was told that you did not know the three Vedas or the Elephant Lore, and that is why I have caused the festival to be managed by others." "Very well, Sire. If there is one amongst all these brahmins who can recite a portion of the Vedas or the Elephant Lore against me, let him stand forward! Not in all India is there one save me who knows the three Vedas and the Elephant Lore for the ordering of an Elephant festival!" [50] Proud as a lion's roar rang out the answer! Not a brahmin durst rise and contend with him. So the Bodhisatta kept his ancestral right, and conducted the ceremony; and laden with riches, he returned to his own home.

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When the Master had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths, and identified the Birth:--some entered on the First Path, some on the Second, some the Third, and some the Fourth:--"Mahamaya was at that time my mother, king Suddhodana was my father, Ananda was king Susima, Sariputta the famous Teacher and I myself was the young Brahmin."

Footnotes

^32:1 An elephant trainer's manual, the hastisutram or hasticiksa, cf. Mallinatha, Raghuv. vi. 27.

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