A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.12

v2.c19.s6.t3.12

With a following of ten thousand boys, with tremendous pomp and with all the gods participating, and with 8,000 divine maidens scattering flowers before him, the little Bodhisattva makes his entry into the writing school. The poor school-master cannot bear the glory of the Bodhisattva, and falls to the ground. A god raises him, and calms him by saying that the Bodhisattva, though omniscient and having no need to learn anything, yet, following the course of the world, has come to school. Then the Bodhisattva surprised the school-master by asking him which of the 64, kinds of script he was going to teach him. And he enumerates them all including the scripts of the Cīṇas (Chinese) and Hūṇas (Huns), scripts which the teacher does not even know by name. Finally the teacher begins to teach the ten thousand boys the alphabet. At every letter of the alphabet, however, the Bodhisattva gives utterance to a wise saying beginning with the letter in question.[^1)