Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 596

102
MAHÂVAGGA.
VI, 28, 9.
and clear vision (&c., as in $ 7, down to :) they bend the hearts of inferior kings and ministers to build dwelling-places there. As far, Ånanda, as Aryan people dwell, as far as merchants travel, this will become the chief town, the city of Pataliputta. But danger of destruction, Ananda, will hang over Påtaliputta in three ways, by fire, or by water, or by internal discord?'
9. And the Magadha ministers Sunidha and Vassakâra went to the place where the Blessed One was ; having approached him, they exchanged greeting with the Blessed One; having exchanged with him greeting and complaisant words, they stationed themselves near him; then standing near him the Magadha ministers Sunidha and Vassakära said to the Blessed One: 'Might the reverend Gotama consent to take his meal with us to-day together with the fraternity of Bhikkhus.'
The Blessed One expressed his consent by remaining silent. Then the Magadha ministers Sunidha and Vassakâra, when they understood that the Blessed One had accepted their invitation, went away.
1 The event prophesied here, Påtaliputta's becoming the capital of the Magadha empire, is placed by the various authorities under different kings. Hwen Thsang and the Burmese writer quoted by Bishop Bigandet ('Legend of the Burmese Buddha,' third edition, vol. ii, p. 183) say that it was Kâlâsoka who removed the seat of the empire to Pataliputta. The Gains, on the other hand, state that it was Udâyi, the son of Agâtasattu. Most probably the latter tradition is the correct one, as even king Munda is mentioned in the Anguttara Nikâya as having resided at Pâtaliputta. Comp. Rh. D.'s 'Buddhist Suttas,' Introd. pp. XV seq.; H.O.'s Introduction to the Mahavagga, p. xxxvii ; and the remarks of Professor Jacobi and of H. O. in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morg. Gesellschaft, vol. xxxiv, pp. 185, 751, 752, note 2.
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