to devour the ambrosia with their two-forked tongues—and now, hurrying along, they plunge into the ocean by tortuous paths, like the waters of the rivers of the Malaya hills. (Addressing the hero.) O child Jímútaváhana, thou art worthy of something more than the mere gift of life, therefore this is my further blessing to thee—I on this very spot will make thee in a moment an universal emperor of the Vidyádharas, having sprinkled thee with purifying waters produced ready at hand from my Mánasa lake, only sullied by the dust of the golden lotuses, shaken by the pinions of the wild geese,—and placed in jewelled jars created by my will. Let the jewel of the golden wheel come first, then the elephant with the four white tusks, and the dark coloured horse, and next Malayavatí.[1] O emperor, behold these are the the jewels which I give thee. Yet further,—behold these nobles of the Vidyádharas, bearing in their hands chowries of the yak's tail, white as the autumnal moon, making, as they walk, and bow, and bend their bodies low in devotion, very rainbows with the rays of their gems,—and among them the villain Matanga and his fellows. Tell me, now, what yet further boon I can grant thee?
Jímútaváhana.
What boon can there be beyond this? Śankhachúda is delivered from him who was the dread of all the snakes; Garuda has been brought to a better mind; all the lords of the Nágas, whom he had ever eaten,
- ↑ The wheel, the elephant, the horse, and the queen, are four of the seven jewels (ratnáni) which distinguish the universal emperor (Chakravartin) among the Buddhists. See Lalita-Vistara, III.
