80 Gleanings in Buddhism. [July, 



excavation, holding in his hands the golden vase. This he delivered 

 to the king. The lamps in the cavity still burned brightly and the 

 flowers bloomed and diffused their fragrance around.* 



When His Majesty had perused the inscription on the precious stone 

 left by Ajattasatru, he angrily exclaimed : — 



" Am I then a poor man or prince, I the King before whom tributary 

 nations bow the knee ?" 



He had no sooner finished this speech than he dashed the slab on 

 the ground and broke it to pieces. 



He next read the inscription upon the plate of gold, and regretted his 

 haste in destroying the slab, while he admired the humility of the prince 

 who had penned the inscriptions. f 



When His Majesty had returned to the city, he called a council of 

 priests, astrologers, and wise men or pundits, in order that they should fix 

 upon an auspicious site for a magnificent Chaittya in which the regained 

 relics might be placed. But this council did not feel competent to 

 decide so momentous a case, and the king was at last obliged to go into 

 the forest and consult the Tapassa Sokkhalibutta and Thera Malai. 

 These holy persons informed him that there was a much holier Thera 

 still, named Utt'hak'hut, whose abode was below the waters, and that it 

 would be by his aid alone that the new Chaittya could be surrounded 

 with the requisite invisible walls of defence. £ 



Raja Naga§ now felt his palace becoming warm, and immediately 



* This mention of a horse seems to me to have reference to the funeral customs of 

 Tartary or Scythia. 

 t This is an important passage, as the Chinese and Trans-himalayan Buddhists insist 



on making Asoka a contemporary of Sakya Muni ; and in the QJ§^*V ? 39 ^ (Hdsangs 

 blun), 28th volume of the Mdo, there is a legend of his meeting Asoka when a child 

 and receiving from him a handful of earth, as alms, in his begging pot. (Schmidt, Der 

 Weise und der Thor, vol. 2, p. 217.) The same story is alluded to by Fa hian, Chapter 

 xxxii. ; in commenting upon which in the recent reprint of that work, we have ventured 

 to doubt if there exist any counterpart of this legend in Pali, or among the Buddhists 

 of the south. It is impossible in the present state of our knowledge to account for the 

 extraordinary anachronism of the Chinese who make Sakya the contemporary of Muh- 

 Wang (B. C. 1000—945) and of Asoka ; but it would be no difficult matter to show 

 that their chronology contains in itself ample materials for its own complete refutation. — 

 Eds. 



% This Utt'hak'hut is doubtless the Assak'hutta Thero mentioned in the Milanda Raja. 



& " Whose abode is in Patala." — As. Res. 





