འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མད་སྡའ་དབང་པའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 224

224

‘Why did these signs appear last night?’

“They answered, ‘Your Majesty should know this: a rain of forty thousand pearl necklaces and also a rain of divine coral tree flowers fell in the home of Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son.’

“King Sureśvaraprabha said to his ministers, ‘You go and summon Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, with pleasant words.’

“Then the astrologers and prime ministers went to the home of Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, and having arrived they said to Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, ‘King Sureśvaraprabha is summoning you.’

“Then Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, went with the prime ministers to King Sureśvaraprabha.

“King Sureśvaraprabha said to him, ‘Jalavāhana, such kinds of signs appeared last night. Do you know why there were those signs?’

“Then, Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, said to King Sureśvaraprabha, ‘Your Majesty, I know that the time of death definitely came for those ten thousand fish.’

“The king asked, ‘How do you know that, Jalavāhana?’

“ ‘Your Majesty,’ said Jalavāhana. ‘I will send Jalāmbara to that lake to see whether those ten thousand fish are dead or alive.’

“ ‘Do that!’ commanded the king.

“Then Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, said to his son Jalāmbara, ‘Son, go to see whether the ten thousand fish in the lake in the empty wilderness have died or not.’

“Then the son, Jalāmbara, went as quickly as he could to that great lake in the empty wilderness and saw that the time of death had come for those ten thousand fish and that a great rain of coral tree flowers had fallen there. He returned and said to his father, ‘Their time of death had come.’

“Then Jalavāhana, the head merchant’s son, having heard those words, went to King Sureśvaraprabha and told him in detail what had occurred: ‘The time of death had come to all those ten thousand fish, and they were reborn among the devas of Trāyastriṃśa. It is through their and my⁴⁹⁶ power that those good signs appeared last night.