________________
Life of Lord Mahâvîra
with cloth white as the flowers of the white mustard plant. Beyond these again, at a respectful distance, there was drawn a curtain fringed with jewels, and of the finest city manufacture, embroidered with images of stags, bulls, horses, men, crocodiles, birds, serpents, heavenly choristers, eight-legged deer, Tibetan cows, and elephants, with forest flowers and water lilies, forming, a perfect screen from the multitude. Within this was set a throne covered with the purest white cloth, and fringed with gold and jewels, for Queen Trisala, soft and easy to sit on. Having then called the royal messengers, King Siddhartha thus addressed them: " "O beloved of the gods, go quickly and call a sage skilled in the Institute of the eight kinds of prognostics, learned in all the Sastras, and especially skilled in the interpretation of dreams. "O beloved of the gods, the noble Tris'ala, to-night, after having slept a short time, saw, in her own splendid apartments, the following fourteen dreams: An elephant, a bull ( as before). Tell me what particular good fortune, and special felicity, these dreams portend." Thereupon the interpreters of dreams, with glad and joyous hearts, having heard the request of the noble Siddhartha, one of them, citing the texts from the Institute of Dreams, spoke as follows: "O beloved of the gods, we have diligently searched the Institute of Dreams, and find that there are forty-two common dreams, and thirty extraordinary dreams, in all seventy two. And it is further said, that the mother of an Arhat (highest order of Jain saint), or Chakravarti (emperor), sees fourteen of the thirty extraordinary dreams at the period of such child's conception. It is further stated that the mother of a Vasudeva, on such an occasion, sees seven, and then awakes; and the mother of a Baladeva, four; while the mother of a Mandalika Raja (dependent king), sees one. Since, then, O beloved of the gods, the noble Trisala has seen the whole of the fourteen propitious dreams; this portends the obtaining of wealth, the obtaining of felicity, the obtaining of a son, the obtaining of joy, the obtaining of sovereignty,—and all this, O beloved of the gods, without any sort of doubt. Accordingly, after nine months and seven and a half days, the noble Tris'ala will bring forth a son, who shall be a royal standard to his family,
.....an emperor of the four regions of the world, a conqueror of the passions, and also emperor of the four virtues. Such, O beloved of the gods, is the purport of the propitious dreams the noble
31
