[7] Asita; see Eitel, p. 15. He is called in Pali Kala Devala, and had
been a minister of Suddhodana's father.
[8] In "The Life of Buddha" we read that the Lichchhavis of Vaisali
had sent to the young prince a very fine elephant; but when it was
near Kapilavastu, Devadatta, out of envy, killed it with a blow of his
fist. Nanda (not Ananda, but a half-brother of Siddhartha), coming
that way, saw the carcase lying on the road, and pulled it on one
side; but the Bodhisattva, seeing it there, took it by the tail, and
tossed it over seven fences and ditches, when the force of its fall
made a great ditch. I suspect that the characters in the column have
been disarranged, and that we should read {.} {.} {.} {.}, {.} {.},
{.} {.}. Buddha, that is Siddhartha, was at this time only ten years
old.
[9] The young Sakyas were shooting when the prince thus surpassed them
all. He was then seventeen.
[10] This was not the night when he finally fled from Kapilavastu, and
as he was leaving the palace, perceiving his sleeping father, and
said, "Father, though I love thee, yet a fear possesses me, and I may
not stay;" - The Life of the Buddha, p. 25. Most probably it was that
related in M. B., pp. 199-204. See "Buddhist Birth Stories," pp. 120-
127.
[11] They did this, I suppose, to show their humility, for Upali was
only a Sudra by birth, and had been a barber; so from the first did
Buddhism assert its superiority to the conditions of rank and caste.
Upali was distinguished by his knowledge of the rules of discipline,
and praised on that account by Buddha. He was one of the three leaders
of the first synod, and the principal compiler of the original Vinaya
books.
[12] I have not met with the particulars of this preaching.
[13] Meaning, as explained in Chinese, "a tree without knots;" the
/ficus Indica/. See Rhys Davids' note, Manual, p. 39, where he says
that a branch of one of these trees was taken from Buddha Gaya to
Anuradhapura in Ceylon in the middle of the third century B.C, and is
still growing there, the oldest historical tree in the world.
[14] See chap. xiii, note 11. I have not met with the account of this
presentation. See the long account of Prajapati in M. B., pp. 306-315.
[15] See chap. xx, note 10. The Srotapannas are the first class of
saints, who are not to be reborn in a lower sphere, but attain to
nirvana after having been reborn seven times consecutively as men or
devas. The Chinese editions state there were "1000" of the Sakya seed.
The general account is that they were 500, all maidens, who refused to
take their place in king Vaidurya's harem, and were in consequence
taken to a pond, and had their hands and feet cut off.