As he was thus bent on leading the Brother's life, his ministers drew near and said, "What is the reason, sire, why you adopt the Brother's life?"

Taking the grey hair in his hand, the king repeated this stanza to his ministers:--

Lo, these grey hairs that on my head appear
Are Death's own messengers that come to rob
My life. 'Tis time I turned from worldly things,
And in the hermit's path sought saving peace.

[paragraph continues] [139] And after these words, he renounced his sovereignty that self-same day and became a recluse. Dwelling in that very Mango-grove of Makhadeva, he there during eighty-four thousand years fostered the Four Perfect States within himself, and, dying with insight full and unbroken, was reborn in the Realm of Brahma. Passing thence, he became a king again in Mithila, under the name of Nimi, and after uniting his scattered family, once more became a hermit in that same

[paragraph continues] Mango-grove, winning the Four Perfect States and passing thence once more to the Realm of Brahma.

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After repeating his statement that he had similarly renounced the world in bygone days, the Master at the end of his lesson preached the Four Truths. Some entered the First Path, some the Second, and some the Third. Having told the two stories, the Master shewed the connexion between them and identified the Birth, by saying:--"In those days Ananda was the barber, Rahula the son, and I myself King Makhadeva."

[Note. See Majjhima-Nikaya, Sutta No. 83 of which is entitled the Makhadeva Sutta. According to Leon Feer (J. As. 1876, p. 516) the Bigandet MS. calls this the Devaduta-jataka. Bigandet in his Life or Legend of Gaudama (p. 408) gives a version of this Jataka, in which the king is named Minggadewa, and in which the doings of King Nemi (= Nimi above) are given in great detail. See Upham's Mahavansi, vol. i. p. 14, and the 'Nemy' Jataka referred to by him as the 544th Jataka. See also Cariyu-Pitaka, p. 76, and Plate XLVIII. (2) of the Stupa of Bharhut, where the name is carved Magha-deva, a spelling which is retained in modern Burmese manuscripts of the Majjhima Sutta from which this Jataka was manifestly compiled.]

Footnotes

^30:2 See p. 61 et seqq. of Vol. i. of Fausboll's text for this account of how Prince Siddhattha, the future Buddha, renounced the world for the Truth.