of his former body in the tigress's den, and his parents sighing and groaning around them. He returned from his heavenly abode to give them some consolation and some good advice. They were at length somewhat comforted, and collecting his bones, buried them in a costly sarcophagus.
Buddha then turns to Ânanda and asks him whom he supposes the actors in this tragedy to have been. He tells him, without waiting for an answer, that the king was his present father, the queen his present mother, the elder princes certain personages named Maitreya and Vasumitra, and the youngest prince no other than himself. The young tigers were, it need hardly be said, the condemned felons whom he had now again delivered from death.
While this anecdote inculcates charity in its fullest extent, the one which is now to be quoted illustrates another most conspicuous point in the ethics of Buddhism,—the regard paid by it to personal purity and the deadening influence it exercised on the senses. The translation of this curious legend is due to Burnouf:—
"There was at Mathurâ a courtesan called Vâsavadattâ. Her maid
went one day to Upagupta to buy her some perfumes. Vâsavadattâ said
to her on her return: 'It seems, my dear, that this perfumer pleases
you, as you always buy from him.' The maid answered her: 'Daughter
of my master, Upagupta, the son of the merchant, who is gifted with
beauty, with talent, and with gentleness, passes his life in the observance
of the law.' On hearing these words Vâsavadattâ conceived an affection
for Upagupta, and at last she sent her maid to say to him: 'My intention
is to go and find you; I wish to enjoy myself with you.' The maid
delivered her message to Upagupta; but the young man told her to
answer her mistress: 'My sister, it is not yet time for you to see me.'
Now it was necessary in order to obtain the favors of Vâsavadattâ to
give five hundred Purânas. Thus the courtezan imagined that [if he
refused her, it was because] he could not give the five hundred Purânas.
For this reason, she sent her maid to him again to say, 'I do not ask a
single Kârchâpana from the son of my master; I only wish to enjoy myself
with him.' The maid again delivered this new message, and Upagupta
answered her in the same way: 'My sister, it is not time yet for
you to see me.'
