国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

CH. II]

THE CHRONICLES OF LADAKH : TRANSLATION   69

When the lazy people had heaped up store,

The greedy ones did violence to the lord of the fields ;

And seized, ungiven, the fields and the rice,

Then he who gave protection against these,

being occupied in defending the royal race and the nobles and the religious

people and caring for morality and wisdom, was called ` king ', and his name

was ` King Man-pos-bkur-ba '.   From about this time men became divided

into four or five castes.   Or, according to the Hkhor-lo-sna-bdun (` Seven

Cycles '), ` in the beginning all these became differentiated into four or five

classes of workmen through the variety of their work and duties.'   Those

creatures who fulfilled the ten virtues and who loved bathing and cleanliness became

the caste of Bram-ze (Brahmans) . Those who lived according to the ten virtues, who

knew shame, and who were of great wisdom and great courage, were called nobles

(Kshattriya) Those whose behaviour was intermixed with the ten sins, who felt

little shame, and who did not shrink from sin and the telling of lies, were called

Dman-rigs (Vaisya ?, Súdra). Those who had even less modesty and shame, who

were endowed with the ten sins, who were highly despised in this world, and

who are [always] in conflict with holy conduct, are called the low caste of Chandálas•

This is the beginning of the different castes of men.

King Man-pos-bkur-ba's son was Hod-mdzes (Roca) : during his life the plants

and the stars appeared. His son was Dge-ba (Kalyána) : during his life the Mars

light appeared. His son was Dge-mchog (Varakalyá,na) : during his life beautiful

sounds (music ?) and echo came into existence. In his time the lifetime of men was

90,000 years. His son was Gso-sbyon-hphags (Utposhadha) : during his reign the

voice of the thunder came into existence. These five kings are called ` the five kings

of the first kalpa'. According to a prophecy regarding the birth of the wheel-

turning kings, as sons of Gso-[sbyon]-bphags (Utposhadha), a swelling formed on the

crown of [the king's] head. When it broke, out came a boy of good shape, beautiful,

handsome to look at, kind to all creatures, possessing the auspicious marks. As he

was born from the crown of his father, he was called ` Crown-born ' (Spyi-bo-skyes,

Múrdhaja = Mándhá,tr). This king was in possession of the seven jewels. The seven

jewels are the jewel chariot ; the jewel stone ; the jewel wife ; the jewel minister ;

the jewel elephant ; the jewel horse ; and the jewel general, these seven jewels.

According to others he had a jewel householder instead of a jewel general. Having

enjoyed the sovereignty and the seven jewels in Hdzam-bu-glin during 80,000 years

and having brought down from heaven a rain of food and clothing, being admonished

by the Yaksha Lha-ses (Divaukasa ?), he turned (led ?) the jewel wheel, and he went

to Heaven, accompanied by his host of wives, and reigned among the four Great

Kings of the east, [south], west, and north. As even so he was tormented by desire,

in his misery he became evilly inclined even towards Brgya-byin (Indra), and

his [religious] merit being exhausted, in the same body he descended to the

earth, and he died. This king knew all the creatures by their names (named them ?),

•

p. 24