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No. 35.]
KASYAPA IMAGE INSCRIPTION FROM SILAO.
329
account of Käsyapa may not be met with. We have, however, certain references in literature, which are of great value to us inasmuch as they not only bear out the information imparted by our inscription but also supplement it. It will, therefore, be interesting to cite them
here.
The events narrated in the inscription evidently follow the order of their sequence. It may further be observed that each of the nine attributive clauses refers to one distinct happening connected with Käsyapa's life. To sum up the whole, Kafyapa (1) occupied the position of Surapati for seven times successively in some of his former births, (2) was born on this earth in a wealthy family, (3)" ?, (4) renounced the world, forsaking his wife Kāpilēya, (5) showed sympathy with the wretched, so much so that it excited the admiration of the gods, (6) worshipped the Lord with intense piety, (7) received the Lord's robe at the time of the latter's nirvana, (8) expounded the Law and finally (9) attained nirvāṇa on the mount Gurupāda.
In literature, it is the later Pāli works like various Ayhakathās that furnish us with a somewhat detailed narrative of Kāśyapa's ' early life, which may be summarised as follows:
His boyhood's name was Pippali Māņavaka". He was born to a wealthy Brāhmaṇa of the Kapila gotra at the village of Mahātittha (Mahātirtha) in Magadha. From the very beginning he was averse to worldly life. He would look after his parents so long as they lived and afterwards turn a monk. But when he came of age, his parents exhorted him to marry.. He refused to do so. However, when his mother persistently remonstrated with him on this point, he devised means by which, he thought, he would have his way and, at the same time, would not incur his mother's displeasure. He got an image of a young lady of supernatural beauty fashioned of pure gold, bedecked with glittering jewels and daintily clad in red. He presented the image to his mother, declaring that if he were to have a bride of that form, he would fain go in for wedlock. He had fancied that neither would such a paragon of beauty be forthcoming, nor would he marry. This, however, did not dishearten his mother. She rather imagined that her son was very fortunate and that he must have done meritorious deeds in his former births, not alone but in company with a lady of golden hue (suvarna-varnā). She, therefore, at once called in a council of eight Brāhmaṇas, handed over the gold idol to them and charged them with the duty of finding out a damsel of the requisite beauty to be the bride of her son. The Brāhmaṇas mounted the idol on a chariot and set out on their mission. They travelled far and wide until at last they reached the city of Sāgala in the Madra desa, where they found a girl who in grace and charm far excelled the gold image, not to speak of resembling
1 Owing to the portion left unread here, it is not clear what event was described in this sentence.
* This obviously adverts to the occasion of the First Buddhist Council which was held at Rajagriha. convened and presided over by Kibyapa.
It will be clear from Dr. G. P. Malalasekera's Dictionary of Pali Proper Names that the Buddhist literature knows of numerous personages bearing the name Kasyapa or Maha-Kasyapa. A fairly exhaustive description of the Kidyape of our record is given in that work under Maha Kassapa Thera (Vol. II. pp. 476-483), which winds up with the remark that “Mahi Kassapa was so onlled to distinguish him from other Kaesapas, and also because he was possessed of great virtues".
Sigala or Sakala has been identified with Sialkot in the Punjab. See Cunningham's Ancient Geography of India, edited by S. Majumdar Sastri (1924), pp. 686 f.; N. L. Dey, Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeral India, pp. 173 1. ; B. C. Law, Geography of Early Buddhism, PP. 13 L. The country of the Madras lay between the Ravi and the Chinab; see N. L Dey, op. cit. p. 116.
