THE NÁGÁNANDA.
Prologue.
NÁNDÍ, OR OPENING BENEDICTION.[1]
"Of whom dost thou think, putting on a pretence of religious abstraction, yet opening for an instant thine eyes? See! saviour though thou art, thou dost not protect us, sick with the shafts of Love. Falsely art thou compassionate. Who is more cruel than thou?"
May Buddha, the conqueror, who was thus jealously addressed by the nymphs of Mára,[2] protect you!
- ↑ Every Sanskrit play opens with one or more Nándís, or benedictions, in which the blessing of some deity is invoked upon the audience. This is the only instance in Sanskrit literature where the power thus invoked is Buddha.
- ↑ One of the most celebrated scenes in the mythic history of Buddha is his temptation under the Bodhi tree by Mára, the Buddhist Eros, corresponding to the Hindu Káma. Mára at first attempted to frighten him by legions of armed warriors; failing in this, he tried to seduce him by his daughters, the Apsarasas. The sage, however, endures both temptations with unruffled equanimity, and eventually the tempter retires utterly baffled.—See Lalita-Vistara, ch. xxi.
