64 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [February, 1910. 



built eighty-four thousand monasteries in eighty-four thousand 

 towns throughout Jambudipa. And so it is said : ' ' Through the 

 fault of having used ' Candala ' as a term of abuse he (Nigro- 

 dha) was born in a Candala hamlet, and through obtainment 

 of the fruition of his approval of the good deed he became a 

 perfect Arahat." This is the narrative of Nigrodhatthera. 



The merchant who gave the honey, however, having de- 

 scended from the world of Devas, was reborn in the royal family 

 of Pupphapura as the prince Piyadasa, and after having raised 

 aloft the royal umbrella enjoyed an undisputed authority over 

 the whole of Jambudipa. How was this ? 



King Bindusara had a hundred sons. Asoka assassinated 

 them all with the exception of prince Tissa, who was born of the 

 iame mother as himself. After murdering them all he man- 

 aged the government for four years without being formally 

 anointed. But at the expiration of that period, two hun- 

 dred and eighteen years after the death of Buddha, he attained 

 to a coronation as sole ruler over the whole of Jambudipa. 

 On this occasion the kings ruling over the eighty-four thousand 

 cities in the whole of Jambudipa, came to pay respect to him. 

 He had three palaces appropriate to the three seasons. One of 

 them was called Mahasappika, the second Moraglva, and the 

 third Mangala; in these he abode, surrounded by countless 

 thousands of dancers. The maid-servant, who had shown him 

 (the Paccekabuddha) the honey-market, was born as the prin- 

 cess Asandhimitta, as beautiful as a heavenly nymph, and 

 became the principal queen of king Dhammasoka, with autho- 

 rity over sixty thousand women. 



No sooner had the coronation taken place than the king 

 was furnished with the following kingly powers. His com- 

 mands prevailed for a yojana below the earth and for a yojana 

 above in the sky. Deities daily brought sixteen jars full of 

 water, eight men's load, from the Anotatta lake, from which 

 when converted to the Faith he gave eight to the assembly of 

 mendicants, two to sixty Tipitaka-bhikkhus, two to his chief 

 queen, Asandhimitta, and four he kept for his private use. 

 Deities also supplied him daily with tender, fresh and tasteful 

 tooth-cleaners, made from the betel- vine and brought from the 

 Himalaya. They were so abundant that they sufficed for the 

 daily cleansing of the teeth of all — the king, the chief queen, 

 sixteen-thousand dancers, and sixty thousand Bhikkhus. The 

 deities also presented him with the Amalaka and the Haritaka 

 medicines and the tasty and sweet-scented golden leaves of 

 mango trees. They brought for him clothes of five colours 

 from the Chaddanta lake, and gave him a yellow kerchief for 

 wiping the hands, and heavenly beverages. And daily too the 

 Xaga kings brought him from the Naga palace emollient scent, 

 jasmine- flowered cloth without seam for his apparel, and colly- 

 rium. Likewise from the Chaddanta lake every day parrots 



