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LIFE OF MAHÁVÍRA.
57
me.” The messengers having thus received the commands of King Siddhartha, and laid up his words in their joyful hearts, joining their hands, said, “We have with all humility heard your commands, O our lord, and will yield implicit obedience.” Immediately they departed, and going to the hall of audience without the palace, prepared it as the king had ordered, and returning, so reported to his Majesty. Siddhartha arose, and by the help of his footstool descended from his couch, while it was yet the season of blooming early morn, and the brilliant aurora-like beds of full-blown flowers and Jotuses appear in all their beauty, diffusing a radiance resembling red asoka flowers, rottleria blossoms, or the red phoenisia ; and soon the rising sun, like the crimson side of the retti seed, the eyes and feet of the wild pigeon, or the scarlet-coloured eye-balls of the India cuckoo, emulating a bouquet of red China roses, deep as the colour of red lead, or that of a bunch of red lotuses, with his thousand rays, introducing day, and dispelling night and all its gloom, shines forth, and, like the red' mark that adorns the forehead of children and women, irradiates the world of living creatures. Having got up, he went into the gymnasium*, where there was a profusion of instru
* 11.
EVITAT
