________________
142
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1875.
Then the king was convinced, and ten thousand a festival and promised him that the people Brahmans gave np wearing their hair in knots should believe his words. Deva came to the pa(that is to say, they were shaved), and made goda of Nagarjuna, & advanced into the spiritual the vows of perfection (that is, of the spiri- state, and then began to enlighten the people. tual calling). Then Nagarjuna spread Buddh- But that did not satisfy him; he was possessed ism widely in Southern India: he humbled the with the desire to convert the king himself. For Tirthikas, and to explain the doctrines of the that purpose he went to the bodyguards, and Mahayana he composed the Upadest, of 100,000 after having gained their attention he asked gáthas; besides that, he composed Chyrane iane permission to enter into discussion with some jo lao lune, The Sublime Path of Buddha,' heretics, every one of whom he overcame. Deva consisting of 5,000 gáthas; Da tzzi fane biane composed Bo-lune erl-chi ping, The Hundred lune, The Art of Pity,' consisting of 50 gáthas fold Meditation,' and Oi bo lune (400 gáthas) for (5,000 ?). It was by means of these that the the overthrow of error, but a Tirthika laid doctrine of the Mahayana spread on all sides open his stomach and he died. As he had in Southern India. Besides these he compos- before this givery one of his eyes to Maheśvara ed U veä lune, Meditations on Intrepidity,' in when he met him at the festival, he remained 100,000 gáthas.* A Brahman who had en blind of an eye, and was surnamed Kâ nadeva. tered into discussion with him produced a magie 4. Vasu bandhu was born in the kingdom pond in the middle of which was a water-lily of Purushapura, || in Northern India. In with a thousand leaves, but Nagarjuna produced the history of the god Vishņu the following is a magic elephant which overturned the pond. related :-Vishna was the younger brother of At length, upon a chief of the Hinayana show- Indra, who had sent him into Jambudvipa to ing a desire that Nagarjuna should die, he shut conquer the Asura: he was born as son to the king himself up in his solitary chamber and disap- Vasudeva. At this time the Asura existed peared. For a hundred years temples were under the nameof Indradamana (conqueror raised in his honour in all the kingdoms of of Indra), a name which he had received because India, and people began to worship him as they of his war against Indra. In the Vyúkarana* it is did Buddha. As his mother had borne him said that the Asura asserts that it is not a good under an Arjuna tree, he received the name of thing for people to amuse themselves by giving Arjuna, and as after that a Naga (dragon) had opposition to the gods who find enjoyment in taken part in his conversion, the name Nâga was well doing. This Asura had a sister named added, whence has resulted the name Någår. Prabhavatit (sovereign of light), who was very juna (in Chinese Lune-chu, dragon-tree; the beautiful. The Asura, wishing to injure Vishnu, Thibetans translate it converted by a dragon'). I placed his sister in a prominent position, and He was the thirteenth patriarch, and adminis- himself told her that if any one wished to tered religion more than three hundred years.t marry her she was to propose that he should
3. Deva (Aryadeva) was descended from a seek a quarrel with her brother. Viskņu came to Brahmanical family of Southern India. He this place; he fell in love with Prabhâvati, and, as rendered himself celebrated by his general all the gods had married daughters of the Asuras, knowledge. There was in his kingdom a golden he proposed marriage to her: he was in conseimage of Maheśvara two sagenest high; whoever, quence forced to fight a deel with the Asura. in asking a favour, turned himself towards it, Vishņu, as the body of Nârâ yaņa, was had his prayer granted in the present life. All invulnerable; the Asura also continued to who presented themselves were not admitted to live though Vishnu had cut off his head, hands, the image, but Deva insisted that he should and other limbs, which returned anew to their be allowed to enter, and when the angry spirit places. The fight continned till night, and the began to roll his eyes, he pulled one of them out. strength of Vishnu was beginning to fail, when Another day Maheśvara appeared to him in his wife, fearing lest he should be beaten, took
• We do not now find all these works of Nagarjuna $ Yet we do not know that NAgårjans was still alive, either in Chinese or Thibetan, though there are others that go under his name.
though the usual legends make Aryadeva the personal disciple of NÅgårjuna.
Fw-lou-cha.fu-lo. + This note is found in the Chinese biography.
Ine-to-lo-to-ma-na; to-ma-na signifying vanquisher. The sageno' is a Russian measure of 6 ft. 92 in.
Bi-kia-lo.
Po-lo-po-no.di.
