168 



was very little water in the pond. As to the Rain-prayer- sutra, 

 i. e. the Mahamegha sutra, this was still in his days considered a 

 powerful means for obtaining rain. 



Before leaving this subject we may observe that, according to 

 the Kokushi daijiien ', the park was repeatedly destroyed and 

 restored, but that the pond is still there, and on a small island 

 in the midst of.it there are two chapels, one dedicated to Zennyo, 

 the Dragon-king, the other to Benten. So this dragon, identified 

 with an Indian Naga, has bestowed rain upon Japan for eleven 

 hundred years! 



§ 5, The "Dragon-hole" on Mount Murobu. 



The above-mentioned Dragon-hole {Ryu-hetsu, gf ^), where 

 sutras were read in order to cause rain, is spoken of in the 

 Kojidan ^, where we read the following details. 



The Dragon-hole on Mount Murobu*, in Yamato province, is 

 the abode of the Dragon-King Zentatsu ( ^ ^ , Sudatta ? Sudar- 

 cana?*), who first lived in the Sarusawa " pond at Nara. In olden 

 times, when a harlot had drowned herself in the latter pond, 

 the Dragon-King fled to Mount Kasuga, where he lived till the 

 corpse of a man of low standing was thrown into his pond. 

 Then he fled again and established himself on Mount Murobu, 

 where the Buddhist bishop Kenkei observed his religious austerities. 

 Another priest, Nittai by name, who for many years cherished 

 the wish of seeing and worshipping the Dragon-King's venerable 

 shape, entered the hole in order to seek him. The entrance was 

 pitchdark, but after having penetrated into the inner part of the 

 hole, he arrived at a splendid palace under a blue sky. Through 

 an opening of a window-blind (sudare), made of pearls, which 

 was moved by the wind, he saw a part of the Hokkekyo, the 

 Saddharma Pundarlka sutra, lying on a jewel table. Then he 

 heard a voice asking him who he was, and when he mentioned 

 his name and the reason of his entering the hole, the Dragon- 

 King (for he was the invisible speaker) said: "Here you cannot 



^ H ^ ^. ^ J^, "Great Dictionary of Japanese History" (1908), p. 4338 



S.V. Shinsenen. 2 Ch. V, K.T.K. Vol. XV, p. H9. 



3 ^^UJ. 



■4 Dr Nanjo had the kindness to point out to me, that ^ i^ may be Sudatta, 



but that there is no Dragon-king of this name; Sudargana, however, is found in the 

 list of the Naga-rajas. 

 K A^ iSS 0/U. 



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