864 Account of the T'ootk relic of Ceylon. [Oct, 



the true faith, approaching Pa'ndu, the ruler of men, thus addressed him : * Raja I 

 if a person having witnessed such a manifestation of the divine power of the 

 supreme Muni as this is, experience not the slightest joy, can he be endowed with 

 wisdom ? Raja ! rejoicing under circumstances worthily productive of joy, is as 

 inherent in the nature of a good man, as is the voluntary expansion of the whole 

 tribe of the night-blowing flowers when the moon rises. Raja ! forsake not the 

 path that leads to heaven, by (following) the doctrines of these ignorant persons. 

 What man, not an idiot, who is on his travels, would seek his way, employing at 

 blind man for his guide I The illustrious sovereigns, Kappino, Bimbisa'ro,, 

 Suddho'da'no' and other raja's (the contemporaries of Buddho) believing in 

 the salvation of that raja of dhaV-mo, with sincerity of faith, drank of dhanmo, 

 as if it were the nectar of the gods. The thousand-eyed and long-lived chief of 

 the dew os (Indra), having had recourse to the lord of Munis, who had over- 

 come mortality (regeneration by transmigration), and heard his pure dhanmo, 

 attaining the blessing of dhanmo (the s6wan sanctification) secured his protract- 

 ed existency (of three kotis and sixty lacs of years). Ruler of men 1 do thou 

 also, in order that thou mayst follow the path that leads to heaven, and eternal 

 emancipation, quickly incline thy heart towards the supreme ruler of dhanmo, 

 the vanquisher of the five deaths, and the dewo of dewos P 



11 The monarch having listened to this declaration, and his disbelief in the 

 three treasures (Buddhism) being overcome, in sincerity of faith, thus addressed 

 himself, in the midst of his court, to the minister who was his spiritual coun- 

 sellor : * I who have disbelieved the merits of the three treasures, which are the 

 means of salvation from Sansdra (eternal transmigration) have long professed 

 an heretical faith ; and although in the full exercise of my imperial authority, 

 I have been deceiving myself (with vain glory), I have been shivering with 

 cold, while I appeared to be a blazing meteor ; and in the blindness of my ig- 

 norance, I have been blowing at a firefly (to produce heat) : while I have been 

 agonized with thirst, forsaking the flowing river, I have been seeking, with pro- 

 crastination, the deceptive waters of a mirage. I who have longed for a pro- 

 tracted existence, rejecting the aliment of life, have subsisted on the subtlest 

 poison ; and throwing aside a garland of sapu flowers, have borne on my shoul- 

 ders a coil of serpents. Forthwith repairing to the sewer and invoking it (the 

 relic) bring forth the relic of the vanquisher : I will perform the acts of 

 piety, which ensure universal, spiritual happiness.' 



" Thereupon this spiritual counsellor of the king, who was the prime minister, 

 in the fulness of his joy, repaired to the sewer ; and bowing down to the relic 

 of the supreme Muni, thus invoked it. ' The ruler of men, renouncing the 

 heretical creed he long professed, places implicit faith in Sugato' (the deity of 

 felicitous advent) ; do thou, therefore, repairing to the palace of this monarch, 

 increase his joy in the three treasures.' 



" Instantly, it (the sewer) assumed the form of a pond like the lake Mandi- 

 hini (in the Himalayan country) resplendent with full-blown flowers of golden 

 hue. Thereupon, the relic of the chief of Munis, like a swan, sailing from one 

 blown flower to another, glittering like the rays of the white jessamine, made the 



