law 2, — they who had had the privilege of waiting on the past Buddhas, — gazing with eyes of intent devotion, fanned 3 him and strewed Mandara flowers over him.
39. Gladdened through the influence of the birth of the Tathagata, the gods of pure natures and inhabiting pure abodes 4 were filled with joy, though all passion was extinguished, for the sake of the world 6 drowned in sorrow.
40. When he was born, the earth, though fastened down by (Himalaya) the monarch of mountains, shook like a ship tossed by the wind; and from a cloudless sky there fell a shower full of lotuses and water-lilies, and perfumed with sandal¬ wood.
1 Mahoraga h.
3 Avya^-an.
' Reading hitaya.
2 Cf. infra, rloka 54.
4.SuddhadhivasEU.
8 THE BU DDH A-iTARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
41. Pleasant breezes blew soft to the touch, dropping down heavenly garments; the very sun, though still the same, shone with augmented light, and fire gleamed, unstirred, with a gentle lustre.
42. In the north-eastern part of the dwelling a well of pure water appeared of its own accord, wherein the inhabitants of the gynaeceum, filled with wonder, performed their rites as in a sacred bathing-place.
43. Through the troops of heavenly visitants, who came seeking religious merit, the pool itself received strength to behold Buddha, and by means of its trees bearing flowers and perfumes it eagerly offered him worship.
44. The flowering trees at once produced their blossoms, while their fragrance was borne aloft in all directions by the wind, accompanied by the songs of bewildered female bees, while the air was inhaled and absorbed by the many snakes (gathering near) k 45. Sometimes there resounded1 2 3 on both sides songs mingled with musical instruments and tabours, and lutes also, drums, tambourines, and the rest, — from women adorned with dancing bracelets.
46. 1 3 That royal law which neither Bhrzgu nor Angiras ever made, those two great seers the founders of families, their two sons.5ukra and VWhaspati left revealed at the end.
1 Serpents are called vayubhaksha. See Ind. Spriiche, III, 4738, and Raghuvama XIII, 12. Cf. also infra, VII, 15.
2 Vir%itam, ‘it was manifested by.’ Can tat mean ‘then’ or 3 We learn from jloka 52 that this is a speech uttered by the Brahmans of the court.
9 47. ‘Yea, the son of Sarasvati1 proclaimed that lost Veda which they had never seen in former ages, — Vyisa rehearsed that in many forms, which Vadsh/^a helpless could not compile; 48. ‘The voice ofVdlmiki uttered its poetry which the great seer /dyavana could not compose; and that medicine which Atri never invented the wise son of Atri 2 proclaimed after him; 49. ‘ That Brahmanhood which Kudka never attained, — his son, O king, found out the means to gain it; (so) Sagara made a bound for the ocean, which even the Ikshvdkus had not fixed before him.
50. ‘ Ganaka attained a power of instructing the twice-born in the rules of Yoga which none other had ever reached3; and the famed feats of the grandson of Yfira 4 (Krzshzza) Yura and his peers were powerless to accomplish.
51. ‘Therefore it is not age nor years which are the criterion; different persons win pre-eminence in the world at different places; those mighty exploits worthy of kings and sages, when left undone by the ancestors, have been done by the sons.’
52. The king, being thus consoled and congratu¬ lated by those well-trusted Brahmans, dismissed from his mind all unwelcome suspicion and rose to a still higher degree of joy; 53. And well-pleased he gave to those most excellent of the twice-born rich treasures with all 1 The Vishwu Pur. (Ill, 3) says that Sarasvata arranged the Vedas in the ninth age, as Varish/^a in the eighth.
2 Atreya is the proclaimer of the Aaraka-sawzhita.
4 Read AaureA for Aaurai^.
I o THE BUDDHA- ITARIT A OF ASVAGHOSHA.
due honour, — ‘ May he become the ruler of the earth according to your words, and may he retire to the woods when he attains old age.’
54. Then having learned by signs and through the power of his penances this birth of him who was to destroy all birth, the great seer Asita in his thirst for the excellent Law 1 came to the palace of the .Sikya king.
55. Him shining with the glory of sacred know¬ ledge and ascetic observances, the king’s own priest, — himself a special student among the students of sacred knowledge, — introduced into the royal palace with all due reverence and respect.
56. He entered into the precincts of the king’s gynaeceum, which was all astir with the joy arisen from the birth of the young prince, — grave from his consciousness of power, his pre-eminence in asceticism, and the weight of old age.
57. Then the king, having duly honoured the sage, who was seated in his seat, with water for the feet and an arghya offering, invited him (to speak) with all ceremonies of respect, as did Antideva 2 in olden time to VasishA&a: 58. ‘I am indeed fortunate, this my family is the object of high favour, that thou shouldst have come to visit me; be pleased to command what I should do, O benign one; lam thy disciple, be pleased to show thy confidence in me.’
59. The sage, being thus invited by the king, filled with intense feeling as was due, uttered his 2 See IX, 20, 60. C reads Atideva, i.e. Indra? [The Tibetan reads Antadeva, ‘ in the end dwelling god ’ or ‘ end having god.’
deep and solemn words, having his large eyes opened wide with wonder: 60. ‘ This is indeed worthy of thee, great-souled as thou art, fond of guests, liberal and a lover of duty, — that thy mind should be thus kind towards me, in full accordance with thy nature, family, wisdom, and age.
61. ‘This is the true way in which those seer- kings of old, rejecting through duty all trivial riches1 2, have ever flung them away as was right, — being poor in outward substance but rich in ascetic endurance.
62. ‘ But hear now the motive for my coming and rejoice thereat; a heavenly voice has been heard by me in the heavenly path, that thy son has been born for the sake of supreme knowledge.
63. ‘ Having heard that voice and applied my mind thereto, and having known its truth by signs, I am now come hither, with a longing to see the banner of the *Sakya race, as if it were Indra’s banner being set up V 64. Having heard this address of his, the king, with his steps bewildered with joy, took the prince, who lay on his nurse’s side, and showed him to the holy ascetic.
65. Thus the great seer beheld the king’s son with wonder, — his foot marked with a wheel, his fingers and toes webbed, with a circle of hair be¬ tween his eyebrows, and signs of vigour like an elephant.
66. Having beheld him seated on his nurse’s side, 1 Or ‘all riches which were trifling in comparison with duty.’
2 In allusion to a festival in parts of India; cf. Schol. Raghu- va/wa IV, 3. (Cf. Mrs. Guthrie’s Year in an Indian Fort, vol. ii.)
12 THE BUDDHA-ifARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
like the son of Agni (Skanda) seated on Devi’s side, he stood with the tears hanging on the ends of his eyelashes1, and sighing he looked up towards heaven.
67. But seeing Asita with his eyes thus filled with tears, the king was agitated through his love for his son, and with his hands clasped and his body bowed he thus asked him in a broken voice choked with weeping, 68. ‘One whose beauty has little to distinguish it from that of a divine sage2, and whose brilliant birth has been so wonderful, and for whom thou hast prophesied a transcendent future, — wherefore, on seeing him, do tears come to thee, O reverend one?
69. ‘ Is the prince, O holy man, destined to a long life? Surely he cannot be born for my sorrow 3. I have with difficulty obtained a handful of water, surely it is not death which comes to drink it.
70. ‘Tell me, is the hoard of my fame free from destruction? Is this chief prize of my family secure? Shall I ever depart happily to another life, — I who keep one eye ever awake, even when my son is asleep 4?
71. ‘ Surely this young shoot of my family is not born barren, destined only to wither! Speak quickly, my lord, I cannot wait; thou well knowest the love of near kindred for a son.’
72. Knowing the king to be thus agitated through his fear of some impending evil, the sage thus ad- 2 Or, reading mune, ‘one whose age is so small, O sage.’
3 KaMinna jokaya mama prasfitaA. 4 Obscure.
13 dressed him: ‘Let not thy mind, O monarch, be disturbed, — all that I have said is certainly true1.
73. ‘I have no feeling of fear as to his being subject to change, but I am distressed for mine own disappointment. It is my time to depart, and this child is now born, — he who knows that mystery hard to attain, the means of destroying birth.
74. ‘Having forsaken his kingdom, indifferent to all worldly objects, and having attained the highest truth by strenuous efforts, he will shine forth as a sun of knowledge to destroy the darkness of illusion in the world.
75. ‘ He will deliver by the boat of knowledge the distressed world, borne helplessly along, from the ocean of misery which throws up sickness as its foam, tossing with the waves of old age, and rushing with the dreadful onflow of death.
76. ‘ The thirsty world of living beings will drink the flowing stream of his Law, bursting forth with the water of wisdom, enclosed by the banks of strong moral rules, delightfully cool with contemplation, and filled with religious vows as with ruddy geese.
77. ‘ He will proclaim the way of deliverance to those afflicted with sorrow, entangled in objects of sense, and lost in the forest-paths of worldly exist¬ ence, as to travellers who have lost their way.
78. ‘ By the rain of the Law he will give gladness to the multitude who are consumed in this world with that fire of desire whose fuel is worldly objects, as a great cloud does with its showers at the end of the hot season.
1 I take asmi as meaning aham (aham ityarth&vyayam), or should we read asti?
14 THE BUDDHA-KARITA OF ASVAGHOSIIA.
79. ‘He will break open for the escape of living beings that door whose bolt is desire and whose two leaves are ignorance and delusion, — with that ex¬ cellent blow of the good Law which is so hard to find.
80. ‘ He, the king of the Law, when he has attained to supreme knowledge, will achieve the deliver¬ ance from its bonds of the world now overcome by misery, destitute of every refuge, and enveloped in its own chains of delusion.
81. ‘Therefore make no sorrow for him, — that belongs rather, kind sire, to the pitiable world of human beings, who through illusion or the plea¬ sures of desire or intoxication refuse to hear his perfect Law.
82. ‘Therefore since I have fallen short of that excellence, though I have accomplished all the stages of contemplation, my life is only a failure; since I have not heard his Law, I count even dwell¬ ing in the highest heaven a misfortune.’
83. Having heard these words, the king with his queen and his friends abandoned sorrow and re¬ joiced; thinking, ‘such is this son of mine,’ he con¬ sidered that his excellence was his own.
84. But he let his heart be influenced by the thought, ‘ he will travel by the noble path,’ — he was not in truth averse to religion, yet still he saw alarm at the prospect of losing his child.
85. Then the sage Asita, having made known the real fate which awaited the prince to the king who was thus disturbed about his son, departed by the way of the wind as he had come, his figure watched reverentially in his flight.
86. Having taken his resolution and having seen 15 the son of his younger sister1, the saint, filled with compassion, enjoined him earnestly in all kinds of ways, as if he were his son, to listen to the sage’s words and ponder over them.
87. The monarch also, being well-pleased at the birth of a son, having thrown off all those bonds called worldly objects, caused his son to go through the usual birth-ceremonies in a manner worthy of the family.
88. When ten days were fulfilled after his son’s birth, with his thoughts kept under restraint, and filled with excessive joy, he offered for his son most elaborate sacrifices to the gods with muttered prayers, oblations, and all kinds of auspicious ceremonies.
89. And he himself gave to the brahmans for his son’s welfare cows full of milk, with no traces of infirmity, golden-horned and with strong healthy calves, to the full number of a hundred thousand.
90. Then he, with his soul under strict restraint, having performed all kinds of ceremonies which re¬ joiced his heart, on a fortunate day, in an auspicious moment, gladly determined to enter his city.
91. Then the queen with her babe having wor¬ shipped the gods for good fortune, occupied a costly palanquin made of elephants’ tusks, filled with all kinds of white flowers, and blazing with gems.
92. Having made his wife with her child 2 enter first into the city, accompanied by the aged attend¬ ants, the king himself also advanced, saluted by the 1 This was Naradatta, see Lalitavistara, ch. vii. pp. 103, no (Foucaux).
2 Apatyanatham might also mean ‘having her child as her protector.’
1 6 THE BUDDHA-iTARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
hosts of the citizens, as Indra entering heaven, saluted by the immortals.
93. The.Sikya king, having entered his palace, like Bhava 1 well-pleased at the birth of Karttikeya 2, with his face full of joy, gave orders for lavish expenditure, showing all kinds of honour and liberality 3.
94. Thus at the good fortune of the birth of the king’s son, that city surnamed after Kapila, with all the surrounding inhabitants, was full of gladness like the city of the lord of wealth4, crowded with heavenly nymphs, at the birth of his son Nalakuvara.
3 Bahuvidhapush/iyafaskaram seems used as an adverb to vyadhatta, ‘he made expenditure.’
1 Kuvera.
BOOK IT.
1. From the time of the birth of that son of his, who, the true master of himself, was to end all birth and old age, the king increased day by day in wealth, elephants, horses, and friends as a river increases with its influx of waters.
2. Of different kinds of wealth and jewels, and of gold, wrought or unwrought, he found1 treasures of manifold variety 2, surpassing even the capacity of his desires.
3. Elephants from Himavat, raging with rut, whom not even princes of elephants like Padma3 4 could teach to go round in circles, came without any effort and waited on him.
4. His city was all astir with the crowds of horses, some adorned with various marks and decked with new golden trappings, others una¬ dorned and with long flowing manes, — suitable alike in strength, gentleness, and costly ornaments *.
5. And many fertile cows, with tall calves, ga¬ thered in his kingdom, well nourished and happy, 1 I suppose avapi to be used as a middle aorist like abodhi (cf. ■S’ijup. I, 3). Should we read avapa?
2 I take naikatman as ‘of manifold nature.’
8 Mabapadma is the name of the elephant which supports the world in the south.
4 I read dptai h.
1 8 THE BUDDHA-iTARITA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
gentle and without fierceness, and producing excel¬ lent milk.
6. His enemies became indifferent; indifference grew into friendship; his friends became specially united; were there two sides, — one passed into oblivion.
7. Heaven rained in his kingdom in due time and place, with the sound of gentle winds and clouds, and adorned with wreaths of lightning, and without any drawback of showers of stones or thunderbolts.
8. A fruitful crop sprang up according to season, even without the labour of ploughing 1; and the old plants grew more vigorous in juice and sub¬ stance.
9. Even at that crisis which threatens danger to the body like the collision of battle, pregnant women brought forth in good health, in safety, and without sickness.
10. And whereas men do not willingly ask from others, even where a surety’s property is available 2, — at that time even one possessed of slender means turned not his face away when solicited.
11. There was no ruin nor murder3, — nay, there was not even one ungenerous to his kinsmen, no breaker of obligations, none untruthful nor in¬ jurious, — as in the days of Yayati the son of Nahusha.
1 2. Those who sought religious merit performed sacred works and made gardens, temples, and * I read pratibhvo, though it should be pratibhuvo.
8 Could nasaubadho (C) mean ‘there was no murderer of any one?’
19 hermitages, wells, cisterns, lakes, and groves, hav¬ ing beheld heaven as it were visible before their eyes.
13. The people, delivered from famine, fear, and sickness, dwelt happily as in heaven; and in mutual contentment husband transgressed not against wife, nor wife against husband.
14. None pursued love for mere sensual pleasure; none hoarded wealth for the sake of desires; none practised religious duties for the sake of gaining wealth; none injured living beings for the sake of religious duty.
15. On every side theft and its kindred vices disappeared; his own dominion was in peace and at rest from foreign interference1; prosperity and plenty belonged to him, and the cities in his realm were (healthy) like the forests 2.
16. When that son was born it was in that monarch’s kingdom as in the reign of Manu the son of the Sun, — gladness went everywhere and evil perished; right blazed abroad and sin was still.
1 7. Since at the birth of this son of the king such a universal accomplishment of all objects took place, the king in consequence caused the prince’s name to be Sarvarthasiddha 8.
18. But the queen Miyi, having seen the great glory of her new-born son, like some i?fshi of the 1 The Tibetan seems to have read para Jokamuktam for para^akramuktam.
8 Cf. VIII, 13. If we read arawyasya we must translate these lines, ‘the cities in his kingdom seemed part of the forest champaign.’ This line appears to be untranslated in the Tibetan.
8 He by whom all objects are accomplished.
20 THE BUDDHA-iTARlTA OF ASVAGHOSHA.
gods, could not sustain the joy which it brought; and that she might not die she went to heaven.
19. Then the queen’s sister, with an influence like a mother’s, undistinguished from the real mother in her affection or tenderness, brought up as her own son the young prince who was like the offspring of the gods.
20. Then like the young sun on the eastern moun¬ tain or the fire when fanned by the wind, the prince gradually grew in all due perfection, like the moon in the fortnight of brightness.
21. Then they brought him as presents from the houses of his friends costly unguents of sandal¬ wood, and strings of gems exactly like wreaths of plants, and little golden carriages yoked with deer; 22. Ornaments also suitable to his age, and ele¬ phants, deer, and horses made of gold \ carriages and oxen decked with rich garments, and carts1 2 gay with silver and gold.
23. Thus indulged with all sorts of such objects to please the senses as were suitable to his years, — child as he was, he behaved not like a child in gravity, purity, wisdom, and dignity.
24. When he had passed the period of childhood and reached that of middle youth, the young prince learned in a few days the various sciences suitable to his race, which generally took many years to master.
25. But having heard before from the great seer Asita his destined future which was to embrace 1 Cf. Satyavat’s toy horses in Mahabh. Ill, 16670.
2 Gazratri has this meaning in the Amarakosha and Hema- Xandra.
BOOK II, I9-3I.
21 transcendental happiness, the anxious care 1 of the king of the present.Sakya race turned the prince to sensual pleasures.
26. Then he sought for him from a family of un¬ blemished moral excellence a bride possessed of beauty, modesty, and gentle bearing, of wide-spread glory, Y a.vodhara by name, having a name well worthy of her, a very goddess of good fortune.
27. Then after that the prince, beloved of the king his father, he who was like Sanatkum&ra, re¬ joiced in the society of that Yakya princess as the thousand-eyed (Indra) rejoiced with his bride Yail.
28. ‘ He might perchance see some inauspicious sight which could disturb his mind,’ — thus reflecting the king had a dwelling prepared for him apart from the busy press in the recesses of the palace.
29. Then he spent his time in those royal apart¬ ments, furnished with the delights proper for every season, gaily decorated like heavenly chariots upon the earth, and bright like the clouds of autumn, amidst the splendid musical concerts of singing- women.