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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1* Vedagf. See above, II, 3, 6, p. 86 (note). * Mr. Trenckner thinks there is a Jacuna here. The Simhalese follows the PAli word for word. 112 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. III, 5, 7. ‘Very good, Nagasena!’ 7. [12] The king said: ‘Is there any being, N4gasena, who transmigrates from this body to another ?’ ‘No, there is not.’ ‘ But if so, would it not get free from its evil deeds.’ ‘Yes, if it were not reborn; but if it were, no?.’ ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Suppose, O king, a man were to steal another man’s mangoes, would the thief deserve punishment?’ ‘Yes,’ . ‘But he would not have stolen the mangoes the other set in the ground. Why would he deserve punishment ?’ ‘ Because those he stole were the result of those that were planted.’ ‘Just so, great king, this name-and-form commits deeds, either pure or impure, and by that Karma another name-and-form is reborn. And therefore is it not set free from its evil deeds ?’ ‘Very good, Nagasena!’ 8. The king said: ‘When deeds are committed, Nagasena, by one name-and-form, what becomes of those deeds ?’ ‘ The deeds would follow it, O king, like a shadow that never leaves it *.’ ‘Can any one point out those deeds, saying: “‘ Here are those deeds, or there” ?’ ‘No.’ * This is an exact repetition of what we had above, II, 2, 6. * These last words are a quotation of those that recur at Samyutta III, 2, 10, ro, and Dhammapada, verse 2. TIT, 5, 10. THE BUDDHA. 113 ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Now what do you think, O king ? Can any one point out the fruits which a tree has not yet produced, saying: “ Here they are, or there” ?’ ‘Certainly not, Sir.’ ‘Just so, great king, so long as the continuity of life is not cut off, it is impossible to point out the deeds that are done.’ ‘Very good, NAgasena !’ 9. [78] The king said: ‘Does he, Nagasena, who is about to be reborn know that he will be born ?’ ‘Yes, he knows it, O king.’ ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Suppose a farmer, O king, a householder, were to put seed in the ground, and it were to rain well, would he know that a crop would be produced.’ “Yes, he would know that.’ ‘Just so, great king, does he who is about to be reborn know! that he will be born.’ ‘Very good, Nagasena ?!’ 10. The king said: ‘Is there such a person as the Buddha, N4gasena ?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Can he then, Nagasena, be pointed out as being here or there ?’ ‘The Blessed One, O king, has passed away by that kind of passing away in which nothing remains which could tend to the formation of another indi- 1 That is before he is born. 3 This is all very parallel to II, 2, 2. [35] I 114 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. III, 5, ro. vidual’. It is not possible to point out the Blessed One as being here or there.’ ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Now what do you think, O king? When there is a great body of fire blazing, is it possible to point out any one flame that has gone out, that it is here or there ?’ ‘No, Sir. That flame has ceased, it has vanished.’
2When there is a great body of fire blazing, is it possible to point out any one flame that has gone out, that it is here or there ?’ ‘No, Sir. That flame has ceased, it has vanished.’ ‘Just so, great king, has the Blessed One passed away by that kind of passing away in which no root remains for the formation of another individual. The Blessed One has come to an end, and it cannot be pointed out of him, that he is here or there. But in the body of his doctrine he can, O king, be pointed out. For the doctrine? was preached by the Blessed One ?’ ‘Very good, Nagasena!’ 'Here ends the Fifth Chapter. * AnupAdisesa4ya nibbénadhatuyA. 7 Dhamma. See above, III, 5, 3. Ill, 6, 1. THE BODY. 115 Book III. Cuaprer 6. 1. The king said: ‘Is the body, Nagasena, dear to you recluses ?’ ‘No, they love not the body.’ ‘Then why do you nourish it and lavish attention upon it ?’ ‘In all the times and places, O king, that you have gone down to battle, did you never get wounded by an arrow ?’ ‘Yes, that has happened to me.’ ‘In such cases, O king, [74] is not the wound anointed with salve, and smeared with oil, and bound up in a bandage.’ ‘Yes, such things are done to it.’ ‘What then? Is the wound dear to you that you treat it so tenderly, and lavish such attention upon it?’ ‘No, it is not dear to me in spite of all that, which is only done that the flesh may grow again.’ ‘Just so, great king, with the recluses and the body. Without cleaving to it do they bear about the body for the sake of righteousness of life. The body, O king, has been declared by the Blessed One to be like a wound. And therefore merely as a sore, and without cleaving to it, do the recluses bear about the body. For it has been said by the Blessed One: “Covered with clammy skin, an impure thing and foul, Nine-apertured, it oozes, like a sore?.”’ ‘Well answered, Nagasena !’ 1 I have not been able to trace this couplet. On the sentiment compare the eloquent words of the young wife at vol. i, p. 200 of my ‘ Buddhist Birth Stories,’ and Sutta Nipata I, rr. 12 116 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. _III, 6,2. 2. The king said: ‘Did the Buddha, Nagasena, the omniscient one, foresee all things ?’ ‘Yes. The Blessed One was not only omniscient. He foresaw all things.’ ‘Then why was it that he was in the habit only from time to time, and as occasion arose, of laying down rules for the members of the Order! ?’ ‘Is there any physician, O king, who knows all the medicinal drugs to be found on the earth ?’ ‘Yes, there may be such a man.’ ‘Well, O king, does he give his decoctions to the patient to drink at a time when illness has already set in, or before that ?’ ‘When the malady has arisen.’ ‘Just so, great king, the Blessed One, though he was omniscient and foresaw all things, laid down no rule at an unseasonable time, but only when need arose did he establish a regulation which his disciples were not to transgress as long as they lived.’ ‘ Well answered, Nagasena!’
33. [75] The king said: ‘Is it true, Nagasena, that the Buddha was endowed with the thirty-two bodily marks of a great man, and graced with the eighty subsidiary characteristics ; that he was golden in colour with a skin like gold, and that there spread around him a glorious halo of a fathom’s length?’ ‘Such, O king, was the Blessed One.’ ‘But were his parents like that ?’ ‘No, they were not.’ ‘In that case you must say that he was born so. But surely a son is either like his mother, or those on ? This is how Hinafi-kumburé understands the passage. III, 6, 4. CONDUCT. 117 the mother’s side, or he is like his father, or those on the father’s side !’ The Elder replied: ‘Is there such a thing, O king, as a lotus flower with a hundred petals?’ ‘Yes, there is.’ ‘Where does it grow up ?’ ‘It is produced in mud, and in water it comes to perfection ?.’ ‘But does the lotus resemble the mud of the lake, whence it springs up, either in colour, or in smell, or in taste ?’ ‘Certainly not.’ ‘Then does it resemble the water ?’ ‘Nor that either.’ ‘Just so, great king, is it that the Blessed One had the bodily signs and marks you have mentioned, though his parents had them not.’ ‘Well answered, Nagasena|!’ 4. The king said: ‘Was the Buddha, Nagasena, pure in conduct (was he a Brahma-Afrin)?’ ‘Yes, the Blessed One was pure.’ ‘Then, Nagasena, it follows that he was a follower of Brahma ?.’ 1 Asfyati. See Dr. Morris in the ‘Journal of the P4li Text Society,’ 1884, p. 72. * There is an untranslatable play here upon the name of the god, which is used in its sense of ‘pure, best,’ in the expression ‘pure in conduct.’ The first question really amounts to: Was the Buddha’s conduct ‘Brahma, that is, ‘ best,’ which has come to have the meaning ‘pure’ for the same reason that our expression ‘a moral man’ has often that particular connotation? It is quite true that the etymological meaning of the word is neither ‘ best’ nor ‘ pure’; but when our author wrote the secondary sense had completely, in Pali, driven out the etymological sense. 118 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. _III, 6, 5. ‘Have you a state elephant, O king ?’ ‘Certainly.’ [76] ‘Well now, does that elephant ever trumpet (literally “cry the heron’s cry?”)?’ ‘Oh, yes.’ ‘ But is he, then, on that account a follower of the herons ?’ ‘Of course not.’ ‘Now tell me, great king, has Brahm& wisdom (Buddhi), or has he not ?’ ‘He is a being with wisdom.’ ‘Then (on your argument) he is surely a follower of Buddha *.’ ‘ Well answered, Nagasena !’ 5. The king said: ‘Is ordination® a good thing ?’ ‘Yes, a good thing and a beautiful.’ ‘But did the Buddha obtain it, or not ?’ ‘Great king, when the Blessed One attained omniscience at the foot of the tree of Knowledge, that was to him an ordination. There was no conferring of ordination upon him at the hands of others—in the way that the Blessed One laid down regulations for his disciples, never to be transgressed by them their lives long ¢!’
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.
1* Vedagf. See above, II, 3, 6, p. 86 (note). * Mr. Trenckner thinks there is a Jacuna here. The Simhalese follows the PAli word for word. 112 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. III, 5, 7. ‘Very good, Nagasena!’ 7. [12] The king said: ‘Is there any being, N4gasena, who transmigrates from this body to another ?’ ‘No, there is not.’ ‘ But if so, would it not get free from its evil deeds.’ ‘Yes, if it were not reborn; but if it were, no?.’ ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Suppose, O king, a man were to steal another man’s mangoes, would the thief deserve punishment?’ ‘Yes,’ . ‘But he would not have stolen the mangoes the other set in the ground. Why would he deserve punishment ?’ ‘ Because those he stole were the result of those that were planted.’ ‘Just so, great king, this name-and-form commits deeds, either pure or impure, and by that Karma another name-and-form is reborn. And therefore is it not set free from its evil deeds ?’ ‘Very good, Nagasena!’ 8. The king said: ‘When deeds are committed, Nagasena, by one name-and-form, what becomes of those deeds ?’ ‘ The deeds would follow it, O king, like a shadow that never leaves it *.’ ‘Can any one point out those deeds, saying: “‘ Here are those deeds, or there” ?’ ‘No.’ * This is an exact repetition of what we had above, II, 2, 6. * These last words are a quotation of those that recur at Samyutta III, 2, 10, ro, and Dhammapada, verse 2. TIT, 5, 10. THE BUDDHA. 113 ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Now what do you think, O king ? Can any one point out the fruits which a tree has not yet produced, saying: “ Here they are, or there” ?’ ‘Certainly not, Sir.’ ‘Just so, great king, so long as the continuity of life is not cut off, it is impossible to point out the deeds that are done.’ ‘Very good, NAgasena !’ 9. [78] The king said: ‘Does he, Nagasena, who is about to be reborn know that he will be born ?’ ‘Yes, he knows it, O king.’ ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Suppose a farmer, O king, a householder, were to put seed in the ground, and it were to rain well, would he know that a crop would be produced.’ “Yes, he would know that.’ ‘Just so, great king, does he who is about to be reborn know! that he will be born.’ ‘Very good, Nagasena ?!’ 10. The king said: ‘Is there such a person as the Buddha, N4gasena ?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Can he then, Nagasena, be pointed out as being here or there ?’ ‘The Blessed One, O king, has passed away by that kind of passing away in which nothing remains which could tend to the formation of another indi- 1 That is before he is born. 3 This is all very parallel to II, 2, 2. [35] I 114 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. III, 5, ro. vidual’. It is not possible to point out the Blessed One as being here or there.’ ‘Give me an illustration.’ ‘Now what do you think, O king? When there is a great body of fire blazing, is it possible to point out any one flame that has gone out, that it is here or there ?’ ‘No, Sir. That flame has ceased, it has vanished.’
2When there is a great body of fire blazing, is it possible to point out any one flame that has gone out, that it is here or there ?’ ‘No, Sir. That flame has ceased, it has vanished.’ ‘Just so, great king, has the Blessed One passed away by that kind of passing away in which no root remains for the formation of another individual. The Blessed One has come to an end, and it cannot be pointed out of him, that he is here or there. But in the body of his doctrine he can, O king, be pointed out. For the doctrine? was preached by the Blessed One ?’ ‘Very good, Nagasena!’ 'Here ends the Fifth Chapter. * AnupAdisesa4ya nibbénadhatuyA. 7 Dhamma. See above, III, 5, 3. Ill, 6, 1. THE BODY. 115 Book III. Cuaprer 6. 1. The king said: ‘Is the body, Nagasena, dear to you recluses ?’ ‘No, they love not the body.’ ‘Then why do you nourish it and lavish attention upon it ?’ ‘In all the times and places, O king, that you have gone down to battle, did you never get wounded by an arrow ?’ ‘Yes, that has happened to me.’ ‘In such cases, O king, [74] is not the wound anointed with salve, and smeared with oil, and bound up in a bandage.’ ‘Yes, such things are done to it.’ ‘What then? Is the wound dear to you that you treat it so tenderly, and lavish such attention upon it?’ ‘No, it is not dear to me in spite of all that, which is only done that the flesh may grow again.’ ‘Just so, great king, with the recluses and the body. Without cleaving to it do they bear about the body for the sake of righteousness of life. The body, O king, has been declared by the Blessed One to be like a wound. And therefore merely as a sore, and without cleaving to it, do the recluses bear about the body. For it has been said by the Blessed One: “Covered with clammy skin, an impure thing and foul, Nine-apertured, it oozes, like a sore?.”’ ‘Well answered, Nagasena !’ 1 I have not been able to trace this couplet. On the sentiment compare the eloquent words of the young wife at vol. i, p. 200 of my ‘ Buddhist Birth Stories,’ and Sutta Nipata I, rr. 12 116 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. _III, 6,2. 2. The king said: ‘Did the Buddha, Nagasena, the omniscient one, foresee all things ?’ ‘Yes. The Blessed One was not only omniscient. He foresaw all things.’ ‘Then why was it that he was in the habit only from time to time, and as occasion arose, of laying down rules for the members of the Order! ?’ ‘Is there any physician, O king, who knows all the medicinal drugs to be found on the earth ?’ ‘Yes, there may be such a man.’ ‘Well, O king, does he give his decoctions to the patient to drink at a time when illness has already set in, or before that ?’ ‘When the malady has arisen.’ ‘Just so, great king, the Blessed One, though he was omniscient and foresaw all things, laid down no rule at an unseasonable time, but only when need arose did he establish a regulation which his disciples were not to transgress as long as they lived.’ ‘ Well answered, Nagasena!’
33. [75] The king said: ‘Is it true, Nagasena, that the Buddha was endowed with the thirty-two bodily marks of a great man, and graced with the eighty subsidiary characteristics ; that he was golden in colour with a skin like gold, and that there spread around him a glorious halo of a fathom’s length?’ ‘Such, O king, was the Blessed One.’ ‘But were his parents like that ?’ ‘No, they were not.’ ‘In that case you must say that he was born so. But surely a son is either like his mother, or those on ? This is how Hinafi-kumburé understands the passage. III, 6, 4. CONDUCT. 117 the mother’s side, or he is like his father, or those on the father’s side !’ The Elder replied: ‘Is there such a thing, O king, as a lotus flower with a hundred petals?’ ‘Yes, there is.’ ‘Where does it grow up ?’ ‘It is produced in mud, and in water it comes to perfection ?.’ ‘But does the lotus resemble the mud of the lake, whence it springs up, either in colour, or in smell, or in taste ?’ ‘Certainly not.’ ‘Then does it resemble the water ?’ ‘Nor that either.’ ‘Just so, great king, is it that the Blessed One had the bodily signs and marks you have mentioned, though his parents had them not.’ ‘Well answered, Nagasena|!’ 4. The king said: ‘Was the Buddha, Nagasena, pure in conduct (was he a Brahma-Afrin)?’ ‘Yes, the Blessed One was pure.’ ‘Then, Nagasena, it follows that he was a follower of Brahma ?.’ 1 Asfyati. See Dr. Morris in the ‘Journal of the P4li Text Society,’ 1884, p. 72. * There is an untranslatable play here upon the name of the god, which is used in its sense of ‘pure, best,’ in the expression ‘pure in conduct.’ The first question really amounts to: Was the Buddha’s conduct ‘Brahma, that is, ‘ best,’ which has come to have the meaning ‘pure’ for the same reason that our expression ‘a moral man’ has often that particular connotation? It is quite true that the etymological meaning of the word is neither ‘ best’ nor ‘ pure’; but when our author wrote the secondary sense had completely, in Pali, driven out the etymological sense. 118 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. _III, 6, 5. ‘Have you a state elephant, O king ?’ ‘Certainly.’ [76] ‘Well now, does that elephant ever trumpet (literally “cry the heron’s cry?”)?’ ‘Oh, yes.’ ‘ But is he, then, on that account a follower of the herons ?’ ‘Of course not.’ ‘Now tell me, great king, has Brahm& wisdom (Buddhi), or has he not ?’ ‘He is a being with wisdom.’ ‘Then (on your argument) he is surely a follower of Buddha *.’ ‘ Well answered, Nagasena !’ 5. The king said: ‘Is ordination® a good thing ?’ ‘Yes, a good thing and a beautiful.’ ‘But did the Buddha obtain it, or not ?’ ‘Great king, when the Blessed One attained omniscience at the foot of the tree of Knowledge, that was to him an ordination. There was no conferring of ordination upon him at the hands of others—in the way that the Blessed One laid down regulations for his disciples, never to be transgressed by them their lives long ¢!’
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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