20 



and Garuda stopped eating, but was requested by Jlmutavahana 

 himself to go on. Then the snake on whose behalf he sacrificed 

 his life, arrived and cried from far; "Stop, stop, Garuda, he is 

 not a snake, I am the snake meant for you". Garuda was much 

 grieved and was about to enter the fire to purify himself from 

 guilt, but following Jimutavahana's advice determined never 

 again to eat snakes, and to make revive those which he had 

 killed. The goddess Gauri by raining nectar on Jlmutavahana 

 made him safe and sound, and Garuda brought the nectar of 

 immortality from heaven and sprinkled it along the whole shore 

 of the sea. "That made all the snakes there (whose bones were 

 lying there) rise up alive, and then that forest, crowded with 

 the numerous tribe of snakes, appeared like Patala come to behold 

 Jlmutavahana, having lost its previous dread of Garuda" '. 



Patala-land, the seven under-worlds, one of which was called 

 Kasatala ^ (sometimes equivalent to Patala) ', was inhabited by 

 Nagas, Asuras, Daityas and Danavas (two classes of demons 

 opposed to the gods and identified with the Asuras). There were 

 temples of the gods (Qiva*, Durga ^, the ' Fire-god "), worshipped 

 by the demons. As to its entrances, these are described as moun- 

 tain caverns ' or "openings in the water" ®; or wonderful flagstaffs 

 rising out of the sea with banners on them showed the way 

 thither ^. Sometimes human kings were allowed to visit this 

 Fairy land. Chandraprabha e.g., after having offered to Qiva and 

 Rudra, with his queen and his ministers, with Siddharta at their 

 head, entered an opening in the water pointed out by Maya, and 

 after travelling a long distance, arrived there ^''. And king Chan- 

 dasinha with SattvaQila plunged into the sea and following the 

 sinking flagstaff reached a splendid city ". Also king TaQahketu, 

 after diving into the sea, suddenly beheld a magnificent city, 

 with palaces of precious stones and gardens and tanks and wishing-^ 

 trees that granted every desire, and beautiful maidens '^ This 

 agrees with the description of the Naga palaces which we found 

 in the Jatakas. 



A temple of Vasuki, the king of the snakes, is mentioned in the 



1 Ch. XXII, Vol. I, pp. 182 sqq.; cf. Ch. XC, Vol. II, pp. 312 sqq. 



2 Vol. I, p. 417; II, 544. 3 II, 185, note 4. 



4 II, 198, in the form of Hatakegvara. We read on p. 109 of the Sang hyang 

 Kamahayanikan, an interesting old-Javane.se text translated by J. Kats, that Igvara 

 Brahma and Vishnu by order of Vairocana filled heaven with gods, the earth with men, 

 and the nethei-world (Patala) with Nagas. 5 II, 267. 6 II 547. 



7 I, 446. "There are on this earth many openings leading to the lower regions", 



ri. -197. 8 T. 417. 9 IT 9fi0 A(\ 1 AAI tA tj oen 



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