The Great Being therefore saw that the time of his advent had arrived.
Then reflecting upon the Continent, and considering the four great continents with their surrounding islands,[1] he thought, "In three of the continents the Buddhas do not — but in Jambudvīpa they do — appear," and thus he decided on the continent.
Then reflecting upon the District, and thinking, "Jambudvīpa indeed is large, ten thousand leagues in extent; now in which district of it do the Buddhas appear?" he fixed upon the Middle Country.[2] And calling to mind that the town named Kapilavastu was in that country, he concluded that he ought to be born in it.
Then reflecting on the Tribe, he thought, "The Buddhas are not born in the Vaisya caste, nor the Sūdra caste; but either in the Brāhmana or in the Kshatriya caste, whichever is then held in the highest repute. The Kshatriya caste is now predominant, I must be born in it, and Suddhodana the chief shall be my father." Thus he decided on the tribe.
Then reflecting on the Mother, he thought, "The mother of a Buddha is not eager for love, or cunning after drink, but has fulfilled the Perfections for a hundred thousand ages, and from her birth upwards has kept the five Precepts unbroken. Now this lady Mahā Māyā is
- ↑ In the seas surrounding each continent (Mahādīpa) there are five hundred islands. See Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, p. 13.
- ↑ Majjhima-desa, of which the commentator adds, "This is the country thus spoken of in the Vinaya," quoting the passage at Mahāvagga, v. 13, 12, which gives the boundaries as follows: "To the E. the town Kajaŋgala, and beyond it Mahāsālā; to the S.E. the river Salalavatī; to the S. the town Setakaṇṇika; to the W. the brāhman town and district Thūṇa; and to the N. the Usīraddhaja Mountain." These are different from the boundaries of the Madhya Desa of later Brahminical literature, on which see Lassen's 'Indische Alterthumskunde,' vol. i. p. 119 (2nd edition). This sacred land was regarded as the centre of Jambudvīpa; that is, of the then known world — just as the Chinese talk of China as the Middle Country, and as other people have looked on their own capital as the navel or centre of the world, and on their world as the centre of the universe.
