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I, 41.
NÂGASENA.
35
of darkness and diffuser of light; mighty in eloquence, a confounder of the followers of other masters, and a crusher-out of the adherents of rival doctrines (malleus hereticorum). Honoured and revered by the brethren and sisters of the Order, and its lay adherents of either sex, and by kings and their high officials, he was in the abundant receipt of all the requisites of a member of the Order
-robes and bowl and lodging, and whatever is needful for the sick-receiving the highest veneration no less than material gifts. To the wise and discerning who came to him with listening ear he displayed the ninefold jewel of the Conqueror's word, he pointed out to them the path of righteousness, bore aloft for them the torch of truth, set up for them the sacred pillar of the truth', and celebrated for their benefit the sacrifice of the truth. For them he waved the banner, raised the standard, blew the trumpet, and beat the drum of truth. And with his mighty lion's voice, [22] like Indra's thunder but sweet the while, he poured out upon them a plenteous shower, heavy with drops of mercy, and brilliant with the coruscations of the lightning flashes of his knowledge, of the nectar waters of the teaching of the Nirvana of the truththus satisfying to the full a thirsty world.
41. There then, at the Sankheyya hermitage, did the venerable Nâgasena, with a numerous company of the brethren, dwell ?. Therefore is it said:
Dhamma-yûpam; with allusion to the sacred sacrificial post, which plays so great a part in Brahman ritual.
* Literally with eighty thousand:' but this merely means to say, with a large (undefined) number. See the use of the phrase in the Nâlapâna Gâtaka (Fausböll, No. 20).
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