488 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Book I. Story 2. Matthakundali. 15 



ILLUSTRATING STANZA 2 = 2. 



At Savatthi lived a Brahman of a disposition so niggardly that peo- 

 ple called him Adinnapubbaka (Never-gave-a-farthing). He had an 

 only son, whom he dearly loved. Desiring to give the boy a pair of 

 earrings, but at the same time to avoid unnecessary expense, he beat 

 out the gold himself, made him a pair, and gave them to him ; where- 

 fore people called the boy Matthakundali (The-boy-with-the-burnished- 

 ear-rings). When the boy was sixteen years old he had an attack of 

 jaundice. The mother wished to have a physician called, but the 

 father demurred at the thought of paying him his fee, inquired of 

 various physicians what remedies they were accustomed to prescribe 

 for such and such an ailment, and treated him himself. The boy grew 

 steadily worse and was soon at the point of death. Realizing this, and 

 fearing that those who came to see his son would also see the wealth 

 the house contained, the Brahman carried his son outside and laid him 

 down on the terrace. (25-6) 



That very morning the Exalted One, arising from a Trance of Great 

 Compassion, and surveying the world with the eye of a Buddha, beheld 

 Matthakundali lying on the terrace at the point of death. Foreseeing 

 that Matthakundali, and through him many others, would attain the 

 Fruit of Conversion, Buddha visited him on the following day. The 

 youth made an Act of Faith in Buddha, died, and was reborn in 

 the world of the Thirty-three. (26-8) 



Adinnapubbaka, after having the body of his son cremated, went daily 

 to the cemetery and bewailed his loss. Matthakundali, desiring to 

 convert his father, assumed the form he had borne upon earth, and 

 went and wept also. The Brahman asked the youth why he was weep- 

 ing. The latter replied : " I need a pair of wheels for my chariot. 

 The sun and moon are just what I want, and 1 weep because I cannot 

 get them." The Brahman told him he was a fool. "But which of us 

 is the bigger fool," said the youth, "I, who weep for what exists, or 

 you, who weep for what does not exist ? " The youth then told him 

 that he was his son, and that he had attained his present glory by 

 making an Act of Faith in the Buddha. Thereupon the father sought 

 refuge in the Buddha, the Law, and the Order, and took upon himself 

 the Five Precepts. The son, after urging his father to visit the 

 Buddha, disappeared. (28-33) 



The Brahman invited Buddha and his monks to dine with him. 



18 Cf. Rogers, pp. 12-17. 



