[142]. Bishop Bigandet, Life of Gaudama, p. 287; Professor H. Wilson, Essays, vol. ii. p. 243; Wheeler, History of India, vol. iii. p. 139; Oldenberg, Buddha, etc., p. 148; Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, in Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi. pp. 71, 72.
[143]. Mahâparanibhâna Sutta, vi. 10, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi. p. 114. Dr. Edkins, in Chinese Buddhism, p. 57, gives a version of an appearance of Buddha after cremation to his mother, Máya, who came down from heaven to see his coffin. Professor Childers finds no trace in any Pali earliest literature of any belief in Buddha’s existence after death (Dictionary of Pali Language, p. 472, note 1).
[144]. Oldenberg, Buddha, etc., pp. 322, 323; Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, p. 264.
[145]. In the Bhagavadgitá loving devotion for Krishna is demanded as the only means of salvation; but Krishna-worship began very considerably later than the origin of Christianity. Professor Müller admits (Gifford Lectures, p. 99) that Christian influences were possible then, but says that there is no necessity for admitting them. He cites the passage from Bhagavad. ix. 29 (Sacred Books of the East, vol. viii. p. 34), “They who worship me with devotion or love, they are in me, and I in them,” as an interesting parallel to John vi. 7 and xvii. 23, but we must remember that St. John’s words were circulating all over the world for generations before these were penned.
[146]. Mahavagga, v. 1. 18.
[147]. The Lalita Vistara, of which there are many versions, is the chief authority for the legends. In the Buddhist Birth-Stories, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, in Bigandet’s Life of Gaudama, and Spence Hardy’s Manual (Legends of the Buddhists), in the Romantic Legend of Sakya Buddha, translated by Professor S. Beal, will be found a large and interesting miscellany of the prodigies connected with the coming of Buddha.
[148]. A wife, not a virgin; Romantic Legend, pp. 32, 36, 37, 41.
[149]. Lalita Vistara, p. 63, Calcutta edition; Buddhist Birth-Stories, pp. 62, 68.
[150]. Nalaka Sutta, Sutta Nipâta, xi. 1. 20, 21; Sacred Books of the East, vol. x. Asita, the aged ascetic, is said to have ascended to heaven after his daily repast, and upon finding the gods in joyful commotion he at length returned to see the new-born wonder (Birth-Stories, p. 69).
[151]. Title given by the translator of the Dhanima-Kakka-ppavatana Sutta, in vol. xi. of Sacred Books of the East.