in India, having been banned in the 19
th
Century by the
British Raj.
3. Page 226, Agni and Indra, to Varuna and Mitra…
These are some of the gods of the Vedas, the most ancient Indian
scriptures. Indra was the god of war, thunder and of the East,
Varuna was the god of the sea and of the West, Agni was the
god of fire and Mitra the god of the sun.
4. Page 228, they even grew as two palms on an island…
In traditional Buddhist cosmology there is no mention of any
possibility of rebirth as a tree or a plant; there are, however,
many references to the existence of tree spirits, rukkha‐deva,
these are directly analogous to the dryads who regularly appear
in Greek myths. For example, there is the mention of a rukkha‐
deva of a great banyan tree called ‘Steadfast’ (Suppatitthita) to
be found at §54 of the ‘Book of the Sixes.’
5. Page 229, “We are as old as the world…” The Buddha
made it very clear that the cycles of birth and death are not just
protracted, they are beginningless — “Bhikkhus, Samsāra, the
round of births and deaths, is beginningless. Of the beings that
travel and trudge through this round, shut in as they are by
ignorance and fettered by craving, no first beginning is
describable. It is not easy to find a being who has not formerly
been one’s mother, father, brother, sister, daughter or son during
this long, long time.” This passage is found in the ‘Collection of
Sayings on the Beginning,’ at S 15.14‐19. (See also Chapter 8, note §3).
CHAPTER 30: “TO BE BORN IS TO DIE”
1. Page 231, we have reached a place where there is no more
passing away, where eternal joy is our sweet possession… The
supposition that the heavenly realm that one has arrived at is eternal
seems to be a very common one. As Tennyson expressed it, in his
poem based on an incident in the Odyssey, (at IX, 82 ff.):
O, rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.
‘The Lotos‐eaters’
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
430
Another Victorian poet, Christina Rossetti, put it like this:
Thou sleepest where the lilies fade
Thou dwellest where the lilies fade not;
Sweet, when thy earthly part decayed
Thy heavenly part decayed not.
‘Seasons’
Christina Rossetti
We will come across this mistaken impression again a few
more times in our tale.
2. Page 231, its red colour seemed to have lost something
of its freshness and gloss… What follows in this chapter is a
depiction of the traditional five signs denoting the ageing and
death of devas: 1) the flowers of their garlands wilt and lose
their fragrance; 2) their clothes become dirty, dull and drab; 3)
their armpits start to sweat; 4) their bodies lose their radiance,
become withered and tired; and 5) their heavenly thrones become
hot, hard and rigid, they feel discomfort in their hands and feet
and they cannot sit still.
These factors are referred to in §83 of the Itivuttaka, and
also in the ancient Thai commentary, ‘The Three Worlds
According to King Ruang,’ (mentioned at Chapter 3, note §8),
on pp 242‐3 of the Berkeley edition. They are also found in the
Shurangama Sūtra, at the beginning of the final section — ‘The
Fifty Skandha Demon States,’ (Vol.8, pp.12‐3 in the Buddhist Text
Translation Society edition).
3. Page 232, ‘To be born is to die…’ This verse could easily have
come from the Pāli, but it is probably K.G.’s own invention, as hinted
at in his Note to the First Edition — it matches the flow of his plot
suspiciously well.
There seems to be no passage that matches it exactly in
the Theravāda scriptures, even though it has the right tone and
it bears some passing resemblance to a passage in the Salla Sutta,
at SN 575‐7:
A being, once born, is going to die, and there is no way out of this.
When old age arrives, or some other cause, then there is death.
This is the way it is with living beings.
When fruits become ripe, they may fall in the early morning.
In the same way a being, once born, may die at any moment.
431
Just as the clay pots made by a potter end up being shattered,
So it is with the life of mortals.
CHAPTER 33: ANGULIMĀLA
1. Page 258, ‘Like the Earth, you should exercise evenness
of temper…’ This statement of the Buddha was actually made
to his son, the novice Rāhula. He was born just before the Buddha
left the life of the royal palace and took up the way of the
homeless spiritual seeker. After the enlightenment the Buddha
returned to his home‐town, Kapilavatthu and, along with many
others of the Sākya clan, he gave Rāhula ordination into the
Sangha. Tradition has it that he was eighteen years old when
this discourse was given. It is called ‘The Greater Discourse on
Advice to Rāhula’, the Mahā‐Rāhulovāda Sutta — it is at M 62.13.
2. Page 258, you speak… not with the robber, but with
the upāsaka... Angulimāla… The term upāsaka means literally
‘One who sits close by’; it is the word used for male lay followers
of the Buddha. Upāsikā is the female equivalent.
3. Page 259, “Who is this Buddha?”… A similar tone to that of
this retort is found in the exchange between Jotipāla and Ghatīkāra
(mentioned above at Chapter 20, note §17). When invited to come
and meet the Buddha Kassapa, Jotipāla (the Buddha‐to‐be) snorts:
“Enough Ghatīkāra! What’s the use of seeing that bald‐pated recluse?”
4. Page 259, “Even to hear the name of him whom they call
The Welcome One…” There is a passage near the end of the Lotus
Sūtra, one of the most important texts of the Northern School of
Buddhism, where it states that even just to overhear the name of the
Buddha, or pass by a Buddhist shrine in the distance, is sufficient to
guarantee one will eventually realise complete and perfect
enlightenment. Furthermore:
If men, with minds disturbed
Enter a stupa or a temple
And call — “Namo Buddhāya,”
Buddhahood they will attain.
The word that K.G. translates here as ‘The Welcome One’
is ‘ Sugata’ — it is another member of the standard list of nine
432
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