Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1And the venerable Assagutta said to him: ‘ How now, venerable Rohana! When the religion of the Buddha is in danger of crumbling away, have you no eyes for the work of the Order ?’ ‘It was through inadvertence, Sir,’ said he. ‘Then, venerable Rohana, atone for it.’ ‘What, Sir, should I do?’ ‘There is a Brahman village, venerable Rohana, called Kagangala*, at the foot of the Himalaya mountains, and there dwells there a Brahman called Sozuttara. He will have a son called NAgasena. Go to that house for alms during seven years and ten months. After the lapse of that time thou shalt draw away the boy from a worldly life, and cause him to enter the Order. When he shall have abandoned the world, then shalt thou be free of the atonement for thy fault.’ ‘ Let it be even as thou sayest,’ said the venerable Rohana in assent. 20. Now Mahdsena the god passed away from the world of the gods, and was reborn in the womb of the wife of the Brahman Sozuttara. And at the moment of his conception three strange, wonderful things took place :—arms and weapons became all * Pafimaneti. Childers does not give this meaning to the word. But it is the usual one. Compare Sumangala, vol. i, pp. 276, 280; Vinaya Pifaka IV, 212; Kullavagga VI, 13, 2; GAtaka LI, 423. * This is a famous place in Buddhist story. It is at the extreme limit, to the East, of the Buddhist Holy Land, the ‘ Middle Country.’ See Sumangala Vil4sini on D. 2, 40 (p. 173); MahAvagga V, 13,12; Gataka I, 49. I, a1. MAHASENA THE GOD. 15 ablaze, the tender grain became ripe in a moment, and there was a great rain (in the time of drought). And the venerable Rohana went to that house for alms for seven years and ten months from the day of Mah4sena’s re-incarnation, but never once did he receive so much as‘a spoonful of boiled rice, or a ladleful of sour gruel, or a greeting, or a stretching forth of the joined hands, or any sort of salutation. Nay rather it was insults and taunts that fell to his share: and there was no one who so much as said, ‘ Be so good, Sir, as to go on to the next house.’ But when all that period had gone by he one day happened to have those very words addressed to him. And on that day the Brahman, on his way back from his work in the fields, [9] saw the Elder as he met him on his return, and said: ‘ Well, hermit, have you been to our place ?’ ‘Yes, Brahman, I have.’ ‘ But did you get anything there ?’ ‘Yes, Brahman, I did.’ And he was displeased at this, and went on home, and asked them: ‘ Did you give anything to that hermit ?’ ‘We gave him nothing,’ was the reply. 21. Thereupon the Brahman, the next day, seated himself right in the doorway, thinking to himself: ‘To-day I'll put that hermit to shame for having told a lie.” And the moment that the Elder in due course came up to the house again, he said: ‘ Yesterday you said you had got something at my house, having
21 This is the ordinary polite formula used by an Indian peasant when he wishes to express his inability (or his disinclination) to give food to a mendicant friar, 16 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. I, 22. all the while got nothing! Is lying allowed to you fellows ?’ And the Elder replied: ‘Brahman, for seven years and ten months no one even went so far as to suggest politely that I should pass on. Yesterday this courtesy was extended to me. It was to that that I referred.’ The Brahman thought to himself: ‘ If these men, at the mere experience of a little courtesy, acknowledge in a public place, and with thanks, that they have received an alms, what will they not do if they really receive a gift!’ And he was much struck by this, and had an alms bestowed upon the Elder from the rice and curry prepared for his own use, and added furthermore : ‘Every day you shall receive here food of the same kind.’ And having watched the Elder as he visited the place from that day onwards, and noticed how subdued was his demeanour, he became more and more pleased with him, and invited him to take there regularly his midday meal. And the Elder gave, by silence, his consent; and daily from that time forth, when he had finished his meal, and was about to depart, he would pronounce some short passage or other from the words of the Buddha’. 22. Now the Brahman’s wife had, after her ten months, brought forth her son; and they called his name Nagasena. He grew up in due course till he became seven years old, and his father said to the child : ‘Do you want, [10] dear Nagasena, to study the learning traditional in this Brahmanical house of ours ?’ + This custom is a rule with the mendicant friars. It is their way of ‘returning thanks,’ as we should say. See below, p. 25. I, 23. BRAHMAN KNOWLEDGE. 17 ‘What is it called, father ?’ said he. ‘The thtee Vedas are called learning (Sikkhéa), other kinds of knowledge are only arts, my dear.’ ‘Yes, I should like to learn them, father,’ said the boy. Then Sozuttara the Brahman gave to a Brahman teacher a thousand pieces as his teaching fee, and had a divan spread for him aside in an inner chamber, and said to him: ‘Do thou, Brahman, teach this boy the sacred hymns by heart.’ So the teacher made the boy repeat the hymns, urging him to get them by heart. And young Nagasena, after one repetition of them, had learnt the three Vedas by heart, could intone them correctly, had understood their meaning, could fix the right place of each particular verse’, and had grasped the mysteries they contained?, All at once there arose in him an intuitive insight into the Vedas, with a knowledge of their lexicography, of their prosody, of their grammar, and of the legends attaching to the characters in them. He became a philologist and grammarian, and skilled alike in casuistry and in the knowledge of the bodily marks that foreshadow the greatness of a man*®, 23. Then young Nagasena said to his father: ‘Is
3He became a philologist and grammarian, and skilled alike in casuistry and in the knowledge of the bodily marks that foreshadow the greatness of a man*®, 23. Then young Nagasena said to his father: ‘Is 1 Suvava//hapita, or perhaps its use in ceremonies or sacrifices. The phrase only occurs in this passage. It is literally, ‘The three Vedas were well fixed by the boy.’ Hinafi-kumburé simply repeats the word. 2 On the exact force of the special terms translated in these clauses, one may further compare the corresponding phrases used of learning the Buddhist texts in Kullavagga IV, 14,17; IX, 5,1. ’ The above are the stock phrases for the learning of a scholarly Brahman, and one or two points in the details are uncertain, [35] Cc 18 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. I, 23. there anything more to be learned in this Brahmanical family of ours, or is this all ?’ ‘There is no more, Nagasena, my dear. This is all,’ was the reply. And young Nagasena repeated his lesson to his teacher for the last time, and went out of the house, and in obedience to an impulse arising in his heart as the result of previous Karma, sought a place of solitude, where he gave himself up to meditation. And he reviewed what he had learnt throughout from beginning to end, and found no value in it anywhere at all. And he exclaimed in bitterness of soul : ‘Empty forsooth are these Vedas, and as chaff. There is in them neither reality, nor worth, nor essential truth !’ That moment the venerable Rohana, seated at his hermitage at Vattaniya, felt in his mind what was passing in the heart of Nagasena. And he robed himself, and taking his alms-bowl in his hand, he vanished from Vattaniya and appeared near the Brahman village Kagangala. And young Na4gasena, as he stood again in the doorway, saw him coming in the distance. At the sight of him he became happy and glad, and a sweet hope sprang up in his heart that from him he might learn the essential truth. And he went [11] to him, and said: ‘Who art thou, Sir, that thou art thus bald-headed, and wearest yellow robes ?’ ‘They call me a recluse, my child’ (Pabbagita : literally, ‘one who has abandoned;’ that is, the worldly life). ‘And why do they call thee “ one who has abandoned ?”’ ‘ Because a recluse is one who has receded from I, 23. REASONS FOR SHAVING. 19 the world in order to make the stain of sinful things recede. It is for that reason, my child, that they call me a recluse.’ ‘Why, Sir, dost thou not wear hair as others do ?’
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1And the venerable Assagutta said to him: ‘ How now, venerable Rohana! When the religion of the Buddha is in danger of crumbling away, have you no eyes for the work of the Order ?’ ‘It was through inadvertence, Sir,’ said he. ‘Then, venerable Rohana, atone for it.’ ‘What, Sir, should I do?’ ‘There is a Brahman village, venerable Rohana, called Kagangala*, at the foot of the Himalaya mountains, and there dwells there a Brahman called Sozuttara. He will have a son called NAgasena. Go to that house for alms during seven years and ten months. After the lapse of that time thou shalt draw away the boy from a worldly life, and cause him to enter the Order. When he shall have abandoned the world, then shalt thou be free of the atonement for thy fault.’ ‘ Let it be even as thou sayest,’ said the venerable Rohana in assent. 20. Now Mahdsena the god passed away from the world of the gods, and was reborn in the womb of the wife of the Brahman Sozuttara. And at the moment of his conception three strange, wonderful things took place :—arms and weapons became all * Pafimaneti. Childers does not give this meaning to the word. But it is the usual one. Compare Sumangala, vol. i, pp. 276, 280; Vinaya Pifaka IV, 212; Kullavagga VI, 13, 2; GAtaka LI, 423. * This is a famous place in Buddhist story. It is at the extreme limit, to the East, of the Buddhist Holy Land, the ‘ Middle Country.’ See Sumangala Vil4sini on D. 2, 40 (p. 173); MahAvagga V, 13,12; Gataka I, 49. I, a1. MAHASENA THE GOD. 15 ablaze, the tender grain became ripe in a moment, and there was a great rain (in the time of drought). And the venerable Rohana went to that house for alms for seven years and ten months from the day of Mah4sena’s re-incarnation, but never once did he receive so much as‘a spoonful of boiled rice, or a ladleful of sour gruel, or a greeting, or a stretching forth of the joined hands, or any sort of salutation. Nay rather it was insults and taunts that fell to his share: and there was no one who so much as said, ‘ Be so good, Sir, as to go on to the next house.’ But when all that period had gone by he one day happened to have those very words addressed to him. And on that day the Brahman, on his way back from his work in the fields, [9] saw the Elder as he met him on his return, and said: ‘ Well, hermit, have you been to our place ?’ ‘Yes, Brahman, I have.’ ‘ But did you get anything there ?’ ‘Yes, Brahman, I did.’ And he was displeased at this, and went on home, and asked them: ‘ Did you give anything to that hermit ?’ ‘We gave him nothing,’ was the reply. 21. Thereupon the Brahman, the next day, seated himself right in the doorway, thinking to himself: ‘To-day I'll put that hermit to shame for having told a lie.” And the moment that the Elder in due course came up to the house again, he said: ‘ Yesterday you said you had got something at my house, having
21 This is the ordinary polite formula used by an Indian peasant when he wishes to express his inability (or his disinclination) to give food to a mendicant friar, 16 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. I, 22. all the while got nothing! Is lying allowed to you fellows ?’ And the Elder replied: ‘Brahman, for seven years and ten months no one even went so far as to suggest politely that I should pass on. Yesterday this courtesy was extended to me. It was to that that I referred.’ The Brahman thought to himself: ‘ If these men, at the mere experience of a little courtesy, acknowledge in a public place, and with thanks, that they have received an alms, what will they not do if they really receive a gift!’ And he was much struck by this, and had an alms bestowed upon the Elder from the rice and curry prepared for his own use, and added furthermore : ‘Every day you shall receive here food of the same kind.’ And having watched the Elder as he visited the place from that day onwards, and noticed how subdued was his demeanour, he became more and more pleased with him, and invited him to take there regularly his midday meal. And the Elder gave, by silence, his consent; and daily from that time forth, when he had finished his meal, and was about to depart, he would pronounce some short passage or other from the words of the Buddha’. 22. Now the Brahman’s wife had, after her ten months, brought forth her son; and they called his name Nagasena. He grew up in due course till he became seven years old, and his father said to the child : ‘Do you want, [10] dear Nagasena, to study the learning traditional in this Brahmanical house of ours ?’ + This custom is a rule with the mendicant friars. It is their way of ‘returning thanks,’ as we should say. See below, p. 25. I, 23. BRAHMAN KNOWLEDGE. 17 ‘What is it called, father ?’ said he. ‘The thtee Vedas are called learning (Sikkhéa), other kinds of knowledge are only arts, my dear.’ ‘Yes, I should like to learn them, father,’ said the boy. Then Sozuttara the Brahman gave to a Brahman teacher a thousand pieces as his teaching fee, and had a divan spread for him aside in an inner chamber, and said to him: ‘Do thou, Brahman, teach this boy the sacred hymns by heart.’ So the teacher made the boy repeat the hymns, urging him to get them by heart. And young Nagasena, after one repetition of them, had learnt the three Vedas by heart, could intone them correctly, had understood their meaning, could fix the right place of each particular verse’, and had grasped the mysteries they contained?, All at once there arose in him an intuitive insight into the Vedas, with a knowledge of their lexicography, of their prosody, of their grammar, and of the legends attaching to the characters in them. He became a philologist and grammarian, and skilled alike in casuistry and in the knowledge of the bodily marks that foreshadow the greatness of a man*®, 23. Then young Nagasena said to his father: ‘Is
3He became a philologist and grammarian, and skilled alike in casuistry and in the knowledge of the bodily marks that foreshadow the greatness of a man*®, 23. Then young Nagasena said to his father: ‘Is 1 Suvava//hapita, or perhaps its use in ceremonies or sacrifices. The phrase only occurs in this passage. It is literally, ‘The three Vedas were well fixed by the boy.’ Hinafi-kumburé simply repeats the word. 2 On the exact force of the special terms translated in these clauses, one may further compare the corresponding phrases used of learning the Buddhist texts in Kullavagga IV, 14,17; IX, 5,1. ’ The above are the stock phrases for the learning of a scholarly Brahman, and one or two points in the details are uncertain, [35] Cc 18 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. I, 23. there anything more to be learned in this Brahmanical family of ours, or is this all ?’ ‘There is no more, Nagasena, my dear. This is all,’ was the reply. And young Nagasena repeated his lesson to his teacher for the last time, and went out of the house, and in obedience to an impulse arising in his heart as the result of previous Karma, sought a place of solitude, where he gave himself up to meditation. And he reviewed what he had learnt throughout from beginning to end, and found no value in it anywhere at all. And he exclaimed in bitterness of soul : ‘Empty forsooth are these Vedas, and as chaff. There is in them neither reality, nor worth, nor essential truth !’ That moment the venerable Rohana, seated at his hermitage at Vattaniya, felt in his mind what was passing in the heart of Nagasena. And he robed himself, and taking his alms-bowl in his hand, he vanished from Vattaniya and appeared near the Brahman village Kagangala. And young Na4gasena, as he stood again in the doorway, saw him coming in the distance. At the sight of him he became happy and glad, and a sweet hope sprang up in his heart that from him he might learn the essential truth. And he went [11] to him, and said: ‘Who art thou, Sir, that thou art thus bald-headed, and wearest yellow robes ?’ ‘They call me a recluse, my child’ (Pabbagita : literally, ‘one who has abandoned;’ that is, the worldly life). ‘And why do they call thee “ one who has abandoned ?”’ ‘ Because a recluse is one who has receded from I, 23. REASONS FOR SHAVING. 19 the world in order to make the stain of sinful things recede. It is for that reason, my child, that they call me a recluse.’ ‘Why, Sir, dost thou not wear hair as others do ?’
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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