1838.] Pali Buddhistical Annals. 799 



¥ At the conjuncture (in question), the aforesaid assemblage, consisting of the four 

 great kings (of the dewos) Sakko (IndraJ Suga'mo, Santusito and Wasawatti, 

 together with the great brdhmas in each Chakkawalan, assembled together in one 

 Chakkawalan (of the ten thousand) ; and repairing to the Buddho elect on whom 

 the pubbanimitte had been manifested; thus addressed him. 'Blessed! by thee, 

 the ten probationary courses have been fulfilled, not for the purpose of realizing 

 the beatitude of a sakko, a brdhma or other deity : the state of omniscience has 

 been sought for by thee, for the purpose of redeeming the world, by attaining 

 Buddhohood.' They then thus invoked him: ' Mahdwiro f thy time is arrived; 

 be conceived in the womb of thy mother. Rescuing dewd and mankind (from the 

 miseries of sin) vouchsafe (to them) the condition of immortality.' 



*' Thereupon the great elect, who was thus entreated by the dewd, without giving 

 any indication of his having acceded to the prayer of the deiod— reflected succes- 

 sively on these five principal points ; viz. as to the time (of his advent) ; the quarter 

 of the world ; the country and the tribe in which he should appear ; and who his 

 mother, and what the term of his existence should be. 



" On examining, in the first place, whether it is or is not the proper time (for the 

 advent of a Buddho) if it be found, that the term of human existence is then a 

 hundred thousand years and upwards, it is not a proper period ; because under so 

 protracted an existence, the human race have no adequate perceptions of birth, 

 decav or death. The tenets of the dispensation of (all) the Buddha are insepara- 

 ble from the recognition of those three points, characteristic of the Buddhist faith. 

 To those (Buddha) who may expiate on those points, viz. perishability, misery (of 

 transmigration) and anattd — those (who are gifted with this longevity) would reply ; 

 * what is it they are talking about : it should neither be listened to nor believed.' 

 The state of sanctification (abhisamayo) is, under those circumstances, unattainable. 

 While that condition (of longevity) prevails, religion itself is divested of its sancti- 

 fying influence. Consequently that age is not a proper one (for an advent). Nor 

 is the age in which the term of human existence is less than one hundred years a 

 proper one ; because from vices being then predominent among mankind, the admo- 

 nition that is imparted to them is not allowed time to produce a lasting affect — 

 vanishing like the streak drawn on the surface of the water. That also is not a 

 proper age (for the advent). The proper age is that in which the term of human 

 existence is less than one hundred thousand and more than one hundred. At the 

 particular period uow in question, the term of human existence was one hundred 

 years ; and therefore it appeared to be the proper age in which the advent of the 

 elect should take place. 



" Then he reflected as to the quarter of the world, contemplating the four quarters 

 together with their satellites groups ; and as in three of them the Buddha do not 

 manifest themselves, he saw that Jarnbudipo was the quarter in which he should be 

 born. And on reflecting as to the country in that great Jarnbudipo, which is in ex- 

 tent ten thousand yojana, in which Budtlha are born, he saw that the Majjhima- 

 disa was the proper one, and he also distinctly foresaw, that there, in Majjhimadesa 

 Kapilawattha was the city which was destined to be the place of his birth. 



" Thereupon, on pondering on the tribe, he found that the Buddha are not born 

 in the Wessd or Suddd caste, but either in the Khattiya or Brahma caste, whichever 

 might at the time be predominent in the world ; and he said, ' now the Khattiya 

 is the superior. I shall be born therein, and the raja Suddhodano will be my 

 father.' And then on considering as to who his mother should be, he said * She 

 who is destined to be the mother of a Buddho is chaste and sober, and has fulfilled 

 her probationary career through a hundred thousand kappe, and preserved uninter- 

 ruptedly, from her birth, the observance of the five sitdni ; such appears to be the 

 5 H 



