Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/160

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44
THE NIDĀNAKATHĀ.

Deva his chief disciples, Nārada his servitor, Nāgā and Nāgasamālā his chief female disciples, and the great Bambu-tree his Bo-tree; this tree, they say, had smaller hollows and thicker wood than ordinary bambus have,[1] and in its mighty upper branches it was as brilliant as a bunch of peacocks' tails. The body of this Blessed One was fifty cubits high, and his age was ninety thousand years.


234. In that age, the Maṇḍakalpa, appeared the Leader Sujāta, Mighty jawed and grandly framed, whose measure none can take, and hard to equal.

After him, when eighteen hundred world-cycles had elapsed, three Buddhas, Piyadassin, Atthadassin, and Dhammadassin, were born in one kalpa. Piyadassin also had three assemblies of his saints; at the first a million million monks were present, at the second nine hundred million, at the third eight hundred million. At that time the Bodisat, as a young brahman called Kassapa, who had thoroughly learnt the three Vedas, listened to the Teacher's preaching of the Law, and built a monastery at a cost of a million million, and stood firm in the Refuges and the Precepts. And to him the Teacher prophesied, saying, "After the lapse of eighteen hundred kalpas thou shalt become a Buddha." The city of this Blessed One was called Anoma, his father was Sudinna the king, his mother Candā, Pālita and Sabbadassin his chief disciples, Sobhita his servitor, Sujatā and Dhammadinnā his chief female disciples, and the Priyaŋgu-tree his Bo-tree. His body was eighty cubits high, and his age ninety thousand years.

  1. Compare Jātaka No. 20 below.