Sumangalavilasini 19.293

19.293

"Thus have I heard" introduces the Mahāgovindasutta. Therein, this is the commentary on the terms not self-evident: "Pañcasikha" (pañcasikho) means having five crests of hair, having five coils of hair. It is said that while performing meritorious actions in the human realm, when he was young, in the time of being a boy with five crests of hair, he became the leader of cowherd boys. Gathering other boys as well, he walked about outside the village at crossroads, building a rest house, digging a lotus pond, constructing a bridge, making rough paths smooth, removing trees that struck the axles of wagons, performing meritorious deeds of such kinds; and while still young, he passed away. That state of existence of his was agreeable, lovely, and pleasing. Having passed away, he was reborn in the realm of the four great kings with a lifespan of ninety-hundred-thousand years. His bodily frame was three gāvutas in extent, like a block of gold. Adorning himself with as many as a thousand cartloads of ornaments, anointing himself with perfumes equivalent to nine jars, wearing heavenly crimson garments, fastening an ear-ornament of red gold, he goes about with five curls dangling down his back, in the very manner of a youth with five crests of hair. Therefore, they recognize him simply as 'Pañcasikha'.