And when they saw the condition of the Bodhisattva 1), some of the gods spake thus: "Alas, prince Siddhartha is surely dead".

Then these gods sons betook themselves to the three and thirty gods and told Mayadevt thereof: "The prince is dead". Then Mayadevi accompanied by a following of apsalas Earns at the hour of midnight to the place, on the banks of the Nairanjana, where the Bodhisattva was and saw him with his body all withered away. And when she saw that he was like dead, she began to weep so that her tears choked her.

Then spake the Bodhisattva to her and comforted her: "Fear not for love of thy son; thou shalt pluck the fruits of thy labor. Not in vain cloth a Buddha renounce the world. I shall fulfil the prophecy of Asita and make plain the prediction of D~pangkara. Though the earth should fall into a hundred fragments, and Meru droop with his radiant brow into the waters, though sun, moon and stars should be smitten to the ground, yet I, the only human being, should not die. Therefore be not sorrowful, for soon wilt thou behold the Wisdom of a Buddha". (252: 5, 13; 253: 13).

Quite to the left on a mound of rock, within a niche of the rocky wall planted with vegetation as usual, sits the Bodhisattva, again only on a mat. He addresses his comforting words to Maya seated on the same eminence in the scene, she is in the attitude of sembah and has evidently brought the offering of flowers and wreaths that is between them on a large dish. Above the dish, a flame can be seen, as elsewhere indicating the incense smoke; though here we might take it for a lamp placed behind the dish, it being midnight. The figure of the godess is very much worn-away. Behind her on the groundfloor kneel the apsaras of her suite; the front one with incense-burner and fan in her hand; among the others, some carry a tray with garlands or some loose flowers or a fly-whisk and others a lotus stem. The godess still wears the halo assigned to her during her mortal life.