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NOTE II.
The king on hearing this was filled with joy, and caused a white elephant to be sumptuously equipped for the purpose of bringing to the place this learned man? Then all the Devas and Nägas and spirits assembled in countless numbers and in various shapes accompanied the cortege as it left the city. Then Asita, seeing the transformed appearances of the Devas, knew that Suddhodana-råga had a holy son, whose spiritual (divine) glory outshone that of all the Devas and men, and so his heart was rejoiced, and he desired to go to behold him. On this the world-honoured one (i.e. Buddha) again, for the sake of the assembly, repeated these Gåthâs :
The Brahman Rishi Asita Beholding the Devas flying thro' space, Their forms beautiful and of golden colour, Seeing them, was filled with joy. Devas, Asuras, and Garudas (golden-wings) Chanting their praises in honour of Buddha, Hearing these verses, how great his joy. Then looking by his divine sight thro' the world, And considering the various examples of men of renown, Whose excellences were as the mountain tops, Or like the well-set and glossy flowers of the tree, Wherever dwelt the lord of the three worlds, There the wide-spreading earth would be level as the palm of the hand, There would be heavenly and unmixed joy, There would be abundance as the treasures of the sea king. Regarding thus the declarations ("reason," or "way") of the law, That one should come who would destroy evil and put an end to
sorrow, Whilst he saw the Devas flying thro' space, And listened to their melodious songs (sounds), Regarding these fortunate and rare occurrences, Asita looked through the world, And narrowly scanning (the territory of) Kapila (and the family of)
Suddhodana-rậga • He saw that a child had there been born with fortunate signs.
'Taou gin, this is another instance of the use of this expression not for a Buddhist, but for a religious man generally.
'Kun-to, which I can only restore to Khandas, in the sense of a verse or singing a verse.
The sentence is elliptical and difficult ; literally rendered it would be 'scanning Ka-i-pih-wang,' where I take Ka-i to be a form for Kapi(la) (just as the expression Kiu-i, so commonly met with as the name of Bodhisattva's wife, may be restored to Gopi) and pib-wang (the white king) to be a contracted form of Suddh(odana)-râga.
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