Dhammapada 14.7.p2

14.7.p2

Thero hi ekadivasaṃ divāṭṭhāne nisinno cintesi – ‘‘hatthājānīyo chaddantakule vā uposathakule vā uppajjati, assājānīyo sindhavakule vā valāhakassarājakule vā, usabho goājanīyo dakkhiṇapathetiādīni vadantena satthārā hatthiājānīyādīnaṃ uppattiṭṭhānādīni kathitāni, purisājānīyo pana kahaṃ nu kho uppajjatī’’ti. So satthāraṃ upasaṅkamitvā vanditvā ekamantaṃ nisīditvā etamatthaṃ pucchi. Satthā, ‘‘ānanda, purisājānīyo nāma sabbattha nuppajjati, ujukato pana tiyojanasatāyāme vitthārato aḍḍhateyyasate āvaṭṭato navayojanasatappamāṇe majjhimapadesaṭṭhāne uppajjati. Uppajjanto ca pana na yasmiṃ vā tasmiṃ vā kule uppajjati, khattiyamahāsālabrāhmaṇamahāsālakulānaṃ pana aññatarasmiṃyeva uppajjatī’’ti vatvā imaṃ gāthamāha –

One day as the Elder sat in his day-quarters, he thought to himself, “The Teacher has told us whence come well-bred elephants, horses, and bullocks. ‘Noble elephants,’ said he, ‘are bred from the stock of Chaddanta or of Uposatha; noble chargers from the stock of Valāhaka, king of horses; and noble bullocks are raised in the Dekkan.’ But _men_ of noble birth, — now whence pray come they?” He went to the Teacher, saluted him, and asked him about the matter. Said the Teacher, “Ānanda, your ‘men of noble birth’, — it is not everywhere that they are born. But in the Middle Country, three hundred leagues long in a straight line and nine hundred in a circuit, — there they are born. But when they are born, it is not in any family soever that they are born, but only in a family here and there of some Khattiya or Brahman noble.” So saying, he pronounced the following Stanza,