26 



precious gems and jewels, accompanied by a mighty assemblage 

 of bhikshus, and by a mighty assemblage of bodhisattvas, and a 

 mighty host of kings, to wit, Nanda the Snake King, and Upa- 

 nanda (here follows a list of 185 snakes) \ attended, I say, by 

 84 hundreds of thousands of millions of krores of snakes assem- 

 bled and seated together"; All the Nagas saluted the Lord, bending 

 their clasped hands towards him, whereupon they stood on one 

 side and made supplications. "Let us worship, let us reverence, 

 esteem, honour the samudras (infinite numbers) of Bodhisattvas .. . 

 riding upon the sea-clouds, immeasurable and innumerable, with 

 samudras of cloud-bodies" . Then the "Great Supreme King of 

 Snakes" asks: "How, Venerable One, may all the troubles of 

 all the snakes subside; (and how) may the}'' (thus) gladdened and 

 blessed, send forth rain-torrents here, seasonably for JambudvTpa; 

 make all grasses, bushes, herbs, forest-trees to grow; produce 

 all corn; give rise to all juices, whereby the men of Jambudvlpa 

 may become blessed?" The Master answers, that all the troubles 

 of the Nagas may subside and they may be reborn in the 

 Brahma-world by exercising charity. Further, they must put into 

 action the Sarvasukhandada dharani, and repeat the names of the 

 Tathagatas, "whose families and races are sprung from the one 

 hair-tip of Vairocana, speedy producers of happiness [consisting of] 

 a circle of clouds". Here follows a large number of names of 

 Tathagatas, among which in the Chinese text ^ such are found 

 as: "Tathagata who stores up the great clouds" ^, "Tathagata the 

 displaying of whose nature sends forth the clouds" *, "Tathagata 

 who holds in his hands (and directs) the clouds and the rain"^, 

 "Great raisgr of the clouds" ", "Great disperser of wind and 



1 Among these Naga-kings the Chinese text gives names as: Moon-cloud, Sea-cloud, 

 Great Cloud-receptacle (store-house), Nsga-king who sends down the rain, Naga-king of 

 Cloud? and Rain, Great Rain, King of Clouds, etc. ( EI §& y^ ^& -j^ ^& S^ 



W M ft i ^ # PM fi 3E . :A M . ® 3E)- 0" P- 2« of nr ISS we 



find the Naga-king Kumbhira (Crocodile) (^ \Sf^ ^ ^g ^ ), i.e., as Beal {Catena, 

 p. 423) rightly remarks, the well-known god Kompira of Japan. When at the Restau- 

 ration the Shintoists reclaimed all their temples from the Buddhists, they wrongly 

 declared Kompira to be an obscure Shinto deity, called Kotohira, and thus took possession 

 of all the shrines of this Naga-king, the protector of sailors and of those who travel on sea. 



2 P. H sq. 



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