Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)

suggestive as to the way in which the Suttanta was put together. The whole chapter is an answer to a possible objection, either from outsiders or from weaker members of the fold, that if the Buddha were really so great why did he die at all. The suggested answer is that he could have lived on if he had so wished ; but he did not wish because he had certain kinds of power and insight and self-mastery which prevented him from doing so. For the purpose of this answer these paragraphs, already in existence among the Suttas current in the community, and dealing with these powers, are here repeated without any such connecting argument as we should find under similar circumstances, in a modern (written) book of apologetics. The argument suggested by them follows exactly the same lines as that in the Mahali Suttanta, translated in the former volume (Number VI of the ' Dialogues ').

1 Windisch, ' Mara und Buddha,' 61, adduces a number of interesting parallels, from European writers, to this curious old theory of earthquakes.

P. ii. 108. THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. II5

of his heart well under his control ; or a god or fairy (devata *) of great might and power, — when such a one by intense meditation on the idea of the minutest portion of earth and on the idea of the widest expanse of water [has succeeded in realizing the comparative value of things] he can make this earth move and tremble and be shaken violently 2. These are the second causes, proximate and remote, of the appearance of a mighty earthquake.

1 Devata is a fairy, god, genius, or angel. I am at a loss how to render this word without conveying an erroneous impression to those not familiar with ancient ideas, and specially with ancient Indian ideas, of the spirit world. It includes gods of all sorts; tree and river nymphs; the kindly fairies or ghosts who haunt houses (see my ' Buddhist Birth Stories,' Tale 40) ; spirits in the ground (see above, I, 26); the angels who minister at the great renunciation, the temptation, and the death of the Buddha ; the guardian angels who watch over men, and towns, and countries ; and many other similar beings. ' Celestial beings ' would be wholly inapplicable, for instance, to the creatures referred to in the curious passage above (I, 26). ' Superhuman being ' would be an inaccurate rendering ; for all these light and airy shapes come below, and after, man in the Buddhist order of precedence. ' Spirit ' being used of the soul inside the human body, and of the human soul after it has left the body, and figuratively of mental faculties — none of which are included under devata — would suggest ideas inconsistent with that of the Pali word. As there is therefore no appropriate general word I have chosen, for each passage where the expression occurs, the word used in English of the special class more particularly referred to in the passage of the text. Here all kinds of devatas being referred to, and there being no word in English for them all, I have ventured to put the word devata into my version, and to trouble the reader with this note.

2 Buddhaghosa here tells a long story how Sangharakkhita Samawera, the nephew of Naga Thera, attained Arahantship on the day of his admission to the order ; and at once proceeded to heaven, and standing on the pinnacle of the palace of the king of the gods, shook the whole place with his big toe ; to the great consternation and annoyance of the exalted dwellers therein ! There is no doubt a real truth in the idea that deep thought can shake the universe, and make the palaces of the gods to tremble, just as faith is said in Matthew xxi. 21 to be able to remove mountains, and cause them to be cast into the sea. But these figurative expressions have, in Buddhism, become a fruitful soil for the outgrowth of superstitions and misunderstandings. The train of early Buddhist speculation in this field has yet to be elucidated.

I 2

Il6 XVI. MAHA PARINIBBANA SUTTANTA. D. ii. 108.

15. ' Again, Ananda, when a Bodhisatta consciously and deliberately leaves his [temporary] form in the heaven of delight and descends into his mother's womb, then is this earth made to quake and tremble and is shaken violently. These are the third causes, proximate and remote, of the appearance of a mighty earthquake l.

16. ' Again, Ananda, when a Bodhisatta deliberately and consciously quits his mother's womb, then the earth quakes and trembles and is shaken violently. This is the fourth cause, proximate and remote, of the appearance of a jnighty earthquake.