Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 712

MAHÂ-SUDASSANA SUTTA.
255
"" Auspicious were it to ride upon that Elephant, if only it would submit to be controlled !"
23. “Then, Ananda, the wondrous Elephant-like a fine elephant of noble blood long since well trained-submitted to control. · 24. When as before, Ânanda, the Great King of Glory, to test that wondrous Elephant, mounted on to it early in the morning, it passed over along the broad earth to its very ocean boundary, and then returned again, in time for the morning meal, to the royal city of Kusâvati 1.
25. 'Such, Ânanda, was the wondrous Elephant that appeared to the Great King of Glory.
26. Now further, Ânanda, there appeared to the Great King of Glory the Horse Treasure, all white with a black head, and a dark mane, wonderful in power, flying through the sky—the Charger-King, whose name was “ Thunder-cloud 3."
27. 'When he beheld it, the Great King of Glory was pleased at heart at the thought:
""Auspicious were it to ride upon that Horse if only it would submit to be controlled !"
28. “Then, Ânanda, the wondrous Horse-like
Compare on this and § 29 my. Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 85, where a similar phrase is used of Kanthaka.
* Assa-ratanam.
& Valâhako. Compare the Valahassa Gataka (Fausböll, No. 196, called in the Burmese MS. Valâhakassa Gâtaka), of which the Chinese story translated by Mr. Beal at pp. 332-340 of his
Romantic History,' &c., is an expanded and altered version. In the Valâhaka Samyutta of the Samyutta Nikâya the spirits of the skies are divided into Unha-valâh akâ Deva, Sîta-valâ haka Deva, Abbha-vala hak â Deva, Vâta-valâ hakâ Devâ, and Vassa-valâh akâ Devâ, that is, the cloud-spirits of cold, heat, air, wind, and rain respectively.
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