Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 49.djvu/27

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
BOOK I, 29-40.
7

thus did he of lion gait, gazing at the four quarters, utter a voice full of auspicious meaning.

35. Two streams of water bursting from heaven, bright as the moons rays, having the power of heat and cold, fell down upon that peerless ones benign head to give refreshment to his body.

36. His body lay on a bed with a royal canopy and a frame shining with gold, and supported by feet of lapis lazuli, and in his honour the yakshalords stood round guarding him with golden lotuses in their hands.

37. The gods in homage to the son of Mâyâ, with their heads bowed at his majesty, held up a white umbrella in the sky and muttered the highest blessings on his supreme wisdom.

38. The great dragons[1] in their great thirst for the Law[2], — they who had had the privilege of waiting on the past Buddhas, — gazing with eyes of intent devotion, fanned[3] him and strewed Mandâra flowers over him.

39. Gladdened through the influence of the birth of the Tathâgata, the gods of pure natures and inhabiting pure abodes[4] were filled with joy, though all passion was extinguished, for the sake of the world[5] drowned in sorrow.

40. When he was born, the earth, though fastened down by (Himalaya) the monarch of mountains, shook like a ship tossed by the wind ; and from a cloudless sky there fell a shower full of lotuses and water-lilies, and perfumed with sandalwood.


  1. Mahoragâh.
  2. Cf. infra, sloka 54.
  3. Avyagan.
  4. Suddhâdhivâsâ.
  5. Reading hitâya.