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 668

174
MAHÂVAGGA.
VIII, 1, 5.
Because (the people had said about this boy to Abhaya), 'He is alive' (givati), they gave him the name of Givaka; because he had been caused to be nourished by the royal prince (kumarena posàpito), they gave him the name of Komârabhakka'.
5. And ere long Givaka Komârabhakka came to the years of discretion. And Glvaka Komârabhakka went to the place where the royal prince Abhaya was; having approached him he said to the royal prince Abhaya : 'Who is my mother, Your Highness, and who is my father ?'
'I do not know your mother, my good Gtvaka, but I am your father, for I have had you nourished.'
Now Givaka Komârabhakka thought: 'In these royal families it is not easy to find one's livelihood without knowing an art. What if I were to learn an art.'
6. At that time there lived at Takkasilà (Tágua) a world-renowned physician. And Glvaka Komârabhakka without asking leave of the royal prince Abhaya set out for Takkasila. Wandering from place to place he came to Takkasilâ and to the place where
· Evidently the redactors of this passage referred the first part of the compound Komârab hakka to the royal prince (kumara) Abhaya, and intended Komârabhakka to be understood as 'a person whose life is supported by a royal prince.' So also the name Kumara-Kassapa is explained in the Gataka commentary (Rh. D., Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 204). The true meaning of the name, however, appears to have been different, for in Sanskrit kumârabhritya and kaumârabhritya are technical terms for the part of the medical science which comprises the treatment of infants (see Wise, 'Commentary on the Hindu System of Medicine,' p. 3). We believe, therefore, that this surname Komârabhakka really means, Master of the kaumârabhritya science,'
Digitized by
Digilzed by Google