Then the Bodhisattva Mahisattva Maitreya, feeling within himself doubt and perplexity, and inferring from his own thoughts those of the eight hundred thousand myriads of ko/is of Bodhisattvas similar to the sands of the river Ganges, stretched out his joined hands towards the Lord and questioned him about the matter by uttering the following stanzas :
5. Here are many thousand myriads of ko/is of Bodhisattvas, numberless, whom we never saw before; tell us, O supreme of men!
6. Whence and how do these mighty persons come? Whence have they come here under the form of great bodies?
7. All are great Seers, wise and strong in memory, whose outward appearance is lovely to see; whence have they come?
8. And each of those Bodhisattvas, O Lord of the world, has an immense train, like the sands of the Ganges.
9. The train of (each) glorious Bodhisattva is equal to the sands of sixty Ganges in full 2 . All are striving after enlightenment.
10. Of such heroes and mighty possessors of a troop the followers are equal to the sands of sixty Ganges.
The rendering is doubtful; the text has mah&tmabhavarupeaa.
Gahg£v£likasam& shash/i paripuiwii yasasvinaA, parivdro Bodhisatvasya. It is in the teeth of grammar to render the passage in this way, but from the following we must infer that no other translation will suit the case.
The translation is uncertain ; the text has evam rup&za vf r£»£/w varshavantana tiyin&H, shash/ir eva pram&aena Gahgav£lik& ime.
Instead of varshavantana I would read vargavant&na, which
