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CHAPTER THREE
the east door, and circumambulated the caitya-tree that was a kos and sixteen hundred bows high. After saying, " Reverence to the congregation," the Lord sat down on the lion-throne, facing the east, and the gods made images of him in the other directions. The congregation, gods, asuras and mortals stood in their proper places. Vajrabhịt (Sakra) bowed to the Lord of the World and recited a hymn of praise as follows:
Stuti (218–226) "The aśoka-tree 435 is delighted, singing, as it were, with humming bees; dancing, as it were, with trembling leaves ; delighted,426 as it were, by your virtues. For a yojana the gods scatter flowers with their stalks set straight down knee-deep on your preaching ground. The sound of your divine music purified by the grāmarāgas, Mālava, Kaišiki, etc., 427 is absorbed by them with their necks erect from joy like deer. The row of chauris, white as moonlight, shines like a flock of hansas engaged in hovering around your lotus-face. While you, seated on the lion-throne, deliver a sermon, the deer come to listen, as if to serve a lion. Surrounded by masses of light, 428 like the moon by moonlight, you give the highest joy to eyes as if they were cakoras. O Lord of the whole universe, a drum sounding in the sky first indicates your great sovereignty, as it were, over the authoritative persons of the world. Your three umbrellas, indicating your powerful lordship over the three worlds, resemble steps of the wealth of merit, one above the other. Who is not amazed, O Lord, when he has seen this amazing wealth of miraculous signs 629 of yours ? Even the heretics are.”
425 218. The caitya-tree. 428
8. Rakta, with reference also to the red flowers. 427 220. See I, n. 163. 128 223. The bhāmandala.
420 226. Prātihārya, the 8 of which have just been enumerated. See I, App. V.
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