31. The visit of Asita

 

At that time there lived on the slopes of the Himalaya, the king of the mountains, a great rsi, named Asita,learnedinthefivefold knowledge, with his sister's son Naradatta. Now this Asita saw at the birth of the Bodhisattva many miraculous and supernatural apparitions. He rose up with his sister's son Naradatta into the air as a royal swan and flew to the great city of Kapilavastu.

 

And Asita, the mighty rsi, spoke thus to king Cuddhodana: "Unto thee great king is born a son, and I am come hither desirous to look upon him" . . . Thereupon king Cuddhodana took up prince Sarvarthasiddha gently and carefully in both hands and brought him to Asita, the great rsi. And when he saw that the Bodhisattva was marked with the thirty two signs of the Great Being, he wept, shedding tears and sighing deep. King Cuddhodana.... spake unto Asita, the great rsi: 4iW,herefore, o rsi, doest thou weep and shed tears, and heave deep sighs? Is there any danger for the prince?" At these words spakeAsita, the great rsi, to king S;uddltodana: ,,I do not weep for the prince and no danger threatens him. Nay I weep for myself. And for what cause ? Great king, I am old, full of years and worn with age.... This prince shall without doubt attain the highest and most perfect Wisdom andsaveahundredthousandmillionkoti's of beings from the ocean of life's circle to the other coast and help them to attain immortality. And we shall not see that jewel of. a Buddha. Therefore I weep, great king. (101: 1; 102: 1; 103: 1, 8, 21;104:3; 105:3).

 

Asita points out the thirty-two chief signs and eighty additional signs of the future Buddha, he is feasted and departs.

 

The fulness of detail with which the text relates this Simeon episode, compels me to curtail the quotations and refer the reader to the text for the whole tale.

 

The king and his visitors are sitting in a pendapa on the left of the relief with a dish full of wreaths between them, on a wide seat with cushions. The king has his son upon his knee, the child holds a stem, probably of a flower in his hand; behind him some female servants are standing and sitting. The bearded Hi Asita sits in front making a sembah; behind him Naradatta without a beard. Both have their hair in the usual fashion of fsi's fastened up in a large coil, and both wear the necklace customary for rsi's as well as ascetics. The rsi is evidently lost in contemplation of the Bodhisattva; no trouble has been taken to shew his sadness, as for instance is done on a Gandhara-relief by putting him with his hand to his head. On the right of the pendapa three female attendants are coming with garments etc. as gifts for the guests, but this part of the relief is not very distinct. Further, there is a building in the background, possibly a guard-house, the usual guard seated, and finally on the extreme right three horses and an elephant, with his mahout holding the angkuca. These animals have nothing to do with the Asita episode, so they must have been put in as decoration.

 

The representations of Asita's visit in the Gandhara arts), differ in so far from those on Barabudur, that the queen is also present and Asita, not the father, is holding the child. The last is also the case on the painting at Ajanta, of which only the one Hi figure with the child is known to us, so that we can form no idea of the further design of the scene. The old Chinese art gives only Asita with the child; on the contrary at Pagan the king holds his son, that is if the interpretation of the relief is correct.