Chapter XLVI - The story of Arindama

The monks said to the Exalted One, “Behold,^[1] Lord, how a rich reward^[2] was given by King Śreṇiya Bimbisāra to his household-priest when he came to hear of the Exalted One.” The Exalted One replied, “Monks, that was not the first time he did so.” The monks asked, “Was there another occasion, Lord?” The Exalted One replied, “Yes, monks.”

Once upon a time, monks, long ago, in the city of Mithilā,^[3] the capital of the country of Videha, a king named Arindama was ruling. He was righteous, a king of righteousness, had loyal subjects, and was charitable and generous. He had a great army and many beasts of burden. He had sixty thousand elephants and sixty thousand horses all fully caparisoned; he had sixty thousand chariots with coverings made of the skins of tigers and lions, and carrying banners and bells,^[4] (450) with stout armour, and flags and pennons fluttering aloft. He had sixty thousand milch cows sucking calves; sixty thousand girls and sixty thousand palanquins of gold, silver and ivory.

Again, monks, King Arindama had sixty thousand vessels^[5] of gold and sixty thousand of silver. Again, monks, King Arindama had sixty thousand treasures inherited from his great grandfather, and sixty thousand cities which were flourishing, rich and peaceful.

Now King Arindama’s household priest had a son named Śroṇa who was proficient in the three Vedas, in phonology, in the fifth branch of study, that is, traditional lore, in the indexes and ritual,^[6] and expert in the verbal exposition of the Brāhmaṇas and Vedas. He lived following the path of the ten moralities. Seeing the peril of sensual pleasures he went to the Himalayas and embraced the religious life of a seer. There, pursuing the brāhmanic way of life^[7] with endeavour, effort and exertion, he achieved the four meditations, attained the five super-knowledges, and became a seer of great magic and power.

But, monks, after a long time had gone by, Śroṇa the seer thought, “King Arindama and I were boys and playmates together. Now he has been ruling his kingdom for eighty-four thousand years,^[8] and it is time for him to go forth to the religious life. Let me then urge him to do so.” Then, monks, Śroṇaka the seer, in the time it takes a strong man to stretch out his folded arms and fold his outstretched arms, in a moment’s time rose up in the air at his hermitage in the Himalayas and alighted in the Mango Grove of Mahādeva.^[9] And, monks, the brāhman household priest and royal tutor of King Arindama saw Śroṇaka the seer seated at the foot of a mango tree in the Mango Grove of Mahādeva. He approached him, and having welcomed and greeted him he bade him farewell, and then proceeded (451) to Mithilā to inform King Arindama. At that very time, monks, there had come to King Arindama a loathing^[10] for pleasures of sense. After profound thought there came to him a desire to see Śroṇaka the seer.

And, monks, on that occasion King Arindama recited these verses:^[11]

I’ll give a fair village and gaily dressed women to him who gives me news^[12] of Śroṇaka, my friend and playmate.^[13]

The king had a brāhman teacher of good family, who, seeing him so unhappy and dejected, said to him,^[14]

Give the fair village and the gaily dressed women to me, for I will give you news of Śroṇaka, your friend and playmate.

In your own dominion, in the ground of your own park, where the mangos flower and bear fruit, there sits the seer.

Then the king hurriedly spoke to a counsellor:

Quickly harness for me all my caparisoned elephants. Let the drums and tabours sound, and one trumpet among them.

I fain would see my comrade Śroṇaka, and reverently wait upon him. And he set forth for the forest with its varied fruit-bearing trees.

. . .^[15]

And there he saw the seer, his former friend and playmate, and on seeing Śroṇaka there he thus spoke to him.

(452) How is it, monk, that, wretched, shaven, clad in a robe, and poor, without mother and father,^[16] you stand in meditation at the foot of a tree?

But, monks, Śroṇaka the seer replied to King Arindama in a verse:

O king, he is not wretched who realises the dharma in his own person.^[17] But whoso does violence to^[18] the dharma, the man who delights not in this dharma, it is he, O king, that is wretched, his destiny utter darkness.^[19]

Then, monks, King Arindama, spoke to Śroṇaka the seer in a verse:

How, friend Śroṇaka, can you be at ease as you lie at the edge of the forest? How, living alone in the wood, can you be happy?

How can it be that your body suffers no torment? I’ll bestow on you my protection and take you to the city.

But, monks, Śroṇaka the seer replied to King Arindama in a verse:

O king what is a kingdom to a man who fares all alone? This is the first blessing of the poor, homeless monk.^[20]

I go from village to village, traverse kingdoms and towns, heedless of all, with none to thwart me. This is the second blessing of the poor, homeless monk.

Though there be robbers on the way he goes, with his bowl and his robe he ever moves secure. This is the third blessing of the poor, homeless monk.

(453) Though Mithilā be on fire, there is nothing of his that is burning. This is the fourth blessing of the poor, homeless monk.

These monks do not hoard,^[21] in granary, pot or basket.^[22] But they stand around and beg,^[23] and live dutifully on what they get. This is the fifth blessing of the poor, homeless monk.

Wanderers are maintained by various families and by various country districts; with one and all they have friendly relations. Behold the rule of dharma.^[24]

Then, monks, King Arindama spoke to Śroṇaka the seer in a verse:

Lasting, O Śroṇaka, is this blessing of theirs that you praise. But as for me, I am greedy for sensual pleasures. What am I to do, O Śroṇaka?

And, monks, Śroṇaka the seer replied to King Arindama in verse:

Your majesty, I shall tell you a similitude.^[25] Pray do you listen. There are many wise men in the world who learn the truth through a similitude.

Once upon a time, your majesty, an elephant, sixty years old, fell down from the mountain fastnesses and was being carried away by the flood of the Ganges.

Then a silly, stupid crow thought, “What a fine boat is this that I have found. This will be a nice little passage.”^[26]

And so night and day to his heart’s content^[27] eating the elephant’s flesh and drinking the water of the Ganges, the bird floated on fast beautiful sights.^[28]

(454) Bhagīratha’s^[29] Ganges carried him on as he thus stood heedless on the carcase and bore him out to the deep sea, where there is no way for birds.

The monstrous fish Timitimiṅgila^[30] caught and devoured the silly bird, fust so, O king, do those who are bent on pleasures fall to ruin.^[31]

This, O king, do I say unto you—be not heedless of the dharma lest you fall^[32] headlong to a terrible hell,

To Saṃjīva, Kālasūtra, Saṃghāta, and the two Rauravas, Mahā-Avīci, Tapana and Sampratapana.^[33]

So are those eight great hells called. Hard to get through are they, being full of frightful creatures.^[34] Each has a subsidiary hell.

Four-cornered^[35] are they, with four gates. They are divided up and well-laid out in squares, a hundred yojanas high and a hundred square.

These hells are surrounded with walls of iron,^[36] with a vault of iron above. Their floor is of hot and glowing iron.

Greedily burning^[37] are they, terrible, flaming, hard to endure, hair-raising, fearful, terrifying, and evil.

They are awe-inspiring, being filled with hundreds of flames. Each sheds its glow abroad for a hundred yojanas.

Here the many fearsome creatures, the great sinners, burn a long time, even for hundreds of years.

With huge scourges of iron the warders of hell mercilessly beat those who have sinned.

(455) All this I shall tell you of duly in verse. Give ear and attentively listen to me as I speak.

In the hell Saṃjīva creatures hang with their feet up and heads down, the while they are trimmed with axes and knives.

Carried away by anger and frenzy, they assail one another with their own sharp talons of iron.

Sharp knives also grow in their hands, wherewith these utterly demented creatures rend one another.

A cool wind blows on their mangled limbs, and every limb grows whole again, that their former deeds may be requited.^[38]

Thus did Śroṇaka out of his perfect knowledge describe Saṃjīva, the bourne of evil-doers, to the king.^[39]

Released from Saṃjīva they plunge into Kukkula. There they foregather with one another^[40] for a long stretch of time.

There in Kukkula^[41] they run about as they burn for many a yojana and endure bitter sufferings.

Released from Kukkula they plunge into Kuṇapa, which is a long, vast and wide expanse, the height of a hundred men.

And there asses, swarthy brutes^[42] with sharp swords in their mouths, rend their skin and devour and feed on their flesh and blood.

When they have passed out of Kuṇapa they catch sight of pleasant trees, and in quest of relief they make for the shelter of their verdant foliage.

(456) But there hawks, vultures, ravens and owls with beaks of iron, seeing them from the tree-tops,^[43] devour them still steeped in blood.

And when they have been devoured and nothing but their bones is left, then their skin and flesh and blood begin to grow once more.

In their terror they run away^[44] all stricken to the terrible forest where the leaves are swords, thinking there was shelter where there was none.

When they have escaped from the sword-leafed forest, wounded, racked and steeped in blood, they go to the river Vaitaraṇī.

Then they dive into that river with its caustic water, which pierces their mangled^[45] limbs.

Yama’s myrmidons then gaff^[46] them with hooks of iron, fling them on the river-bank, and give them pellets of iron to eat.

They give them molten red copper to drink, and this passes through their inwards down to their lowest parts.

Evil-doers who follow the path of sensual pleasures and do not perform the right deed, go down to hell.

But the men^[47] who eschew wicked deeds, whose conduct is entirely virtuous, do not pass to the bourne of ill.

Therefore with regard^[48] to the two kinds of karma, the good and the bad, one should avoid the bad and ensue the good and fair.

Or in other words^[49] one should cultivate the noble and fair Eight-fold Path, and by abandoning all that is ill come to know the dharma that brings no rebirth.^[50]

(457) Such, your majesty, are the sufferings borne in the hells by those who are evil-doers, the heedless and the foolish.

This, O king, do I say unto you—be not heedless of the dharma lest you fall headlong into a terrible hell.

When he heard the eloquent words of Śroṇaka, the king was greatly moved and a strange and shuddering tremor took him.

Hurriedly then he spoke to his counsellor and said, “Quickly bring here the young prince Dīrghāyu.

“For I have a young son, Prince Dīrghāyu. Him will I establish on the throne and he will be your king.”

Then the king’s messengers and the counsellors out of pity quickly fetched Prince Dīrghāyu.

Then, monks, King Arindama addressed Prince Dīrghāyu in verse:

I tell you, sir, the religious life appeals to^[51]  me, lest like the witless crow I become a slave of my desires.^[52]

Here I have sixty thousand cities and a rich and peaceful realm. To these succeed, my son; I hand over my kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religious life, lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead? For there has to be a meeting with Death and his mighty host.

Here I have sixty thousand elephants all gaily caparisoned,

(458) tusked and powerful, wearing harness of gold, with riders^[53] armed with spears, lances, clubs, axes and lassoes.^[54]

To these succeed, my son; I hand over the kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religious life, lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead? For there has to be a meeting with Death and his mighty host.

Here I have sixty thousand steeds of Sindh, fleet of foot, gaily bedecked, all ridden by heroes. . .^[55] lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires.

Here I have sixty thousand cows each with a suckling calf. To these succeed, my son; I hand over the kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religious life, lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead?

Here I have sixty thousand maidens with jewels, gems and earrings bedecked. To these succeed, my son; I hand the kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religious life, lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead?

Here I have sixty thousand palanquins made of gold and silver. To these succeed, my son; I hand over the kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religions life, (459) lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead? For there has to be a meeting with Death and his mighty host.

Here I have sixty thousand vessels^[56] made of gold and silver. To these succeed, my son; I hand over the kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religious life, lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead? For there has to be a meeting with Death and his mighty host.

Here I have sixty thousand treasures, a plentiful store of gold. To these succeed, my son; I hand over the kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religious life, lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead? For there has to be a meeting with Death and his mighty host.

Here I have sixty thousand treasures, a plentiful store of the seven precious stones. To these succeed, my son; I hand over the kingdom to you.

This very day I will go forth to the religious life, lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires. Who knows but that to-morrow I shall be dead? For there has to be a meeting with Death and his mighty host.

Then, monks, Prince Dīrghāyu replied to the king in verse:

Already I have heard them say that my mother was dead. I cannot live without you too, sire.

As through the forest its young one^[57] follows after the elephant, so will I follow you and carry your bowl.

(460) Then, monks, King Arindama addressed the assembly of counsellors in verse:

As a sea monster might wreck the ship of gainseeking merchants on the sea and the merchants be lost, so I fear me lest this son of mine prove a stumbling-block to me.^[58] Then quickly take away this young Prince Dīrghāyu.^[59]

Quickly lead him within the women’s apartment in my palace, where all joy abounds. These deva-like maidens will delight him.

Then the magnificent chief counsellors took the prince and with great royal pomp led him within the city of Mithilā.

But then a royal maiden gaily bedecked with garlands and jewels stood up and spoke to the king;

Tell us this, are you a Gandharva, or are you Śakra, the razer of cities?^[60] By your majesty’s consent,^[61] I ask you:

How can you leave us, your rich and peaceful realm, Prince Dīrghāyu, your counsellors, and all your stores and wealth?^[62]

The king replied to the royal maiden:

No deva, or Nāga, or Gandharva, or Śakra the razer of cities, am I. I am a human being who became terrified of sensual pleasures on hearing the counsel of a seer. And lest like the witless crow I become the slave of my desires, (461) this very day will I do what I wish.^[63] Who knows but that tomorrow I shall be dead? For there has to be a meeting with Death and his mighty host.

When he had so spoken the king was initiated into the religious life in the presence of Śroṇaka the seer.

The Exalted One said, “Do you think, monks, that at that time and on that occasion the seer named Śroṇaka was somebody else? Verily you must not think so. And why? Because I at that time and on that occasion was the seer named Śroṇaka. Nor must King Arindama be thought to be somebody else, for he was King Śreṇiya Bimbisāra here. Then, too, did he bestow a rich reward on him who told him of Śroṇaka the seer. And now likewise has he bestowed a rich reward on the priest’s son for speaking the praises of the Buddha.”

Here ends the Jātaka of King Arindama.

Thus did the Exalted One speak, and the devas, Asuras, Garuḍas, Kinnaras, Mahoragas, the whole concourse, and the monks, were elated, and applauded the words of the Exalted One.

Here ends the Mahāvastu Avadāna in the version of the Lokottaravādins of the noble Mahāsāṅghikas.

Note: The text actually ends with a distich, a sort of envoi summing up the doctrine of the Mahāvastu as follows—“The Tathāgata spoke of the cause of those things which proceed from a cause, and the Great Recluse also told of their cessation.” Finally, Senart prints the colophon of the Bibliothèque Nationale manuscript (Fonds Burnouf), the foundation of his text, with variations from the Minayeff manuscript. The colophon is dated the year 920 of the Nepal era (a.d. 1800).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Reading paśya for kisya of the text.

[2]:

Ācchāya, Prakrit for ācchāda. For the latter see p. 36, n. 2.

[3]:

See vol. I, p. 7, n. 3.

[4]:

Nandighoṣa, hitherto in this translation rendered “merrily rattling”; but now as above, following Edgerton (B.H.S.D.) who defines the word as “some sort of bell or other sound-producing instrument, normally referred to as attached to chariots.” He cites AMg. ṇandighosā, “the bell of a certain deity,” and ṇandighosa, “a sound produced by playing upon twelve kinds of instruments at once” (Both according to Ratnach).

[5]:

Pāri. Senart had already given this word the meaning of “vase” on the basis of pāripāna in Divy. 221. Now Edgerton (B.H.S.D.) cites pārī from AMg. meaning “a vessel”.

[6]:

For these terms see vol. 1, p. 188, n. 1-3.

[7]:

Bāhirakeṇa mārgeṇa. See vol. 1, p. 236, n. 2.

[8]:

I.e., he was a cakravartin. Cf. M. 2. 76 where 84,000 years seem a stock term of years for playing at boy’s sports, being a viceroy, king, etc.

[9]:

Or “in the mango grove of a Mahādeva.” It is listed as a proper name in Senart’s index, but is not recorded in B.H.S.D., nor mentioned in Pali texts. On the whole it is simpler to take it as a proper name of a place. But Miss I. B. Horner, in a letter, makes the brilliant suggestion that the right reading here should be Makhādeva. She writes: “According to the Makhādeva Sutta (M. 2. 74) Makhādeva’s Mango Grove was near Mithilā and according to MA. 3. 309 the grove was originally planted by Makhādeva, and although other kings replaced trees that died, the grove was known by its early name.”

[10]:

Vyākutsanā. See p. 441, n. 4.

[11]:

Actually the king speaks only the first verse.

[12]:

Ākhyāsi, aorist with future sense(?), so Edgerton, Gram., p. 210, but Senart would rather regard it as a truncated form of a future ākhyāsye, with optative ending.

[13]:

The second line is identical with the corresponding line in J. 5. 250, but the first line, stating the reward, is totally different.

[14]:

In J. the news is given by a young lad from the harem.

[15]:

This verse has too long a lacuna to admit of translation. It does not seem to correspond to any verse at J. 5.251.

[16]:

Reading, as Senart suggests, amātāpitṛka for samātā. The corresponding verse in J. 5. 251 has amātiko apītiko.

[17]:

Reading dharmaṃ kāyena saṃspṛśanto for dharmakāyasya śriyāpi ca of Senart’s text, which the MSS. do not seem to support at all. The emendation proposed brings the line into complete accord with the corresponding Pali (J. 5. 251)—dhammaṃ kāyena phassayam, which J. trans. (5, p. 130) renders, “who in his every action has aye attained to truth.” But to translate kāyena by ‘action’ is incorrect. Kāya is here both nāmakāya and rūpakāya (see e.g. SnA. 2. 594), the “whole person”. The verse occurs also at Divy. 560 “na rājan kṛpaṇo loke dharmakāyena saṃspṛśet.

[18]:

Samupakramya, corresponding in sense to niraṃkatvā of J.

[19]:

It is difficult to conceive what apposite sense can be drawn from Senart’s text here. He reads jyotiṣṭomaparāyaṇo, “his end is the jyotiṣṭoma” (= a particular name for a Soma sacrifice. See M.W.). The MSS., however, clearly have tama not stoma. Jyotiṣṭama might possibly be interpreted to mean the “darkness (or darkening) of light,” but, it has been thought better to restore here the reading of Divy. 560, tamastamaḥparāyaṇo “his end is darkness of darkness.”

[20]:

There is considerable difference in the respective descriptions of these blessings in J. and Mhvu. The former enumerates eight blessings.

[21]:

Or “deposit”, osaranti. The context requires that this verb be given a causal sense, or even actually changed into the causal osārenti. Edgerton (B.H.S.D.) s.v. avasarati, after noting that the verb in the corresponding Pali verse (J. 5. 252) is upenti, renders osaranti here by “go to” or “resort to”. Avasarati, however, the Sk. form of the verb, denotes “to arrive at” quite as often as “to approach to”, and in our text here osaranti is used in conjunction with the loc. case. Osāreti, the causal form, is used in BSk., as in Pali, in the technical sense of “restoring” a monk to his status after doing penance for a fault. But in Pali it is also, even if only as a v.l. of osāpeti, used in the sense of “to deposit” (P.E.D.). This last verb is, according to Morris (J.P.T.S., 1887, p. 158) caus. of ava-sā, Sk. avasāyayati (cf. Pali avaseti, oseti), but by MSS. and Pali grammarians it is taken as caus. of ava-sṛ, sarāpeti being contracted to sāpeti. See P.E.D. The verb oseti itself is found at Thag. 2. 283 of which the repetitive passages at J. 2. 252 and S. 1. 236 have opeti, which, in turn, may be the caus. of upeti, and is anyhow used in the sense of “to deposit” “to receive”. Thag A. glosses opeti with ṭhapeti. Openti also is a v.l. for upenti at J. 2. 252. Not only the context, therefore, but the parallel passages make it clear that whatever the exact form of the verb in our text may be it must be given the meaning of “to deposit”, or something similar. The absence of any object to osaranti (osārenti) need be regarded as no more strange than the frequent absence of it after the English “to deposit” and “to hoard”.

[22]:

Reading as Edgerton (B.H.S.D.) rightly suggests, kalopiya, loc. sg. of kalopī for kulopakam of Senart’s text. J. 2. 252 has kalopiyā (loc.). The Mhvu. MSS. have kulopiyam. Senart’s restoration leads him sadly astray in his interpretation. He has, for example, to take koṣṭhasmim osaranti as a loc. absolute, and translates it, “quand laisse (le provision dans) le grenier.”

[23]:

Reading eṣānā for eṣāno.

[24]:

Pasya dharmasya dharmatām.

[25]:

Or “parable”, upamā.

[26]:

Vyāyāma, “effort, labour, difficult passage,” etc. But it would seem better to emend bhadro vyāyāma alpako of the text and restore it after J. 5.255, reading bhakṣo cāyam analpako, “this is a goodly store of food.”

[27]:

Reading with one MS. and J. nirato mano for niyato mano.

[28]:

Varacitrāṇi. J. has vanacetiyāni, “groves and shrines.”

[29]:

An ancient king who, with Śiva’s help, brought down the Ganges from heaven to earth.

[30]:

See vol. 1, p. 200, n. 2.

[31]:

From this point the Mhvu. differs utterly from J., where there is no allusion to the hells.

[32]:

Literally, “but you will fall”, atha prapatiṣye (2 sg. fut., see Edgerton Gram., § 31. 35), with the protasis, “if you are heedless”, implied. The repetition, p. 457 (text), has mā prapatiṣye.

[33]:

For these hells and the whole passage generally, see vol. I, p. 6 ff.

[34]:

Raudrasatvehi. Vol. I, p. 9 (text) has raudrakarmehi, “(results of) terrible deeds.”

[35]:

Catukarṇā. The same passage at 1.9 has catuḥkalā which has been emended into catuḥkarṇā (see vol. I, p. 9. n. 2). Edgerton (B.H.S.D.), however, quotes P. Mus, La Lumière des six voies (p. 94 ff.) who says that catukalā should be retained, with the same meaning.

[36]:

Reading, as in 1. 9, ayaḥ prākāraparikṣiptā for atha ye narakaprakṣiptā, “and those who are thrown into hell.” Otherwise Edgerton (B.H.S.D. s.v. pratikubjita), but it is the hells, not the inmates, that are described here.

[37]:

Kadaryatapanā. Kadarya, Sk., = “stingy”, and so Pali kadariya. Edgerton (B.H.S.D.) says, “perh. evil, wicked (of persons)” but this and the other adjectives are applied to the hells themselves, not to the inmates. Cf. vol. 1, 9 (text) where more or less the same adjectives are applied to āvasathā, “dwellings”, (in opposition to narakā, implied).

[38]:

The text here gives a better sense than that of the corresponding verse at vol. 1, p. 10 (text).

[39]:

Rājinas(o), gen. sg. See [?]

[40]:

Anyamanyam. Vol. 1, p. n (text) has hanyamānā “beaten”.

[41]:

Kukkuleṣu, possibly, “in (among) hot ashes.” Vol. I, p. II (text) has kukkulena, instr. for loc.

[42]:

Reading kṛṣṇaprāṇakā for kṛpayā tatra. The word kṛpā, “pity” is obviously out of place here.

[43]:

Urdhāvṛkṣe va nāṃ dṛṣṭvā. Vol. I, p. II has ārdravṛkṣe va varjitvā “driving them from a verdant tree.”

[44]:

Or “start up”, “flee off”, utpattitvāna. Vol. I, p. II has utpatitvāna. See Edgerton, B.H.S.D., on these two forms.

[45]:

Vardhita, from vardh, “to cut”. Or is it from vṛdh, “to grow” “their limbs but now grown”? But vol. 1, p. 12 kṣata “wounded”.

[46]:

Literally, “pierce”, vijhitvā, from vijjhati, BSk. and Pali for vyadhati. Vol. I, p. 12 has viddhitvā (see vol. I, p. 11, n. 3).

[47]:

Mānuṣāḥ. Vol. 1, p. 12 has yoniṣaḥ, “(those who) wholly.”

[48]:

Āgamya, Pali āgamma. B.H.S.D. cites only one instance (Divy. 269) of this sense of the word in BSk. The usual meaning is “because of”, etc. See vol. 1, p. 198, n. 2. For durūpamāgamya karma vol. 1, p. 12 has dvirūpaparyāyā karmā, “karmas are of two kinds.”

[49]:

Atha vā punar, “or yet again”.

[50]:

Dharmaṃ niropadhim. See B.H.S.D.

[51]:

Or “pleases”, rocati for Sk. rocate. Cf. ruccati and see vol. 2, p. 379 n. 2.

[52]:

Literally, “lest I go to the power of my desires,” mā kāmānāṃ vaśamanvagā. The verb anvagā (anu-agā) is the root aorist of anu-gā, without a consonantal termination. The same form appears elsewhere on the same page, but in the repetition on the next page, the form used is anvagāt, with 3rd pers. ending for the 1st. See Edgerton, Gram. § 32. 106. The augmented form of the aorist is used here with mā, instead of the usual Sk. augmentless form.

[53]:

Literally “ridden (or mounted) (ārūḍhā) and having as weapons,—āyudhā.”

[54]:

Nigaḍa, which here must denote a noose for catching an animal by its feet and thus forming part of a warrior’s or hunter’s outfit. Its more usual sense of a fetter for securing the hind feet of an elephant is not suitable here.

[55]:

Lacuna in text.

[56]:

Pāri. See p. 451 n. 3.

[57]:

Payaka, properly a “drinker”, i.e. “suckling”.

[58]:

Senart misunderstands this simile. He takes it to mean that the king is afraid he will drag the boy to ruin as the wrecked ship does the merchants. He accordingly prints mā vayaṃ antarāyam karoma... mama, “lest we (= I) cause an obstacle to [this son] of mine,” i.e., lest I lead him into danger. But the king conceives he is going forth to his salvation in the religious life, to which wives and sons and daughters are acknowledged hindrances. It is obvious, therefore, that Senart’s text should be emended to read, on the analogy of J. 5. 259, mā evāyaṃ antarāyaṃ kareyyā... mama. Whether the four syllables still wanting to complete the line can be supplied by restoring putrakali (= puttakali in the Pali) cannot be decided on the evidence of the MSS. quoted in the apparatus. For the verb form kareyyā cf. vol. 2, p. 144 (text). See Edgerton, Gram., p. 207.

[59]:

It is better to take this line as the second line of this verse, where Senart leaves a lacuna instead, than as the first line of the next verse, to which he assigns three lines.

[60]:

See vol. 2, p. 52, n. 1.

[61]:

Rājāṇattīm, for-āṇattim, adverbial acc. of -āṇatti, Pali and BSk. (only in Mhvu.) Sk. ājñapti. The context requires the sense of “permission” here, rather than command. B.H.S.D. does not cite this instance of āṇatti, all the instances there cited being from the prose passages.

[62]:

The Mhvu. differs considerably from J. here.

[63]:

kuryādiṣṭam. Kuryād (t) is 3rd sg. opt. with 1st sg. subject. Cf. Edgerton, Gram., § 25. 11, where, however, this instance is not cited.