He then built all round the stump with bricks, and poured a
hundred pitchers of cows' milk on the roots; and as he lay with his four
limbs spread out on the ground, he took this oath, "If the tree do not
live, I will never rise from this." When he had uttered this oath, the
tree immediately began to grow from the roots, and it has continued to
grow till now, when it is nearly one hundred cubits in height.
[Footnote 1: Yama was originally the Aryan god of the dead, living in a
heaven above the world, the regent of the south; but Brahmanism
transferred his abode to hell. Both views have been retained by
Buddhism. The Yama of the text is the "regent of the narakas, residing
south of Jambudvipa, outside the Chakravalas (the double circuit of
mountains above), in a palace built of brass and iron. He has a sister
who controls all the female culprits, as he exclusively deals with the
male sex. Three times, however, in every twenty-four hours, a demon
pours boiling copper into Yama's mouth, and squeezes it down his throat,
causing him unspeakable pain." Such, however, is the wonderful
"transrotation of births," that when Yama's sins have been expiated, he
is to be reborn as Buddha, under the name of "The Universal King."]
CHAPTER XXXIII
~Kasyapa Buddha's Skeleton on Mount Gurupada~
The travellers, going on from this three li to the south, came to a
mountain named Gurupada, inside which Mahakasyapa even now is.
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