Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1And at the trembling of the earth, the serpents, and mungooses, and cats, and jackals, and boars, and deer, and birds became greatly distressed, and the Yakkhas of inferior power wept, while those of greater power were merry.’ 39. ‘Just, O king, as when a huge and mighty cauldron? is placed in an oven full of water, and crowded with grains of rice, then the fire burning beneath heats first of all the cauldron, and when that has become hot the water begins to boil, and as the water boils the grains of rice are heated and dive hither and thither in the water, and a mass of bubbles arises, and a garland of foam is formed— just so, O king, king Vessantara gave away whatsoever is in the world considered most difficult to bestow, and by reason of the nature of his generosity the great winds beneath were unable to refrain from being agitated throughout, and on the great winds being thrown into confusion the waters were shaken, and on the waters being disturbed the broad earth trembled, and so then the winds and the waters and the earth became all three, as it were, of one accord by the immense and powerful influence that 1 This conception of the earth resting on water and the water on air is Indian, and forms no part of distinctively Buddhist teaching. * Mahati-mah4-pariyogo; not in Childers nor in the Sanskrit Petersburg Dictionary. Htnafi-kumburé renders it ita mahat wu maha bhaganayak, IV, 1, 40. VESSANTARA, 177 resulted from that mighty giving. And there was never another giving, O king, which had such power as that generosity of the great king Vessantara. 40. ‘And just, O king, as there are many gems of. value found in the earth—the sapphire, and the great sapphire, and the wish-conferring gem, and the cat’s eye, and the flax gem}, and the Acacia gem ?, and the entrancing gem, and the favourite of the sun’, and the favourite of the moon‘, and the crystal, and the kaggopakkamaka'‘, and the topaz, and the ruby, and the Mas4ra stone ‘—but the glorious gem of the king of kings is acknowledged to be the chief of all these and surpassing all, for the sheen of that jewel, O king, spreads round about for a league on every side ’—just so, O king, of all the gifts that ? Umm4-puppha; rendered diya-mendiri-pushpa in the Simhalese. Clough gives diyameneri as a plant ‘commelina cucullata.’ ? Sirfsa-puppha; rendered m4r4-pushpa in the Simhalese, m4r4 being the seed of the ‘adenanthera pavonia.’ * Suriya-kanto, which the Simhalese merely repeats. ‘ Kanda-kanta; and so also in the Simhalese. These are mythic gems, supposed to be formed out of the rays of the sun and moon respectively, and visible only when they shine. 5 The Simhalese has kaggopakramaya, which is not in Clough. ®° Mas4ra-galla, which the Simhalese renders by mas4ragalya, which Bohtlingk-Roth think is sapphire or smaragd, and Clough renders ‘emerald,’ and the commentary on the Abhidhana Padfpika, quoted by Childers, says is a stone produced in the hill of Mas4ra (otherwise unknown).
2®° Mas4ra-galla, which the Simhalese renders by mas4ragalya, which Bohtlingk-Roth think is sapphire or smaragd, and Clough renders ‘emerald,’ and the commentary on the Abhidhana Padfpika, quoted by Childers, says is a stone produced in the hill of Mas4ra (otherwise unknown). On similar lists of gems elsewhere see the Kullavagga IX, 1, 3, and my note at pp. 249, 250 of the ‘ Buddhist Suttas’ (vol. xi of the ‘ Sacred Books of the East ’). 7 So also in the Mah4-Sudassana Sutta I, 32, translated in the ‘ Buddhist Suttas,’ p. 256. Compare above, p. 35 of the text. (35] N 178 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV,1, 41. have ever been given upon earth, even the greatest and the most unsurpassed, that giving of the good king Vessantara is acknowledged to surpass them all. And it was on the giving of that gift, O king, that the broad earth shook seven times’. 41. ‘A marvellous thing is it, Nagasena, of the Buddhas, and a most wonderful, that the Tathagata even when a Bodisat (in the course of becoming a Buddha) [119] was so unequalled in the world, so mild, so kind, and held before him aims so high, and endeavours so grand. You have made evident, NA4gasena, the might of the Bodisats, a most clear light have you cast upon the perfection of the Conquerors, you have shown how, in the whole world of gods and men, a Tathagata, as he continues the practice of his noble life, is the highest and the best. Well spoken, venerable Nagasena. The doctrine of the Conqueror has been exalted, the perfection of the Conqueror has been glorified, the knot of the arguments of the adversaries has been unravelled, the jar of the theories of the opponents has been broken in pieces, the dilemma so profound has been made clear, the jungle has been turned into open country, the children of the Conqueror have received the desire of their hearts*. It is so, as you say, O best of the leaders of schools, and I accept that which you have said!’ [Here ends the dilemma as to the earthquake at Vessantara’s gift. ] ? There is here a long paragraph in the Simhalese omitted in the Pali. * Nibb&hana; rendered abhiwarddhiya in the Simhalese. - IV, 1, 42. ; KING SIVI. 179 [KING sivr!.]
3] ? There is here a long paragraph in the Simhalese omitted in the Pali. * Nibb&hana; rendered abhiwarddhiya in the Simhalese. - IV, 1, 42. ; KING SIVI. 179 [KING sivr!.] 42. ‘Venerable Nagasena, your people say thus: “King Sivi gave his eyes to the man who begged them of him, and when he had thus become blind, new eyes were given to him from heaven*.” This statement is unpalatable’, it lays its speaker open to rebuke, it is faulty. For it is said in the Sutta: “When the cause has been utterly destroyed, when there is no longer any cause, any basis left, then the divine eye cannot arise*.” So if he gave his eyes away, the statement that he received new (divine) ones must be false: and if divine eyes arose to him, then the statement that he gave his eyes away must be false. This dilemma too is a double-pointed one, more knotty than a knot, more piercing than an arrow, more confusing than a jungle. It is now put to you. Rouse up in yourself the desire to accomplish the task that is set to you, to the refutation of the adversaries!’ 1 The story is given at length in the Sivi Gataka, No. 499 (vol. iv, pp. 401-412 of Professor Fausbdll’s edition). 2 There is nothing in the text of the Gataka (p. 410) of the new eyes being ‘divine’ or ‘from heaven.’ There new, ordinary eyes arose to him as the result of his virtue. ’ Sa-kasa/am. Kasafa cannot mean simply ‘insipid’ as Dr. Edward Miller suggests at p. 43 of his ‘Pali Grammar,’ for it is opposed to dullness, insipidity (manda) at Anguttara II, 5, 5. It must mean there ‘wrong, not only by omission, but by commission.’ Compare its use in the Dhammapada Commentary, p- 275; G&taka I, 108, II, 97; and in the commentary on the Puggala IV, 24. Mr. Trenckner points out in his note that it is often written saka/a, and is no doubt the same as the Sanskrit word so spelt, and given by Wilson. (It is not in Bohtlingk-Roth.) * I don’t know which Sutta is referred to. N2 180 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV, 1, 43 ‘King Sivi gave his eyes away, O king. Harbour no doubt on that point. And in stead thereof divine eyes were produced for him. Neither on that point should you harbour doubt.’ ‘But then, Nagasena, can the divine eye arise when the cause of it has been utterly destroyed, when no cause for it, no basis, remains ?’ ‘Certainly not, O king.’ ‘What then is the reason [120] by which in this case it arose, notwithstanding that its cause had been utterly destroyed, and no cause for it, no basis, remained. Come now. Convince me of the reason of this thing.’ 43. ‘What then, O king? Is there in the world such a thing as Truth, by the asseveration of which true believers can perform the Act of Truth??’ ‘Yes, Lord, there is. And by it true believers make the rain to fall, and fire to go out*, and ward off the effects of poison, and accomplish many other things they want to 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 at the trembling of the earth, the serpents, and mungooses, and cats, and jackals, and boars, and deer, and birds became greatly distressed, and the Yakkhas of inferior power wept, while those of greater power were merry.’ 39. ‘Just, O king, as when a huge and mighty cauldron? is placed in an oven full of water, and crowded with grains of rice, then the fire burning beneath heats first of all the cauldron, and when that has become hot the water begins to boil, and as the water boils the grains of rice are heated and dive hither and thither in the water, and a mass of bubbles arises, and a garland of foam is formed— just so, O king, king Vessantara gave away whatsoever is in the world considered most difficult to bestow, and by reason of the nature of his generosity the great winds beneath were unable to refrain from being agitated throughout, and on the great winds being thrown into confusion the waters were shaken, and on the waters being disturbed the broad earth trembled, and so then the winds and the waters and the earth became all three, as it were, of one accord by the immense and powerful influence that 1 This conception of the earth resting on water and the water on air is Indian, and forms no part of distinctively Buddhist teaching. * Mahati-mah4-pariyogo; not in Childers nor in the Sanskrit Petersburg Dictionary. Htnafi-kumburé renders it ita mahat wu maha bhaganayak, IV, 1, 40. VESSANTARA, 177 resulted from that mighty giving. And there was never another giving, O king, which had such power as that generosity of the great king Vessantara. 40. ‘And just, O king, as there are many gems of. value found in the earth—the sapphire, and the great sapphire, and the wish-conferring gem, and the cat’s eye, and the flax gem}, and the Acacia gem ?, and the entrancing gem, and the favourite of the sun’, and the favourite of the moon‘, and the crystal, and the kaggopakkamaka'‘, and the topaz, and the ruby, and the Mas4ra stone ‘—but the glorious gem of the king of kings is acknowledged to be the chief of all these and surpassing all, for the sheen of that jewel, O king, spreads round about for a league on every side ’—just so, O king, of all the gifts that ? Umm4-puppha; rendered diya-mendiri-pushpa in the Simhalese. Clough gives diyameneri as a plant ‘commelina cucullata.’ ? Sirfsa-puppha; rendered m4r4-pushpa in the Simhalese, m4r4 being the seed of the ‘adenanthera pavonia.’ * Suriya-kanto, which the Simhalese merely repeats. ‘ Kanda-kanta; and so also in the Simhalese. These are mythic gems, supposed to be formed out of the rays of the sun and moon respectively, and visible only when they shine. 5 The Simhalese has kaggopakramaya, which is not in Clough. ®° Mas4ra-galla, which the Simhalese renders by mas4ragalya, which Bohtlingk-Roth think is sapphire or smaragd, and Clough renders ‘emerald,’ and the commentary on the Abhidhana Padfpika, quoted by Childers, says is a stone produced in the hill of Mas4ra (otherwise unknown).
2®° Mas4ra-galla, which the Simhalese renders by mas4ragalya, which Bohtlingk-Roth think is sapphire or smaragd, and Clough renders ‘emerald,’ and the commentary on the Abhidhana Padfpika, quoted by Childers, says is a stone produced in the hill of Mas4ra (otherwise unknown). On similar lists of gems elsewhere see the Kullavagga IX, 1, 3, and my note at pp. 249, 250 of the ‘ Buddhist Suttas’ (vol. xi of the ‘ Sacred Books of the East ’). 7 So also in the Mah4-Sudassana Sutta I, 32, translated in the ‘ Buddhist Suttas,’ p. 256. Compare above, p. 35 of the text. (35] N 178 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV,1, 41. have ever been given upon earth, even the greatest and the most unsurpassed, that giving of the good king Vessantara is acknowledged to surpass them all. And it was on the giving of that gift, O king, that the broad earth shook seven times’. 41. ‘A marvellous thing is it, Nagasena, of the Buddhas, and a most wonderful, that the Tathagata even when a Bodisat (in the course of becoming a Buddha) [119] was so unequalled in the world, so mild, so kind, and held before him aims so high, and endeavours so grand. You have made evident, NA4gasena, the might of the Bodisats, a most clear light have you cast upon the perfection of the Conquerors, you have shown how, in the whole world of gods and men, a Tathagata, as he continues the practice of his noble life, is the highest and the best. Well spoken, venerable Nagasena. The doctrine of the Conqueror has been exalted, the perfection of the Conqueror has been glorified, the knot of the arguments of the adversaries has been unravelled, the jar of the theories of the opponents has been broken in pieces, the dilemma so profound has been made clear, the jungle has been turned into open country, the children of the Conqueror have received the desire of their hearts*. It is so, as you say, O best of the leaders of schools, and I accept that which you have said!’ [Here ends the dilemma as to the earthquake at Vessantara’s gift. ] ? There is here a long paragraph in the Simhalese omitted in the Pali. * Nibb&hana; rendered abhiwarddhiya in the Simhalese. - IV, 1, 42. ; KING SIVI. 179 [KING sivr!.]
3] ? There is here a long paragraph in the Simhalese omitted in the Pali. * Nibb&hana; rendered abhiwarddhiya in the Simhalese. - IV, 1, 42. ; KING SIVI. 179 [KING sivr!.] 42. ‘Venerable Nagasena, your people say thus: “King Sivi gave his eyes to the man who begged them of him, and when he had thus become blind, new eyes were given to him from heaven*.” This statement is unpalatable’, it lays its speaker open to rebuke, it is faulty. For it is said in the Sutta: “When the cause has been utterly destroyed, when there is no longer any cause, any basis left, then the divine eye cannot arise*.” So if he gave his eyes away, the statement that he received new (divine) ones must be false: and if divine eyes arose to him, then the statement that he gave his eyes away must be false. This dilemma too is a double-pointed one, more knotty than a knot, more piercing than an arrow, more confusing than a jungle. It is now put to you. Rouse up in yourself the desire to accomplish the task that is set to you, to the refutation of the adversaries!’ 1 The story is given at length in the Sivi Gataka, No. 499 (vol. iv, pp. 401-412 of Professor Fausbdll’s edition). 2 There is nothing in the text of the Gataka (p. 410) of the new eyes being ‘divine’ or ‘from heaven.’ There new, ordinary eyes arose to him as the result of his virtue. ’ Sa-kasa/am. Kasafa cannot mean simply ‘insipid’ as Dr. Edward Miller suggests at p. 43 of his ‘Pali Grammar,’ for it is opposed to dullness, insipidity (manda) at Anguttara II, 5, 5. It must mean there ‘wrong, not only by omission, but by commission.’ Compare its use in the Dhammapada Commentary, p- 275; G&taka I, 108, II, 97; and in the commentary on the Puggala IV, 24. Mr. Trenckner points out in his note that it is often written saka/a, and is no doubt the same as the Sanskrit word so spelt, and given by Wilson. (It is not in Bohtlingk-Roth.) * I don’t know which Sutta is referred to. N2 180 THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV, 1, 43 ‘King Sivi gave his eyes away, O king. Harbour no doubt on that point. And in stead thereof divine eyes were produced for him. Neither on that point should you harbour doubt.’ ‘But then, Nagasena, can the divine eye arise when the cause of it has been utterly destroyed, when no cause for it, no basis, remains ?’ ‘Certainly not, O king.’ ‘What then is the reason [120] by which in this case it arose, notwithstanding that its cause had been utterly destroyed, and no cause for it, no basis, remained. Come now. Convince me of the reason of this thing.’ 43. ‘What then, O king? Is there in the world such a thing as Truth, by the asseveration of which true believers can perform the Act of Truth??’ ‘Yes, Lord, there is. And by it true believers make the rain to fall, and fire to go out*, and ward off the effects of poison, and accomplish many other things they want to 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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