No. 11.— 1858-9.] SINHALESE MYTHOLOGY. 



m 



has locked up the four hells which exist for my spiritual 

 support, and has also set aside my two and sixty hidden (mi re- 

 vealed) devices, (artifices)'; and summoned before him a 

 son (a being) of Vasavarti, and said unto him, ' You were 

 first defeated by doctrinal disputations with Milindu, the 

 son (a deva) of Nirmdnaratiya, heaven, and other heavenly 

 beings were likewise defeated by him. He has subjugated 

 all the six heavens. He also entered into a controversy 

 with a deva of Yama. Him also he has defeated. Since 

 then Ndgasena has vanquished the six heavens by defeating 

 Milindu. By reason of our having originated the disputa- 

 tion, he is incensed against me ; and with a view to destroy 

 my sixty -two devices, he has departed to the human world, 

 where he is born by the name of Milindu, He now reigns in 

 the city of Sagal, as the supreme monarch over a hundred 

 kings of Dambadiva. Since therefore you were first defeating 

 by him in controversial disputations, go and be born in the 

 midst of the city of Sagal, and in the womb of a female of the 

 low Carpenter's caste. And when you shall have grown up, be 

 you Monarch over the whole of Dambadiva, Snatch away" 

 the sceptre of Milindu' s kingdom. Open the gates of the four 

 hells, which exist for the support of my existence ; and uphold 

 and protect my two and sixty secret devices, which shall last 

 •tor ever and ever, (lit: during the entire kalpa.)'' Upon this 

 injunction of Vasavarti Mara, the Mara-son came down from 

 the heaven called Paran6rmita-vasava4% and at midnight 

 was conceived in the womb of a female of the Carpenter's 

 caste in the city of Sagal."* 



down by the aforesaid two priests on their return to Lanka. It is now 

 (the date of the writing) 2305 years after the time of the great 

 Buddha." ,, , , . * 



* A similar story is given in the <• Milindapprasna, as to the birth ot 

 Na-asena. " At the intercession of Assagutta rermnanse\ on behalf of 

 the Buddhist priesthood generally, India, the supreme oithe Bvro*, 

 invoked Nagasena, who was in the Ketumati heaven, and called Malm- 

 ™na , tobe^born in the human world, for W^.^ 

 Milindu, to which Kagasena, after much h / s1 ^^ 

 cordingly he was conceived in the womb of the wife of Sonuttia a 

 Brahman, and an inhabitant of Kajangala, on the borders of the 

 HI mania m ou ntai n». "—Mih n dappra sn a. 



