No. 11.— 1858-9.] NAGARJTJNA AND NAGASENA. 



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hierarchy of the Buddhist Church. It has been shewn by 

 Mr. Tumour, that the first was also applied to priests ; and the 

 second, we know from our own records, to princes ; for in- 

 stance, in our own country Sri Sanga B6 y who had taken 

 upon himself the vows of the Ata-sil order is called a Bodhis- 

 atwa, in the following extract from the "Attanagajuwansa ": — 



Lankabhi sitta vasudhadi patesu raja 

 Y6 b6dhi-satta gunawa Siri-Sanga bddhi ; 

 Tassaticharu chariya rachana mukhena 

 Vakkhami Hattlia-vanagalla Vihara wansan. 



" I celebrate the history of the Temple of Attanagalla ; and first 

 dwell on the highly laudable conduct of Sri Sanga Bo, who was a 

 Bhodhisatwa among the sovereigns of Lanka." 



The meaning assigned to this term in the Raja Tarangani, 

 though not comprehensive, may yet be regarded as approach- 

 ing to correctness, for the historian himself thus explains its 

 signification in the following stanza : — 



Loke bhagawato 16ka, natha darabhya kechana 

 Ye janta voga takkleshan, bodhisatwana vehitan. 



"Know ye that if there was any person in the world, from the 

 sanctified Buddha downwards, who had destroyed Klesha, he is a 

 Bhodhisatwa.' 1 



But, whether we regard this distinguished personage as 

 one who denounced the six arahatwas, according to the 

 rendering of the passage by Professor Wilson, or take him 

 as one who had passed six days in the wilderness, as described 

 in the Nagara version, there is, in either case, nought to doubt 

 the alleged identity between N agar j una and Nagasena. It 

 would however seem, that from these appellations alone we 

 cannot ascertain the precise character of Nagasena. Yet the 

 criticism which I have already offered, and by which the text 

 was altered into "shadar vana sanshraye" as one who " spent 

 six days in the wilderness," enabling us to fix upon the 

 sacerdotal or the ascetic character of Nagarjuna, we proceed 

 to a consideration 



