498 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Yasa and his Fifty-four Companions performed many meritorious 

 deeds in the dispensation of a previous Buddha, making the wish that 

 they might thereby attain Arahatship. In a later dispensation they 

 banded themselves together for the performance of good works, and 

 weiit about caring for the dead bodies of paupers. One day they came 

 upon the dead body of a pregnant woman. They carried the body to 

 the cemetery, Yasa and four others undertook the duty of cremating it, 

 and the rest returned to the village. While Yasa was engaged in 

 turning the body over and over, he acquired a sense of the impurity of 

 the body. This he communicated to the four others, who in turn 

 communicated it to the rest. Yasa also went and communicated it to 

 his mother, his father, and his wife. It was due entirely to this that 

 Yasa obtained in the women's apartments, the disposition of mind re- 

 quisite to Conversion and that he and the others developed Specific 

 Attainment. (99-100) 



The Thirty Young Noble3 made their wish to attain Arahatship 

 under previous Buddhas and performed works of merit. In a later dis- 

 pensation they gave themselves up to the pleasures of sense, but on 

 hearing the admonition addressed to Tundila they kept the Five 

 Precepts for seventy thousand years. (100) 



The Three Brothers, Uruvela Kassapa, Nadi Kassapa, and Gaya 

 Kassapa, entertained the Buddha Phussa, their oldest brother, and 

 made the wish to attain Arahatship thereby. After undergoing rebirth 

 as gods during ninety-two cycles of time, they obtained the fulfilment 

 of their wish. (At that time Bimbisara was their superintendent, the 

 lay brother Visakha their steward, and the three ascetics with matted 

 locks were the three royal princes.) Their serving men had a very 

 different experience. The latter diverted to their own use the food 

 they had been ordered to bestow in alms. After undergoing rebirth as 

 ghosts during four Buddha-intervals, they came and begged food and 

 drink of the Buddha Kakusandha, who referred them to the Buddha 

 Konagamana, who referred them to the Buddha Kassapa, who com- 

 forted them with the assurance that, in the dispensation of his suc- 

 cessor Gotama, their kinsman Bimbisara would be king, and would 

 obtain relief for them by transferring to them the merit he would earn 

 by giving alms to the Teacher. Thus at last they obtained celestial 

 food, drink, and robes, and became gods. (100-104) 



Sarada and Sirivaddha. Sariputta and Moggallana were born as 

 Sarada and Sirivaddha respectively at the time when the Buddha 

 AnomadassI appeared in the world. Sarada retired from the world 

 with seventy-four thousand followers, entertained AnomadassI, and 

 held the flower parasol over him for seven days, making the wish that 



