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1. Devas from all the celestial realms convene to invite the Bodhisatta to take rebirth in order to become enlightened as the Buddha
When the Bodhisatta Vessantara passed away he was reborn, just a little before the birth of the Buddha, in the Dusita deva realm. Devas of the many different realms convened to discuss who would become the enlightened Buddha. They all agreed that the Bodhisatta residing in the Dusita heaven would be so enlightened, and accordingly invited him to leave (cuti) the deva world and take birth [in the human realm] in keeping with his vow, in accordance with which all the perfections he had developed throughout countless lifetimes were for no other purpose than the attainment of Buddhahood.
2. Accepting the invitation, the Bodhisatta descends to take conception among a royal family in Kapilavatthu
This picture depicts the Bodhisatta, later Prince Siddhattha and the Buddha, coming down from the Dusita heaven in order to enter the womb of his mother. The day he came down and took conception was the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month, at which time King Suddhodana, his father, and Queen Mahamaya, his mother, were newly married.
On that same night, as Queen Mahamaya lay sleeping on her bed, she dreamt that she was in a forest in the Himalaya Mountains, and a white elephant descended from the mountains and approached her. In the Pathamasambodhi this event is described thus:
"There was a white elephant ... who lifted its trunk, in which was held a freshly blooming white lotus of wafting fragrance, roared loudly and entered into the golden palace. It reverently circumambulated the sleeping Queen three times and then seemed to enter into the Queen's belly on the right side ... "
Later the palace seers predicted that it was an auspicious omen, foretelling the birth of a son. And when the Queen became pregnant, the Pathamasambodhi describes the Bodhisatta in his mother's womb as follows:
"... like a yellow thread wound around a clear jewel. When she wanted to, she could see her son sitting in meditation posture, with his face toward the surface of her belly, like a golden statue lying in a bud of lotus petals. But the Bodhisatta did not see his mother...."
The day the Bodhisatta descended to his mother's womb, the poet who composed the story in his honor stated that the same kind of miracles arose as on the occasion of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and first eaching, differing only in minor details. For example, a celestial drum resounded throughout the heavens, blind people regained their sight, and deaf people regained their hearing.
If we were to bring the story from the tradition of literature into the historical tradition, we may interpret the "magical drum" of this story as being a sign of the Buddha's glory, which would cover the entire world. The blind and deaf people are symbols of people with defilements who, on hearing the Buddha's teaching, would lose their "blindness" and "deafness," obtaining wisdom of the way out of suffering.
3. The Bodhisatta takes seven steps on his birth in the Lumbini forest
This picture illustrates the Bodhisatta's birth. Those who have read the Pathamasambodhi and seen the wall paintings in the uposatha halls will recognize the picture clearly.
The baby we see in the picture is Prince Siddhattha, the future Buddha. As soon as he emerged from his mother's womb he took seven steps, holding up his right hand and making a declaration as he did so. Lotuses sprang up beneath his feet to receive his steps. The words he uttered on that occasion are recorded by the poet in the Pali language. Here I translate them into Thai:
"I will be the greatest person in this world, with no equal. This will be my last birth, I will not be born again in future."
The ladies sitting and kneeling around the infant are the attendants of Queen Maya. She is the lady standing behind the Prince with her back to the tree. Her right hand is holding one of the tree's branches. The big tree is a sal tree, which we used to translate into Thai as "rang" or "teng rang," a tree commonly found in Thai forests, but which we have now come to know is not the "rang" tree and in fact is not to be found in Thai forests. It is a tree which is found in India and used by Indians to build houses, common in the Himalaya foothills.
The place where the Bodhisatta was born is known as Lumbini, outside the town of Kapilavatthu. It is now in the country of Nepal.
Here I will insert a small aside. The Buddha's relatives came from two cities, Kapilavatthu and Devadaha. Kapilavatthu was the city of the Buddha, while Devadaha was the city of his mother. The Buddha's father lived in Kapilavatthu, while his mother originally lived in Devadaha. The kings and relatives of these two cities were related as a result of the royal marriage.
As the time for Queen Mahamaya's delivery drew near, she took leave of her husband, King Suddhodana, to give birth to their child in the city of her own family. She had gone only part of the way when the labor pains began, and she gave birth then and there.
The date of the Prince's birth was the full moon day of the sixth lunar month.
4. Asita the ascetic pays a visit; seeing the baby's auspicious features, he pays reverence
This picture depicts the infant not long after his birth, when his father had heard the news that Queen Maya had given birth to a son at the Lumbini garden and asked her to come back.
The man with the turbaned hair and hands raised to his chest is Asita the ascetic, also known as Kaladevin. This ascetic was as a recluse living in the Himalaya mountains. He was revered by King Suddhodana and the royal family and was a familiar face to them.
When he heard that King Suddhodana, the king of Kapilavatthu, had a new son, he left his ashram in the Himalayas and went to visit the palace to give his blessings. King Suddhodana was overjoyed when he heard that the ascetic had come to visit, and immediately invited him to take a seat while he fetched his son to pay reverence to the ascetic.
As soon as the ascetic saw Prince Siddhattha, he did three things that are unusual for a homeless one (samana): he smiled, or, according to the poetic description given in the Pathamasambodhi, laughed, then he cried, and then he owed at the feet of Prince Siddhattha.
He smiled because he saw that the features of Prince Siddhattha conformed with the legend of the "features of a Great Being" (mahapurisalakkhana). He knew that with such features, if Prince Siddhattha stayed on in worldly life he would be a Universal Emperor of great power, but if he left the worldly life he would become the greatest religious founder in the world. He cried because he believed that Prince Siddhattha would certainly leave the worldly life and, thinking of this, and reflecting on his own advanced age, was saddened at his lack of fortune in not having the chance to listen to the Buddha's teaching. He bowed to the newly born Prince for the same reason.
When the heads of the royal families heard the news that the ascetic had bowed to the infant Prince, they all felt even more reverence for the infant, and so offered their sons as attendants to Prince Siddhattha,
one from each family.
5.The Brahmins perform a ceremony for the infant Prince, naming him Siddhattha
When the infant Prince had been born five days, King Suddhodana called a great meeting. At the meeting were the royal relatives, both on the father's and mother's sides, the royal advisers, ministers, and Brahmins who were versed in the Vedas. The meeting was held to perform two auspicious ceremonies for the infant Prince: a naming ceremony and a prediction ceremony. There were altogether 108 Brahmins to conduct the ceremony, but only eight of them were to actively perform the ceremony. The others were present as observers. The eight Brahmins were named as follows:
1. Rama 2. Lakkhana 3. Yanna 4. Dhuja 5. Bhoja 6. Sudatta 7. Suyama 8. Kondanna
The meeting passed a resolution that the child was to be named "Siddhattha", an auspicious name having two meanings. One meaning is "He who attains everything he wishes." Another interpretation is, as the first-born son, "fulfilling the wishes" of his father. In simple terms, King Suddhodana had obtained his first son in fulfillment of his wishes. In India during that time people were not usually referred to by their give names but by their clan names (gotta), which correspond with the surnames of our times. Thus the Prince was usually referred to as Prince Gotama, or simply Gotama.
Also at the ceremony, the eight Brahmins made predictions based on the features of the infant Prince. Their predictions fell into two groups. Seven of the Brahmins, from the first to the seventh named above, were in agreement in their provisional predictions that if the Prince stayed to oversee his royal estate he would become a Universal Emperor of great power, but if he left the worldly life and became a homeless religious mendicant he would become enlightened as a Perfectly Self-enlightened Buddha (sammasambuddha), the foremost teacher of the world. Only one of the Brahmins, the younger one, gave the definite prediction that the Prince would leave the home life and become a Buddha. This Brahmin later became the leader of the "five ascetics" (pancavaggiya) who became religious mendicants in the Buddha's footsteps, and this Brahmin became the Buddha's first enlightened disciple, familiar to students as "Anna Kondanna." The remaining seven Brahmins did not become mendicants because they were all of advanced age and did not live to see the Buddha leave the palace.
6. Sitting under a jambolan tree at the royal plowing ceremony, the Bodhisatta attains first jhana
This picture depicts Prince Siddhattha at seven years of age. The King had ordered the digging of three pokkarani ponds within the palace grounds for the pleasure of his son. A pokkarani pond is a pond planted with decorative lotuses. The king also had arranged sandal for spreading on the head cloth, shirt, and trousers, all of which were of the finest cloth from Kasi.
This picture depicts the occasion on which the Prince sat in meditation under a tree referred to in the Patๅhamasambodhi as Jambupikkha, which we know as the jambolan tree. The Prince came to be sitting at this particular tree because his father had, in accordance with royal tradition, declared that a royal plowing ceremony was to be held in a field outside of Kapilavatthu. The King, who was to perform the ceremony himself, had his son the Prince accompany him.
Again, we see in this picture that the Prince is sitting alone. His attendants and pages are nowhere to be seen, because they had all gone off to watch the ceremony. The Prince, sitting by himself under the jambolan tree, which the poet says "was endowed with lush branches and leaves like a mountain indanil, with broad spread, a shady place..." The prince's pure heart, endowed with the potential for the future attainment of Buddhahood, was moved to calm and naturally went into the level of concentration (samadhi) known as first absorption (jhana).
In the afternoon, when the plowing ceremony was over and the royal attendants rushed to find the Prince, they found that the shadow of the tree under which he sat had remained where it was at midday, not following the movements of the sun. Amazed, they reported the matter to King Suddhodana, and when the royal father came to see for himself, he too was amazed, and exclaimed, "When he was born, and I brought him to pay reverence to the ascetic Kaladevin, he performed the miracle of standing on the ascetic's headdress. I bowed to him for the first time on that occasion. Now I bow to him for the second time."
King Suddhodana made reverence to the Buddha on three important occasions. The first was just after his birth when the ascetic came to visit and, seeing the ascetic make reverence to his son, he followed suit. The second was when he saw the miracle under the jambolan tree. The third was after the Prince had left home, become enlightened as the Buddha, and returned for the first time to teach his father.
7. The Prince strings and fires a heavy arrow at the contest of arms, the sound resounding around the city
When Prince Siddhattha had become a young man, his father sent him to study the arts [of warfare] at the well-known center of learning, "Visvamitta." The Prince readily learned how to use and a bow and arrow and the art of administration, so that he quickly learned all that the teacher had to teach him.
In this picture, Prince Siddhattha is 16 years old and has finished his studies. His father had ordered the building of three palaces, one for each of the three seasons, for his son to live in at his pleasure. The first palace was ideal for the cold season, the second was ideal for the hot season, (what methods were used to control the temperature in these palaces is unknown), while the third was ideal for the rainy season.
The King then had the relatives on both sides of the royal family send their eligible daughters for selection of the prince's future wife. This was because the King wanted to have his son look after the royal estate rather than leave home and become a religious teacher.
But the relatives felt that the Prince should be allowed to demonstrate his prowess at his newly learned arts for the benefit of his kinsmen, so the King invited all the kin of the royal family to a gathering in front of a newly built pavilion in the center of the city to watch the prince's demonstration of his archery skills.
The prince's bow was called "Sahasthama", meaning "the bow that is so heavy it takes a thousand men to lift." But the Prince could lift it, according to the Pathamasambodhi, "as a woman might lift a bobbin." When the relatives gathered there saw this they were full of praise. Then when the Prince drew the bow, the sound of the stretched bow resounded throughout Kapilavatthu, so that people who had not come to the display and did not know that the Prince was firing an arrow, asked each other what the sound was.
The target that the Prince was aiming for was the fur of a yak's tail placed some distance away. The Prince fired the arrow right into he center of the target, as it is said, "with an eye that was clear and aided by the five senses purified of stains." All the relatives gladly offered their daughters, from among whom the Prince would choose his wife. Among them was Bimbayasodhara.
8. The king holds the wedding of Prince Siddhattha and Princess Bimbayasodhara
As already stated, the Buddha's relatives were of two sides, the mother's and the father's side, and each of those sides was from a different city. The Rohini River flowed between their two lands. The mother's side of the family was known as the Koliya clan [vamsa] and ruled the city of Devadaha, while the father's side was known as the Sakya clan and ruled the city of Kapilavatthu.
The two cities were closely linked and were like brothers and sisters of the same family. They had intermarried often. In the Buddha's time, the ruler of Devadaha was King Suppabuddha, while the ruler of Kapilavatthu was King Suddhodana.
The wife of King Suppabuddha was Queen Amita, and she was the younger sister of King Suddhodana. On the other hand, the wife of King Suddhodana, the Buddha's mother, was Queen Mahamaya, and she was the younger sister of King Suppabuddha. The two kings had each married each other's younger sisters. King Suppabuddha had one son and one daughter to Queen Amita. The son was Prince Devadatta, the daughter was Princess Bimbayasodhara.
The Pathamasambodhi states that Princess Bimbayasodhara was one of seven people who are known as "sahajata" of the Buddha. Sahajata means "that which is born on the same day." The seven sahajata are:
1. Princess Bimbayasodhara.
2. Venerable Ananda.
3. The Advisor Kaludayi.
4. Channa, the royal page.
5. The horse, Kanthaka.
6. The bodhi tree.
7. The four golden treasures (the shell treasure, the cardamom treasure, the blue lotus treasure, and the white lotus treasure).
The relatives of both sides were agreed that Princess Bimbayasodhara was replete with the all the necessary qualities and was the right choice as wife for Prince Siddhattha. The royal marriage ceremony thus took place when bride and groom were both sixteen years old.
9. The trip to the pleasure grove and the four "divine" messengers : the old man, the sick man, the dead man and the religious mendicant
King Suddhodana, the prince's father, and all of the royal relatives, wished to see Prince Siddhattha stay on and rule the royal estate, not leave the home life and become a religious mendicant as some of the Brahmins had predicted, so they sought ways to tie the Prince to all kinds of sensual pleasures. But Prince Siddhattha was of a philosophical nature, befitting a man who was born to become a great religious teacher, and found pleasure in these distractions for only a short time. When he reached the age of 29 he began to feel wearied of them.
An important reason for the arising of this feeling in the Prince was his sighting of what are known as the four "divine messengers" while touring the royal gardens outside the city on his royal chariot. Of the four divine messengers - an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a religious mendicant- the Prince saw the old man first.
The Pathamasambodhi describes the old man thus: "His hair was gray, his sides crooked, his body bent forward. In his hand he held a stick and while walking along the way he shook and swayed pitifully ..."
The Prince was saddened at the site, just as he was when he saw the sick man and the dead man on his second and third trips to the royal garden. He reflected that he would one day have to be like them. Then he thought how in this world there are always pairs of opposites, such as darkness and light, and heat and cold, and so since there was suffering, there must be a way out of suffering.
On his fourth visit to the royal garden, the Prince saw a religious mendicant, "wearing the ochre robe and with restrained bearing..."
At the sight of the religious mendicant, the Prince became inspired to leave home. He thought or exclaimed to himself, "Sadhu pabbaja!" which means in simple terms, "To become a monk, that would be good!" And he made up his mind on that very day to leave the home life.
10. While the Prince is bathing in the royal pond, a royal attendant informs him that Princess Bimba has had a son
After Prince Siddhattha had seen the fourth divine messenger, the religious mendicant, and had made up his mind to go forth from the home life and become a religious mendicant himself, he proceeded in his royal chariot, which the Pathamasambodhi states was "teemed with four noble steeds the color of red lotuses," to the royal pleasure garden.
Arriving there, the Prince, surrounded by groups of Sakyan damsels, went down to bathe in the lotus pond which was filled with the five kinds of lotuses.
He stayed at the royal pleasure grove almost the whole day, then, when it was almost evening, an official came from the palace and King Suddhodana with news for Prince Siddhattha, informing the Prince that Princess Bimbayasodhara had given birth to a son.
Buddhaghosa, the author of the commentaries to the Dhammapada, says of this episode that when Prince Siddhattha heard the news that his consort had given birth to a son, a new kind of feeling arose within him that he had never felt before, and that was the love of a child.
That love that had arisen within him weighed on his heart and bound it more than anything else in the world. He exclaimed, "Bandhanam jatam rahulam jatam."
This translates as "A bond has arisen." The word translated here as "bond" in Prince Siddhattha's exclamation is rahulam or rahula, and this word later became the name given to Prince Siddhattha's son.
Prince Siddhattha's exclamation, "A bond has arisen," refers to the decision he was in the process of making to leave the home life and become a religious mendicant. Just when he had cut off other attachments to the lay life, a new attachment had arisen.
11. The Prince offers a necklace to Kisa Gotami
This picture follows on from the previous one, after the Prince had toured the royal pleasure gardens, but here he is shown coming back to the palace together with his entourage. The lady we see standing at the palace window is, according to the Pathamasambodhi, "a Sakyan damsel of the town of Kapilavatthu by the name of Kisa Gotami. It does not say in what way she was related to Prince Siddhattha.
However in the Commentary to the Dhammapada, Buddhaghosa, its Indian author, states that she was the daughter of one of the Buddha's aunts, who were Pamita and Amita, both of whom were younger sisters of King Suddhodana. However, he does not state which lady was Kisa Gotami's mother.
Kisa Gotami saw Prince Siddhattha coming back, radiant and resplendent, from his bathing in the lotus pond and, filled with delight at the sight, uttered a spontaneous verse in praise of Prince Siddhattha. In the original Pali the verse was as follows:
Nibbuta nuna sa mata
nibbuto nuna so pita
nibbuta nuna sa nari
yassayam idiso pati
It means: "Quenched and full of joy are they who are the royal mother and royal father of Prince Siddhattha; quenched and full of joy is she who is his wife."
Prince Siddhattha was pleased at her verse, and the word he liked most was the word "quenched," which he interpreted to mean "nibbuta" or Nibbana. He took off his pearled necklace, valued at a hundred thousand "kahapana," and handed it to one of his attendants to give to Kisa Gotami. She interpreted this as meaning that the Prince was attracted to her, a thought that filled her with joy.
12. The Prince awakens late at night and sees the ladies of the harem lying in disarray; he becomes despondent and decides to leave the home life
From the moment Prince Siddhattha had seen the four divine messengers and definitely resolved to leave the home life, his resolution was unwavering, in spite of the bond on his heart that had just arisen, in the form of his new-born beloved son.
That night, after coming back from his trip to the royal pleasure grove, the Pathamasambodhi states that "... the Prince the Bodhisatta was particularly moved to the homeless life. This, together with his excellent wisdom devoid of attraction to sensual pleasures, caused him to take no delight in the dancing of the dancers that were so attractive, and in spite of them he drifted off to sleep for a moment ..."
The prince's palace was lit up within by lanterns which, "fed by aromatic oils, illuminated the palace jewels and gold." The maidens doing the singing and dancing, seeing the Prince fall asleep, themselves lay down their instruments and also went to sleep then and there.
Not long after, the Prince awoke from his slumber and saw the ungainly postures of the sleeping maidens. The Pathamasambodhi says, "He saw the group of maidens sprawling, saliva drooling, some of them snoring loudly with sounds like crows, some of them gnashing their teeth, some of them murmuring in their sleep, some of them with mouths open weirdly, some of them with clothes shed, revealing their narrow places..."
The Prince alighted from his bed, got up and looked around the palace. Although it was brightly lit by the lanterns and beautifully decorated, it seemed to him to be dark, like a charnel ground. The living beings who were still breathing and sleeping in unguarded postures, the singers and dancers, seemed to the Prince to be like so many corpses in a charnel ground. He uttered, "I will leave the palace and take to the homeless life this very night," and, going to the palace door, cried out to the pages guarding the door, "Who is there?"
13. The Prince goes to see the sleeping princess Bimba as a way of taking leave
As soon as Prince Siddhattha had cried out, a voice came in answer. The owner of the voice was Channa, a close servant of Prince Siddhattha and also one of the sahajata, born on the same day as the Prince.
If we were to compare the Buddha's life story to a play, Channa would be one of the main characters. His importance is in the role he played in the Buddha's leaving of the home life. He is also well known in the time after the Bodhisatta left the home life and became the Buddha, when he became a monk. Channa was a very stubborn monk who would listen only to the Buddha, because he held that he was the Buddha's former servant. He referred to the Buddha, even after he had ordained as a monk, as "Young Prince."
At this point in the story, Channa was sleeping outside the prince's room, his head resting on the doorstep. When Prince Siddhattha ordered him to go and prepare his horse, Channa immediately complied by going to the stables.
As for the Prince, who had firmly made up his mind to leave home, he went to the sleeping quarters of Princess Bimba, his wife. Arriving there, he parted the curtain to her bed. The scene of his wife sleeping soundly, her arm resting around the head of Rahula, his newly born son, filled the Prince with love and longing for his wife and the son he was only now seeing for the very first time.
At first he thought to himself, "I will lift up her arm and hold my son," but then he was afraid that by so doing he would wake her, thereby obstructing his plans to leave the palace. So he suppressed his desire, thinking, "No, only after I have become a Buddha will I come back and gaze on my son's face."
Then he left the room and went down from the palace to Channa, who had prepared the horse already.
14. The Prince awakens Channa to prepare Kanthaka, the steed that would lead him on his going forth
The horse that Prince Siddhattha was to ride on his great going forth was named Kanthaka. It was another of the sahajata, born on the same day as the Prince. The Pathamasambodhi says of the size of this horse that it was "about eighteen elbow lengths [sork] from neck to tail," but it does not say how tall the horse was, stating only that "its height was in proportion to its length." It also describes it as being "of purest white, like a freshly polished conch shell, its head black, the color of a crow. The hair on its face was white like the pith of Johnson grass. It was possessed of great trength and stood on a jeweled pedestal."
According to this description, the poet makes the horse bigger than ordinary horses and very special. In ordinary terms we might say that Kanthaka was a very tall, white horse, like the steed of a great Emperor or movie star.
Approaching the horse, Prince Siddhattha lifted his right hand and stroked Kanthaka's back. It is said that this pleased Kanthaka so much that the horse neighed loudly, the sound traveling all over Kapilavatthu for a distance of one yojana (about 16 kilometers). If this was so, then why did not the people of the city wake up? The author of the story states "the devas suppressed the sound and made it disappear"-he used the devas as a muffler for the horse's cries.
If we were to translate this from poetic to more realistic terms, we might say that Prince Siddhattha was very skilled with horses and was able to calm the horse so that it did not cry out.
The Prince then mounted the horse and headed toward the city gate, known as Phrayabaladvara, with Channa as page walking behind him. The day of his going forth, according to the Pathamasambodhi, was the full moon of the eighth month. The author states, "The moon waxed bright in a sky that was clear of clouds. The whole of the heavens were bathed in the white light of the full moon."
15. Mara tries to prevent the going forth, telling the Prince that in seven days he will inherit an empire; the Prince does not listen
When Prince Siddhattha had ridden the horse through the city gate into the moonlit night, a voice like music arose from close to the city gate. That voice forbade the Prince from going forth.
The Prince asked, "Who are you?"
The sound answered, "My name is Vassavadi Mara."
Mara [the Buddhist personification of evil or obstruction to goodness] informed the Prince that in seven days from that day, the Wheel treasure would arise, and the owner of that Wheel Treasure would be the Prince. The "Wheel Treasure" referred to by Mara was a term meaning that he would become Emperor.
The Prince: "I know this already."
Mara: "In that case, for what purpose do you go forth?"
The Prince: "For complete knowledge (sabbanutanana)."
The sabbanutanana referred to by the Prince was attainment of Buddhahood. All the above is given according to the description of the Pathamasambodhi and Buddhaghosa's Commentary to the Dhammapada. The story is rendered in the form of a allegory (puggaladhitthana).
An "allegory" is the rendering of something not visible to the eye or cognizable by the senses, an "abstract" [namadhamma], into a scene or an action by a person, just as a writer of stories expresses feelings through the characters in his story. If no such example were give people would not understand and the story would fall flat.
The allegory given above, if rendered into realistic terms [dhammadhitthana], would be: "Having passed through the city gates, the Prince, who was still an unenlightened being, although firmly bent on his resolve to become a Buddha, was also, in another part of his mind, still worried about the city."
The poet gave his worry the concrete form of Mara trying to prevent the Prince's departure, but the Prince defeated him. That is to say, he defeated Mara, or defeated the worries which were his inner enemies.
16.The Bodhisatta cuts off his hair and goes forth on the banks of the Anoma River; Ghatikara the Brahma offers the recluse's requisites
Prince Siddhattha, followed by Channa, rode his royal steed all through the night, greeting the dawn at the river, which bordered the three cities of Kapilavatthu, Savatthi, and Vesali. He asked Channa what the river was called, and Channa answered, "Young Prince, this river is called the River Anoma, sire."
The Prince led the horse and his page across the river, then dismounted and sat on the sand of the river bank, which was the color of silver. In his right hand he held his sword, in his left he held his top knot, which he cut with the sword, leaving only a circle of hair turning to the right, two inches long.
Having done that, he took off his royal garments and put on the yellow robe which Ghatikara Brahma had offered him together with other requisites of one gone forth. Then he made a resolution, committing himself to the life of a homeless one on the banks of the Anoma River.
He gave his garments and horse to Channa to take back to the palace and inform the King of the news. Channa loved his master. He cried and lay at his feet, not wanting to leave him, but he could not disobey his master's wishes.
The Prince, or as he is referred to in the biography from that moment on, the "Great Being," stroked the back of the horse which was going now to leave his master and go back to the city. Tears ran down the horse's face, and it licked its master's feet.
The horse and Channa, tears streaming down their faces, crossed the river and made their way back to the city, but once they had escaped the Great Being's sight, Kanthaka's heart broke into seven pieces- it had a heart attack- and it died. Channa took off the horse's rigging, placed some wild flowers on the body of the dead steed, and then proceeded to walk, carrying both his master's clothing and the horse's saddle, alone back to the city.
17.The Bodhisatta walks through Rajagaha; the people talk wildly about him all over the city
While Channa the loyal page was going back to inform Kapilavatthu of the news, the Great Being, who had once been Prince Siddhattha, journeyed from the sandy bank of the Anoma to a district in which there were many mango forests, known as Anupiya Ambhavana. This district was in the district of Malla. He stayed there for one week and on the eighth day journeyed into the state of Magadha, eventually making his way to Rajagaha, which at the time was the capital of this kingdom.
Magadha was a big and prosperous state, with many people and power equal to another great state of that time, Kosala, the capital of which was Savatthi.
The King of Rajagaha in Magadha at that time was King Bimbisara. Being the same age as the Great Being, he was at that time still a young king.
In the morning the Great Being entered the city. The people of the city were moved to a state referred to be the Pathamasambodhi as "great excitement" which spread over the city at the sight of the noble-featured recluse. No one could tell whether a deva, a naga [serpent-deity], a garuda [bird-deity], or some other kind of divine being had entered the city for alms. The talk buzzed all over the city.
Prince Siddhattha, the Great Being who would later become the Buddha, had been born into the Khattiya clan, of noble birth on both sides of the family. His complexion was referred to in the Pali texts as kancanavanno", meaning of golden complexion. His features were handsome. Even though he had shaved off his hair and beard and was wearing the yellow robe of a homeless one who has given up the beauty of the worldling, his bearing as he walked, more stately than that of a normal person, clearly belied his noble birth.
Thus, when the people of Rajagaha saw him they were filled with excitement, and the news eventually reached the ears of King Bimbisara, the King of Rajagaha.
18.King Bimbisara pays a visit, and asks the Buddha to come back to teach him if he becomes enlightened
King Bimbisara heard that the people were all saying that a young, noble recluse, unlike other recluses, had entered the city, and so he ordered some of his attendants to look into the matter. The Pathamasambodhi gives the words of King Bimbisara at this point as:
"Go and follow him and see: if he is a deva he will fly into the air; if a naga he will go down into the earth; if he is a human being he will sit and eat his alms food in moderation. Go and see just what happens."
The Great Being, having received sufficient alms food from the people of Rajagaha, left the city and went up to a cliff just outside the city, where he sat and mindfully set about eating his alms food. The food he had obtained was that known as "masikabatta"-all mixed together, the good and the bad, the dry and the wet, the salty and the sweet.
Seeing the food, the Great Being felt, according to the Pathamasambodhi, "as if his gut were to come out of his mouth," since he had only ever eaten fine foods, like celestial foods, but, controlling his mind with the virtue becoming of a recluse, he ate the food as normal.
King Bimbisara and the Great Being were "aditthasahaya," friends who had only previously heard of each other by name, but never met. Hearing of the Great Being's whereabouts from his attendant, King Bimbisara went to see him. When he heard that he was the Prince from the Sakya clan, he invited him to stay on in the city and help him rule it, but the Great Being declined his offer, informing him of his firm resolve to achieve enlightenment.
King Bimbisara then asked to, if he did attain enlightenment, come and teach him. The Great Being accepted his request.
At this time, the country of Magadha had many famous recluses who had established themselves as teachers with ashrams. Each of these ashrams had many followers and adherents. Rajagaha was one place through which these sect-leaders passed to spread their teachings.
During the time of Prince Siddhattha's going forth, there were two teachers more well known than the others in that country: the group belonging to Alara Kalama, and that of Udaka Ramaputta. Both of these ashrams were established in the forest outside the city.
The Great Being went here to study and see whether their paths led to enlightenment. He first went to the ashram of Alara Kalama. He stayed there and learned all that the teacher had to teach, and then, finding that it still did not lead to enlightenment, went to study at the ashram of the second teacher. He obtained a little more knowledge there, but only up to the level of the eighth level of concentration [samapatti].
Samapatti is "absorption" [jhana], a method of making the mind concentrated. It ranges from coarser levels up to the most refined. Altogether there are eight levels. The Great Being saw that the mind even in these states was still on the mundane level. An unenlightened being was capable of experiencing them, but they could decline. They were not the level of lokuttara, transcendence.
The teachers of both of these centers invited the Great Being to stay on and help them teach their followers. Both of them praised him as having a knowledge equal to their own. However, the Great Being declined their invitations.
Having tried out the teachings of both of these teachers, who were regarded by the people to be possessed of the highest knowledge, and found them through his own wisdom to be not the way to enlightenment, the Great Being thought of trying out a mode of practice resorted to by many recluses of that time to see whether it led to enlightenment. That was the practice of asceticism, the strict and rigorous practice beyond what an ordinary person could do referred to as "self-torture."
The Great Being took leave of the two teachers and journeyed in search of a place to try out the ascetic practices so favored by the recluses of that time. He traveled to a certain district, also in the country of Magadha, by name of Uruvela Senanigama. Uruvela means "sand hill," while senanigama means "district" or "village."
The area of this district was flat and blessed with a green and delightful forest. The clear waters of the River Neranjara ran through it and there was a place to bathe and villages in the vicinity, not too far and not too near, suitable as a resource for alms food for a recluse intent on practice.
Uruvela Senanigama might in modern times be called "Sandhill Town."
The commentarial text, Samantapasadika, volume 3, written after the Buddha's passing away (parinibbana) by the Indian commentator Buddhaghosa, relates the history of the sandhill at this village as follows: In the past the area had been a forest in which lived many recluses undertaking ascetic practices. The ascetics, observing that wrongs expressed through body and speech were easily seen, but not the wrongs of the mind, which were left unpunished, made a regulation that any of them who committed a mental wrong, such as a thought of lust, should punish himself by taking his bowl and scooping out some sand and pouring it out onto the bank, one bowl-full for each person, each time. It was a kind of self-inflicted penance. Thus came into being the hill of sand, "uruvela", a monument to the mountain of defilements of the ascetics of old.
In the time of the Buddha the area of this district was still known as Uruvela Senanigama, but in later times it came to be known as Bodhgaya, where at present the Bodhgaya Thai Temple is established.
The Great Being chose this district as the place to undertake the ascetic practices that would comprise his next experiment on the search for the path to enlightenment.
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