to India. For this reason his name, originally Arjima, was changed 

 into Nagarjuna ', and he is represented in art with seven Nagas 

 over his head 2. 



The Mahayana school knows a long list of Naga kings, among 

 whom the eight so-called "Great Naga kings" are the following: 

 Nanda (called Nagaraja, the "King of the Nagas"), Upananda, 

 Sagara, Vasuki, Takshaka, Balavan, Anavatapta and TJtpala ^ 

 These eight are often mentioned in Chinese and Japanese legends 

 as "the eight Dragon-kings", Aff ^, and were said to have 

 been among Buddha's audience^ with their retinues, while he 

 delivered the instructions contained in the "Sutra of the Lotus 

 of the Good Law" (Saddharma Pundarika sutra, Hokkekyo, ^ 



The Nagas are divided into four castes, just like men, and 

 form whole states. "They are", says Grunwedel % "the Lords of 

 the Earth more than any one else, and send, when having been 

 insulted, drought, bad crops, diseases and pestilence among 

 mankind". 



With regard to the Nagas in Indian art we h^ive an excellent 

 guide in GfitiNWEDEi's Buddhistische Kunst in Indieri. After having 

 stated that the Vedas not yet mention them '', but that they 

 belong to the Indian popular belief, extended afterwards by the 

 official brahmanic religion, he further remarks that they often 

 penetrated in human shape into the Master's neighbourhood and 

 even tried to be taken up among his followers, as we see on a 

 relief of Gandhara (p. 102, Fig. 47; the Naga's true shape was 

 detected in his sleep). For this reason one of the questions put, 

 even to-day, to those who wish to be taken up into the Order 

 is: "Are you perhaps a Naga?" There are three ways in which 

 the Indian Buddhist art has represented the Nagas. First: fully 

 human, on the head an Uraeus-like snake, coming out of the 



1 Translated into Lung-shu, ^U J^, or Dragon-tree; cf. Edkins, p. 230; Eitel, 

 1.1., p. 103. We find the name Nagarjuna in the Kathasaritsagara, Ch. XLI, Tawney's 

 translation, Vol. I, p. 376: a minister, "who knew the use of all drugs and by making 

 an elixir rendered himself and king Chirayus (Long-lived) free fi-om old-age, and long- 

 lived". 



2 Grunwedel, 1.1., pp. 30 seqq., p. 46. 



3 Grunwedel, 1.1., pp. 190 seq. 



4 Haedy, 1.1., p. 215. 



5 L.I., p. 187. 



6 Cf. L. VON ScHUOEUER, Itidiens Literatur und Cultur (1887), p. 377: "Im Rigveda 

 sind dieselben (die Schlangeng6tter) ganz unbekannt, in Yajurveda aber finden wir be- 



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