great lustre, surpassing the divine majesty of the gods. So then, monks, a great earthquake and a great, sublime lustre arose simultaneously. And the aerial cars of the Brahma-angels to the east, in these fifty hundred thousand myriads of kotis of spheres, began excessively to glitter, glow, and sparkle in splendour and glory. And those Brahma-angels made this reflection: What may be foreboded by these aerial cars so excessively glittering, glowing, and sparkling in splendour and glory? Thereupon, monks, the Brahma-angels in the fifty hundred thousand myriads of ko/is of spheres went all to each others abodes and communicated the matter to one another. After that, monks, the great Brahma-angel, named Sarvasattvarâtri (i.e. Saviour of all beings)[1], addressed the numerous host of Brahma-angels in the following stanzas:
18. Our aerial cars to-day (or now) are all bristling[2] with rays in an extraordinary degree, and blazing in beautiful splendour and brilliancy. What may be the cause of it?
19. Come, let us investigate the matter, what divine being has to-day sprung into existence, whose power, such as was never seen before, here now appears?
20. Or should it be the Buddha, the king of kings, who to-day has been born somewhere in the world, and whose birth is announced by such a token that all the points of the horizon are now blazing in splendour?
Thereupon, monks, the great Brahma-angels in the
