[490] Then a certain king, hearing that there was no king in Benares, went to see, and found the city adorned and decorated. Entering the royal palace, he saw the treasure lying in a heap. "What!" said he, "to renounce a city like this, and to become a religious so soon as the chance came, this is truly a noble thing!" Asking the way of some drunken fellow he went to find Hatthipala. When Hatthipala perceived he was come to the skirt of the forest, he went out to meet him, and poised in the air declared the Law to his company. Then he led them to the hermitage, and received the whole band into the Brotherhood. In the same manner six other kings joined them. These seven kings renounced their wealth. The hermitage, six and thirty leagues in extent, was filling continually. When some great man had thoughts of lust or any such thing, he would declare the Law to him, and teach them the thought of the Perfections and the Ecstasy; these then generally developed

the mystic trance; and two-thirds of them were born again in Brahma's world, while the third being divided into three parts, one part was born in Brahma's world, one in the six heavens of sense, one having performed a seer's mission was born in the world of men. Thus they enjoyed each of the three their own merit . Thus Hatthipala's teaching saved all from hell, from animal birth, from the world of ghosts, and from being embodied as a Titan.

In this island of Ceylon, those who made the Renunciation were: Elder Dhammagutta, who made the earth to quake; Elder Phussadeva, a citizen of Katakandhakara; Elder Mahasamgharakkhita, from Uparimandalakamalaya; Elder Malimahadeva; Elder Mahadeva, from Bhaggiri; Elder Mahasiva, from Vamantapabbhara; Elder Mahanaga, from Kalavallimandapa; those in the company of Kuddala, of Mugapakkha, of Culasutasoma, of Ayoghara the Wise, and last of all Hatthipala. Therefore said the Blessed One, "Make haste, ye happy!" etc. , that is, happiness will come only if they use all speed.

[491] When he had ended this discourse, the Master said, "Thus, Brethren, the Tathagata made the Great Renunciation long ago, as now"; which said he identified the Birth: "At that time, King Suddhodana was King Esukari, Mahamaya his queen, Kassapa the chaplain, Bhaddakapilani his wife, Anuruddha was Ajapala, Moggallana was Gopala, Sariputta was Hatthipala, the Buddha's followers were the rest, and I myself was Hatthipala."

Footnotes

^293:1 Vol. vi. p. 339 (Pali).

^294:1 Or (taking the reading in the text), "not seeing any other way out of it." Courtesans in India were said to be married to certain trees: perhaps this woman belongs to that class.

^294:2 Four Lords of the Earth, North, South, East, and West.

^295:1 Third of the Heavens of Sense, Hardy: Manual, p. 25.

^296:1 See Smnyutta Nikaya, p. 1.