(3) The “eldest son,” or “prince” was Sâkyamuni, and his mother had no other son. For “his mother,” see chap. xvii, note 3. She was a daughter of Anjana or Anusakya, king of the neighbouring country of Koli, and Yasodhara, an aunt of Suddhodana. There appear to have been various intermarriages between the royal houses of Kapila and Koli.
(4) In “The Life of the Buddha,” p. 15, we read that “Buddha was now in the Tushita heaven, and knowing that his time was come (the time for his last rebirth in the course of which he would become Buddha), he made the necessary examinations; and having decided that Maha-maya was the right mother, in the midnight watch he entered her womb under the appearance of an elephant.” See M. B., pp. 140-143, and, still better, Rhys Davids’ “Birth Stories,” pp. 58-63.
(5) In Hardy’s M. B., pp. 154, 155, we read, “As the prince (Siddhartha, the first name given to Sâkyamuni; see Eitel, under Sarvarthasiddha) was one day passing along, he saw a deva under the appearance of a leper, full of sores, with a body like a water-vessel, and legs like the pestle for pounding rice; and when he learned from his charioteer what it was that he saw, he became agitated, and returned at once to the palace.” See also Rhys Davids’ “Buddhism,” p. 29.
(6) This is an addition of my own, instead of “There are also topes erected at the following spots,” of former translators. Fâ-Hien does not say that there were memorial topes at all these places.
(7) Asita; see Eitel, p. 15. He is called in Pâli Kala Devala, and had been a minister of Suddhodana’s father.
(8) In “The Life of Buddha” we read that the Lichchhavis of Vaisali had sent to the young prince a very fine elephant; but when it was near Kapilavastu, Devadatta, out of envy, killed it with a blow of his fist. Nanda (not Ananda, but a half-brother of Siddhartha), coming that way, saw the carcase lying on the road, and pulled it on one side; but the Bodhisattva, seeing it there, took it by the tail, and tossed it over seven fences and ditches, when the force of its fall made a great ditch. I suspect that the characters in the column have been disarranged, and that we should read { .} { .} { .} { .}, { .} { .}, { .} { .}. Buddha, that is Siddhartha, was at this time only ten years old.