Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 17.djvu/144

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130
mahâvagga
130

1 30 MAHAVAGGA. VI, 35, 2.

lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. The higher life doth he pro- claim, in all its purity and all its perfectness. Blessed is the sight of Arahats like that^ !' And Keniya the ascetic thought : * What now should I have taken 2 to the Samara Gotama/

2. And Keniya the ascetic thought : * They who are the ancient 7?/shis of the Brfihmans, the authors of the sacred verses, the utterers of the sacred verses, whose ancient form of words, so uttered chaunted or composed, the Brihmans of to-day chaunt over again and repeat, intoning or reciting exactly as had been intoned or recited — to wit, A//>5aka, Vdmaka, Vfimadeva, Vessdmitta, Yama- taggi, Angirasa, Bhdradv^a, V4se//>4a, and Bhagu^ — they were abstainers from food at night, and abstainers from food at the wrong time, yet they used to receive such things as drinks. (3.) Now the Samara Gotama is also an abstainer from food

^ This is a stock phrase. Compare above VI, 34, 11, and the Tevi^^ Sutta I, 7, 46, and the passages quoted on the last by Rh. D., 'Buddhist Suttas/ p. 287.

  • That is, as a present, the usual tribute of respect.

' The names of these i?/shis, and the above phrases from * They who' Ac. downwards, recur several times in the Tevi^^ Sutta. See Rh. D., * Buddhist Suttas,' p. 172, &c. Most of these names are easily to be identified, being in Sanskrit Vdmadeva, Vijvd- mitra, Gamadagni (who is only mentioned in this list in refer- ence to Rig-veda III, 62, quoted from below. See also Oldenberg's note to iSihkhiy ana's Gnliya-s^itra IV, 10 in Indische Studien XV, 153), Angirasa, Bhiradv&^a, VasishMa, Kajyapa, and Bhr/gu. The only doubtful names are V4maka and A/Ziaka. The latter must be Ash/aka, mentioned as the author of Rig-veda X, 104, unless it be supposed to be a corrupt reading under which some representation of Atri may lurk. Vdmaka is the only unin- telligible form, for it would be difficult to see how that word could come to stand for the Vamra to whom Rig-veda X, 99 is ascribed.

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