[1] Kah-gyur, ii. 202–209. [↑]
[2] What is said here about the Nāga is referred to an elephant (= nāga), as Professor Minayef reminds me, in a Pāli recension of the Viśvantara Jātaka. The king of Kalinga, in whose realms there was a famine due to want of rain, sent eight Brahmans to Jayaturā, the capital of Śibi, to obtain from Viśvantara the white elephant which had the power of producing rain. See Spence Hardy’s “Manual,” p. 116, and Köppen’s “Religion des Buddha,” p. 324.—S. [↑]
[3] See Tāranātha’s “History of Buddhism in India,” p. 70, where Nāgārjuna conjures the goddess Chaṇḍikā into the Manjuśri temple by the insertion of a wedge of Khadira-wood.—S. The Khadira is the Acacia Catechu. [↑]
[4] In Sanskrit, Amoghapāśa.—S. [↑]
[5] Butterschaum, perhaps a kind of clotted cream. [↑]
[6] “A family priest, a king’s domestic chaplain, a priest who conducts all the ceremonials and sacrifices of the family, &c.” [↑]
[7] See Böhtlingk, “Indische Sprüche,” 2d edit., No. 2627.—S. [↑]
[8] This passage is extremely obscure. It is evident that Professor Schiefner was puzzled by it, for he has on the sheets prepared for the present translation made considerable alterations in his version as it originally appeared. There appears to be good reason for supposing that the Crocodile and the Butterfly, the Sad and the Gay, the Weeper and the Laugher, are names of rivers, but at present we must be contented with a hypothesis. The German text originally ran as follows: “Viele Flüsse, die mit zehntausend Alligatoren angefüllt sind, musst du überschreiten. Krokodile, Schmetterling, ein Betrübter, ein Bunter, ein Weinender, ein Lachender, Schlangenreicher und rohrreicher Fluss; im Krokodil ist Rākshasī-Zorn, im Schmetterling ein Dämon, in dem Betrübten viele Meerungeheuer,” &c. As altered by Professor Schiefner it runs: “Krokodile, Schmetterling, eine Betrübte, eine Bunte, eine Weinende, eine Lachende, ein Schlangenreicher und rohrreicher Fluss,” &c. The whole passage has been submitted to various experts, who are inclined to accept the fluvial hypothesis. [↑]
[9] Dharma-rāja, “ ‘king of justice,’ an epithet of Yama.” [↑]