it in a chatty (an earthenware water-pot); and it became a drug by which all the sickness of the blind and deaf and others, as many as came, was healed. So the saying sprang up, "This is a powerful drug, this is a powerful drug;" and hence he was called Mahosadha (The Great Medicine Man).
Again, in the Vessantara birth, as he left his mother's womb, he stretched out his right hand, saying, "But is there anything in the house, mother? I would give a gift." Then his mother, saying, "You are born, dear, in a wealthy family," took his hand in hers, and placed on it a bag containing a thousand.
Lastly, in this birth he sang the song of victory. Thus the future Buddha in three births uttered his voice as he came out of his mother's womb. And as at the moment of his conception, so at the moment of his birth, the thirty-two Good Omens were seen.
Now at the very time when our Bodisat was born in the Lumbini grove, the lady, the mother of Rāhula, Channa the attendant, Kāḷudāyi the minister, Kanthaka the royal horse, the great Bo-tree, and the four vases full of treasure, also came into being. Of these last, one was two miles, one four, one six, and one eight miles in size. These seven are called the Sahajātā, the Connatal Ones.[1]
The people of both towns took the Bodisat and went to Kapilavastu. On that day too, the choirs of angels in the Tāvatiŋsa heaven were astonished and joyful; and waved their cloaks and rejoiced, saying, "In Kapilavastu,
- ↑ There is some mistake here, as the list contains nine — or if the four treasures count as one, only six — Connatal Ones. I think before Kāḷudāyi we should insert Ānanda, the loving disciple. So Alabaster and Hardy (Wheel of the Law, p. 106; Manual of Buddhism, p. 146). Bigandet also adds Ānanda, but calls him the son of Amittodana, which is against the common tradition (Life or Legend of Guadama, p. 36, comp. my Buddhism, p. 52). The legend is certainly, as to its main features, an early one, for it is also found, in greatly exaggerated and contradictory terms, in the books of Northern Buddhists (Lalita Vistara, Foucaux, p. 97, Beal, p. 53, comp. Senart, p. 294).
