Jímútaváhana, prince of the Vidyádharas, whose fame I have repeatedly heard sung by the hosts of bards who traverse Lokáloka,[1] sung on the slopes of Meru, in the caves of Mandara, on the table-land of Himavat, on mount Mahendra, on the peaks of Kailása, even on these heights of Malaya, and in the various caverns of the mountains that bound the world. Of a truth, I am plunged in a vast quagmire of iniquity!
Jímútaváhana.
O lord of snakes, why art thou thus troubled?
Śankhachúda.
Is it not a time for excessive trouble? If my body were preserved from Garuda by the sacrifice of thine, verily it were right that thou shouldst hurl me to a depth lower than the deepest hell.
Garuda.
Alas! alas! His own body has been of his own accord presented for my food by this noble-minded one, through pity, to save the life of a Nága, who had fallen within the reach of my voracity. What a terrible sin then have I committed! In a word, this is a "Bodhi-sattwa,"[2] whom I have slain. I see no way of expiating my sin, except by entering the fire. Where then shall
- ↑ "Lokáloka," a mountainous chain surrounding the outermost of the seven seas, and which bounds the world, with the Hindus.
- ↑ "Bodhi-sattwa" is a technical term in Buddhist theology, denoting a potential Buddha, or one who has only one more birth remaining before he becomes a perfect Buddha, and meanwhile waits in heaven until his period comes round.
