in righteousness, for there is no escaping death for all that's born. Now I am going forth in accordance with the word of Brahmâ which I have heard concerning foul odours. They cannot easily be suppressed when one is living in the world.'

54. Well then, lord Steward, wait for us seven months... six months . . . five ... four ... three ... two months... one month... [55] half a month. . . seven days, [248] till we have devolved our kingdoms on to our sons and brothers. When seven days are over, we will leave the world for the Homeless State. Whither thou goest we will go.'

'Seven days, my lords, is not a long time. I will wait, my lords, for seven days.'

56. Then the High Steward, the brahmin, came to those seven eminent and wealthy brahmins and to those seven hundred graduates, and said :-'Will ye now seek another teacher, sirs, who will (by repetition) teach you the mystic verses? I wish to leave the world for the homeless life. I am going forth in accordance with the word of Brahmâ which I have heard concerning foul odours. These cannot easily be

suppressed when one is living in the world.'

Let the honourable Steward not leave the world for the homeless life! Leaving the world means little power and little gain; to be a brahmin brings great power and great gain.'

'Speak not so, gentlemen, of leaving the world or of being a brahmin. Who for that matter has greater power or wealth than I? I, sirs, have been hitherto as a king of kings, as Brahmâ to brahmins, as a deity to householders. And this, all this, I put away in leaving the world, in accordance with the word of Brahmâ...' [249]

2

'If the lord Steward leaves the world for the Homeless State, we too will do the like. Whither thou goest, we will go.'

1 Mante. See last note.

2 Devatâ; 'like Sakka, king of gods, to all other heads of families.' Cy. The phrase might be taken to mean that Brahmâ was not a devatâ.

57. Then the High Steward, the Brahmin, went to his forty wives, all on an equality, and said :-' Will each of you, ladies, who may wish to do so, go back to her own family and seek another husband? I wish, ladies, to leave the world for the homeless life, in accordance with the word of Brahmâ . . .'

'Thou, even thou, art the kinsman of our hearts' desire; thou art the husband of our hearts' desire. If the lord Steward leaves the world for the Homeless State, we too will do the like. Whither thou goest, we will go.'

58. And so the High Steward, the brahmin, when those seven days were past, let his hair and beard be cut off, donned the yellow robes and went forth from his home into the Homeless State. And he having so acted, the seven kings also, anointed kshatriyas, as well as the seven eminent and wealthy brahmins and the seven hundred graduates, the forty wives all on an equality, several thousand nobles, several thousand brahmins, several thousand commoners and several young women from women's quarters, let their hair be cut, donned the yellow robes and went forth from their homes into the Homeless State. And so, escorted by this company, the High Steward, the brahmin, went a-wandering through the villages, towns, [250] and cities. And whether he arrived at village or town or city, there he became as a king to kings, as Brahmâ to brahmins, as a deity to commoners. And in those days when any one sneezed or slipped, they called out:-'Glory be to the High Steward, the brahmin! Glory be to the Minister of Seven!'

59. Now the High Steward, the brahmin, continued to pervade each of the four quarters of the horizon with a heart charged with love... with pity... with sympathy in joy... with equanimity. And so the whole wide world above, below, around, and everywhere did he continue to pervade with heart charged with equanimity, far-reaching, expanded, infinite, free from wrath and ill will. And he taught to disciples the way to union with the world of Brahmâ.

60. Now all they who at that time had been the High Steward's disciples and in all points wholly understood his teaching, were after their death reborn into the blissful world of Brahmâ. They who had not in all points wholly understood his teaching, were after their death reborn into the company either of the gods who Dispose of Joys purveyed from without, or of the gods of the Heaven of Boundless Delight, or of the gods of the Heavens of Bliss, or of the Yâma gods, [251] or of the Three-and-Thirty gods, or of the gods who are the Four Kings of the Horizon. Even they who accomplished the lowest realm of all, attained to the realm of the Gandharva fairies.

Thus of all those clansmen there was not one whose renunciation proved vain or barren; in each case it bore fruit and development.'

61. Does the Exalted One remember?'

'I do remember, Five-crest. I was the High Steward of those days. I taught my disciples the way to communion with the Brahmâ world. But, Five-crest, that religious life did not conduce to detachment, to passionlessness, to cessation of craving, to peace, to understanding, to insight of the higher stages of the Path, to Nirvana, but only to rebirth in the Brahmâ-world. On the other hand my religious system, Five-crest, conduces wholly and solely to detachment, to passionlessness, to cessation of craving, to peace, to understanding, to insight of the higher stages of the Path, to Nirvana. And that is the Aryan Eightfold Path, to wit, right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right rapture.

62. Those of my disciples, Five-crest, who in all points wholly understand my teaching, they from the

In spite of this express statement this legend of the High Steward does not appear in the canonical collection of Birth Stories. See Rhys Davids's 'Buddhist India,' p. 196, for other instances.

destruction of the Deadly Taints have by and for themselves understood, realized and attained to, even in this life, freedom from taint, liberty of heart, liberty of intellect. [252] Those who do not in all points wholly understand my teaching, some of them, in that they have broken away the five Fetters belonging to the Hither Side, are reborn without parents, where they will utterly pass away, being no more liable to return to this world. And some of them, in that they have broken away three [other] Fetters, and have worn down passion and hate and dulness, become OnceReturners, who after once returning to this world shall make an end of Ill. And some of them, again, in that they have broken away those three Fetters, become Stream-Attainers, not liable to be reborn in any state of woe, but assured of attaining to the Insight. And so, Five-crest, of all, even all those persons, there is not one whose renunciation is vain or barren; in each case it will have brought fruit and development.'

Thus spoke the Exalted One. And Five-crest of the Gandharva fairies was pleased at the word of the Exalted One, and in delight and gladness he saluted the Exalted One, and with the salutation of the right side he vanished from that place.

Here endeth the Story of the Lord High

Steward,

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

MAHA-SAMAYA SUTTANTA

THE method followed in this poem is nearly the same as in the two previous Suttantas, only here it is rather the minor gods, the local deities, the personification of natural phenomena, guardian spirits, fairies, harpies, naiads, dryads, and many others who are represented as themselves proclaiming their adherence to the new movement. Important gods are indeed incidentally mentioned; and it is perhaps not without intention that great and small are here thrown together, as if Soma and Varuna and Brahmâ were really all of the same kind as the long list of spirits and fairies in which they appear 1.

The poem is almost unreadable now. The long list of strange names awakes no interest. And it is somewhat pathetic to notice the hopeless struggle of the author to enliven his unmanageable material with a little poetry. It remains, save here and there, only doggrel still.

There are three parts to the poem. The first is the list of gods; the second the frame-work, put into the Buddha's mouth, at the beginning (after the prologue), and at the end; the third the prologue, with the verses of the four gods of the Pure Abode. The prologue has been preserved as a separate episode in the Samyutta, I, 27. The way in which the list is fitted into the frame-work in our sections 4, 5, and 6 is very confused and awkward; and the grammar of the frame-work is inconsistent with the grammar of the list. It is highly probable therefore that the list itself, and also the epilogue, had been handed down as independent works in the community before our Suttanta was composed. The frame-work may be the work of the editor.

Our list here begins in §§ 7, 8, with seven classes or groups of gods, without personal names. The personal names begin at 9, with the four Great Kings of the four quarters; and

1 So above, Vol. I, p. 17, the worship of Agni is deliberately inserted in a list of animistic hocus-pocus.