13 



Another time the Buddha's disciples are compared to a great 

 Naga who liked to give rain to the earth, but, fearing that the 

 latter might not be able to bear the weight of the water, 

 decided to make the rain fall into the sea '. 



In the Tsah pH-yu king ^, a work from -the Korean Tripitaka, 

 not to be found in Nanjo's Catalogue (for nr 1368, which bears 

 the same title, is a different work) we find the following Naga 

 tales. A Naga ascended to the sky and caused abundant rains to 

 fall: for the devas they brought the seven precious things, for 

 mankind fertilizing water, and for the hungry demons a great 

 fire which burned the whole of their bodies ^ 



Another Naga who by means of a single drop of water could 

 give rain to one or two or three kingdoms, nay to the whole 

 Jambudvlpa, placed it in the great sea that it might not dry up *. 



An exorcist of Nagas went with his pitcher full of water to 

 the pond of such a being and by his magic formulae surrounded 

 the Naga with fire. As the water of the pitcher was the only 

 refuge the serpent could find, it changed into a very small 

 animal and entered the pitcher ^. 



Here we see the Nagas not only as rain gods, but also as 

 beings wholly dependent on the presence of water and much 

 afraid of fire, just like the dragons in many Chinese and Japanese 

 legends. 



With regard to the precious pearls in the possession of the 

 Nagas as gods of the waters, we may mention a tale to be 

 found in the Mo ho seng chi lilh " or "Discipline of the Maha- 

 samghikas" (nanjo, nr 1119), translated in 416 by Buddhabhadra 

 and Fah-hien '. There we read about a Naga who wore a necklace 

 of pearls, which he liked so much that he preferred it to his 

 friendship towards a hermit. The latter, daily tortured by the 

 Naga's coils, wound around his body, succeeded in getting rid 



1 L.I., Vol. I, nr 138, p. 410 (Trip. XIX, 7, p. 24). 



2 ^ ^ t^^) '^^- Chavannes, 1.1., Vol. II, p. 1, note 1. Both this work and 

 the Chungking chwen tsah pH-yu king, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 1^ ^ (Nanjo, nr 

 1366) are said to be compiled by the bhiksu Tao Liou, ^ ^ , but are probably 

 two diffei-ent editions of his work; Kumarajiva seems to have translated Tao Lioh's 

 work in 401 A. D. 



3 Chavannes, 1.1., Vol. II, nr 167, p. 23 (Trip. XIX, 7, p. 3). 



4 L.I., Vol. II, nr 193, p. 63 (Trip. XIX, 7, p. 8). 



5 L.I., Vol. II, nr 179, p. 42 (Trip. XIX, 7, p. 5). 



6 ^ ^ f^ jflft ^ ' Mahasamghika vinaya. 



7 Nanjo, Catal, App. II, nrs 42 and 45. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



