though they may
acquire it (e.g. Chand. Up. VIII. 7).]

[Footnote 719: Dig. Nik. XI.]

[Footnote 720: Dig. Nik. I. chap. 2, 1-6. The radiant gods are the
Abhassara, cf. Dhammap 200.]

[Footnote 721: Watters, II. p. 160.]

[Footnote 722: The legends of both Rama and Krishna occur in the _Book
of Jatakas_ in a somewhat altered form, nos. 641 and 454.]

[Footnote 723: Thus Helios the Sun passes into St Elias.]

[Footnote 724: He is often called Brahma Sahampati, a title of doubtful
meaning and not found in Brahmanic writings. The Pitakas often speak of
Brahmas and worlds of Brahma in the plural, as if there were a whole
class of Brahmas. See especially the Suttas collected in book I, chap.
vi. of the Samyutta-Nikaya where we even hear of Pacceka Brahmas,
apparently corresponding in some way to Pacceka Buddhas.]

[Footnote 725: Maj. Nik. 49. The meaning of the title Baka is not clear
and may be ironical. Another ironical name is manopadosika (debauched in
mind) invented as the title of a class of gods in Dig. Nik. I. and XX.
The idea that sages can instruct the gods is anterior to Buddhism, See
e.g. Brihad-Ar. Up. II. 5. 17, and ib. IV. 3. 33, and the parallel
passage in the Tait. Chand. Kaush. Upanishads and Sat. Brahmana for the
idea that a Srotriya is equal to the highest deities.]

[Footnote 726: Six Manvantaras of the present Kalpa have elapsed and we
are in the seventh.]

[Footnote 727: We are in the Kali or worst age of the present mahayuga.
The Kali lasts 432,000 years and began 3102 B.C.

In their number and in many other points of cosmography the various
accounts differ greatly. The account given above is taken from the
Vishnu Purana, book II. but the details in it are not entirely
consistent.]

[Footnote 728: The detailed formulation of this cosmography was
naturally gradual but its chief features are known to the Nikayas. Dig.
Nik. XIV. 17 and 30 seem to imply the theory of spheres. For Heavens,
see Maj. Nik. 49, Dig. Nik. XI. 68-79 and for Hells Sut. Nip. III. 10,
Maj. Nik. 129. See too De la Vallee Poussin's article, _Cosmology
Buddhist_, in _E.R.E._]

[Footnote 729: See for the Asuras Sam. Nik. I. xi. 1.]

[Footnote 730: See a Tibetan representation in Waddell's _Buddhism of
Tibet_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 731: The question of whether the universe is infinite in space
or not is according to the Pitakas one of those problems which cannot be
answered.]

[Footnote 732: Dig. Nik. XXVII.]

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