Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

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THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES
IV, 8, 57.
57. 'Or again, O king, suppose there were a Salaka', minute in the measure of its body, and rendered lean by disease, and it on seeing an elephant king, which showed the signs of rut in three places, and was nine cubits in length, and three in breadth, and ten in girth, and seven in height, coming to its lair, were to begin to drag the elephant towards it with the view of swallowing it-now would the Salaka, O king, be able to do so3 ?'
Certainly not, Sir.' But why not, O king ?'. 'Because of the minuteness of the Salaka's body, and because of the magnitude of the elephant king.'
* Just so, O king, the mind of one under seven years of age is powerless and weak, limited, insignificant, obscure, and dull. Grand and transcendental is the ambrosial essence of Nirvana 4. With that mind so powerless and weak, so limited, insignificant, obscure, and dull, he cannot penetrate into the grand and transcendental essence of Nir
It is unknown what this kimi (insect, vermin, small creature) is, and it is not mentioned elsewhere. Susruta mentions a sârikamukha insect, and as in one rare word at least, which the Pali translator did not sufficiently understand to restore to the ordinary Pâli form (kalasi for karisi, see above, I, xxiii), we find la stood in our author's dialect for ri, there may be some connection between the two. It would be particularly interesting to be able to determine the species and habitat of this creature, as it might throw some light on the district in which our author flourished.
* These measurements differ slightly from those given above, IV, 8, 14 (p. 282 of the Pali), for a fine elephant.
. 3 Compare the tale of the frog who wanted to swallow the bull in Æsop's fables (not yet traced in the Gatakas). Is the Sâlaka a kind of frog, much smaller than ours?
So Hinati-kumburê, p. 455.
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