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326
FO-SHO-HING-TSAN-KING.
V, 28.
the Mallas asking to share the sacred relics (of Buddha). 2219 „Then the Mallas reverencing the body of Tathagata, trusting to their martial renown, conceived a haughty mind: 2220
They would rather part with life itself (they said), than with the relics of the Buddha;' so those messengers returned from the futile embassage. Then the seven kings, highly indignant, 2221
With an army, numerous as the rain clouds, advanced on Kusinagara; the people who went from the city filled with terror soon returned 2222
And told the Mallas all, that the soldiers and the cavalry of the neighbouring countries were coming, with elephants and chariots, to surround the Kusinagara city. 2223
The gardens, lying without the town, the fountains, lakes, flower and fruit trees were now destroyed by the advancing host, and all the pleasant resting-places lay in ruins. 2224
The Mallás, mounting on the city towers, beheld the great supports of life? destroyed; they then prepared their warlike engines to crush the foe without; 2225
Balistas ? and catapults and 'Aying torches 3' to
1 The supports of life, as I take it, are the fields and fountains.
? It may be rendered 'bow catapults' and 'balista-stone-carriages,' or bows, catapults, balistas, and stone carriages (carrying machines ?).
3 These flying torches and other instruments were used by the Northern nations from remote antiquity. There is no indication of them, however, in the plate (xxxviii) in Tree and Serpent Worship, which, I take it, represents this scene. Asvaghosha was familiar with Kanishka and his military appliances, and these doubtless included the instruments here referred to.
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